The gift of the deer tag vs trophy bucks

[WhiskeyWoods]

After this post I am well spent on this issue... You seem to be pulling out information from a broader source...I am outdoors, everyday, working or not...I get to go through most of the state in the year and get talking to people. Maybe deer management has been steady in your particular area but there quite a few out there that would disagree with you and I am obviously included (We had bucks only in late 90's then the population rose so DNR said okay intensive so they started handing out up to 4 harvest tags in our area..They did this year after year when obviously we started noticing fewer and fewer deer in woods. So now we are probably going back to bucks only when they could have managed slightly better) ......no one or agency is perfect especially the DNR. For instance, I was walking with my Uncle in the turkey woods in SE MN on state WMA land. Before splitting up we came across a fresh controlled burn. Say what you want and I know all about forest management but my uncle and I started thinking "Why would the DNR do a controlled burn NOW when the hens are nesting?" Seems to be contradictory and devastating to the birds in that given area but DNR knows best, right? As for the management and animal control spiel that I am actually in partial agreement...Maybe we should apply that type of mentality to fishing too, huh? Since it works so well as some are claiming? The walleye fishing on Lake of the Woods is insane right now and you can go out in 2 hours and get limits with nice sizes. So lets have an intensive harvest limit for the next couple of years to bring down the limit of walleye...There are too many in Lake of the Woods right now....those poor perch...

[WhiskeyWoods]

By the way what is Cornicelli's goals? To reduce deer populations, get fewer hunters out there, fewer licenses being bought, so in turn less money for the DNR? Get rid of him...

[Bear55]

I'm in the same spot as you Whiskey, too many doe tags in our area for too long. I think the DNR gave out too few doe tags back in the late 90's early 2000's and the population got a little out of control so they overcompensated and now the population is down in many areas across the state. If you don't hunt in those areas you probably think everything is great.

[WhiskeyWoods]

Whew! Thanks Bear, good to know some people want to see the whole picture. People are trying to make my argument something it is not. The same thing exactly happened in our area over by Itasca State Park. We had a lot of deer (which to me isn't a bad thing), so DNR adjusted which was good, but then overcompensated for too long and now we are back to where we were in the mid to late 90's.....

[psepuncher]

I get to go through most of the state in the year and get talking to people. Maybe deer management has been steady in your particular area but there quite a few out there that would disagree with you and I am obviously included

I'm sure we'll see eye to eye on alot of things.

It just blew me away when you mentioned skime.

That's disease control vs. normal hunting conditions.

It doesn't fly well when comparing management strategies.

When I spend a very considerable amount of time and money to go hunting. I expext satisfaction. I want to see deer everytime I go into the woods.

I just can't dictate how another person's situation should be. But like you said, you've talked to people from a broad range of areas. I think that's great.

I've got friends in a few places as well that have different luck from season to season. The dnr makes changes on a regular basis on success rates in different areas, which i think is great

last year the success rates droped across the board , they expected it as part of their goal, to make deer densities healthy according to habitat holding capacities, which is how they manage deer across the state.

I don't think they care alot about deer numbers in general??

But with the new TX style QDM tactics coming and loaded for bear.

I can see some changes might be very bad for traditional hunters.

I'd love to see my grandkids expecting to see deer in the woods when they hunt as well. I just hope the qdm doesn't commercialize hunting in MN like TX. It's as bad as they say it is.

I've got a Texas deer/combo license I had to eat. I bought a public land endorsment, and tags.

The tags consisted of what they called the super combo

Turkey- 3 rio grand tags, 1 eastern rio greand tag

White-Tailed deer- 2 antlerless tags, 3 buck or antlerless tags

Mule deer- 1 buck or antlerless tag, 1 antlerless tsg

Fresh water trout

saltwater

white wing dove

waterfowl

for any season

General, archery, muzzleloader, waterfowl

Total cost of the super combo tags $59.

[Bear55]

Don't thank me too much Whisky I'm one of those QDM guys who would like to see a few more mature bucks running around but you need to have a healthy population of does for that to work. I think the key to this deer hunting thing goes back to what you said about moderation. Too many people shooting too many deer and the DNR really promoting it by passing out tags like candy. A few of our non-believers were just coming around to the idea of passing young bucks and then the population fell off a cliff. You can't really tell people to pass up the only buck they might see all season but I will always promote QDM if there is a solid population to work with.

I think a lot of our problems go back to the DNR learning on the job, the state and especially the northern half had never seen that many deer before, I think the DNR saw overpopulation in other states and got a little spooked. Lots of tags year in and year out might work in the SE who does not have the harsh winters and wolves to keep the population in check, but in the northern part of the state they kept their foot on the doe tag gas peddle a little too long. So now not only do we have a super diverse state that is difficult to manage but now we have a diverse state with wild deer population discrepancies from area to area. Lets just hope they learned something this go around and our hunting can improve in the future.

[WhiskeyWoods]

Yeah PSE I was blown away when I bought my "hunting Lic" down there for that price and got all those tags, the only problem I had is there is slim to nil public land in most of Texas especially where I was living in West Texas. Sure I had fun dove and quail hunting right out of my backyard practically but I still headed north to New Mexico to hunt turkeys. New Mexico has pretty decent public land with fewer hunters in some spots that I enjoyed...too bad I left before I could try my hand at elk....

[WhiskeyWoods]

Bear I think where we would part ways is the fact that I would probably pass a fork horn the first day or two but always take a Doe right away ( If I have the tags) Then if I had no meat at all towards the end of the hunting I would stop thinking and start shooting...if I already had a doe on the pole then I would be a little choosey on the bucks issue. Its all situational on the way the hunt is going I suppose...

[psepuncher]

Yeah PSE I was blown away when I bought my "hunting Lic" down there for that price and got all those tags, the only problem I had is there is slim to nil public land in most of Texas especially where I was living in West Texas. Sure I had fun dove and quail hunting right out of my backyard practically but I still headed north to New Mexico to hunt turkeys. New Mexico has pretty decent public land with fewer hunters in some spots that I enjoyed...too bad I left before I could try my hand at elk....

My son and I never tagged a deer on public land. We hunted the cap rock by OK, and alot of East TX. mostly. We hunted West Texas on a small lease and still saw nothing. I finally took him out to a guided high fence hunt near Austin for a hog. We had tons of fun though. Nothing like camping under those West Tx stars. near Ranger Mt. They had free ranging exotics out there.

New Mexico. home to the second worst place for road cunstuction.

As well as area 51, and Folsom Prison.

We got to see alot of Quail and Turkey across the cap rock area on the opposite side.

My sister hunts Throckmorten on a lease and they do pretty good. But ya get what you pay for in TX. If the hunting clubs are next to public land, when we were hunting they come through at night with coon hounds and bust deer out. Sounds crazy but it's happened twice to us.

[lakevet]

Sounds like Texas has "the gift of the lease/buy a buck" instead of "the gift of the tag". Or if you own land you can give your kid "the gift of profit from hunting lease fees". I saw a quote in outdoor news that a group of large tract landowners in central MN want restrictions like SE MN now has. Better buy land AND make sure your kid becomes a brain surgeon so your family can have the $$$$ and land to keep your family tradition alive. Trophy bucks attract dollars big time and there is an industry that will expand readily into MN who doesn't give a rip about those that can't afford it and their families. Meat hunting/party hunting/cross tagging can't be commercialized/ profitable like big bucks, even though meat hunting as a family is the original and socially most acceptable reason for hunting.

lakevet

p.s. We own land and could lease it, but don't. Some non-relatives do hunt on it for free. More used to but safety became an issue.

[Bear55]

Bear I think where we would part ways is the fact that I would probably pass a fork horn the first day or two but always take a Doe right away ( If I have the tags) Then if I had no meat at all towards the end of the hunting I would stop thinking and start shooting...if I already had a doe on the pole then I would be a little choosey on the bucks issue. Its all situational on the way the hunt is going I suppose...

Whiskey, if more people hunted with that mind set I think we would see a few more mature bucks running around. A little more hunting and less shooting could do wonders for our buck population. You are right I would still pass the little buck the last day of the season but I don't think we are all that far apart.

[zzammon]

They all look too yummy. I see some venison and it's comming my way, get ready. My group shares the tags and the meat.

Unless someone gets one big enough for a mount. The taxidermist cost is all theirs.