On the whole, I and most…

On the whole, I and most other hunters agree with simplifying and aligning the hunting seasons thereby making it easier for the CO's to police the season(s) and also to make it easier for hunters to remember the appropriate hunting seasons.

The one proposed section that I have issues with is # 2, Permit the use of bows........ for the following reasons.

Bow hunters have (with the exception of the two controlled hunts) the whole fall hunting season to hunt, i.e. 11 weeks, they also have the opportunity to get a controlled hunt validation and go out with shotguns if they so wish. Hunters who only hunt with guns have only the one week available to go out and hunt (as they can't hunt in both of the controlled hunts).

Currently in southern Ontario and in particular in Norfolk County, hunt code 90B, the number of controlled hunt validations is almost full every year. Under the proposed changes - if hunters who only bow hunt wish to hunt with bows during the controlled hunt they would have to apply for the controlled hunt validation, so adding these additional bow hunters will push the validation quota over the top. The need for this validation is to restrict the number of hunters out there during that particular week.

This means that, if say that 100 of these new 'bow only hunters' apply and get their controlled hunt validation, then the 100 shotgun only hunters they are replacing who normally or only hunt with a shotgun can not now hunt that year as their validations have now been given to these bow hunters, also to be noted, is that if the bow hunter is not successful during that "controlled" week then they can STILL hunt with a bow the following week(s), hunters who only use a shotgun cannot do this and are done for the year.

If a bow only hunter, who only hunts on his own, has been successful in getting a deer in the first few weeks of the bows only season, i.e. before the controlled hunt, then they won't be out hunting during the upcoming controlled hunt, this again denies a 'shotgun only' hunter a chance to get a controlled hunt validation on their licence and their only chance to hunt deer for the year.

Several hunters that I've spoken to, both bow and shotgun hunters, are happy with the current system and believe that the arrangements currently in place work well for all and that they shouldn't be changed, the bow hunters are happy with the amount of time they already have and the shotgun hunters are worried that a single bow hunter sitting alone for most of a day(s) will tie up a whole property for that day further reducing the properties available for shotgun hunting, a lot of properties are available on a 'first come first served' basis and these properties can be 3-400 acres or more. Most shotgun hunting in our area is done by a group of hunters pushing a bush and then moving to another property to repeat the process till their tags are all used up, however, not everyone wants to hunt in a group, so if a shotgun hunters favourite local hunting site now has a bow only hunter sitting in it for the day, this shotgun hunter may well be out of luck for hunting with a gun for that year.

Shotgun hunters currently have only the one week to hunt, so that means that all hunters who still work for a living have just the ONE weekend to hunt in, so having a bow hunter in there and reducing that availability means a lot to them.

Basically, the system around here in southern Ontario works extremely well as it is, so -PLEASE don't bring in the changes suggested in section #2.