Originally Posted by
super_hunt54
Older and Mature is one thing, Too old and not producing is another. We have more than enough mature "wise" Does on the properties. And while yes we get some pretty rough winters here in Southern Illinois, it's really nowhere near as rough as it is in Michigan USUALLY that is. I think this past winter was about freaking equal. Nasty year!
While that 8 or better rule is okay, maybe you would find it even better if you would all try to learn to judge age in the field. Dropping an 8 point 3.5 year old kind of circumvents the entire process don't you think? If you want to see more trophy bucks, then you have to let them grow up and reproduce. In some places I know that 3.5 year old bucks are about as old as they get because people see them and drop them. Then they complain about not seeing any quality racks. It's a pretty rough situation to get around until you can either get people on surrounding properties to try to do better or have a large enough property of your own that you can simply close off to everyone else that won't adhere to your rules.
They had frost that went over 12' deep under a couple roads up here and 1/2 again under the "normal" frost line every place else. We didn't get the insulating snow, yet the bitter cold. Ice in our 8,850 acre lake was
42" thick! You think you had a bad winter?
I have enough trophies hanging on the wall and all over the floor. Wife says "NO MORE!" I've taken so many deer, I really don't care about antlers any more, or rather that much. I'll take a good 1.5yo doe for meat any day.
One of the problems in MI is, there's over 700,000 hunters hitting the woods and that's with dwindling hunters. Mind sets are changing, but slow and that's ok. Deer are totally different in the different areas of this state. The northern lower has much smaller deer and smaller antlered bucks, than the southern areas. The U.P. is a disaster area, with few deer now. Multiple hard winters and those X0X0X wolves that about wiped them out. Used to be some dandy bucks taken in the U.P. Soil type, terrain, food sources play a huge difference in MI deer in the different regions. NEL has a problem with bTB. MI had a couple bad years for EHD. Now CWD has been found in the south central area.
My personal opinion is that trophy hunting of antlers is a bad thing for whitetail hunting in general. Way to much emphasis is being placed on antler size, instead of the hunt itself. I see way to many hunters arguing and fighting each other, over antler size and age. Actually it makes me sick the arguing and bickering taking place now days over trophies. If I wanted a large set of antlers, I'd head back to Saskatchewan again.