Discussing hunting regulations for the upcoming season

The fall 2022 hunting season has already started for some species in some areas of the state. The new 2022-2023 Hunting Regulations booklet has just recently become available. I would advise that, if you plan to hunt anything this fall, you pick up a copy and review it for any changes in seasons or bag and possession limits. The booklets are available at the Fish and Game office in Palmer and at license vendors around the Valley.

Let’s look at some of the changes made to the regulations this year. I’m going to confine most of my comments to Game Management Units (GMU) 13, 14, and 16, as these are the areas most commonly hunted by Valley residents. I’ll also mention some changes made to statewide regulations as they will affect Valley hunters as well.

For black bears in Units 13D and 16, the bag limit has been increased to five bears. In Unit 16, you may now take black bears from Oct. 1 to Aug. 9 the same day airborne, provided the hunter is three hundred feet away from the airplane at time of take. For brown bears in Unit 16, the season has been extended two months excluding the area within one mile of the mouth of Wolverine Creek. The archery season for moose in Units 14A, 14B, and 16A has been extended by two days. It now runs from Aug.10 to Aug. 19.

The wolverine season in Unit 13 has been extended by two weeks while a beaver hunting season has been established in Unit 16 (Aug. 10 to May 31). The Board of Game (BOG) did some housekeeping in regulations for the Dalton Highway Corridor Management Area as well.

Several changes were made to the Hunter Education (HE) regulations. The beneficiary in a proxy hunt is no longer required to have a HE certification. The crossbow certification is no longer required for anyone born before Jan. 1, 1986. Hunters are now required to carry proof of their HE certification on their person while hunting and to show that proof to law enforcement if contacted in the field. Qualified crossbow hunters that have a methods and means exemption can now hunt in archery-only hunts and apply for archery-only drawing hunts.

I was surprised to see the air rifle change. The regulations state:” you may hunt deer and caribou with an airgun provided that airguns are at least .35 caliber or larger and pre-charged pneumatic, including arrow shooting airguns capable of producing 250 feet per second with broadheads 7/8 inches or greater.”

I’ve watched outdoor shows off the satellite where folks were hunting with the PCP airguns for deer and other animals. These shows are edited to show the best possible outcome and may not be reflective of what actually happened. The rifles seemed to work well but the ranges at which the animals were harvested were short – usually under one hundred yards. While that would be a normal shot for harvesting a deer, it would not necessarily be a normal range for caribou, especially out on the open tundra. If the hunter choses his shot carefully, I’m sure the legal airgun would be effective with a properly placed shot.

Here are the top five hunting violations encountered by law enforcement. First, leaving the kill site for any reason without first validating your harvest ticket or permit. Second, failure to salvage all meat of big game animals and small birds for human consumption. Third, failure to leave evidence of sex naturally attached to the meat when the hunt is restricted to one sex. Antlers are not proof of sex, except for deer when the antlers are naturally attached to an entire carcass. Fourth, transporting antlers or horns to the departure point from the field before bringing out the meat. And fifth, leaving any part of a harvested animal on a public road or right-of-way. That is considered littering.

This is a very brief and incomplete overview of this year’s hunting regulation changes. Again, I’ll emphasize that you need to get a copy of the current regulation booklet and study it for the area and species you plan to hunt. You are responsible to know the law and will be held to that level if you are caught breaking the hunting rules.

I don’t know yet how much hunting I’ll be able to do this season, but I’ve already spent considerable time reviewing the regulations, just so I know what’s happening. I carry a copy of the booklet with me when hunting too.