re: Shorter deer seasons, lower limits eyed by LDWF

I think one major issue, and LDWF or even private citizens could start a marketing campaign to help, is changing hunter and landowner views on feral pigs. Instead of landowners and hunters viewing them as extra hunting opportunities, feral pigs should be viewed and portrayed as the destructive vermin that they are. Public opinion of pigs needs to be changed ASAP in my opinion. I hate them.

Lots of factors.

Also I should have clarified earlier that I think the antler restrictions should be on public land.

Contact your LDWF commission. I'm sure they are up to date on all of these proposed rule changes. You are in good hands with these people trust me. They will get on this like deer on sugarcane. They are for the people, by the people, and for themselves, so help me god.

Once we get the pigs under control, next is Asian Carp and a close third Salvinia.

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trapping

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This is something we need to get better at, we just don't have the best of luck with it on a consistent basis. The hogs aren't too terrible on our place yet either so that may be a reason trapping isn't as successful for us as it is for other people I know.

Trapping takes time and patience, but can be effective. I don't know if pigs can be eradicated and will probably become another management issue, no different from beavers, nutria and Chinese tallow, etc.

Back off of them for a few years. We did that at our place and we could tell a difference. Even with heavy pressure from neighbors, they benefitted, too btw.

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- All bucks that are killed are 2.5 years old with a couple 3.5
- all neighbors shoot 15" spread or bigger
-we have 1100 acres
- very few deer on camera that are bigger than what's killed

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There's a saying that goes something like "you have what you kill". Basically it means that if you shoot spikes, you will have spikes. If you shoot 18" spreads, you will have them.

I think the main thing is that if you have so many hunters in the woods that every buck is getting looked at, then you will end up killing them as soon as they reach the minimum.

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All bucks that are killed are 2.5 years old with a couple 3.5

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That needs to be shifted to all bucks killed are 3.5 with a couple 4.5 years and you would see a significant difference. Would be even better if you killed few 3.5 mostly 4.5 and some 5.5 or better. Being once they hit 4.5 it becomes a lot tougher to judge aging on the hoof. A deer doesn't start pumping a good percentage of nutrients into their horn production until after 3.5 years old between 4.5-6.5 they will have their best horn production. Their is a significant jump in that 4th year for sure with but once the 6th year hits they tend to start losing inches.

Putting out protein stations helps as well. Not so much with the deer that are already 4.5 years old, but for the young deer coming up that will show change in 2-3 years.

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I do have an issue with people in our club insistent on shooting every doe because "magazines say that's how you grow big bucks" meanwhile they also shoot the first spike that walks by because the club rules allow a "buck of choice". We are seeing and killing far fewer deer than we did in the 90s or even the 80s. Continuing to shoot a bunch of does is not helping our problem.

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People are taking what the magazine is saying out of context a lot of the time, once you reach a point you need to lay off the does and keep the proportion of does to bucks killed in the range suitable for your area.

I never have liked the "buck of choice" it's a way to promote poor practices. Could be handled a bit better but as you said earlier:

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I personally don't have a problem with people shooting a smaller deer if that makes him happy

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Also there is definitely a middle ground to all of it, it depends what stage of management you are at. Some places are at a point where they want their 2 year old deer to all be 8 points or better so they are killing 2 year old deer that are 4 point and 6 point. Then there are those wanting to remove deer with no brows so they are killing all rack deer without brows to try and remove those bad genetics. Different places are at different stages of management so you can't just blanket manage.