Sooner State Hunter

I think the DOW is trying, like expanding the doe days and the extra doe-only seasons in December, but people around here (myself included) are steeped in tradition and that means Thanksgiving = gun season. That is a parameter they (DOW) have to work around b/c they know that it'llbe difficult tochange. The idea of harvesting a doe before you can harvest a buck has been tossed around,which might help as would antler restrictions.

BUT, the main problem I see in OK is the old-school mentality that any size buck is better than a doe, I've witnessed that in nearly every camp I've been in all over OK. I have more of a problem with that than the timing of the gun seasons, b/c while gun hunters have gotten lucky the past two seasons with the timing of the rut, most years the rut is nearly over or completely over by the time opening day of rifle arrives. The rut usually hits around Nov. 10-15 according to local biologists. That is why historically the bigbucks have been taken by bowhunters the week prior togun season. In fact, many years ago, the bow season was actuallyclosed that week.

In the end, I imagine change in some form will come but it will be slow. Admittedly, Oklahomahas always been a little behind the curvewhen it comes to change and not justin QDM.

SteveBNy

Dead on GR8!

Frankly the push to have the states change so that the trophy hunters have it easier is getting real tiring. Hunting is a lot of different things to a lot of different hunters - changes should never be made to satisfy the few. Educate and lead by example - and start protecting the truly young (bb) from being taken as does/antlerless - make them be tagged as your buck when one is shot. In some states (NY) as many as 1/3 of the "does" are really bb/bucks.

Steve

Dubbya

First of all, let me say that this has nothing to do with my "personal wish." We/I manage our personal properties for dig deer. That's our choice and more power to anyone that manages their land they way they like. Personally, yes I'd like to see bigger deer in this state... who wouldn't? In all honesty, there's a very small portion of the state that I even get to hunt. So if there were macho bucks all over, chances are I wouldn't be shooting them anyway.

The part that I have a problem with is the DOW stating their claims, and doing nothing to support it. I wouldn't have any problem at all if they didn't do a dang thing, IF they didn't claim to want to change things. In all honesty, I'd rather see them do something even if I don't personally agree with it, then to do nothing at all. At least show us that you're trying to implement some type of... something. I agree David, antler restrictions would be wonderful... but they won't do that either.

As far as November being the perfect time to hunt... I'm not saying they should move the seasons to the last weekend in December or the first weekend in October for ML season. I'm saying lets push the gun opener to Thanksgiving day, and let it run from there. We can keep the hunting traditions that have existed for so long, allow all those that come home for the holidays to hunt with their families. Lets open the muzzle loader season a week or 10 days earlier. One week either direction isn't going to make a huge difference in the weather... and it's not like it gets ridiculously cold down here to start with.

Dubbya

Wow, did "we" totally miss the entire point or just slightly? Let me help.

THIS ISN'T ABOUT THE "TROPHY" HUNTING FOR ME OR ANYONE ELSE. THIS IS ABOUT THE OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE "CLAIMING" THEY WANT TO DO SOMETHING AND Not DOING ANYTHING AT ALL.

Gr8, I'm not even sure what your post was in reference to. What in the world does MOVING the gun seasons have to do with Hillary or Obama ruining our country?

nchawkeye

The problem is, you assume that every bow hunter kills or hunts big bucks...
While "gun hunters" kill whatever walks by...That's not always the case....

Dubbya

Sorry, I didn't realize where I had assumed that anywhere in this thread.

I understand that hunters are hunters, that means that bow hunters may be gun hunters as well and vis versa... so therefore they have the same mentality in the woods. Same hunter just a different weapon.

http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/de...s/06totals.pdf

MC Bowhunter

Dustin,
I agree with you but the truth is it will never change. I think they should go to a shotgun only gun season.
A few years back when they started making the changes they put together a board of directors if you will of well known hunters. My dad was on the board. The state didn't take one thing into consideration of what the board thought should be done to manage the deer herd. It was pretty much just a big show to make it look like the state wanted the publics input. In reality they already knew what they were going to do. The gun hunters argue that they should have some time during the rut to hunt as well. I kinda agree with them. But I think some other things could be done to let the younger bucks get some age on them. Money talks though and selling deer tags is what it's all about.

I can't wait to see if they make any changes in the northeast counties after the deer season we had last year.
Deer check stations were down 50% in numbers of deer checked in. I have to say it was one of the worst seasons I have ever seen.

Darrall Dougherty

nchawkeye

It looks to me that you are assuming that the gun hunters kill any buck that shows himself...

aeroslinger

hawk, I would agree the general inference here would be that gun hunters take more younger bucks than bowhunters and that would, indeed, be an assumption. However, if you go to the Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/deerharvesttotals.htm and check some numbers you will see bowhunters tend to take nearly the same number of does as bucks (less than 10% more bucks than does) while gunhunters take considerably more bucks than does (between 35%-40%). Muzzleloaders are even more out of balance. Overall there are about 35% more bucks than does taken. Reducing the number of bucks taken may be needed but I would think "earn a buck" may work better in this instance. Seems those numbers don't look to good for long term buck to doe ratio. Maybe they are thinking most of the gunhunters are mainly concerned with meat and will shoot a doe in place of a buck. I'm not sure that is reality. It looks like hunters can take 6 deer with 2 being antlered. If hunters were truly after meat, those numbers don't make sense to me. I saw in one of the other posts that a lot of hunters think a small buck is better than a doe and I think there is some merit to that. It would be nice to see a concerted effort on everybody's part to change that way of thinking. But I have little faith that will happen any time soon. I'd like to see at least 1 doe (prefer 2) for every buck taken. Of course, that's MY way of thinking. Once again, if somebody's not breaking the law it's difficult for me to say they're doing something wrong.

Dubbya

Obviously it's easier to take deer with a firearm. I'm not saying that gun hunters DO kill any buck that shows himself (I've hunted with a gun and so do many of my friends and they don't kill any buck that shows himself), I'm just saying that mixing vulnerable deer with the easiest means of taking isn't a great way to "increase the number of mature deer" which is what the DOW claims is their goal.