Id like to know how people take these illegally? i mean obviously people do it all the time and i dont know how different it is in other states but when you register your deer in minnesota someone walks out and checks the points on them before registering it. I personally would never illegally harvest a deer but I am aware that people do it.
Antler restrictions has little to do with putting meat In your freezer. Unless you're only going out for bucks then in that case you're not meat hunting any longer. I lived in the Hudson Valley when they first started the antler restriction. 3 points on at least one side. By the second year, I not only saw better racks but saw larger body/meat bucks. There are benefits to restrictions. It isn't perfect but it does make more improvements than it hurts the majority of hunters. And if you're only seeing bucks that you can't shoot then you might need to regroup and rethink your strategy for a year or two. Then go back to buck hunting. IMO.
I think what he's saying is, he doesn't go after a buck or a doe specifically, he goes after the first deer he sees and if he doesn't have a doe tag or it happens to be a buck and there's an antler restriction then he can't shoot it. Of course the answer would be to target does, if he can get a tag (PA does allocations per WMU) but doing that will wipe out all the does. To feed a needing family, only shooting does for meat can end up making the buck to doe ratio unbalanced which then results in less deer reproducing and replenishing the herd. Shooting a buck that is legal with strict antler restrictions can be tough, especially when the older the buck is, the more wise and elusive they tend to be, not to mention they don't grow as big in mountainous habitats. I think I'm speaking mainly on behalf of hunting the mountains of PA where I grew up hunting, which is where he seems to be from. Hunting PA mountain deer is very different hunt than the kind of hunting we have here in Ohio and Kentucky, specifically due to the lack of habitat and nutrition available to deer.
Unfortunately antler restrictions are the only way to keep people from not shooting anything walking in front of them. We have antler restrictions in CA but only a fork on one side big enough to hang a ring on; as old as that sounds. The buck in the picture is mature and should be legal but unfortunately genetics in this case don't allow him to be legal in your area. I would hope this is a rare occasion the genetics work against the hunter.
I sort of wish we had antler restrictions in Wisconsin. Gun season is a complete joke here. I bet more spike and little fork bucks are killed during Wisconsin's gun season than maybe every other states gun deer season combined.
In Texas the antler restriction is a bit different. All counties that have antler restrictions have a 2 buck limit. Out of the 2 bucks only one can have both sides branching and be over 13" inside spread The other or both bucks has to have at least one unbranched side. Spread or number of points does not matter. I have seen the quality and maturity of deer from these counties improve as far as what is harvested. With that said it can better your quality if done right. But you still can't control all the poachers and other illegal harvests. I actually wouldn't mind seeing a check in validation here in Texas like other states. But deer hunting has become so commercialized here with so many high fenced ranches that have management tags, it would be hard to process the number of deer that are taken throughout the year. Also high fenced deer management property does not have to follow any antler restrictions no matter what county they are in. I do agree that it should be put on age as well. A game warden was asked about an older buck that just didn't have the genetics to produce a rack over 13". His response was "well if never shot illegally then he will get to die of natural causes." That I don't fully agree with but then again that deer (by law) should get to live its full life. Six of one or half a dozen of another. Any who, thats how its done down here and I have seen quality improvement.
I would have to say I'm pleased with the point restriction in MO. Doe tags in many counties are easy to come by especially for archery season. I can see where for some who are just looking to harvest "a deer" it isn't as favorable, but 4 points on one side has improved trophy hunting here tremendously.
I've watched the quality of Virginia's deer for nearly forty years improve tremendously without antler restrictions.
I get the point of feeding your family. I'm a big meat hunter. I grew up in a large family and that was a major part of our table fair.. It wasn't just deer, it was whatever was in season. Birds to fish, frogs to hogs. Not because we preferred it over beef but because it was a necessity. FL used to be the same way on deer availability, anything and everything was shot and there was no management, or at least nobody paid it any mind. Add to that the fact of the harsh living environments. If we allow the restrictions to run its course, they do work, it might mean that we have to make some personal decisions to not take a deer for the future of the herd. And all the more reason it is important to report what we take. So that the Biologists have the most data to make a decision on. We all have to think long term and not the here and now. After 25 years there are deer coming into my parents back yard again. Along with quail and Osceola's, mostly because of management. I also saw a increase in quality of deer in NY. I'm not backing all the decisions made because I know some of them don't make sense, but we have to play along.
i'm not a fan! all we do now is shoot the legal (they don't get any older) like it better then spike were legal because that meant alot of guys were done sooner and the bigger one's were a little safer to be bigger next year. hope you under stand what i'm trying to say ^^^ antler restriction is a stand off. why because we always had big bucks in pa.
I'm all for antler restrictions here in Pa. Without a doubt, I see more bigger bucks where I hunt because of the restrictions. Not BIG bucks, just bigger than before the restrictions.
I believe antler restrictions are a good thing. The quality of bucks has improved since they have been implemented in PA. You can't win with alot of PA hunters, they aren't happy no matter what, if they don't shoot a 10 point opening morning from the same stand they've hunted every day of the season every year since they were 12 then there aren't enough deer and it's someone else's fault.
The best deer hunting we had was before the upgraded antler restrictions back when the buck and doe seasons were separate and there were no doe tag allocations. It makes it hard to get kids into hunting when as a non-resident who can't get a doe tag, plus the additional low chances of a mature buck slipping up in front of a ground blind close enough to camp for a kid to walk to in the mountains, the chances of success are slim to none. I can only speak on personal experience. If we were able to hinge cut sections of the game lands and plant some plots it might be a different story . PA has killed a ton of non-resident hunting and for us personally our PA deer camp traditions are no more. Whether that was their intention or not, hunting licenses are down, specifically non-resident, which is why they're wanting to increase prices so they can make up for it.
