It's official, Tennessee has changed the statewide bag limit from 3 bucks, down to 2. I can't tell your how happy I am to see this change. There's absolutely no need to be able to kill 3 bucks IMO. I would truly like to see the second one turn into an earn a buck system and/or antler restriction. That won't happen but I'm very excited to see how the two buck limit plays out. It can't do anything but improve the average age class of bucks harvested and leave more bucks in the standing herd. Let's hear what you guys think of it Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Seems like a good idea to me. How many antlerless can you guys take? Pa has always been a one buck state but they give out way too many does tags in my opinion. It used to be I had to be in a hurry to get my antlerless application in and I would still get denied sometimes. In the last 15-20 years or so there is no hurry for the first round of sales. In my management unit anyway. Some sell out fast still the first round.
Not certain it will improve the buck population, here in Minnesota there has been 1 buck allowed for as long as I can remember but it seems the statewide average buck taken is a 2 year old.
I hope it helps. Many hunters shoot the first buck that hits a field or opening. We can kill 4 bucks and 2 does here in eastern NC. Very few hunters kill more than 2 of either sex in any given year. The deer population is very big here in eastern NC. I just wish they would extend the hunting season until the end of January. By the time it gets cold here, deer season is over.
I'm glad, but it won't help. Our biggest problem in my unit is poaching. As we all know they could care less about bag limits. Sent from my XT830C
Well the antler less bag limit is pretty confusing. There's no set limit really. You can kill 3 or 4 during archery, 1 during muzzleloader season, then there's some non quota hunts at the end of rifle where you can kill up to 4 in my county if you buy the tag. We have a good population of deer. I would like to see them just say you can kill x number of does and you can kill them whenever you want. Instead of this encrypted code of antler less bag limits. You can kill your bucks whenever, why not kill the does whenever during the season as well. With the 3 buck bag limit, the average deer taken is a 1 year old more than likely Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Like others, don't know if it will help. I am able to hunt in a bow only area as well as areas that have firearms season and there is no comparison between the two areas for quality of bucks. You can kill smaller, more immature bucks in the bow only area if you choose but if you want to have an opportunity to shoot bigger bucks at least they are around where the firearms areas they are there but infrequent due to much heavier hunting pressure and they get thinned out at an earlier age. Just my opinion and observations. As a sidebar, the doe population is way out of whack in the bow only areas so forget about rattling and things like that, the bucks just don't have to compete as hard during the rut.
I live in unit L and there is no bag limit on does. We can shoot 3 a day for the duration of the season. Needless to say, there are a lot of deer! I am glad they dropped the buck limit by one as well. I don't think it will have much of an effect though, most hunters in Tennessee don't take 2 or 3 bucks a year. I side more with the TWRA though and think they should continue to manage the deer heard as they have been and that is for opportunity and not trophy hunting. I think they have struck a good balance.
I agree, now I'm no trophy hunter though....lol. We have some good buck here in unit A. I hunt in unit L too....tons if deer.... Lol Sent from my XT830C
I'm in the very Northeast part of the state so the quality isn't near what it is in the western part of the state. The last two years I have been struggling to find somewhere to hunt/lease. I've been limited to 10 acres and it's been a real struggle. I can kill a few but not many quality deer Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm in Cumberland county. I own 181 acres where I live. Then I lease some as well. Im looking for a lease now in Smith county. Sent from my XT830C
There seems to be a lot more land to lease/hunt the further west you go. It's all small parcels here and tough to find anyone willing to work with you Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That stinks, it use to be easier to find land here to hunt. The last 10 years it has gotten more difficult to find it. Sent from my XT830C
It would be interesting to see the data on how many hunters take multiple bucks in a season, and how many actually take three. My guess is less than 5% take all three bucks in a season, which means changing the regs is more of an image change than a conservation change. I could be wrong. Sometimes I think they just make changes to appear like they are doing something to improve the heard, and on paper it might look that way, but in reality it doesn't help at all, only looks good on paper.
