nyantler

careful with the deformed antler thing... in most cases deformed antlers are caused from injury to the antler during the velvet stage.. and as long as the damage isn't to the pedicle itself.. the rack will correct itself the following year. Its when you see the same buck with the same messed up rack for a couple years .. thats when you might cull that buck. Usually bucks are culled when they are older when they start to show their potential... a 3 1/2 year old with a small spindley rack might be a problem. a yearling with a goofy rack might grow to be a huge non-typical

Sorry to say Doc but its mother natures design not ours... what we have now is whats unnatural for the deer... but its the only thing most hunters know because they think of deer from a selfish standpoint... only how it affects their hunting... true that there is high mortality in older bucks from the rigor of the rut when there is enough other deer in their age class to compete with.. its mother natures way of purging and making room for the up and coming bucks.

we got the logging thing going on too... definitely throwing a hitch in our giddyup. and making a mess of the woods...

probably right about the poaching.. but we can't not make laws because we're afraid someone might break them.. if we did that we wouldn't have any laws or rules

I thin maybe they have gotten to big for their britches...

The only hunting law I will break... sorry! Not gonna wear the tag! well not unless they want to give me 10 of them.. one for each jacket..lol

The bleached blonde ones are the best cause you can see those racks gleeming from a long ways away...

I have been a lifer since 1995... got to "test" a kids hunting book...I have a buddy that has tested binos, and scents and a hunting jacket.... I like the Mag... they never contact me or bother me at all.

One of the things that we have to consider when talking about deer hunting is that each year the deer lose more and more habitat to man.... hence the reason for deer management at all... if everywhere was like the Adirondacks.. we wouldn't be having this discussion

guys you still are missing the point.. I keep trying to tell you this is not about producing bick bucks .. its to establish age structure among the bucks and help balance the buck doe ratio... why is everyone stuck on the big buck thing???

Actually guy the closer buck to doe ratio helps get all the does bred during their first estrus and eliminates late born fawns... which gives the young deer a boost for their first winter... It also creates more competition amongst the bucks so that the healthier more dominant bucks do the breading... what guys don't know about what they witness in the field is that most of what you see deer do is a product of mans intervention in nature...

Nice with the longbow.. go trad!

Nice Buck Muck!

Oh and by the way.. I am sure it would be voted down

Guys.. we aren't talking about doing this to grow bigger bucks... read my intro question... and I still don't understand why people against AR use the trophy hunting thing as their argument against management... EVERY hunter wants to kill a trophy buck.. if you say you don't you are lying.. with the choice of a spike and a huge 10 point both standing broadside you will pick the 10-pointer every time. So, lets get off the trophy hunting point and talk about what we would do from a management standpoint.

Although that might be great for keeping some smaller bucks from being killed .. it does nothing for the overall management process. Except maybe the one buck only part

I just threw this out there because it accomplishes what AR is suppose to accomplish in much less time. but I'm not niave enough to believe that there are many hunters that really care about the deer enough to give up buck hunting. What about after the 3 yrs? Good question.. I know the answer.. but I wonder how hunters out there do. This would be a good way to find out who really supports AR for management reasons and who just want see bigger bucks. And, who really knows what deer management IS and why its needed!

I think I'd have to bring a camera just to photgraph a buck each year.. that would be my buck hunting for the 3 years... might be fun

I thought this was about feeding the hungry... i have donated one deer every year for the last 5 years ... Venison donation is a good program... you can even donate part of your deer.. for example if you don't like venison hamburger you can donate that portion of your deer to the program.

imagine the types of bucks you'd have to hunt in 3 years though...and the amount of them.

Oh yeah and believe it or not the amount of sunlight that a deer is exposed to can have an affect on the color as well

Its is a mixture of the velvet and the type of tree that the buck is rubbing... normally hardwoods creat a yellowish orange color .. and softwoods like cedar and suck create the chocolate color because of the heavier sap in softwood trees.. the color of the dried blood from the velvet can add to collor tones as well during the rubbing process.

I shoot squirrels with a blunt tip on an arrow.. kills 'em deader than dead. good practice too

How about instead of AR's to help with buck age class structure.... we do a doe only for 3 years with no hunters being allowed to take a buck during that time? 3 years later we'd would have a huge age structure of 1.5 to 4.5 year old bucks and help balance the buck doe ratio at the same time. How many of the "meat hunters" would go for that? I could do it standing on my head... I'm guessing many hunters would go balistic over that one.

Any good management model teaches never to shoot a lone antlerless deer... because you have no other deer there to compare sizes... if you wait til there is more than one you can pick the largest... this cuts down on the number of fawns and young does being killed instead of mature females. Plus you aren't killing does to make more bucks... you're killing does to help put the buck to doe ratio back to normal. True whitetail management (which is why AR's were concieved) is about keeping the quality of the herd based on the given habitat.. the increased amount and size of bucks is just a bi-product of any management program.