Shooting Pregnant Cows?

Joined
Sep 13, 2016
Messages
2,076
Location
Idaho
So many elk around we can shoot 2 for 1. Obviously it's because we have 2many elk. Remember that next time you think there's no elk in your area.

Sounds like typical government math.
I don’t think there are many hunters that are advocating for the wholesale slaughter of elk. More often than not the orders to reduce an elk herd come from landowners complaining about depredation on their ground.
 
Joined
Jul 20, 2014
Messages
955
Location
Kirtland, NM
I’ve never had an issue with cow or doe hunts. I’ve participated in them whenever I draw that tag. It’s sound management. On a different note, I can’t even begin to count how many beef calves or piglets I’ve pulled out on the slaughter floor. Some calves literally weeks away from being born. Didn’t know they were pregnant and neither did the owners of the animals.
 

GSPHUNTER

WKR
Joined
Jun 30, 2020
Messages
3,965
The reservation where I have hunted four of the last five years, no hunts one year due to Covid, has cow only hunts for the purpose of heard control. They also have bull elk hunts, but not near the number of permits as for cows. Cow hunts are about 10% the cost of Bulls. I was successful three of the four years I hunted, just last Thursday the 10th I filled my cow tag as did my friend, his was taken on the 9th. There are about 350 cow Elk tags issued each year, most of which result in successful hunts.
 

280Ackley

WKR
Joined
Jun 4, 2014
Messages
813
Location
Idaho
I'm not against a cow hunt but the stupid shit Oregon does really pisses me off!!!! So they hand out cow hunts that run clear into the end of March and by that point its a really developed calf inside when you go to field dress it out. I'm a seasoned hunter and that's just about more than I can stomach, now imagine a first time hunter having to see this?? Good way to make sure a kid never hunts again in my book if they see this.
My uncle uncle used to call those 2 for 1 hunts. Even knew a guy who said he ate one of the calves one time.🤢🤢
 

Dirtscoots

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Oct 1, 2019
Messages
249
Location
Oregon
I don’t think there are many hunters that are advocating for the wholesale slaughter of elk. More often than not the orders to reduce an elk herd come from landowners complaining about depredation on their ground.
You are correct. But who decides the tag allocations? The government agencies whom we should trust every word they say? We can have the same argument over the wolf population, I’m in Oregon so I will use that. The tree huggers want wolfs to make a healthy complete ecosystem. If you sit back and look at our game numbers from a hunters perspective, how is introducing wolfs to kill big game any different then opening up cow hunts?
 
Joined
Sep 13, 2016
Messages
2,076
Location
Idaho
You are correct. But who decides the tag allocations? The government agencies whom we should trust every word they say? We can have the same argument over the wolf population, I’m in Oregon so I will use that. The tree huggers want wolfs to make a healthy complete ecosystem. If you sit back and look at our game numbers from a hunters perspective, how is introducing wolfs to kill big game any different then opening up cow hunts?
The wolf argument is a whole other topic. In Idaho, Idaho Fish and Game does indeed set the harvest number but Idaho Farm Bureau has an incredible amount of power with the legislature. When IFB tells the legislators to cut the herd, that’s what happens. Just as Oregon is told what to do by their urban counterparts, Idaho is by IFB.
 

miloak

FNG
Joined
Dec 8, 2019
Messages
58
Nobody raised the question of meat salvage of the calf? There are people that do it. Should be tender.
 

Dirtscoots

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Oct 1, 2019
Messages
249
Location
Oregon
The wolf argument is a whole other topic. In Idaho, Idaho Fish and Game does indeed set the harvest number but Idaho Farm Bureau has an incredible amount of power with the legislature. When IFB tells the legislators to cut the herd, that’s what happens. Just as Oregon is told what to do by their urban counterparts, Idaho is by IFB.
This may be true for Idaho. It does not surprise me idaho would try to regulate game better than Oregon. It is an apple and oranges argument I get that. I think the similarities are close enough to prove my personal view point. I don’t think anyone has to agree with me. This is how I see it and my person standpoint. If the law gives tags to shoot cows someone will shoot them. I don’t hate anyone for doing that.
 
Joined
Sep 13, 2016
Messages
2,076
Location
Idaho
This may be true for Idaho. It does not surprise me idaho would try to regulate game better than Oregon. It is an apple and oranges argument I get that. I think the similarities are close enough to prove my personal view point. I don’t think anyone has to agree with me. This is how I see it and my person standpoint. If the law gives tags to shoot cows someone will shoot them. I don’t hate anyone for doing that.
I can certainly agree with that.I don’t begrudge anyone hunting a legal tag.
 

gman82001

WKR
Joined
Sep 22, 2013
Messages
301
This is where a lot of people can’t get their head around the fact hunters are just the management tool the g&f uses to keep numbers in check. Some guys get pissed about the way others hunt Some would never shoot a cow or calf or spike or….. but the g&f wants a particular number of elk and a particular bull to cow ratio and use hunters to get to that number. As said earlier kill it in sept Or January it’s still the same exact result on the population numbers in the end.
 
OP
H

Howdy Partner

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Nov 2, 2022
Messages
134
You're not killing it.
You're killing them.

Why not sell 2 tags and make twice as much?????

Government Math.
 
Joined
Jun 29, 2015
Messages
94
Location
Conroe, TX.
You're killing "them" either way. You kill a cow in September, she doesn't get bred, you kill her in December and she's already bred, end result is the same. We have a late doe season in Texas (January) pretty much every doe you kill will have a fetus in her, most of the time two.
 
Top