re: Mississippi Proposed 2019-20 Deer Regulations

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lol there is nothing stopping them from doing it now, in fact the state did that exact thing 30 years ago before the population got OOC, they would come do a survey and then issue tags based on the survey, in return you had to collect jaw bones for them.

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I remember the early DMAP days. That's exactly what tagging would accomplish without having to send (read: pay) a biologist to every back 40 who wants a few more doe tags. They can look at the trends in the harvest data in real time, and issue more tags, over an app. MS has never been opposed to shooting does, they've been opposed to telling 20 counties at a time shoot every doe you see.

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The biggest issue is lack of hunter effort in many parts of the state and that is a tough nut to crack in today's legal climate. If you want better hunting opportunities then lobby for hold harmless laws for landowners, I would let lots of folks hunt our farm if I did not have to worry about getting sued over a splinter in their finger.

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No argument there, I just see tags as a way to enable people who are contributing more effort to be able to take more deer. Hunting for some has been reduced to a couple weekends a year when they get an invite. Others spend every weekend from Sept to Jan in the woods and could take 20 deer if allowed. Tags provide a framework to shift bag limits to others and allow that to happen if deemed necessary.

First off, MS antler restrictions aren't big enough to limit a mature deer from being killed. That's why it's either/or on beam length or spread. Only the most heavily managed draw-only WMAs have restrictions that protect any deer that's older than a 2.5 year old.

Second, I'm not necessarily opposed to a buck of choice policy, I'm opposed to an unchecked buck of choice policy. Without a way to account for it then every dumb spike that wanders up to the corn pile is fair game. You can't age meat in a freezer. As it sits currently there's at least the deterrent that a spike in the back of a truck or hanging is a ticket until it's in the freezer.

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Only the most heavily managed draw-only WMAs have restrictions that protect any deer that's older than a 2.5 year old.

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Seems I get where we are different here, I view this as a private property issue and have never set foot on a WMA for hunting while you are viewing this as a public lands issue.

The management of the two has needed splitting for a long time but this will never happen.

I promise you the vast majority of the state is managed much more intensively than WMA's and state law requires and shooting a "legal" buck will get you uninvited most places with a quickness.

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Seems I get where we are different here, I view this as a private property issue and have never set foot on a WMA for hunting while you are viewing this as a public lands issue.

The management of the two has needed splitting for a long time but this will never happen.

I promise you the vast majority of the state is managed much more intensively than WMA's and state law requires and shooting a "legal" buck will get you uninvited most places with a quickness.

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Exactly the opposite. I occasionally hunt public but for the vast majority of my life have been a private land hunter, including some very well managed places in the delta. I see it as the private landowners paying for the issues public land is faced with. In a single weekend last year in Natchez I counted over 80 does in broad daylight. In the same zone I can go sit for a week and not see a deer.

Without a way to monitor populations and harvest, the state really has no choice but to shoehorn everyone into one-size-fits-all bag limits, seasons, and antler restrictions that cover huge areas of the state that may have nothing in common from a management perspective. I have seen and am not arguing that there are areas of the state that could sustain twice or three times the harvest rate that's currently legal. I see tagging as a way to confidently allow the state to do that, and they've gone on record multiple times to say that's what they want.

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Bad DATA is Bad DATA

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Exactly. State government data collection in regard to wildlife is comically terrible in every instance. For example, in Louisiana, last year's turkey poult survey indicated a very poor hatch. This spring's counts indicated nearly record-high observations of jake (1yr old male) turkeys in the same areas. Now, one set of data is wrong. Which one? Who knows. As with anything the real answer is likely somewhere in the middle. I don't envy the job of the state boys trying to come up with regulations to please the masses and protect the resources, but making policy based on shitty data is shitty policy.

I smell what you're stepping in brother. I hate the government as much as anybody, but one place where I could be considered somewhat liberal is in wildlife conservation. History has shown that government "intrusion" to force conservation of the wild places and wild things within is usually a sound method. Dare I say that the only government agencies that I have a level of tentative, albeit careful, support for are the ones who deal with conservation of wildlife, fisheries, and public land and waters. Without careful management of those things, my world as I know it, view it and love it, would come crashing down.

The 2nd reply to your question answered it pretty well. A simple Google search will tell you all you need to know about the positive effects of a tagging system, and to be objective, it'll also tell you of the negative outcomes.

Just like the turkey tagging check in system, it's a valuable tool that biologists need to manage wildlife that I dearly love. Anything that helps me in my pursuit of wildlife- and that stops poachers in theirs- I am all for. (I hate calling poachers "outlaws." To me it gives the connotation that a poacher is in some way less of a piece of chit and less of a thief than what he truly is.)

I personally do not think proven wildlife conservation methods warrant a debate on government intrusion. It is not the time nor the place for putting that kind of energy into it, and particularly because, as it stands, it's a state's rights issue- as it should be.

If the federal government decided to pass a nationwide tagging system then I'd flip out, but until then, I'm all for Mississippi having it. Oftentimes we are behind on so many of the good things, and ahead of the pack on the antiquated, archaic ones, and a tagging system is a fine example of that truth. A tagging system in a state that was obviously seeing major changes in its deer herd before CWD came on the scene (or before we knew about it), coupled with questionable-to-me management practices to mitigate for it, means that a tagging system, now more than ever, is warranted in its implementation.

We've got to get a handle on our herd to discover what's going on right now and where we're headed; a tagging system, far as we know it, is the only way to give us the hard data that we need to do that.

Collecting data on something located out in the wilds, across millions of acres of land and in secret secluded areas by thousands of people is inherently impossible to do with any amount of accuracy without the forced cooperation of those who are out in the sticks doing it. There is no other way- not in terms of accuracy- or not right now. The poachers will hate it, the common sportsman will, at some point or on some hunt, find it to be an inconvenience, and some will even be ticketed when they had honest intentions, but the greater good will have of been done.

Me? I'll make that sacrifice to ensure that my son will have a chance to see the beauty and wonderment of a monarch as he cruises through a swamp thicket and disappears into the darkness leaving only the sound of falling sleet behind. That is why we do these things: for the good of the prey, that is the whitetail buck and his doe, and for me, his predator- albeit his adoring predator.

Mississippi does not have the resources to police the rules like a lot of states. If I was an a-hole I could kill anything and everything I wanted to because I never see a game warden checking deer.

How much will this cost the hunters to implement this tag system?