Wyoming Deer unit 64

I asked hnter about this a while back....he was pretty sure I could hunt unit 64 with a rifle with the deer-J general tag....but the wording in last years regs reads bow hunting only to me.....
 
64     General license; antlered deer (comma), except the Tom Thorne/Beth Williams WHMA and the Laramie Peak WHMA north of the Tunnel Road (Albany County RD 727) (comma), archery only.....
 
Can anyone clarify this for me?.....I certainly am not an English language expert....And if the G & F meant archery only for just the WHMAs then they should clarify this with some verbage (ie: except the Tom Thorne/Beth Williams and Laramie Peak WHMAs are closed to firearms and open to archery only).....
 
Thanks for your patience with this illiterate Finnlander.....I would like to know because it might have an influence of where I hunt in E-7 for deer as well as elk.......If I knew for sure then I could start printing topos of possible hunt areas....
 
Thanks
Randy

Hi Randy I can't really answer your question but I believe if I were you I would want an answer to this question directly from the source which would be the Wyoming G&F commission. I am hunting in Colorado so I called them and they were very helpful with any question I had. If you have the regulations their number should be listed in them some where or you could find it on the internet.

Terry NAHC Life Member since 2003

How ya doin Randy?  Hnter is correct!   I went into the G&F website on my computer and enlarged the page in the current 2008 booklet.  That is not a comma after the words antlered deer.   It is a semi-colon (;), which effectively separates the rest of that sentence from those first two words, but still lets you know that the latter areas are within unit 64.   Does that explanation make sense?  I consider myself pretty decent in spelling and punctuation, so I'm 100% sure on this one!   Therefore, you can hunt anywhere in the unit and take a buck, but you can only hunt with a bow in those latter areas.   Since they are open in the regular season, you would not need an archery permit to hunt them with your bow.  I agree that it would have been a lot clearer if they had taken your suggestion.   Heck; I couldn't even tell it was a semi-colon until I really enlarged the page!  Now you can get started on those maps!!!  Good luck and stay in touch.
 

Mike Stephenson
aka Topgun----30-06

Thanks Mike...I just reviewed the 2008 tentavive season PDF and it reads just like you said I see the semi colon clearly after antlered deer...and you are right,  a semi-colon is used to separate the rest of the sentence.....Its too bad they printed it up the way they did last year in 2007 Deer hunting regulations (I checked with a magnifying glass---it was a comma at least in the printed regs).....It read just the way I posted it....I am sure someone else must have corrected them in their use of puncuation...They seem to have it right now.....
 
I should have looked at the newer material before I jumped to conclusions....Oh well, I am glad to have that one answered and eager to start laying down GPS coordinates.........Maybe not eager but it has to be done....It sure worked well for us last year.....I used the BLM cd to find all the private property corner coordinates, then printed them on our maps so at a glance between our GPS and the map we new exactly where we were at all times....That is one of the things I learned from you in reading your posts on NAHC last year....Thanks for cluing me in on that method...
 
And thanks for your research on the deer regs....I would have hated to call them at the G & F....with the extra call they would probably have to raise the license fees again next year.....
 
Snow is almost gone here now....storm predicted for this weekend....will probably put a damper on the shed hunting....only found three so far....still a foot of snow in the shady areas.....really got spring fever.....other than that we are holding our own here in Hibbing....
 
Thanks a bunch,
Randy

No problem Randy.  I'm glad it was a simple one to figure out.  Using the BLM CD the way you mentioned is the only way to go if you want to know exactly where you are and avoid trespassing!  If it were'nt for that, we would not be hunting and having the success that we are out there without worrying every step we take.   A lot of people don't even go into where we do and I'm sure one of the reasons is not knowing where they are legal.  We have even come out of areas before and had nonresident hunters tell us we can't hunt there!  We just play it casually and say thanks for the info.   If only they knew!    Most folks think the property where I took my best buck, as well as the photo of the awesome bull elk that is in the harvest section of this BB, is off limits.  As I think you  know, I'll help people as much as I can, but I'm not going to lead them around by the hand to my honeyholes, heehee!  Take care and get to mappin---MIKE

Mike Stephenson
aka Topgun----30-06