point restriction, science or politics?
The state department of wildlife resources here also tried someting similar a few years back on the Natchez Trace Wildlife Management Area. They placed a point restriction of four visible points on one side to be considered a legal buck. In theory this should have caused an increase in larger racked deer but it hasn't. What happenned was a large portion of the deer killed were still the 1 1/2 year old bucks that were the ones the rule was made to protect. The "basket racked bucks" who were scrub 7 & 8' who would appear to have good genetic potential by developing that many points on their first true set of antlers. We've seen an increase so far this year in the number of bucks because the state lowered the bag limit on bucks to no more than three a seson, and thats with all weapons combined. Before you could have harvested up to 11 bucks. Four deer either sex with a bow, one buck with a muzzleloader, four bucks with a rifle, and two either sex during the late muzzleloader hunt. As far as spikes, I don't think you should consider them inferior until they have reached 2 1/2 years of age. Sometimes fawns are dropped late in the season and their antler growth gets a late start, but soon stabilizes after another year or two. Oh well, just my .02 cents worth. I think age should be a more valued judging tool but under normal field conditions would be almost impossible.
Frog
The state department of wildlife resources here also tried someting similar a few years back on the Natchez Trace Wildlife Management Area. They placed a point restriction of four visible points on one side to be considered a legal buck. In theory this should have caused an increase in larger racked deer but it hasn't. What happenned was a large portion of the deer killed were still the 1 1/2 year old bucks that were the ones the rule was made to protect. The "basket racked bucks" who were scrub 7 & 8' who would appear to have good genetic potential by developing that many points on their first true set of antlers. We've seen an increase so far this year in the number of bucks because the state lowered the bag limit on bucks to no more than three a seson, and thats with all weapons combined. Before you could have harvested up to 11 bucks. Four deer either sex with a bow, one buck with a muzzleloader, four bucks with a rifle, and two either sex during the late muzzleloader hunt. As far as spikes, I don't think you should consider them inferior until they have reached 2 1/2 years of age. Sometimes fawns are dropped late in the season and their antler growth gets a late start, but soon stabilizes after another year or two. Oh well, just my .02 cents worth. I think age should be a more valued judging tool but under normal field conditions would be almost impossible.
Frog
