B & C ruined deer and hunting camps

Ahem....

(no message)

Probably depends on your location. Mine is more numbers than size, so the rack isn't as much an issue. Hell, I usually take a doe first as I never fill all my tags. I only take 1-2 deer a year. This isn't because we can't support it (we swim in deer), my freezer can't. I'll let the less fortunate guys take the racks as I really don't care. Those guys help out on the land care more than I do, so I let them have fun. Obviously me letting spikes/forks pass.

Even though I am young, I try to "old folk it" most of the time when it comes to the outdoors.

Jackie bushman was a big culprit imo

Preach on brother

So what you are inferring is that people that want to try to manage for a healthy deer herd and try to kill mature bucks is ruining deer hunting...

There is always going to be contention between guys that hunt 60+ days a year and are very selective of what they shoot and those who hunt two weekends and shoot every deer they see. Neither of those guys are wrong, both are legal but they are after different objectives.

Yes, social media has made it to where every redneck with a keyboard is a deer expert, but to say that management has ruined deer hunting is an ignorant thing to say.

quote:

---

Used to be that friends congratulated a young hunter after hunting 3 years, not shot anything, and finally killed a "rack". Now it's "Your family is fined $500 and if you do it again your out"

---

This should never be the case anywhere. Kids getting started should always be able to shoot what they want and makes them happy

quote:

---

try to manage for a healthy herd

---

the word "healthy" is a bit of a stretch

as long as your herd isn't above carrying capacity I dont see how a club that shoots older bucks (selecting for older deer) has a healthier herd than say a tract of land that is brown and down (they are selecting for all ages)

what exactly is a healthy herd?

and do we have examples of unhealthy herds?

I would say the only places with unhealthy herds are places above carrying capacity and most of that is due to them not shooting enough does

I'm just playing devils advocate


let's say you have the current herd on say Giles Island

would venture to say it's a healthy herd, probably enough food to support the herd, with a all age classes represented

let's say you let loose a group of coonasses or rednecks on that place for two years and they take out half the population (all age classes)

now you have fewer deer on the same amount of property which allows those remaining deer more access to the food so those will get bigger (more "healthy") all age classes are still represented well

I would say the latter population is more healthy because they have an abundance of food due to less competition for resources

tl,dr

a healthy herd has to do with carrying capacity not size of antlers

agree

I dont think deer are hurting for food in either situation

so both would be perfectly healthy

I agree, we have 2500 acres family land and my cousin is running it wanting to shoot 3.5-4.5 year old deer, granted we are getting bigger deal but we shoot way less so nobody enjoys staying at the camp anymore because if it aint one thing its another and if you shoot a buck they wanna bitch about it and say that needed to walk and so on