3 Point Rule

I like mississippi's rules and we take it even further, 8pt or better and bucks must weigh at least 160. You can shoot a six or seven point but it has to weigh 180. My dad's lease in la uses the three point rule but they don't use a spread rule and every basket rack 5 and 6 point that steps out gets blasted. I keep telling him they will never kill nice deer with those rules.

Weight is a stupid thing to consider

I think the weight rule is just to stay in back of people's minds to shoot older deer. I guess it's easier to guess a weight than an age for most people.

I agree the weight rule is dumb. Go read up on the 150" 145 or 150 pound deer killed off the big black a couple years ago. I've seen plenty 5 year old bucks that only weigh 160 pounds and plenty 3.5 year old deer over 200. The genetics and nutrition play a huge role. I think the 3 point rule is better then no rule, but minimum spread or main beam length is best.

I've seen all types of different management practices and discovered one thing. If you have to force management it won't work.

You have to have people that want mature bucks to get big bucks. Not the guys that watch the outdoor channel and talk a big game.

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I've definitely blasted a button buck or two before. No way to tell past 75 yards

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Good point. If I'm having trouble judging size, I'll wait till another deer steps out to see if one is bigger than the other.

A few years back I rolled a doe and a button buck within 2 minutes of each other. All I could say when I got back to the camp was "Oops, my bad"

Longest shots I have ever taken with my 30/30, and they were around 125 yards

min spread rule is a bitch.

I have 5.5 year old buck here that clearly is mature. he may go 13" inside spread. His rack is tall and narrow and he is only passing on those tall and narrow genes with each year we avoid shooting due to the law.


On the other hand we had a really nice buck last year that was 2.5 by camera footage over the past two years. He was a symmetrical 10 with big brows and was at least 18" wide. He was clearly young and lean but you guessed it, a neighbor shot his arse and posted pics of his proud trophy. Legal yes. Good management no.



So min spread restrictions in my mind only kill off the desirable wide bucks and leave behind the narrow less desirable bucks to reproduce. If you want to enforce any law it should be a if/then law.

min inside spread of x
if you kill a buck less than x then it must be x years old by dental aging
if it does not meet that age then you must be able to prove an ailment that permitted taking him out of the herd for management reasons.

When I lived in Arkansas I hunted in S.E. Arkansas in Wilmar. I dropped what I thought was a doe about 75 yards next to a feeder. I walked up and looked and ill be damned if it didn't have spikes right at an inch. Scared me for a minute.