Until the herd numbers suffered, what's wrong with his plan? Until there's a negative effect on the natural resource, who's the offended party? FTR...the audubon "works". There is no offended party.
You into anarchy, Jeff? Cuz breaking the law is breaking the law .... so where is the line? Do we all draw our own? C'mon.....
OMG I need to move to AL! Here we have a bag limit of 1 buck or doe per season (unless you are fortunate to get a second tag, depends upon availability and deers taken already) I would love to fill a freezer with deer meat from a few deer I wonder if MT has more deer per season....
I'm speaking of an all-year season, and/or a more liberal bag limit. I'm not advocating breaking the law. I'm asking why it shouldn't be changed. UNTIL THE HERD NUMBERS SUFFERED...... You're hung up, again.
I hope not. If anyone is going to stir the pot, it most certainly will be me. Duke better not be stealing my game.
The birthing seasons need to be left alone. If you could hunt all year I suspect there would be many orphaned fawns that were not old enough to survive on their own.
Bruce: It's well-documented that the fawn abandonment rate, in over-populated areas, can be as high as 60%. Playing devil's advocate......how is hunters abandoning fawns (via taking their mothers) different? Don't you think nature would strike a balance? Ma nature is not always (or even "mostly") kind. But, she sure is efficient.
Leave it to humans to screw up a good thing. I hear old guys talk of killing 20+ rabbits a day in the 60's. I can't remember the last time I've even seen a rabbit that wasn't in town. I feel that having an open season on deer, be it year round or straight up poaching would all but end deer hunting as we know it. Illinois allows unlimited doe slaughter as long as you are willing to keep buying the permits. The past 3 years I've seen fewer deer each year than the prior. The past 2 we blamed it on standing corn, but that wasn't the case this year. We had farmers shelling corn in late August. I don't agree with killing deer just becuase the state will offer the tags, its a cash grab for most states IMO.
I guess I'm not exactly opposed to an all year season in over populated areas, and well managed... Maybe just on years up north when we have an especially good warm winter... so long as its bow hunting only during the rest of the year
BBM....I'm not in favor of decimating herds. That's why I prefaced my response with 'until the herd numbers are adversely affected (paraphrased)'. Due to our herd numbers here, I have to ask.....is seeing less deer necessarily a bad thing?
4 out of the 6 days of our recent firearm season, I saw no deer. Thats including driving 60 miles round trip, making a few deer drives, etc. Seeing less deer I can handle, seeing no deer sucks ass. :D
That happened to me a few seasons ago, we got totally stumped. However that doesnt mean that they are not there. My dad is in the military and brought a set of NVG's with him that same season. a few nights we drove around spotting deer and there were hundreds of them in the open meadows right next to where we were hunting. Come day time, they just vanished.
One year here in PA and the herd would literally be gone. We pretty much have 1.5 deer for every hunter in this state. I love hunting but I think our seasons are too long as it is for the number of hunters we have.
Alabama now has a 3 buck a year limit and a buck and a doe a day until that 3 buck limit is met. I have hunted S Alabama for along time and I saw it go from so many deer the browse line was visable to weekends where a deer is not seen. Weights went from 60 and 70 lbs to 110 and 120 lbs on a full grown doe. I know guys who were shooting 50 and 60 deer a year, and I am sure they were not going to the processor. Keep in mind, they were not hunting our lands, they were just guys around town and the local restaurant etc...If there were no seasons, there would be no deer.
I use to blow 30 deer out of a food plot at 3 in the afternoon, and they would be back before I could get in the tree...Now I may not see one in a plot but 1 out of 3 sits...better weights, better racks, but the poaching has not slowed. Guys are not killing as many deer, but they are still killing a bunch of bucks a year.
