25. ARCHERY HUNTING PRESSURE, 



Out of state hunters were in my area (a 2 mile valley) for 5 days 

 straight. The elk were gone, but returned in 3 days. Every 

 weekend locals chased them out, but by Wednesday they were back. 

 I conclude that archery hunting does not chase elk out of an area 

 with good water and feed. 



The view that bow hunters wound a lot of elk is nonsense. In the 

 last 5 years of extensive spring scouting I have found numerous 

 winter kills & none "carrying" an arrow or broadhead. I have 

 found numerous elk in rifle season that got away, only to hole up 

 & die. I will be surprised if most bow hunters even get numerous 

 shots at elk. In the group of 8 or 10 bow hunters I know 

 personnally only 2 consistently are into elk & get shots or their 

 elk in the last 5 years. I have yet to personally see a solidly 

 hit elk run over 80 yds. 



I fell that it is good that the fish & game puts out a survey. I 

 am alittle concerned about the way some of the questions where 

 worded in the survey. I find myself wondering what this survey 

 might do to our archery seasons. I spent alot of time bow 

 hunting I have never wounded an elk with my bow and I know of 

 only a few archers how have I have never found a animal of any 

 spieces that was lost because of an arrow wound. It seems to be 

 everyones concern that bow hunters wound alot of game. I think 

 this is ignorance on some peoples behalf that do not under stand 

 archery I have killed 21 big game animals with a bow and think 

 guns should be banned . 



The only thing that dissatifies me about archery hunting is the 

 number of animals that are wounded and never harvested. If 

 hunters answered this survey honestly, in part III you could s? 

 hits from kills, if they were for the same period of time, and 

 see what I mean. 



Although the number of archers has increased recently, there is 

 still no were near as many hunters in the field as in rifle 

 season. This makes for a refreshing and relaxing change. 



The only significant archery hunting problem now is with elk. 

 Reduction of #'s of elk archers may now be desirable. The 

 options in II. 8. are all valid but in my opinion 118 c or b would 

 preferred. There is not any reason to further restrict archery 

 hunting of deer, expec . WT, or antelope. Preserve bugle season + 

 season length. 



I don't think that archery hunting in Montana has the impact on 

 Elk or Deer that people think it does, I think that non hunters 

 or rifle only hunters should be made aware of that fact, there 

 are many archers out there that really care about the animals 



