Mn Archery Regulations

[Mforce]

Anyone know why the changes in Reg's for archery hunting in Mn this year? I can only shoot a buck in my zone? I'm in 284. I always try to shoot a buck anyway, but it's nice knowing I can take a doe late in the season if I get skunked on the buck.

[vister]

Its got a lot to do with the dnr's counts being different than years past. more or less on the short end. my zone, 240, went from intensive harvest since it began to managed. I think its got a lot to do with people fibbing on their registration, or not doing it at all. I haven't been asked to show a deer while registering one in the past 4 years, and I've done about 10 deer in that time.

but isn't archery still either sex, regardless of the zone?

[Jameson]

...but isn't archery still either sex, regardless of the zone?

nope, not in the 'Youth' areas.

Check out page 82 of the regs for the reason why.

[lcornice]

Anyone know why the changes in Reg's for archery hunting in Mn this year? I can only shoot a buck in my zone? I'm in 284. I always try to shoot a buck anyway, but it's nice knowing I can take a doe late in the season if I get skunked on the buck.

284 is one of those poster children as to why it's mostly bucks only in some areas. In 2008, there were 30 doe permits and 125 antlerless deer were killed. Youth hunters registered 62 of them and archers tagged 17. The change was made because lowering antlerless permits wasn't lowering doe harvest because there were too many exceptions (youth, archery, muzzleloader, disabled permittees). In some cases, lowering permits actually made the problem worse. The 2008 harvest data for lottery areas is posted on page 14 of this file:

2009 Deer Season Information

Take a look at that data and cross check it against the areas that are youth antlerless only (yellow) and you'll understand why it was changed.

[Neighbor_guy]

Thanks for posting that, it was very informative. Some of the numbers are unreal, 196%, 363%, 503% success rate's on antlerless deer!?!?! How does that happen??? I for one am glad to see these changes. Back in the day, when bowhunter success was relatively low to the amount of total deer harvested, and people had to choose between regular firearms and Muzzy I am guessing the added does was neglagable. Now like you said when you figure all of the "added" doe's, youth, handicap, plus archers and muzzle loaders, it adds up.

Now when you say 150 doe's, you are going to get "about" 150 doe's, not 400. I still think it is going to be hard to police the "youth only" doe tag, I feel there will still be a lot of dads drilling jr.'s doe at 7:15am on opening morning. (not that I hold a grudge )

[lcornice]

Thanks for posting that, it was very informative. Some of the numbers are unreal, 196%, 363%, 503% success rate's on antlerless deer!?!?! How does that happen??? I for one am glad to see these changes. Back in the day, when bowhunter success was relatively low to the amount of total deer harvested, and people had to choose between regular firearms and Muzzy I am guessing the added does was neglagable. Now like you said when you figure all of the "added" doe's, youth, handicap, plus archers and muzzle loaders, it adds up.

Now when you say 150 doe's, you are going to get "about" 150 doe's, not 400. I still think it is going to be hard to police the "youth only" doe tag, I feel there will still be a lot of dads drilling jr.'s doe at 7:15am on opening morning. (not that I hold a grudge )

Percent success is the number of antlerless deer taken in relation to available permits. Those high percentages are my point exactly in that it became impossible to regulate antlerless take with all the exceptions. Since the law allows for bucks only with limited youth permits, the change was made in those 12 areas that were the worst. You make a good point regarding policing the youth tags. If you look at how many are available, it's very low because we figured 100% success on all those tags. In other words, we didn't offer a bunch of tags figuring only 50% will be filled. They'll all be filled.

[vister]

I bet if we didn't have a venison donation program, that many does wouldn't be getting whacked. heck, if ya ask me, too many people shoot,shoot, and keep shooting, until they realize how many deer they have. then they donate deer, because they don't want to pay to process it all.

I think they(dnr) should issue a tag for a venison donation deer at 50 bucks a piece, on top of the 13 bucks for an intensive harvest tag. that would help pay for processing, and maybe contribute some much needed funds for a much needed cause. and, I bet not some many does get smoked.

[lakevet]

Back when everyone in regular firearms (including youth) was bucks only unless you drew a permit, archers and muzzy hunters were still allowed to still take does. However you could not hunt regular firearms season and muzzy. You had to chose. This limited muzzy hunters and therefore their impact. Most hunters won't give up regular firearms to muzzy hunt. Why not reinstate having to choose between muzzy and regular firearms? As it is now the trophy buck hunter can still enjoy alot of opportunity but the kid starting to hunt and goes muzzy or archery has to pass on their first deer if all they see are does and they don't draw a permit. Stats mentioned earlier show poster child area 284 lists 30 youth antlerless permits were available in 2008. Total of 62 youth antlerless harvested/registered. 2 were archery (3.2%) and 2 were muzzy (3.2%). 58 were reg firearms (93.5%). Sounds like archery youth antlerless and muzzy youth antlerless are a small factor in the equation. I don't know what impact adult antlerless archery and adult antlerless muzzy harvest had in those areas. If adult antlerless muzzy is a significant factor then why not restrict their numbers. Give the trophy hunter the buck only all season license so he can muzzy the bucks and the kid who choses archery or muzzy only can shot anything he wants. Still get license sales but more people get to pursue/take what they want. May be I am missing a piece of the puzzle, but it sounds like its a regular firearms problem and archery and muzzy is paying the price. Let me know where my thinking is off.

Kids have the bows out and targets up so I gotta go!

Lakevet

[Jameson]

Very good points about how enabling hunters to hunt both firearms and muzzy without making everyone apply for doe permits in certain areas has led to too many does being harvested.

While in other areas the hunters need all the time they can get to harvest as many deer as they can.

So I'm thinking allowing us to hunt all seasons, but making everyone apply for doe permits in the lottery areas is a great way to go.