Antler Restrictions

[Coach]

Just wanted to see what you guys think about antler restrictions. Currently, in AZ, an antlered buck is any buck with horns protruding the scalp, and capable of being shed (that’s my loose interpretation);

NM and other states require at least a fork on one side.

I just wanted to see what other hunters here think about a point restriction on deer.

[nighthawk]

Maybe in select areas that would be a good idea.. but as far as everywhere, i personally like the opportunity to harvest a meat buck.... I think that the size of the deer doesnt represent the amount of trophy it is in another's eyes.. A lot of members have spoken out on how they want to bring there kids up only to shoot big/ mature deer.. IMO i think hunting is full of life lessons and being able to make the best of the hand ur given. I for one would be just as happy if my son or daughter shot a 100 or spike.. Only saying it is ok to shoot large antlered deer kinda makes it a job not fun... Therefore implying to other things in life, if its not huge or the best it not worth it at all. I have many great memories with the small deer that i have taken and wouldnt trade it for anything... I want my children to appreciate the hunt, no go home empty handed because the antlers were not big enough.... As with anything there is a time and a place.... San carlos, mexico , dec hunts are all great trophy hunts and i could see those hunts being regulated with antler restrictions. Most of the time, the guys on those hunts are trophy hunters and that goes without say... Plus i dont care too much to give the game a fish more reason to put more restrictions on our hunts...BTW cant wait for dec14!!

[Snapshot]

I am all for any sound management practice that would improve deer herds, and buck/doe ratios. I would just as soon see them drop the extra hunts and permit numbers that they added a few years back. Overhunting and overcrowding is not a postive step IMO. I feel a qaulity hunt is just as important as opportunity to harvest.

[Redman]

My thought is mandatory reporting first. We have no idea the number of spikes that are killed on a hunt... we assume but we don't know.... or even for that matter HOW many deer are killed with the current reporting requirements.

 

Antler restrictions and harvest objectives would be hard to manage. If the spikes were not killed, would harvest objectives be met? The G&F then would (may) have to issue more tags to accomplish harvest objectives.

 

I hunted in 30B some 8-9 years ago. A member of the site killed a spike and I witnessed (great time), surprisingly the G&F officer checked the deer and found it to be 4 years old, these antlers were 2-3 inches long... now I am no biologist but how many spikes running around ARE older than 2 years? Not all spike developed fork horns....

 

Now I may be in favor of restrictions in a few units, if fewer tags in the early hunts were offered with more tags in the late hunts being offered.. then the harvest objective would be met with fewer hunters....boy that sounds familiar to a system that USED to be in place.

[4Falls]

NM is a good example. Is their deer herd any more healthier then ours? Is their buck quality any better? No and no.

 

I say shoot'm all.

[Redman]

NM is a good example. Is their deer herd any more healthier then ours? Is their buck quality any better? No and no.

 

I say shoot'm all.

 

I agree 100% NM deer herd is no better than ours...

[CouesWhitetail]

Personally I don't feel antler restrictions will do much good unless you also drop hunting pressure (ie number of tags). The point of antler restrictions is to allow young bucks to grow up, but with antler restrictions in place, you just move ALL the hunting pressure onto the larger bucks. Which means lower survival for big bucks. If you want big bucks, you need to increase their survival to past age 4-5, and protecting spikes and forkies just gets you past about age 2. I think a better strategy is to reduce the number of permits to increase survival of all bucks and also reduce crowds. To me, that increases the quality of the hunt. I also really don't like that our deer have to go through four seasons pretty much back to back, but at least that addresses the overcrowding issue. My UPS delivery guy told me the other day that although he has been an avid hunter for quite awhile, he is contemplating quitting because he can't stand the crowds. He says he would rather get a tag once every 4 years and hunt with fewer people and more bucks than get a tag every year.

[Redman]

4 seasons...look at 33, it has 9 seasons now (4 general, 2 youth, a muzzle loader, 2 archery)... pretty much from mid oct to end of jan the deer are chased

[CouesWhitetail]

4 seasons...look at 33, it has 9 seasons now (4 general, 2 youth, a muzzle loader, 2 archery)... pretty much from mid oct to end of jan the deer are chased

 

wow, you are right!!!

[POB]

I think a better idea is to restrict the hunting to only native born arizona residents. If you were born here, you can kill any dang thing you want, and everyone else can go hunt in the state they were born in. Seriously, if they want to put more restrictions in place they need to start with the amount of tags. Then we can start putting in for a deer tag when we're born and hope to draw before we die.

[gotcoues]

I used to be a huge fan of antler restrictions. Thought everyone should be held to 3 on one side. Now however, I see how selfish my thinking was. I have a number of reasons why I have flipped on this issue.

 

My son arrowed his first coues and it happened to be a spike. It rates as one of our best experiences we've every had together.

 

I also agree with Amanda, the rule change wouldn't get the age class high enough to make a big difference for truly mature bucks.

 

To each his own, each and every one of us appreciates the outdoors in are own way.

 

We don't really need more government regulations, do we?

 

I do believe mandatory reporting seems reasonable for rifle and archery deer. If a bonus point was given for each card that was returned, I believe reporting could have a very high return rate.

 

Antler restrictions is about quality of the hunt, maybe a better idea is to have G&F be more interested in hunter success than how many people we can get in the field at once. I believe a goal of %20 success is much to low a number for G&F to be striving for (this is my understanding ). It should be much higher than that.

 

I wouldn't mind at all if they tried to set up a trophy wt unit and managed it much differently. It would be interesting to see the results after a few years.

[gotcoues]

POB, no offense bud but, seriously? I'm not native born to Arizona and I've lived half my life enjoying the outdoors of Arizona. You can't possibly believe that a resident of Arizona should only be allowed to hunt here if they were born here right?

 

Non-residents are capped at %10 of the tags that are allotted for any one given hunt. I certainly think that number is fair to AZ Residents, if you are opposed to non-residents hunting here. You can hunt deer anywhere in AZ with archery equipment for the most part, many times during the year. We also have guaranteed rifle tags available through the draw to hunt deer as well.

[pwrguy]

I don't like the idea of antler restrictions. It's just one more thing to get cited for. You have to ask yourself what the objective is. More deer, larger deer, both. I spend a lot of time in area's that should hold a lot more deer than they do, plenty of cover, plenty of water, plenty of food. The thing all the area's I hunt in have in common is plenty of predators. I don't have an answer for the predators, but if they could be managed, the deer herds would improve drastically. PREDATORS are the single biggest problem to declining deer herds. Controling the harvest by humans is the easy part.

 

As far as quality of the hunt, yes I would love to be the only one with a tag out there but that is not going to happen. We hunted with the crowds this past week and both managed to harvest deer. There are still places in AZ that you can hike into and be pretty much alone if that is how you define a quality hunt.

[azgutpile]

I think antler restrictions would promote bad genetics alon with what was said earlier about putting the pressure on the two and three year old bucks. Infancy, if you want larger bucks, you should have a spike/ fork season.

[Red Rabbit]

Colorado went to antler point restrictions many years ago for both elk and mule deer. The mule deer antler restrictions did not work so well as a management tool and were dropped. Learn from the past.