Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

Ok, here's my deal. My brothers & I own a small piece of land, 75acres. 3 sides are bordered by 1,000 acres of public land. The 4th side is bordered by 1,200 acres of private land owned by a small hunting club of 12 members. Down below us is 3 camps who are limited to hunting the public land. The 3 camps & hunting club also have some bowhunters. We bowhunt our 75acres mostly, gun hunt once that opens. We don't do deer drives at all. We have food plots, mineral licks. 1 camp, and the hunting club do the same. We also hunt the public land as well. We only see a few hunters during archery season, but come gun season the public land is loaded with hunters the first wknd. Lots of shooting, spooks all the deer, deer drives being done. But it appears alot more shooting than deer actually taken. I've driven around the public land with snow on the ground, and only seen where a couple of deer were dragged out after hearing 100's of shots. Its weird.
Now here's the deal.1 the newer camps down below stopped by asking if we'd be interesting in letting all smaller bucks go, and only harvest big bucks. He claims the other 2 camps have agreed to try it. I personally tried this myself for 3yrs, and didn't notice much difference. But my brothers shot whatever then. I've never asked or told them what can or can't shoot. So were now thinking of agreeing to this big bucks only. But I told the new camp owner it could be a waste of time with all the public land hunters shooting whatever. Our efforts could just put the nice bucks in their laps, and also draw in more hunters to the public land. We still see a few nice bucks every year the way it is now.
So do you think the effort could be worth it, or a big waste of time? I'm all for it, if my brothers want to try it.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

I would say yes.

You mentioned having mineral licks and food plots. It sounds like you are into management already. Why would you do all this without practicing some sort of management restrictions?

Are you in NY? Mineral licks are illegal. FWIW.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

It would seem that your land and the other camp (almost 1300 acres)would become a refuge for deer during firearm season. You guys have food plots, licks and etc. and you don't do drives. Just make sure you restirct yourselves to mature deer over 2.5 yrs. old. It will take some time before you see any change in buck development 3- 4yrs. minimum. But if you guys keep it like you have it and keep the area quiet, deer should move to your area.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

My buddies shoot any thing that walks with a bow. I personally only shoot a buck if i am going to mount it, but i do kill up to 10 does a year with my bow and that is only because we need it, we have a 11 to 1 doe to buck ratio. My buddies are starting to slowly come around to the idea of letting the smaller bucks walk mostly because they see what kind of bucks i take and how much crap i give them for shooting the little ones.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

For the method of passing on young bucks in order let them grow up to work, everyone in a large area(not just 1 property) has to be in on it. If one guy out of 12 in a square mile passes young deer so they will grow up, and everybody else will shoot almost anything, he's not doing himself any good.

I'm not a big let 'em grow kind of guy, but I do pass on a lot of young deer. Mainly just to take my chances on something bigger coming by. Where I hunt I'm kind of the guy in paragraph #1. But that's not to say I wouldn't shoot one of those same deer I passed on at another time of the season. Depends on the mood I'm in.I don't want to put a lot of self-imposed rules on myself when it comes to recreation.

I know a guy who owns several miles of IL river frontage, and has set some basic rules on the guys hunting it. Thet work pretty hard at passing young bucks, shooting does, etc., and he has said they are just now starting to see very good results, and they've been at it for 8 years...

in your situation, as long as everyone is on board, go for it.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

If you have guys around you that are willing to do so then I would say go for it if you would like to shoot some bigger bucks. If you are content on shooting what ever then it may not be your thing.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

The one property I hunt near Oneonta, NYis in a similar situation. It is surrounded by 1800 acres of public land. We have 160 acres there. We are 6 years into QDM and are taking as many does as we can, and have probably 5 acres of food plots (7 plots total) and just this year we are really seeing the difference there with encounters of 4 different bucks in the 3.5 year old class so far this year. Honestly this year we are seeing more 1.5 year old or better bucks than we are seeing 1.5 years old or older does. It takes a while though.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

Yes its worth it. One thing to remember, when you pass up young bucks and go for older ones, you have to change the way you hunt. If you continue to huntwith an"any" buckmentality, you won't have as much success at the big ones.
But again, every little bit helps with passing on younger bucks to let them get old.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

They can't grow if you don't let them go. Why not make it a policy that anyone that shoots a buck has to spend the money at the taxidermist for mounting it?

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

Restrictions only work when everybody is following them , and the folks hunting the public ground surrounding you will never do that . Let the hunt club do what they want on their own land and you do what you want on yours , that's what private ownership is all about .

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

I agree i would do it you guys have alot of nice stuff going on why not QDM, the deer will learn when all hunters hit the private they will be safe over on your and the clubs property..If you think a deer that gets shot at 100 times on public and only 10 on yours dont start to learn this you are mistaken!!! Walt

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

If everybody is going to agree to it, then yeah of course go for it!

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

1275 acres is enough to manage and see major results, but that is only if you and everyone sticks to it. There will obviously be a significant number of bucks that will wonder off of the restricted land, but you will also have a large area of refuge for many deer that will remain on your land for the better part of the season. Over a few year period, you should see major improvements in the number of mature bucks you see. However, you have to also know that that doesn't mean that every buck you see will be a mature buck. Instead of maybe having 3 or four on the whole property, you would then have 6-10 or so (just guessing here). It isn't automatically going to be a shooting gallery for Pope and Young bucks, but your odds will improve. It all comes down to what you want to do with your land and what you enjoy hunting. If you are only satisfied with a mature buck, then you are in a great spot since the neighbors are willing to join you in managing the herd. If you just like to get a deer, any deer then just hunt and enjoy.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

id agree...but id also agree on permission to hunt the other guys land as well if you already dont. they can hunt yours..you can hunt theirs..just plan accordingly and work out a system so noone screws anyone else. that would be nice. then you guys can go together and put in work on their land..cover, sancuaries NOONE steps foot in, food plots etc....make the whole tract of private land as appealing as possible to deer and give them some GOOD cover..id keep the cover in the center of the land to keep deer there feeling safe and huntable. attract the deer to the tract of land and keep them there and you can see major success on a tract that large...even if you dont get permission then id make your 75acres as attractive as possible and follow the antler restrictions..it can still work out...but once gun season starts they are heading for cover. get them food and cover and they will love it...

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

Kevin1, that's an assumption. If you pass a buck, yes someone esle might kill it but they might not as well, if you kill it, it's dead. The more you pass, the more that will grow. Self imposed point restrictions are always a good idea. If your okay with not filling a tag once in a while, you will be rewarded in the future. My last 4 bucks were 3.5, 3.5, 2.5, 2.5...2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, in 02 and 03 I passed all bucks hunting one specific buck, many might pass these deer but if I'd tag the frist 1.5 that came by, I couldn't have shot these much bigger and older deer. That's what it's about, sure the 1.5's that I passed may or may not have been shot but if I'd shot the 1.5's, I'd been tagged out plus they couldn't grow.

It makes no difference to me what you choose to shoot.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

I have the same type of situation. My family has 110 arces of private to hunt that borders about 800 public. We hunt both of the properties during bow season and are all by ourselves. But once the gun season starts the public land is full of gun hunters. We started letting the 1.5 years old bucks pass 5 years ago. The only one we shot was my little brothers first deer that he thought was a doe.(it was a spike). We know that the gun hunters shoot anything, but we have seen a difference in the number of bigger bucks (2.5 years and up). I'm sure it would help a lot if the other hunters were letting the small bucks go, but It seems to be working for us. Even if it is just a little.

RE: Your opinions, on personal buck restrictions
 

Thanks guys, all great opinions. I'm going to talk this over further with my brothers. I'm also going to talk with the other camps to seehow serious they are. The 1,200 acre hunting club I know well, but not sure if they are in on this yet or not.I know at one time some of the former members were letting the smaller bucks walk. I've put alot of work into our 75acres, trying to make it a deer magnet. I guess some deer mgmt is in order.