My family and I do eat a lot of venison, to the tune of 3-5 doe's and at least 1 buck enter's our septic every year and not 1 of them is taken with a rifle.

Well congratulations to you. :happy0001:
I prefer to hunt with a rifle. You prefer to hunt with a slug gun. We're even then. It doesn't make me any less a hunter than you are.:D

Your missing the whole point of shotgun hunting as a management tool. If you prefer to hunt with a rifle then we should never hear you or others like you bitch about not seeing any deer or only skidders. For your information I don't hunt with a firearm at all, I'm only looking at it from a management stand point.

Than, PY, your neglecting the Human element of this management tool.
Hunters, whether they be allowed to hunt with rifles, or forced to hunt with slug guns will shoot the first deer they see, more often than not.

Second, many of todays slug guns are accurate to 150+ yards with todays modern slug\propellent combinations. So your again losing your mangament tool.

My rifle allows me to kill any deer that i see, which is legal to shoot. It doesn't force me to kill those deer. That is a choice that I must make (the human element).
It gives me a greater freedom, as well as a greater level of responsibility.
Do I trust myself to make that 250-300+ yard shot?
My rifle (Ruger, 7mm) will shoot that range and well beyond, with superb accuracy in the right hands.
I don't practice at those ranges, and don't believe that I have any business taking shots at those ranges. Again, I'm not forced to take long shots, I hunt in fairly dense cover, but do have opportunities for shot longer than 150 yrds.

Why restrict a hunter to making shots less than that? If they are comfortable making those shots. many hunters even with slugs will try longer shots than that. The reality is that slugs while accurate to 150+ yrds, lack the punch to cleanly kill deer much past that.
My rifle does not lack the punch to make a clean ethical kill at those "extended" ranges.

Slug guns are not a management tool, as you think. They are in many cases a safety element, for high population center, lowly forested regions. Those reasons for their requirements I agree with.
Not as a wildlife population tool, to increase deer numbers and antler size.

Then as a managment tool, one would limit how many DOE's are shoot on a given piece of land. Just my .02 cents.

sconny...I didn't fall off the boat just the other day. Everything you said about rifle hunting I knew. I hunted with a 7mm for many years, and yes practiced and was very capable of 300+ yard shots and harvested deer at that range. But as I grew older and realized the direction our DNR was taking our deer herd I gave up rifle hunting for several reason's as have many of my neighbors. And I will refrane from writting that book on this silly forum. I have my opinion and you are entitled to yours. But the hunters in my neighborhood choose to manage for quality not quanity....and we still eat a lot of venison.

And scoony...in my opinion your an idiot. So take your rifle and the tags the DNR is willing to sell you and shoot'em up. But when you have no deer left in your wood's don't come looking to shoot mine .

Well thanks for that glowing opinion.
I'm glad you are staying in your QDM area. It doesn't work, BTW.
I also see I hit a nerve by calling you on your BS management idea.
We might "lack" deer in my area for many reasons. Rifles are not any where near the top of that list.
We have an over abundance of wolves here. As well as an extreme over abundance of Doe tags.
That also kills your theory about using Slug guns as an management tool.

BTW, calling me a idiot only serves to show your poor level of education. As well as your inability to debate ideas using logic and convincing arguments.

It won't be a shotgun state. Makes no sense anyway. In Wisconsin we can use muzzy or handguns in shotgun areas. Weird thing is, a handgun can be a 300 mag. Who was the brain child who thought that one huh? I wish they would make gun season a week earlier in the northern 1/3 of the state. Bucks are all tired out by gun season. They slow way down, eat off corn piles at night and rest all day. Hard to hunt an old buck that won't move till you are 10 ft from him.