Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game About Time.....(thank you MT FWP)

The deer took a huge hit from EHD over here this year and as I've said before, I think it hit the mature bucks a lot harder than the youngsters. I don't remember ever seeming this many fork horns running around chasing does where a decent buck would have been in years past. I also thought it would be good to at least enforce a minimum point requirement of 4 points on one side at least. Still quite a few does running around here but nothing like years past.

The problem with the 4 points on one side is we get quite a few big old three points here around baker. I don't know if its a genetics thing or if they will eventually come out of being a 3x3 but a lot of the ones I have seen have been old bucks.

Right across the line in Saskatchewan they permit around 100 mule deer buck rifle tags for an area of like 80 miles. The amount of big bucks up there is staggering. I would say 95% of the big mule deer that are taken in the states came down from Canada. The 3 biggest bucks that I've seen taken down here 2 200+ inchers and a 190 all had pictures of them taken in Canada before they came down. The big deer I harvested was shot at across the line and then came down.

Saskatchewan allows everyone to buy a rifle whitetail tag and everyone to buy an archery mule deer tag, but you may only draw the rifle mule deer tag once every 5 years or so.

I'm not saying that we need to as tight on our tags as Canada but it is really easy for me to see what will happen if you manage your deer properly like they are doing right across the line.

I like Sam's thinking on the every other year thing.

Part of the deal with that is that everybody and their brother wants a "4 point". So they all get shot, even when they're really young. Doesn't matter if it's a dink if it's a 4 point. The 3x3s go on to breed, and get old.

Interesting stuff about the Canadian bucks, C_Hell. We see a similar deal here with the Wyoming bucks that come across the border. It's good to have a "refuge" nearby to grow some old deer.

All these pictures taken not twenty miles from my place this year in Canada. We are lucky if one buck of this caliber taken each year in the US.

Check this Video out don't think I've posted this before.

http://s540.photobucket.com/user/colth_00/media/IMG_1299_zpsb4700a14.mp4.html

I'm not going to get in an argument with anyone over this, but I will say that I second BuzzH and his way of thinking on this subject. Oh and btw, I ended this season with all my tags still in my wallet. First time in over 30 years I didn't fill a single tag. Saw some animals, just never saw one that I wanted to send a bullet towards. I'm just not wired to kill a tiny buck or a doe just to say I filled my A tag. If I were starving perhaps I would, but I'm not, and hopefully I'll never be that hungry.

Looking for opinions
What are the opinions about hunting mule deer bucks in the rut? I love to hunt mule deer bucks, and this is just solely my own druthers, but I'd rather see the mule deer buck hunt shut down in the rut IF it would let some of those larger bucks live to grow another year. I know a lot of western states don't allow hunting during the rut, but I don't know all the pros and cons of it.

Do any of you think they would cease non-resident tags or too much money in it?

Royce just a layman's viewpoint....it seems to work OK in some places with light hunting pressure,or limited tags. But in a general season, I can't imagine it does much good.

IME,compared to whitetails, a rutting mule deer is a pretty dumb and vulnerable creature.

I'd like to see the season shut down around the 10th of November. Lots of folks would bitch long and hard about this, so they could open it back up over Thanksgiving. That would eliminate a good % of the rut hunt on most years, and allow more bucks to grow old.

I wouldn't mind seeing the season to start and end in October. Like an October 1st to October 31st and a draw for tags. Give me more time to coyote call

The big old mulies never came down from the high country during season here. They stayed way up high even though the snow was getting deep. I know of 2 200"+ bucks that were killed is season within 30 miles of here this year in the mountains with one of them 34" wide and the other going 212". The big ones are not easy to find in the mountains and most are pretty safe from 98% of the hunters who won't get more than a mile from the truck. The whitetail get pounded hard here though where they can be seen from the road and the walking is easier.

yeah im really not to bothered i never filled my tag this year.....numbers where i hunt, out where you run cows, are scary low....

You guys talking about going permit only rifle tags, what exactly do you mean?

Both whitetail and mule deer? For the entire state?

There's still a lot of places, especially roadless, where a guy can pick over quite a few bucks in a day. Lots of bucks die of old age in this state. Kind of hate to see the entire state to go to draw because certain areas are struggling.

i just want FWP to do there job and actually manage the deer and such foor best hunting long term.....they should have cut out doe tags atleast in Region 6 three years ago.....hell they shouldnt be hunting pronghorn at all in most of 6.....

but FWP is more interested in filling their coffers and thumbing their noses at everyone since they have nearly no oversight....

If the idea is to increase deer populations and increase trophy potential, why not just close the entire state to deer hunting? For say a 3 year period. No A tag, no B tag, no mule deer, no whitetail, no bucks, no does, no youth hunts, no archery, no non-resident, no returning former resident, no landowner, no four point restriction, no bubba --- nothing!
Slap a $5000 fine on any poaching convictions.
This would cost the state and the industry a lot of money but after the three year period you would have great start on increased trophy potential.
The state could then put all buck deer tags on a limited draw basis, up the price to say $175 for a buck tag --- same as a moose, sheep of goat, with a 7 year waiting period. Let residents and non-residents draw from the same pool of tags, no restriction on non-resident percentage.

The FWP has a program for game damage control hunts that would take care of any excess does or problem deer in the local areas.

That's way too liberal. One governors tag auctioned every five years good for the entire state, nothing else.

A management plan like BuzzH suggested may work. It's already the way things are done with other species. I see no reason we couldn't have more regional and unit specific deer management.

I for one have no problem seeing bucks live out their lives without being killed by a human. I'd like to see a lot more of them at least have a chance to get old.