Deer hunting getting worse?

[denoginnizer]

I dont no about the deer hunting in your area but seems to me there are less big bucks than there used to be. My state has implemented a doe season that runs from about october 15th til jan 31. During this time it is legal to kill two deer per day. Inexperienced hunters, mistakinly kill many button head bucks thinking they are does.
Seems to me there are alot more hunters and the hunters are getting educated. I mean any saturday I turn on the TV there will be some fellow diagramming how to kill a deer . They offer hunting seminars and vidieo how too's.
The hunting equipment has gotten much better. When I started hunting there were no climbing treestands or 4 wheelers.

Just wondering if it is just my area or is it happening around you?

 

[cowgirl580]

it's happening here too. the big bucks are here, they just happen to be smarter than the avg bear, i mean person. they come out of hiding after the season is over. we still get invaded by californians every year along with many other states. its good for our town though. can't complain too much.

 

[Crowderfarms]

I dont no about the deer hunting in your area but seems to me there are less big bucks than there used to be. My state has implemented a doe season that runs from about october 15th til jan 31. During this time it is legal to kill two deer per day. Inexperienced hunters, mistakinly kill many button head bucks thinking they are does.
Seems to me there are alot more hunters and the hunters are getting educated. I mean any saturday I turn on the TV there will be some fellow diagramming how to kill a deer . They offer hunting seminars and vidieo how too's.
The hunting equipment has gotten much better. When I started hunting there were no climbing treestands or 4 wheelers.

Just wondering if it is just my area or is it happening around you?

The Bucks are more than likely still there.When the slightest bit of pressure gets put on the woods, meaning stands going up,people scouting around, alot of deer will go on the night shift. The other problem is the low life road hunter's and jack lighters, who kill trophy Bucks off the roads. It's a continual problem around here, but we have a tenacious Warden who means business, and he has slowed some of that down.
We can Kill 4 Does a day here, and I agree, a lot of those killed are button heads.The guys watching the TV shows I dont believe are much of a threat, because they are from a group that probably never learned to hunt as a Kid, and those programs are more of an advertising avenue for new products and food plot seeds and 4 wheelers, etc.I would like to see our State have a Law that if it's under a 6 pointer, let him go. We have a lot around that if they see a horn it's dead.We never shoot anything under a 6 here, unless you can tell it's a "Cull" deer.IMHO it has really shown some results with some great Bucks.

 

[denoginnizer]

If a person was trying to make small cattle wouldnt he remove the largest ones from his herd and only breed the smallest ones?
When we shoot the biggest deer with the biggest horns arent we doing the same thing as selecting for smaller horned deer?

 

[Crowderfarms]

If a person was trying to make small cattle wouldnt he remove the largest ones from his herd and only breed the smallest ones?
When we shoot the biggest deer with the biggest horns arent we doing the same thing as selecting for smaller horned deer?

No.Taking the larger Deer is only a management practice, to allow the younger Bucks to grow to maturity.The rack size or number of points has nothing to do with body mass.You have to eliminate some Does as well because there will be inbreeding, and too high a ratio of Does vs. Bucks.

 

[denoginnizer]

I am just wodering if some "younger bucks" arent really older bucks with small horns and small body size. I still think, as a starting point, if I was going to try to breed deer for smaller horns I would want to kill every deer I saw with big horns . Would you disagree?

 

[Crowderfarms]

I am just wodering if some "younger bucks" arent really older bucks with small horns and small body size. I still think, as a starting point, if I was going to try to breed deer for smaller horns I would want to kill every deer I saw with big horns . Would you disagree?

A lot depends on the genetics in the local herd, and what they have to feed on. Deer in Row Crop areas around here are usually larger than deer in just pastured and wooded areas.You could very well have deer with smaller racks and bodies.What would be the point in killing ALL the Deer with larger racks? We kill what the law allows us to kill. All you are doing when you kill a large Buck, is harvesting a mature Buck.Your management techniques begins with harvesting Does, and letting the young Bucks mature, and removing Bucks with ingrown, or poorly developed racks.They still go in the freezer and taste great! You ought to check out this site... http://qdma.com/

 

[RebelCritter]

I havent been seeing many bucks lately either! strange.

 

[dun]

I am just wodering if some "younger bucks" arent really older bucks with small horns and small body size. I still think, as a starting point, if I was going to try to breed deer for smaller horns I would want to kill every deer I saw with big horns . Would you disagree?

By the time a bigger buck is killed as a bigger buck he has already passed on several breeding season of his genetics

dun

 

[Caustic Burno]

Our problem is a pine desert, hogs competing for food and Houston. Them Houston boys will shoot at everthing from a shanghi rooster to durham cow on the deere lease's. Oh I almost forgot got to go to Camp's I got hogs in a trap over there, I like shootin hogs.

 

[sidney411]

Last weekend during the daylight hours on saturday I saw 5 bucks. I REAL nice one that I could see his antlers at @100 yds from the truck and the others were 6 and 8 pointers, nice but small. That is the most bucks I've seen in a while. I saw 7 deer while hunting hogs that night, and I usually don't see that many deer at night either. I think that the deer are there, but they are getting 'wilder' in the term that they stay deeper in the woods and becoming more nocturnal due to more human activity.

 

[MikeC]

Them Houston boys will shoot at everthing from a shanghi rooster to durham cow on the deere lease's.

What's s "Shanghi" rooster? :lol: :lol:

 

[J Baxter]

Here in the area I hunt deer hunting has gone from great to terrible in just a few short years. The Game and Fish Commission adopted a three point rule that coincides exactly with this. For the last 6 or 7 years spikes and forks have been protected and larger bucks have been fair game. Now it appears that we have dominate (illegal) spikes breeding many of the does. The buck quality has gone down as well as the deer density (due to a never ending doe harvest). This one size fits all deer management (QDMA) is not working in my area.

 

[milesvb]

It's getting better and better around my area. More folks are getting tuned into wildlife and the antler restrictions passed by TPWD from suggestions from hunters and concerned landowners have really helped the younger bucks. Now a bunch of counties have gotten on board for the antler restrictions after seeing what it's doing for us. This year the folks behind us shot 140 class buck and later a 130 class (I think it's the one I passed up ). That would have been unimaginable just five years ago.

 

[Susie David]

Washington has some really screwy rules governing deer harvest. Different areas the size of the antlers governs other areas it's doe only...never kept up with it, just don't go any more. We have enough trouble keeping them out of the rose bushes...will tie up a dog by the garden this year.
Never encountered a deer stand growing up in Arizona or dog hunting for that matter, understood why they are a necessity when I was in the south while in the military.
I guess that I stopped seeing the really big boys when I started aging a bit and didn't cover the miles and rough country that I did when I wore a smaller belt. DMc

 

[Rustler9]

A Shanghai rooster is an old term for an Asiatic breed or Breeds of chicken-usually these are Cochins, Brahmas or Langshans (all which originated in China). These breeds are relatively large and have heavily feathered feet and legs. Ok, there's your brief lesson on poultry for today.

 

[frenchie]

We have no shortage of deer here or big bucks..not unusal to see 150- 200 deer at a crack most days.

 

[andybob]

Plenty of deer here, in my garden most nights, and as the company has given no permits to hunt the farm I manage for four seasons now,the farm is a sanctuary for whitetails, turkeys and partridge. Two does were killed within a mile of the farm last week (hit by trucks) and one of my stockmen hit a six point buck a glancing blow on monday on the farm road.

 

[Angus Cattle Shower]

Here, the hunting is pretty good, I even passed up a 170 class buck, because I was hunting with Grandpa, and Dad wasn't there to see me, so we're hunting him this coming season though. That same night, I got a nice 7x8 with three broken tines. Too bad that the tines were broken though. That wouldhave garunteed me the trophy instead of me winning by only 1 1/8 inches... Got his head hanging on the wall.

 

[buckaroo_bif]

Was down at ai school last November and the instructor was talking about guys catching monster bucks to use for semen collection. The richies from the city are buying up land and putting up high fences for their little playgrounds.
The deer hunters around here, they are thick like flies.