Thoughts on antler restrictions

[birddog 68]

Interested in others thoughts on antler restrictions.
I live in a state with antler restrictions which have been in place for quite a few years but have hunted states without restrictions and have seen the good results but have also seen the bad and ugly.
I will disclose my thoughts later which may or may not align with others here.
Everyone will not agree with others so please keep this civil.
Thanks, birddog 68

 

[Allen Kitts]

This aught to be good! Standing by......

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Hondo64d]

Interested in others thoughts on antler restrictions.
I live in a state with antler restrictions which have been in place for quite a few years but have hunted states without restrictions and have seen the good results but have also seen the bad and ugly.
I will disclose my thoughts later which may or may not align with others here.
Everyone will not agree with others so please keep this civil.
Thanks, birddog 68

I'm pretty much opposed to government imposing their will on us in any fashion. That being said, a big part of growing bigger bucks is by letting them live long enough to get big…

John

 

[Reelamin]

Man....wake up finish the first cup of coffee and the fire is already stoked and damper wide open. Will try a quick summary to start and I need more coffee.

No question Antler Restrictions work to increase and decrease quality animals. I just want to see one manager who dictates what is done in the field who has generational experience ranching/raising livestock and made a living at it. Not the phony five animal hobby farm...lets say 200 head or more. Next would be the ability to fully implement their knowledge and experience. That means everyone including politicians (judges fall under politicians since they run for election), hunters, tribes, vegans, enforcement, all of it follow the plan for a minimum of 10yrs.
Will that happen? You know the answer.
They changed our elk area from any bull to spikes well past 10yrs ago. Before the change we would kill 2-3 bulls a year with a decent rag horn or up to 280. A couple studs and those were just pure luck. With a permit now it's not hard at all to shoot a 300 or larger. Now we see a lot more branch antlered bulls and some real studs every day we never saw before. The issue is permits numbers are decreasing exponentially and waiting 12-18 years for a bull tag is common. Now a good year is two bulls and several years of no bulls killed. Overall we see a lot more elk every day than before the restrictions. For our situation we feel there are some very clear distinctions on who thinks its a success and those who don't.

 

[Reelamin]

I'm pretty much opposed to government imposing their will on us in any fashion. That being said, a big part of growing bigger bucks is by letting them live long enough to get big…

John

Not just so hunters can shoot a big buck or two. There is the old and young bull joke and it is spot on in reality. I was raised on a ranch and we bred horses, cattle, sheep, for performance and meat. We would laugh our butts off every time it was time to turn the young male out for his first lesson in life. Totally different situation when the main older/experienced male was turned out.

 

[K.E.C.]

O - BOY. THE GOOD, BAD AND UGLY.
I believe it good in some areas and not in some areas. I believe you hunt in 1A our family farm is in 2A. We have the same restrictions.
What I would like to see is, every few years to change it back and forth. IMO.

Interested in others thoughts on antler restrictions.
I live in a state with antler restrictions which have been in place for quite a few years but have hunted states without restrictions and have seen the good results but have also seen the bad and ugly.
I will disclose my thoughts later which may or may not align with others here.
Everyone will not agree with others so please keep this civil.
Thanks, birddog 68

 

[FrogFire7]

Also a PA hunter here. Antler restrictions have definitely improved the buck age. We are seeing more big bucks than we ever have. Hopefully the herd ratios are more even now, although I think we have quite a ways to go, there.

This has also been promoted by the QDMA (or whatever it is now) which helped promote herd management, which is a good thing. And, changed people's thinking about what deer to shoot. Mostly all good things here.

The negatives (in my own mind anyway) are that bigger bucks (combined with social media influence and hunting shows to some extent) mean that nobody wants to do anything that would compromise their chances at getting "their" big buck. Fewer hunters for the same ground, nobody pushing deer (God forbid that "my" big buck gets pushed onto somebody else's property and shot), and so on. A lot of the social aspects of deer hunting that we grew up with and loved has been exchanged for sitting in a blind all season and getting the social media "likes" minutes after the shot.

Would this have been a natural progression without antler restrictions? Very well could be. I think it was a perfect storm of big bucks coming up about the same time as the social platforms.

Maybe this is more of a social media rant for me than antler restrictions, sorry if I derailed myself

 

[cowboy]

I have hunted the past 25 plus years in a back country area that was one of the first to designate elk as a brow tine minimum on bulls. I thought this was a good idea at the time. First dozen years it was not uncommon for one of our group to find 'illegal bulls' that had been shot and left to rot.
Now the elk numbers have increased but the quality has diminished in horn size. We have increased quantity but decreased quality. After all these years of putting pressure on only the bulls you are trying to increase it has taken it's toll. Plus now all the breeding is done by the lesser quality bulls. This is an over the counter general area.
The only way to truly achieve a goal in wildlife management is to regulate the type and number of tags and to change the regs when needed - good luck with getting that through in our State.

 

[kfd05]

Can see good and bad both ways depending what region/state and the game you are hunting. Elk or whitetail?

I live in a state with only whitetail -for the most part - and no antler restrictions. Like it this way. We do practice management techniques as many do but at the end of the day expect any youth or other hunter to be able to harvest whatever makes them happy.

possible disclaimer would be very low non-resident traffic state so most everything is local landowners hunting their private land. No much public land other than national forest.

 

[Panhandlin Pat]

2 years ago Texas made a proposal to instate a 20" minimum outside spread on mule deer in a lot of counties. I voted for it. Sure I've got some 7 year old deer that might not hit the minimum, but at least it keeps my neighbors from shooting every 3 year old branch antlered deer they see. I think it's helped to reduce road hunting and poaching as well, because let's face it. Young mule deer are some of the dumbest creatures on earth.

 

[Pdyson]

It definitely helps manage deer populations in areas that were prone to over harvest of buck deer and under harvest of does.

It hurts private ranch lands that are already managing their herd for quality by making it illegal to kill cull bucks.

My county has a 13" minimum spread so this buck is allowed to breed more trash bucks that look just like him.

 

[jpfrog]

It definitely helps manage deer populations in areas that were prone to over harvest of buck deer and under harvest of does.

It hurts private ranch lands that are already managing their herd for quality by making it illegal to kill cull bucks.

My county has a 13" minimum spread so this buck is allowed to breed more trash bucks that look just like him.

I'm in Texas as well, and the 13" restriction makes me happy and furious all at the same time. I passed on a gorgeous 8pt a couple of weeks ago- deer was probably 5.5 year old, which for the area I hunt means we've been doing a great job at management and letting 'em walk because 20 years ago they rarely made it beyond 2.5-3.5 year olds. Huge rack as well, which doesn't get me going but he was great all around. Except that his spread was just barely inside his ears and shy of the 13" rule. That happens to me at least once or twice a year for the last 5-6 years...clearly an older deer that should be legal but for that one tiny little detail.

 

[orkan]

When you say "antler restrictions" do you mean prohibitions on shooting anything under a certain score or over? Inches wide? Inches tall?

What type of restriction specifically are we talking about here?


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