Headhunter said:
Andy, I do not know you but you seem to be interested.
I am interested in the truth, whether it be for the benefit of the deer herd or purely self-serving. I have no problem with either as we are all entitled to our opinions and ways of thinking, but in the end, I like to know where the truth lies.
Headhunter said:
Why do I hunt all the days that are open for gun hunting even though I TRULY BELIEVE AND IN MY OPINION AM POSITIVE that a shorter gun season would be better for the deer herd? First, becasue I love to hunt, I love to just be in the woods, at anytime for however long that may be. Second, if I did not hunt all through the season I would hear is I do not know what I am talking about because I am not in the woods hunting during the part of the season I believe needs to cut out so how can I have an opinion.
I see where you are coming from but I still would personally put more stock in your agenda if you practiced what you preached. Again, this is just how I perceive your true intentions; it may or may not be a fair assessment of them, but it is my assessment based on what I have read here (
not just this post, all of the others you have been a part of).
Headhunter said:
I guarantee you when you start truly killing does and I mean culling to get the population down to whatever level is deemed necessary, they become as hard to kill as bucks. I love it when I am told by someone they could kill does every single day of the season, but they never shoot any. Start culling does and see how consistently they show up.
I agree 100%. I have lived it at Ames where I hunt. Starting in 2005, we were advised to shoot 1 doe per 100 acres which equals 180 does over 18,600 acres. We punished them for several years, to the tune of 200-235 does a few consecutive years, and then we scaled it back to 180 then down to 165 or so last year. The effect was noticeable in some places, but not all places. One could hunt the typical places he or she had in the past (
easy 10-20 minute walk to stand, readily hunted areas, easily accessible ) and see very few does in daylight, and basically zero in wide open fields until the last 10-15 minutes of light. However, if one would put the time in to get deep and off the beaten path, voila, the doe sightings would be at or above pre-pressure sightings, in the daylight. These places were not the easiest places to access, but if one did, deer and doe sightings would be good to great depending on weather and time of season.
Headhunter said:
Andy, I beyond the shadow of a doubt believe some changes could help our deer herd.
Possibly, but at what expense to everything else?
Headhunter said:
I could care less what someone kills, but with so many hunters and so much pressure it makes no sense to allow someone to kill 3 young bucks in one season.
I am surprised to hear that you know for certain several hunters who truly kill three young bucks in a single season. As I have previously stated in other posts, I cannot for the life of me name one deer hunter who has killed 3 bucks in one season, even if I look back over the last decade. I talk with a lot of hunters in the fall, mainly from west TN and a few from middle TN. Do you really know this assertion you are making to be true or do you just think a lot of people kill 3 young bucks every season?
Headhunter said:
At a minimum, there should be a restriction on the second and third bucks (NEVER on the first one) of some kind to protect young bucks, even a little and to help kill more does. I know not all of the state can do this but the majority could.
I do not feel this way and here is why. All of the more seasoned guy/gals I know set self-imposed goals that rarely allow for more than one buck to be taken, sometimes two in a season, if they are lucky. All of the newbie deer hunters (
less than 5 years deer hunting) I know and talk deer hunting with kill one buck in the fall just to get the monkey off his/her back and blood on their hands, and then they either wait for a bigger buck (
bigger than the first one) or one they will mount (
115" or bigger for most). This self-imposed limit, plus their relative newness to the game of deer hunting sometimes keeps them from tagging a second buck, and as I have stated, I do not know one who has shot three in a single season. Furthermore, most of these newbies are looking for a 6 point or better to be their first kill, which further pushes the odds of protecting the 1.5 year old cohort. In summary, I just do not see or hear of all these deer hunters slaying young bucks, and not a single hunter killing three young'uns a year for consecutive years as you claim in many of your posts.
I often times wonder if the big differences we see/experience and debate here are region related? Is one group of hunters in a particular area practicing trigger restraint at a higher rate than hunters in another area? I do not know for sure, but I am starting to think so. Furthermore, I am not passing judgement on either preference, just trying to better understand the huge disparities in preferences/behaviors/etc us hunters across the state are seeing and thus debating.
