Do you ever try to gently educate forky hunter friends or just let it be?

[rogerthat]

Have you considered talking to his family about it? Maybe getting together a little forky-intervention? With any luck, maybe he will agree to go to forky rehab. It’s worth a try and likely going to be a process. Good luck

 

[Mudranger1]

Benefits of an older age class are generally a socially-driven concept. When it comes to population dynamics bucks don’t have much impact until the buck:doe ratio drops below a certain threshold. A yearling has the same genetics at 1 year he does at 3 years or 5 years. I’m personally picky, particularly if I have meat in the freezer, but I think it’s wrong to criticize and judge others for their ethical/legal harvests. If they’re stoked, let them be stoked and be happy for them.

I love people who can improve the gene pool by not killing the young bucks. But I have always been curious how that is possible

 

[ismith]

Probably better to tease him about liking fat chicks, to tell you the truth…….

 

[Dsnow9]

I would make the argument that you get a lot more meat out of a mature deer/elk than a young one. It’s something I have been learning over time. Antler size really doesn’t mean anything to me.

Signed- A guy that has killed a lot of young animals

I’ve got a friend who’s “in it for the meat only”, and that’s fine to me. If you depend on wild game for your family every year go for it.

I personally don’t, I ate my deer tag this year and I had seen probably 10 or so forkys. Could’ve backed my truck up and loaded one whole he was so stupid.

It’s just my personal thing that I want my hunt area to get to a mature age class, it trickles down through genetics and is better for everyone. This year wasn’t the first time I’ve eaten my tag over only seeing young Mule Deer. My standard is a mature buck.

I’ve contemplated talking to my buddy about the benefits of an older age class, but I’m not ever gonna dictate what he wants to take nor will I ever judge him. He’s taken forkys 3 years in a row, and when I mention holding out for a mature buck he says I’m just in it for the meat. Again, that’s fine. Just not me. I want the landscape to be blessed with old deer, if any of yall reading this shoot young bucks I assure you I’m not judging. You do you, it’s fine with me.

But for those of yall with standards like mine, again it’s not about the antlers just about age, have yall ever sat down with your forky friend and tried to talk about it or just let them be forever?

I live in Colorado btw, but it’s not a unit known to produce huge bucks. Maybe cause everyone blasts forkys every year.

If you want a visual argument for the advantages of shooting a mature deer here is a photo for you.

The following are MT whitetail.

From left to right.

Fawn Buck
Doe
2.5 year old buck

An older buck will provide an even larger back strap than the 2.5 year old