I am part of the problem....

[HandgunHunter]

...this is where ethical hunting arguments just start to get weird.

yup.

there is always someone who wants to control what others do.

there are people who are happy to take any animal and others who think every single one has to be a wall hanger.

this is where the industry has ruined the past time of hunting.

take whatever legal animal you choose and to hell with anyone’s opinion. If you are happy I am happy.

 

[Pucky Freak]

100% agree take what ever legal animal you choose and to hell with everyone else's opinion. If someone wants to kill nothing but spikes his entire life, then good for him. If over time his opinion becomes such a small minority that the rules are changed for everyone, I don't see that as a negative. As far as control is concerned, season dates are a form of control, as are bag limits, as are antler point restrictions. We all have input on what kind of controls we want established.

 

[HandgunHunter]

100% agree take what ever legal animal you choose and to hell with everyone else's opinion. If someone wants to kill nothing but spikes his entire life, then good for him. If over time his opinion becomes such a small minority that the rules are changed for everyone, I don't see that as a negative. As far as control is concerned, season dates are a form of control, as are bag limits, as are antler point restrictions. We all have input on what kind of controls we want established.

hmmm....you could apply this same way of thinking to the current gun control climate....slippery slope.

 

[HandgunHunter]

With the current controls we have I haven’t had a problem taking quality animals in Wyoming....

 

[Deleted member 16014]

yup.

there is always someone who wants to control what others do.

there are people who are happy to take any animal and others who think every single one has to be a wall hanger.

this is where the industry has ruined the past time of hunting.

take whatever legal animal you choose and to hell with anyone’s opinion. If you are happy I am happy.

The OP was just giving the whole thing some thought and putting it to words; didn't say anything about controlling anyone.

 

[Pucky Freak]

hmmm....you could apply this same way of thinking to the current gun control climate....slippery slope.

No comparison. Bearing arms is a federal, constitutional right. shooting spikes is decided by appointees of democratically elected representatives.

 

[Oak]

I have a lot of thoughts on this topic but decided it wasn't worth the time to type. The short of it is that some states manage for opportunity and some for quality, and I'm not going to look down my nose at anyone for shooting a legal animal. @Hunting Wife started a thread 4 years ago by posting a relevant article which I was really hoping would generate some discussion. Give it a read.

 

[ShootsManyBullets]

Just takes one to derail a good thread...

Anyway I'm not much different than the OP. I enjoy hunting Montana and other states and eat a lot more mule deer tags than I fill by choice. If I find a big old buck I really like, I'll chamber a round and go after it. If I don't see something really good, I have no problem eating a tag or looking for a whitetail. I look at antelope and elk and I see fine dining so I'm less picky there where others may only shoot trophy bucks and bulls.

Not judging anyone that shoots the first one they see. It's their right as a tag holder and their hunts so have at it. I hunt with guys that shoot stuff that I pass and I totally enjoy hunting with them. I think we know MT will never actually try managing mule deer until it hits them financially and by then it may be too late.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

With the current controls we have I haven’t had a problem taking quality animals in Wyoming....

I'm so glad someone shared their hunt so you could bestow this self-important gem.

 

[Nameless Range]

I have a lot of thoughts on this topic but decided it wasn't worth the time to type. The short of it is that some states manage for opportunity and some for quality, and I'm not going to look down my nose at anyone for shooting a legal animal. @Hunting Wife started a thread 4 years ago by posting a relevant article which I was really hoping would generate some discussion. Give it a read.

I had never read this article before. Great explanation of the varied ways to look at this issue. Thanks for the link.

 

[TheJason]

I don’t shoulder mount anything, but I eat everything.

 

[LousyResident]

Some of y'all are spoiled. I'd be lucky to see 10% of the amount of deer, let alone bucks, y'all are in seeing in your home states. We also have quotas, antler restrictions, limited/no doe take, etc. but nothing like the quality of many other states. If you want to see the age class of the bucks grow, don't shoot them and fill your freezers with does instead; I don't see the big dilemma or even the overall "problem" mentioned in the title? Are y'all running out of deer in general, or just bucks big enough to get you excited? As many have said, to each their own. What do they say about everyone having opinions?

 

[TheTone]

I’ll trade you my buck sightings for the last two years combined for what you saw just this year. I think my total buck count for the past two years is around 4?

 

[TwistedSage]

To play devils advocate of those saying take the does or cows for meat and leave young bucks and bulls to grow...what if everyone does that and the overall population tanks because there are less and less females to produce the fawn crop?

Also there are a lot of forked antler only tags here. Either sex tags are hard to come by. With a 5 day forked antler tag being the only tag you will posses that year and a freezer low on venison its changes things a bit from the situations where you get multiple tags just for buying the license.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

Because regardless of what people say, the actual harvest (killing, gutting, packing) is actually enjoyable, and even fun. Yeah I like to hold out for a big one sometimes, and am fine with not filling a tag sometimes (depending on the hunt/animal) but I also like killing animals and eating them, and hanging their antlers or pelts on my wall. Maybe not everyone shares this view, and people certainly change over time (I wouldn't doubt ifcI do), but if it wasn't fun to harvest game, you'd just go buy meat from the store. Even holding out for a trophy deer or elk, or anything. If it is only just about the hunt, why even take a gun and not a camera? Thats my opinion. I am sure some will disagree, and that is fine.

 

[Bombsnbullets]

While I think the sentiment of your opinion is important, I think it applies to a specific group of hunters. If you can recognize that you don’t need to fill a tag, that should be a decision made by you alone. This ideology can be applied on a much larger scale, and the bottom line is that I don’t think more regulation benefits others. For some hunters that are waiting for a 180” deer to pull the trigger, it may be frustrating that so many young bucks are killed every year. We have to also think about hunters that rely on venison in the freezer every year or young hunters that will likely not be traveling miles into rough terrain. Wether your hunt is for big antlers or a meat buck, the natural resource is ABUNDANT and the harvesting of a deer is a right. Let’s not open the door for a government sanctioned entity to restrict opportunity and control resources that we pay for. As with most things, it’s a slippery slope.

 

[30338]

I have shot a lot of bucks over the years, probably will shoot a few more. I like taking mature ones and we enjoy eating them. Some score well, some don't. But enjoy them all. I think CO harvests something like 40,000 deer a year thru license sales.

The number of lions in our state is probably in the 5,000 to 10,000 range. I'll use 5,000. Multiple studies are showing they take on average .8 deer per week, some think it may be slightly higher. Some of them are feeding on elk too though. But using .8 per week for 5,000 cats is 4,000 animals per week. Or about 200,000 deer/elk per year. And it seems the cats do quite well on mature bucks. I think if you want to improve your large buck numbers, it would make sense to reduce your cat numbers as they are killing way more than humans.

 

[The Hedgehog]

I've had buyer's remorse numerous times and that stinks. Can't say when/why I choose to shoot something, but it's rarely ever about "pressure" to fill a tag. I would almost always prefer to still be out hunting. Not going to lie, I really enjoy shooting, dressing, and packing out an animal, cutting meat at home, and cleaning up a skull in my boiling pot for a decoration either in the house or my garage rafters, and obviously, eating up a bunch of wild meat. Shot a public land MT deer Saturday and last night when my better half saw it, she said "It's a lot smaller than your other ones."

 

[bigsky2]

I almost never feel pressure to fill a tag, and I probably have more unfilled deer tags than someone my age should. I can remember one season where I shot a buck due to pressure or frustration. I had just moved home to Montana from Wyoming and I held elk, deer, and antelope tags in Wyoming along with my general deer and a Breaks archery elk tag in MT. I hadn't filled any of those tags, and on my last weekend to hunt I ended up shooting a buck that I wouldn't normally shoot. I decided right then that never again would I shoot a buck due to pressure.

If by "the problem" you mean shooting deer that haven't reached their prime, then I was part of the problem this year. I shot a buck the second weekend of the season and when I walked up to him I was kind of disappointed when I saw how young he was. Sadly, I think most of the "big" deer that are shot in Montana are mostly 3.5 year old deer with great genetics. There are still some bucks that reach their prime, but they are mostly bucks that don't have the genetics that it takes to turn into something special. As much as I love eating wild game, I don't have a family to feed, and I'd rather have a tag in my pocket and get to spend as much time out hunting as possible.

 

[antlerradar]

I almost never feel pressure to fill a tag, and I probably have more unfilled deer tags than someone my age should. I can remember one season where I shot a buck due to pressure or frustration. I had just moved home to Montana from Wyoming and I held elk, deer, and antelope tags in Wyoming along with my general deer and a Breaks archery elk tag in MT. I hadn't filled any of those tags, and on my last weekend to hunt I ended up shooting a buck that I wouldn't normally shoot. I decided right then that never again would I shoot a buck due to pressure.

If by "the problem" you mean shooting deer that haven't reached their prime, then I was part of the problem this year. I shot a buck the second weekend of the season and when I walked up to him I was kind of disappointed when I saw how young he was. Sadly, I think most of the "big" deer that are shot in Montana are mostly 3.5 year old deer with great genetics. There are still some bucks that reach their prime, but they are mostly bucks that don't have the genetics that it takes to turn into something special. As much as I love eating wild game, I don't have a family to feed, and I'd rather have a tag in my pocket and get to spend as much time out hunting as possible.

That sounds exactly like me and the three year old 31 inch 8 by 9 is shot in 88. I think you are right in that nearly all the bucks with great potential are taken by age four.