One last note...
There seem to be quite a few people on this thread that are not aware of the current hunts this year and in January already going on at Suffield. These 2 hunts announced this week are not entirely new unto themselves. There were 3 seasons this fall (4 days each, Mon-Thurs also) that were last 2 weeks of Nov and first week of Dec. There are 3 more coming up the last 3 weeks in January. The only difference in these hunts is that they followed the normal draw guidelines (and group applications could include up to 4 hunters). 100 Special Licenses were awarded for each week but only 1 tag (instead of 2) was given. Reports from the first 3 weeks that just finished were that almost all tags were used for successful harvests. However, historically, this has not been the case. It seems like they have opened more of the base up this year and the base staff have been extremely helpful. There is a safety briefing required each morning and you cannot enter certain parts of the base. Apparently there were a group of hunters in the last week that did enter an area they were not authorized to do so and were escorted off premise and revoked future access.
It will be interesting to see how many people will apply to this hunt. In the 6 1 week seasons that were drawn in the Summer, the first 5 weeks were filled up by hunters with priority to 100%. The January seasons (week 4,5,6) did have draws go to hunters with 0 priority. The last week in Jan (week 6) only had 38 (of 100 available) applications. The other 62 went for sale as under-subscribed (but sold out within minutes of under-subscribed sales going onsale online). All to say, it will be interesting to see how this quota draw goes. I wonder how many hunters who got drawn will re-apply for this hunt. I know for me (I was one of the 38 drawn for week 6 and am so excited), the idea of getting 2 tags is very appealing. I would have been great if they had given the previously drawn licenses 2 tags!
For all of you newbies reading this forum, check out the existing thread called Suffield Base Hunt 2014
http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=236469 for more information about the current hunts.
And as a reminder to everyone...it sounds like there have been some pretty dangerous hunting situations at Suffield during these hunts. One poster said it well..."Hunters get stupid when hunting Elk". Everyone be safe!