Maryland_Whitetail

We hunters are allowed to enjoy this wonderful sport for one reason and one reason only....population control. That being said, why do we get pissed at hunters shooting small deer? I myself pass on younger deer in the hopes of shooting a monster one day but am I right in doing this? I figured last year I could have shot around 20-30 deer if I didn't pass. Ended up shooting only 4. I have not done my part in controlling the population. How can we as hunters justify not doing our part?

scribbler444

Doe population is what needs to be controlled. The ratio of doe to bucks in new york is like a million to one. You pass on small bucks so that they can get to there full potential. If more people passed of smaller bucks then you would see a whole lot more mature deer then you do now.

Maryland_Whitetail

I do agree with the "Let them grow" mentality, but I know I would rather hit a 1.5 button buck with my truck then a 4.5 230lb booner. Get what I'm saying? The population where I live is out of control. Almost hit 3 deer already this week alone. Someone needs to lower the population and with the amount of deer we can kill here per weapon is 12 = 36 total. Me killing only 4 when I could of killed 36....seems like I'm kind of a hypocrite when we tell PETA we hunt for population control and then we go and pass on deer.

FYI....I'm and avid hunter and not in any way affiliated with PETA!

D Rock

I have thought the same thing for a while now. To me the "Trophy Hunter" mentality could be the death of deer hunting. Everyone seems to be so buckcentric that they forget about the does. I love going after big deer, but there has to be a balance. Everyone seems to think that big bucks just appear. Even though they might not have ever seen a big buck where they are hunting on trail cameras or through scouting, they just assume there is the big one lurking in the shadows waiting for them. In reality big bucks are created by proper herd management. You have to take down the doe numbers and also let the little guys walk. It takes both of these things to see bigger deer.

turkey guide

I agree and have seen things turn around here in Missouri. We have had an antler point restriction of 4 points on at least one side in my county since 2005. We saw many more 8point+ bucks in 2006 and every year after that. Now everyone has a chance at an 8pointer, they are everywhere! There are more, and larger bucks to shoot all over the place, and a much greater oportunity to kill a really big buck. I'm not sure what the average class of shootable, small,(minimum legal) bucks is, but my bet would be about 120 inches for the little bucks. That pushes a good medium size buck up around 150, and big bucks are 155+.
Another + is that people have to slow down and take a good look at the deer before shooting, which should make us all safer. Counting points is a bit more difficult than just identifying a deer and snap shooting. The people who shot small bucks are meat hunters and need to be shooting only does anyway, and the people who want a good buck can have one. Now, the next step should be, if hunters don't step up and kill does for management reasons, to impose an earn a buck program.
People will hate me for this, but I think they need a doe harvest early on in Sept. for does. And if residents don't kill one or more does for consevation/herd management purposes, then they can't buy a buck tag for the Nov. rut hunt, unless they pay a penalty equal to the Non-Resident fee of $225. I think this would come closer to accomplishing the goals of the MDC, by forcing guys who think shooting a doe is for pussies to actually help out with consevation, by either shooting does or paying cash. I also think Non-Residents should earn their buck for the following seasons, or possibly earn a second buck in the muzzleloader season by killing two does and paying an additional $100.

timbercruiser

In Alabama you can legally kill about 200 or so deer per year and the population is still out of control. The hogs can be shot year round, no limit, and the population is out of control. We aren't doing a very good job.

teedub31

I enjoy the "population control" to the extent that I can afford to do so. I can only do justice to harvesting 2 deer per year and be able to eat them. Considering all the costs involved in hunting now with license fees going through the roof (in Indiana anyways) and the evolution of lease hunting costing a guy $500-$1000 a year just to gain access to marginal ground, it becomes cost prohibitive to harvest all the deer you are legally able to get.

Now if the states are in such a dire predicament in population controll then maybe think about ponying up the money to have more deer killed. The states need hunters to provide a service that the state itself can't provide yet wants the hunters to pay for providing said service then complain that the hunters are not doing a good enough job controlling the population. The same goes towards farmers that want you to hunt their land and remove deer that are destroying crops but expect you to lease the right to do a job that they want done. Am I the only one that sees the irony in those expectations. They want their cake and eat it too!!

DeerandbearhoG

scribbler, I gotta disagree w/ you there, heres why, have you ever hunted the NJ side of where we both live? specifically wanaque state pk or wawayanda? these areas border NY state land and IME hunting there, the deer are no bigger on the NJ side , in fact I see alot more bigguns coming out of NY, you can even go on NJ outstanding deer record book and see how few entries come from that part of NJ . thing is NJ has had ARs for about a decade, so I just dont see any proof that passing on smaller deer really increases the amount of mature deer. My belief is, some deer die young and some die old, if not from a hunter, somthing else will get em, but no matter what, others will live to get big. the trick to seeing more big bucks as Im sure you know, is to put in hours hunting and scouting, not trying to artificially "make more" JMHO. I do like killing does though

Hunting Kuk

I think they should have a 2 week doe hunt down here in NW Arkansas I mean when I was youth hunting last weekend I saw 40 deer and one was a buck that is a 40-1 ratio IMO that is horible!