My thoughts are you can't rely on the majority of hunters to be able to judge the age of a buck, either alive or dead. If you want more older bucks, you have to reduce the number of bucks being taken. I think the best way overall are buck limits combined with limiting season lengths for bucks. Depending on the area, only one of those measures may be needed. Just my 2cents.
And where is this Utopia you speak of BenAllgood? Many of us in Michigan would love to see a one buck rule and shorter seasons but isn't likely to ever happen. The DNR likes license revenues so they are more interested in selling licenses than in managing the deer herd for older age class bucks. They are already bemoaning the fact that we have gone from a state with 750,000 hunters to now only 600,000 with hunter numbers declining.
My personal rule for deer hunting is that my second buck must be bigger than my first. I am looking for a 3-4 year old deer for my first buck so it isn't likely I am going to see another one older than that in the same year. As I mentioned previously, I have actually passed on some 3 year olds because they weren't bigger than the first buck I tagged. I very rarely shoot 2 bucks here in the same season....but there are others who gladly shoot every buck they see and use tags from their mothers, their girl friends or others so they can keep hunting from Oct 1st to Jan 1st....and we actually have special seasons that begin in September and run through the end of January. This trend is towards more hunting opportunities - not less. You can legally kill 2 bucks and 10 does per season here with no special drawing of tags. They want more deer killed - not less.
I could definitely relate to a lot of what Swampcat spoke of above. When I was a young hunter, we were killing the vast majority of yearling bucks every year. 2 year olds were few and far between where I hunted and 3 year olds were things you only dreamed about - you never saw one. The camp I grew up in practiced the "Sacred Doe Theory". If anyone would have killed a doe they would have been tarred and feathered and run out of camp forever. Yet it was quite common to see 40-50 does per day for the first few days of the firearms season and maybe a spike buck if you were lucky....and like Swampcat, we killed every yearling buck that we saw.
I started passing up yearling bucks in 1981. Other hunters thought I was absolutely crazy. Nobody ever passed up a buck back then. I passed up 2 yearling bucks that first year and ate both of my tags. I was elated when I got the opportunity to shoot a 2 year old and in the next 20 years, I only killed one 3 year old. That is what happens when you are practicing voluntary QDM or APR's and nobody else around you is doing it. It doesn't take very many "brown and down" hunters to make a significant dent in the yearling buck crop for the year.
It wasn't until 2001 when we finally got APR's in our DMU that we started seeing some older bucks. Even then it was an uphill battle with the DNR as their official position on APR's is that they support "Voluntary APR's". Well I am here to tell you from my personal 20 year experience in practicing Voluntary APRs that they just don't work. It must be regulated....unless you can afford to buy 1,000 acres of more and keep everyone else out.
I agree with you wholeheartedly Ben Allgood - reducing the buck kill and shortening the seasons would go a long way towards creating a deer herd that many of us would like to see. But, as others have said, many hunters are very happy to hang their tags on yearling bucks and many would rather kill 2 yearling bucks than to kill a single doe. Different strokes for different folks for sure.
Whatever regulations are ultimately approved some hunters will be happy while others will be saddened. I've been around long enough to know that I shouldn't let my expectations soar too high because I've seen this deer management mentality since my first deer hunting season back in 1961. Change comes very....very....slowly. Fortunately, we have opportunities to hunt other states and provinces where older and bigger deer do exist. Many Michigan residents travel to other states to hunt, while very few non-residents travel to Michigan to hunt. I wonder why??
