Should some parishes in Louisiana adopt Antler restrictions?

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If the landowners in an area want bigger bucks they need to get on the same page and learn to harvest according by to age.

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This

My club is 6 points or better. No other rules on bucks.

The number of 2 year old 120lb six points shot is astounding.

If you let them walk their bodies get bigger too.


It’s less about the antlers and more about trying to shoot more mature deer

ETA: I shot a 6 point last year. But it’s weighed 177lbs.

high fences follow restrictions

The mississippi units with restrictions have better rut activity thus better hunts.

Id like to see them carve off portions of wma that have big buck potential for this. They also could make more doe days

Yep. Needs to be some kind of age restriction, but holy crap is that never gonna work. Just some kind of belly sag would be enough to get us closer though.

I'm in the same boat as you. I hunt a ton of public across the state, mainly bowhunting, and I pass a ton of bucks that I don't want to kill every year. If the next person shoots it and is happy with it, more power to them. I'll congratulate and help them drag it out and shoot the bull after the hunt as well. To each his own. Just because I want to shoot bigger deer doesn't mean I expect the next person to do the same. Not to mention if I bring my kids, I much rather let them make the decision of what they want to shoot as it makes for a miserable hunt if you see a good buck that doesn't necessarily fit the restrictions and have to tell them "nah you can't shoot that one, its not big enough". Good way to ruin our future hunters.

I think Louisiana should adopt the Arkansas antler restrictions. Both horns less than 2" or 3 points or more on a side.

People who wouldn't like that:
1. "If it's brown it's down"
2. People hunting on 2 acre tracts
3. Dog hunters
4. South Louisiana hunters shooting everything that moves in North Louisiana
5. "I only hunt for meat, but I ain't shooting no doe"
6. "I like to tell Terry at church that I limited out on bucks this year"

On a serious note: I used to be in a large family club. Everyone complained about not shooting bigger deer but they had no restrictions and people were competitive about the number of deer they had killed. Eventually enough people decided to vote in antler restrictions. So the first year the number of bucks killed was down. This was expected by everyone. The next year they voted to remove the restrictions because 'We didn't kill many bucks last year". Right now that club is one "buck of choice" and then it has to have 3 points on a side. This turns into shoot the first buck you see and go ground check it for points.

People can't see that a little delayed gratification can be beneficial.

Antler restrictions don't work, gotta shoot for age. Will never work in LA, to many meat hunters.

IMO, any wma/NWR north of I-10 to BR and North of I-12 should have antler restrictions of some sort. Especially those in the MS river parishes. The potential is there and everyone knows it.