ORIGINAL: Arthur P
You will not shoot a big one if you keep shooting little ones. This is a fact.
Which meansthe guys who shoot little ones areleaving all the big ones for you. You oughta be happy eveyone else shoots the little ones. They're culling out the ones you don't want to see anyway.
Another fact...If you succeed in talking everyone into shooting only big ones,Mother Nature will eventually notice that it's only the small bucks that are surviving to breed. By shooting only big ones, ESPECIALLY DURING BREEDING SEASON (duh),you are actively engaged in selectively breeding deer with smaller racks. Basic biology. Darwin Theory in application.
Wouldn't it better serve your purposes to let the big ones go to get bigger and pass on those superior genes, while taking out the little ones that compete with themfor food and does?
Nature takes the weakest and inferior animals out of the herd and leaves the fit ones to breed. That strengthens the genetic makeup of the herd. The natural predator isnecessary to the long termhealth of the herd.What do trophy hunters do? They come along and take onlythe strongest and superior animalsout of the herd, leaving the weak and inferior to breed.
Trophy hunting is a crime against nature!
At least, to a certain point of view.
I sure wish I had a crystal ball that'd tell me that this nice little basket buckis gonna beat the Hansen buck in the next2-3 years, or that one over there is never going to be any bigger than he is right now, or that I'd ever see either one of them again. I guess that crystal ball will be the hot new item on dealers' shelves next year?
AurthurP, I respect your opinions on the technical side of archery, but when it comes to knowing anything about deer, you don't seem to know squat.[:-]
First of all, no one is leaving any big ones for me to hunt. I'm only hunting a 40 acre tract in the middle of 1280, which is managed by the landholder. He only allows about three guys to hunt his land and they are required to shoot 3 does before they can shoot a buck.These guys didn't pay to shoot a small buck. It is possible that they have a minimum. Besides, how sucessful do you think that each of them is at getting their 3 does? I know they all don't get their 3. The little ones are left to grow. There is no culling of little ones that you say I don't want to see. I like to see all deer.
Second of all, all of the people where I hunt
do try to only kill big bucks. And guess what? Those big guys are so hard to kill that not everyone is killing one!!
Even during the breeding season (duh). Is this surprising to you? It shouldn't be, but you give the wrong impression that all the big bucks would get killed off. Not true. Lets look at the numbers. In the 1280 acres that I've observed daily for the last 30 days, there are at most 5 hunters hunting it. In the 40 that I hunt I have seen 10 different mature bucks. Kill 5 of them you still got 5 left! There is a lot more than that in the 1280. You could put 100 hunters in there and still never kill off all the mature bucks. So your Darwinism and basic biology don't mean smack. You're wrong.[:-]
Thirdly, no it wouldn't be better to leave the big ones( natures best).Even if you could harvest the best ones, you won't get all of them anyway. By taking the select few that people are lucky enought to get, new ones will take their place that will be just as good as their predesessors. This will allow the gene pool to remain fresh and prevent some in breeding.
Fourthly (is that a word?), you seem to think that trophy hunters along with nature can totally decimate the mature buck population. Again, you're wrong.[:-]It is not possible for trophy hunters to kill off all the mature bucks. The only way you could do that is to kill all the inexperienced young bucks, so that age class never advances to the next class. Again, impossible but would be easier than killing all the mature bucks. Mature bucks are way harder to kill than you realize.
Lastly, you can have your crystal ball, I'll do it as I always have, I'll
HUNT them. That is how I have my fun, otherwise, I'd go to a game farm and buy a buck.[:'(]