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I spent from about 9:30am to about 1:30pm on the 10th in Madison WI at the Legislative Joint Committee on the Review of Administrative Rules hearings. nub and BigE were also there (between their smoke breaks). There were at least 100 snowmobilers..(henceforeth SM) there who were brought in by bus to lobby and show support for thier cause.
There is a lot of material out there today saying that the SM are siding with the hunters agianst the DNR. Don't believe it. Wheather you like or agree with the DNR is not important in this issue.
The SM want to control our hunting season. They think it is too long and hampers their time in the woods. They want all,ALL deer hunting done by the end of December. They stated at the meeting while testifying that it was to cold in December to Bow hunt and why would we want to be out there anyways. Further thier biggest concern is that land owners will not open thier land up to SM while they still have hunters on the property, be it gun or bow. The SM found this to be terrible and unacceptable on the part of the land owners. If there was no hunting there would be no problem.
They want a 16 day gun season starting on November 15th each year, regardless of the day of the week, period. They want that time to include the muzzleloader season and there be no Zone T season in Dec regardless of the deer population (this year or any other year).
They also stated that the Bow season was over 100 days and that was too long. In a normal snow fall year they have SMing from December to the end of March if not into April north of hy 8. Now that's long.
They further attempt to strengthen the position by claiming 80% of their members are hunters. Since thier numbers include children under 12 and wives I doubt that is true.
The guy who's going to be a real problem to hunters in the future is Rep.DuWayne Johnsrud. This guy claims to be a hunter but apparently needs the vote of the SM to keep his job. He backed everything that the SM said. He was actually the lead off speaker from the floor who got the ball rolling for them.
If you a bow hunter this guy want to eliminate those 4 days you got to hunt immediately before gun season. The Monday throught Thursday to make up for the lost time due to the T-Zone in October. He thinks you distrub the woods and deer to much. Must be the noise bows.
I personally talked to Reps.Seritti, Turner and Robert Welch about the Bow season and the lenght of the normal snowmobiling season. If you can call or e-mail you Representative and make your own arguement for what you want. The hunters were way out numbered at this meeting.

THE DEER SLAYER

hunting should win over snowmobiling.