ORIGINAL: bluebird2
Correct me if I am wrong here, but the above stated data seems to point out that our current deer management system is indeed producing a higher percentage of closer to mature bucks?
ARs always produce a higher percentage of 2.5+ buck in the herd , but it is a meaningless figure to the hunters in the field. To them the meaningful figure is the number of 2.5+ buck available to be harvested and that number was less in 2007 than in 2002, the first year of ARs.
You certainly can’t say that is an accurate statement. In fact I can pretty much guarantee that is not an accurate statement.
In 2002 hunters harvested 52,607 bucks 2 ½ and older under pretty good hunting conditions on the peek hunting days of that season. The harvest of 2 ½ and older bucks was higher then that every year from 2003 through 2006 and ranged between a low of 57,961 in 2005 to a high of 62,399 in 2004. Last year, 2007, there were 48,048 bucks 2 ½ and older harvested during a season with the worst hunting conditions on the peek days of any season in my hunting or working career.
That is only a slight decrease in the harvested number of 2 ½ and older bucks last year then during the 2002 season, or for that matter the seasons in between. There is nothing that accounts for how many bucks of that age classavailable and escaped harvest during each of,or any of, those years.
R.S. Bodenhorn