Mature buck sightings

hatracked · 12-29-2006, 12:46 PM

How many 3.5 year old 16 inch inside spread 8 point or better bucks did you see while hunting this season? Your typical 100 - 110 inch Whitetail buck or a better specimen.
How many did you see this season of this criteria or better and how many days did you spend in the field to experience these sightings? Please do define public land /private land hunt club or private lease. As well include state of these sightings.
This information will be compiled to provide a reccomondation for the SC GA for the future deer laws of SC. Thanks for your help.

zubba · 12-29-2006, 12:53 PM

I seen five bucks this year that fit your description.That was through bowhunting, rifle hunting and shotgun hunting. I hunted probably around 50 hours during bow season, 20-25 hoursduring rifle season,and around 20 hours during shotgun hunting. My states included bow huntingWisconsin, rifle hunting Wisconsin, and shotgun hunting Iowa.

GregH · 12-29-2006, 02:58 PM

I have close to 60 different days of hunting and had 28 mature buck sightings so far. I have the info on excell, sorted by does, fawns, immature bucks and mature bucks ( 121" +). This is from Ill., how will that help you?

hatracked · 12-29-2006, 09:34 PM

First off thanks for the replies fellas keep em coming.

Secondly it will help me immensely. Heres why. In the state of South Carolina we are currently under a set of regulations that 1 divides the state between the upstate where the DNR sets the game laws and the Low Country where the General Assembly sets the laws.The upstate has a rather classic set of game laws bag limits and seasons that coincide with many other states deer management strategies. The low country however has a very liberal bag limit ( 24 does + 4 bonus tags and unlimited buck harvest) and long seasons that begin and end with rifle hunting over bait. This portion of the state is classically owned by the politicians of our state and they have set the game laws to promote commercial hunting, non resident interest through liberal bag limits and long seasons. The result is high lease and land prices and a commerical interest that is very economically please to private land owners. Of course a landowner with ample ground can over rule the law set his own limitations and still have quality hunting for mature bucks through sheer acreage and personal restraint.

The trouble with this system if the trade off is the quality of the hunting and the quality of the deer. From over pressure to over kill of bucks this state is bar none one of the worst trophy deer hunting states in the nation. Furthermore with the current regulation , the only folks priviladged to have quality trophy hunting are those that can afford to own or lease very large expanses of land that allow them to manage a herd and actually get away from the regulation they themselves set.The only way to great hunting in other words is to be privatized. The common man has been left out as well as the small land owner who cannot overcome the neighbors who are cut loose with ridiculously liberal laws.

The mindset has been sold to the general popualtion for years that SC as a whole is not conducive to trophy deer and that manipulating laws seasons and bag limits that would promote a more classic approach to quality deer management wont work and in effect would hurt the common mans shots at great and ample hunting opportunity. Its a sell out of snake oil proportions. Why do I say this, because I have been a part of several pieces of land that with proper management we were able to consistantly produce trophy class deer of PY min and far better. I have seen the potential.

A common rebuttal to, we could have great hunting as well as trophies too is to say," our deer do not have the potential to be trophy class". Hence why my question deals with a buck that any ground can grow in the 100-110 inch range. The question seeks mature buck opportunity and how many hours of effort goes into getting a view of one. We all know, that to have a true representation of just what a deer can grow on his head he has to have age and nearly any buck can achive that in 3.5 years.It is my goal to show several things.

1) that the overharvest of bucks in this state rapes that opportunity

2) that states with lower buck limits produce more mature buck sightings

3) that states with shorter and weapon specific seasons also reduce overall pressure and increase sighting

4) that currently states with these types of bag limits and seasons have public ground that many times matches the productivity of some of SC's best private ground.

5) And this is the biggie that SC hunters have been sold a rotten egg and have been brainwashed into thinking a set of regulations that favors only a few is robbing them of the potentially great deer herd and deer hunting that could be easilly be had here.

These tallies will be compiled and weighed against each states regulation and compared back against our states responses. I will compile this information and it will be presented to several SC politicians for consideration prior to an upcoming session where bag limits and other season related issues are to be brought to the table. As well this will be made available to SC hunters to read for themselves so they can open their eyes to just what a raw deal they have been getting. Simply put they dont know what they are missing.

I hope that helps you to understand where I am going with this and why I need your participation. Thanks for all your help!

Roger46982 · 12-30-2006, 01:15 AM

I seen three last eve. One at 28 yds. but no shot.