Let's see em...

[farmerjan]

We can get 2 bucks and 3 does during the total season, bow, muzzle loader and rifle. Have a guy who got a nice 8 pt and will get mostly small stuff now... wants the meat and just enjoys shooting. Keep encouraging them to cut out some more does as we see nearly 75-80% does with twins in the spring, and they are devouring the cover crops... Saw 7 dead along the road last Thursday... all fresh in the last couple days. DOT will pick them up regularly... we are nearly overrun with deer in this area. Need to get more does and get the population down some.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Some of you must have really high deer populations. We can take one buck during the general buck
season and one Doe if you get a controlled hunt Doe Tag.

 

[Brute 23]

Some of you must have really high deer populations. We can take one buck during the general buck
season and one Doe if you get a controlled hunt Doe Tag.

Some areas here do. On top of you bag limit if you join the wildlife association and do deer counts they will issue doe permits also. Those permits could be one doe per 30 or 50 acres. Let's say you have 800 ac that could be 16 or more deer that year on permits alone. That turns in to work.

 

[Richnm]

My nephew beat me to the shot.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Nice one Richnm!

 

[Dave]

Richnm, now that is what a real mule deer looks like. We have a few like that here but you are going to cover a lot of ground and look at a lot of deer before you find one that size.

 

[Brute 23]

That's a hoss.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Some areas here do. On top of you bag limit if you join the wildlife association and do deer counts they will issue doe permits also. Those permits could be one doe per 30 or 50 acres. Let's say you have 800 ac that could be 16 or more deer that year on permits alone. That turns in to work.

That is a lot of deer. We have a lot of hill country, lots of timber. There are three main predators that work on the deer, bobcat, coyote and cougar. I think our deer numbers are at a healthy level, but I can tell some of you are overwhelmed with them.

 

[Dave]

Here it is one buck and it is a 10 day season the first of October. But you have to draw a tag. The odds of drawing a tag is about 3 to 1. The only exception is a land owner preference tag. Which still limits a person to one buck and you are only allowed to hunt on your own property.

 

[wbvs58]

That is impressive Rich.

Ken

 

[Bigfoot]

My hunters got a decent buck

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

@wbvs58 per person. So, my nephew & I can get 2 bucks, and 4 does. I have family coming starting tomorrow. There should be 10 coming from Rhode Island. They get OOS licenses and we will all be hunting. I like to put 1 or 2 in our freezer and we cut one up & send home with my sister.

 

[Richnm]

Nice one Richnm!

In all honesty

Nice one Richn

Richnm, now that is what a real mule deer looks like. We have a few like that here but you are going to cover a lot of ground and look at a lot of deer before you find one that size.

We were 5 miles deep on foot in the Gila Wilderness unit 16B when we found him. You can read the horror stories of that unit online. No roads , no access, lots of cats and wolves and very rough. I don't know if I would do it again. That unit was hell.

 

[tex452]

I think you would be surprised of the info coming out of A&M. It's tested and proven down here on these properties. They have have plenty of studies showing exactly what you and I are saying about low fence, free range deer, co-op management, etc on low fence properties.

You have to separate wildlife people from "deer people".

Most people try to apply high fence management to low fence properties and you can't do that. It's two different worlds. That's where a lot of this shoot the spikes, cull hard, 1:1 buck to doe ratios, etc. That's high fence stuff. It will do you little to no good in low fence applications and can actually hurt you in some scenarios.

A lot of that info comes from "deer people".... that are usually trying to sell something.

With a lot of small ranches around from 100-400 acres and every body shooting does and young spikes the herd will be decimated.
I'm sure some areas like the hill country in Texas can handle a lot more harvesting than other parts of the state.
When I'm watching hunting shows and their hollering to shoot does and spikes, but they have deer running everywhere.
Sometimes I think they just want to make hunting bad in some areas so they can sell more hunts.
I like to at least see something when I go out.

 

[Dave]

I have seen the state of Washington try to manage for bigger bucks twice. Failure both times. When I was a kid and for years before they didn't allow shooting spikes. I remember them having a display board they showed everywhere to push the idea of shooting spikes. It had the jaw and antlers of bucks ages 1, 2, 3, up to 11 years old all with 3 or 4 inch long spikes. They managed to breed up inferior bucks by not shooting any spikes.
Now in the mule deer areas it is 3 point or better. Been that way for 20 years or more. Now you can find some huge 2 points. There is one on my wife's family ranch that has to be pushing 26 wide and that tall. Just a huge 2 point. No other little cheater or other point which would make him a legal buck. But you can bet he is passing his genes on.

 

[Brute 23]

Antler restrictions work. They are not perfect but are better than nothing, especially with education on how and why. For every one exception that slips through the cracks exponentially more bucks are reaching maturity than prior to the restrictions.

We have been pushing hard for the co-ops to issue cull tags like the doe tags.

 

[callmefence]

Antler restrictions work. They are not perfect but are better than nothing, especially with education on how and why. For every one exception that slips through the cracks exponentially more bucks are reaching maturity than prior to the restrictions.

We have been pushing hard for the co-ops to issue cull tags like the doe tags.

All antler restrictions do is create deer herds with narrow racks. Stupidest thing parks and wildlife has done since stocking stripers in freshwater lakes. And that's saying alot when you consider tpwd .
Tpwd caters to the wealth. Not the young family man trying to take his kids hunting or fishing. I've seen more than one kid shamed by adults for killing a young deer. That's the culture that's been created and its Always by someone from town who's watched to many hunting shows. Never by a land owner.

 

[Brute 23]

That's not true. The restrictions in Texas have helped drastically.

TPW is a govt program that makes laws that benefits govt revenue. Big horns generate revenue... not meat hunts. Hunting has always been a rich man's game and always will be. Like it or not... those are the sad truths.

As for the adults... the have been shaming young people for as long as man has walked the earth. If it's not for 13" deer it's for missing or not wanting to shoot a big caliber or being cold or what ever else bs they can come up with. That has to do with insecurities of grown men... not deer.

 

[Brute 23]

That program was set up based off of data on thousands of deer from all over the state. 2 things lined up. In general, most deer will reach 4 yrs old, or maturity, and be 13" wide. The other is deer with the least amount of horns, spikes, will score lower at maturity (kind of a no brainer).

If your area still has a problem with deer not reaching maturity and ever deer being shot at 13" it would be way worse with out that restriction. That's where the education comes in. That same person that shoots the 3 yr old 13" deer would shoot the 2yr old 4 pt.

They do youth weekend and doe weekends and a lot of stuff now they didn't do when I was a kid. The restrictions aren't stopping a young person from taking a deer. They have more opportunity than kids in the past.

 

[Brute 23]

There is no secret to big deer... no magic wand... they have to reach maturity. It's not protein, culling, blinds, guns, scent clothes... none of that junk. Take out the predators no matter if it's cats, coyotes, or humans... let the deer mature... and you will have as good of deer at that area will provide.