Autumn offers a smorgasbord of sports to satisfy almost every appetite, outdoor pursuits among them.
With a wide assortment of big-game hunts, small-game hunts, waterfowl, upland birds, fall turkey and some stellar fishing, the table is set for a sportsman’s feast brimming with variety. It’s nearly impossible to take it all in.
It’s during this potential upheaval of our autumnal equilibrium that we give thanks for inventive folks like the guys at , who have taken it upon themselves to help hunters manage their time more effectively by simplifying what can be one of the most confusing parts of the whole process: figuring out where to hunt.
While it could be rightly argued that many modern outdoorsmen have become overly reliant upon gadgetry such as GPS units, Hunting GPS Maps is a hunter-built product designed to enhance the hunt with no promise of saving your life. Their maps are primarily made for Western hunters, crammed with relevant details in a simple package.
If you bought an elk or deer tag in Colorado this year, you were probably among the 30,000 hunters who received a promotional postcard for the local map that plugs into most Garmin GPS units. The color-coded map identifies land ownership throughout the state, displaying its status — private, state-owned, BLM, National Forest, National Park, etc. — just by toggling over a parcel. That alone is enough to make the map worthwhile, as evidenced by a similar (albeit less useful) electronic map of accessible land currently being produced by the state of Wyoming ().
The private sector takes it to the next level by combining basic boundaries and topography with hunting-specific data including game management units, trailheads for hikers, horses and motorized use, names of surrounding mountain peaks, rivers, intermittent streams and lakes, even Forest Service cabins and mining claims. A downloadable version offered through the website lets users build their own map collection to download directly to a portable GPS at a topo scale down to 1:24,000.
It’s a useful tool for anyone with a compatible GPS, even if all you’re looking for is a good place to car camp.
Pheasant update.
By most accounts, last weekend’s pheasant season opener lived up to its billing in northeastern Colorado counties such as Yuma, where lifelong local Butch Berry said the hunting was the best it’s been in four decades.
“Between last year and this year, I’ve probably seen more birds and had more success than I have since the early ’70s,” Berry said after he and his friends bagged 16 ringneck roosters in a day and a half. “We probably should have had twice that. My German shorthair was just putting on a clinic.”
The downside to all that success, of course, is increased pressure. Berry says his morning commute as manager of the Yuma Shop-All included five or six times the typical traffic last week, attributed to hunters. The birds are getting spooked as a result.
Moose abuse.
Further commentary on the “moose abuse” problem of elk hunters mistaking the two unrelated species 11 times so far this year comes from Aaron Gaskins, 28, who weighed in on the notion of increased fines and lifetime hunting bans: “I really doubt someone lining up their shot will pause and think, ‘Oh, well, the fine was just increased to 30 grand; I had better double check. If it was 10 grand, I would totally be taking this shot.’ . . . The one benefit in increasing the fine would be an immediate (though likely very short, considering people’s attention spans) uptick in public awareness.”
Increasing penalties across the board — especially hunting bans — could lead to fewer people owning up to their mistakes since there is less incentive to do the right thing.
To encourage confessions, perhaps increased incentive should be offered to other hunters in the field instead. They will always hear and see more than thinly stretched game wardens simply because there are more of them. Bounties often succeed where morals fail.
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
