RE: Question For Oklahoma Hunters
"What I would suggest is raising the price on a 'regular' buck tag to around $35-$40 and coming up with a 'mature' buck tag that sells for much less...say $7-$10." Those having a 'regular' buck tag can still shoot a trophy if the opportunity presents itself, but the hunters holding a 'mature' buck tag must have the deer they harvest meet certain requirements to be legal. These requirements would be that the deer must be (examples only)at least 4.5 years old, have antler base measurements >4 inches (there is a positive correlation between age and this meaurement) and have a certain dressed body weight that varies with the location from which the deer was harvested (SE Oklahoma deer are sometimes HALF the size of deer in other parts of the state). Having all or a combination of any 2 of these standards for being legal as requirements would probably suffice."
The future of hunting in OK is to get more young folks involved in the sport. Dramatically raising the price of tags is guaranteed to have the opposite effect.Your proposal is much too complicated to administer.
You are opposed to minimum antler requirements. Yes, there are some olderbucks with inferior antlers breeding does. But there are not enough of them to matter. I am in agreement with the DNR about lowering the number of bucks killedto two. That is probably what will happen. Yes, there is a dearth of public land to hunt in OK. Get after your state representative anddemand that some of the hundreds of millions in budget surplus be used to purchase land for hunting and other recreational use.