ORIGINAL: rybohunter
It is my belief that the Dept of wildlife for the particular state should structure the seasons and bag limits such that a balance is maintained that accounts for deer herd health, habitat health, hunter desires, and human/deer conflict. (I won’t discuss what defines each of those as that is meant for another debate) Now, once the Dept of Wildlife structures that system, it falls ultimately to the hunters to execute it. In some circles, I believe the hunters traditional mindset is counterproductive to reaching these goals stated above. Some places are worse than others, and honestly sometimes the dept of wildlife should share in the “blame” for those beliefs for allowing that traditional mindset to perpetuate for too long. Through results over time and education these ways of thinking are slowly changing for the better (IMO), but there is still a long ways to go in some areas.

Now back to my original statement, the large scale practice of shooting bucks only (and even worse of shooting EVERY buck) and allowing populations to explode is irresponsible on both parties account. BUT when it comes down to an individual’s choice of what to pull the trigger on, I’m all for letting it be solely up to them. BUT, I would hope they make that choice with the grand scheme of deer management taken into consideration and not just their own narrow minded selfish views.