I was sitting along a deer trail yesterday evening with my bow letting my mind run wild as I watched for a late season deer with bad luck.
I let myself get halfway upset. Let me explain. As of now I live in a great state for deer hunters. We have a pretty liberal bag limit that allows us 8 does and 2 bucks if you hunt all the seasons and hunting methods. Quite a bit of public land for those not fortunate enough to have land or be able to afford a lease. Lots of opportunity, some form of deer season is open from October 1 thru Jan 15. A generally mild climate that makes it easy to get out and hunt without specialized gear plus it means good survival for fawn crops. Also we’re fortunate to get to hunt some portion of the rut with either a rifle or muzzleloader or both depending on the deer and the weather. While we don’t kill the multitude of giants like some Midwest states there are some really good bucks killed every year statewide and with some patience it generally isn’t too hard to get a shot at a nice buck if not an absolute monster.
Here’s the part that’s upsetting to me. There’s been a push that’s getting more and more vocal every year, I’m sure you can guess what crowd drives it, to get the wildlife department to make us a one buck state. It’ll improve the buck quality they say. We’ll be killing giants like Iowa and Ohio they say.
But if one looks closer these are the same guys and gals who spend thousands a year on feeders and supplements. Spend hours geeking out on their trail cam pics naming Ol’ Bentbrow and talking about management bucks. The same people who shoot Ravin crossbows that will put 3 bolts in as many inches at 100 yards. The guys who are using the smokeless muzzleloaders during “primitive” season that shoot 2” groups at 300 yards.
Not that my way is any more noble than theirs but when I bow hunt it’s with a recurve or longbow. Primitive season for me involves a sidelock muzzleloader with iron sights that I’m pretty confident in shooting out to about 70 yards. My standard of a “trophy” when using these weapons is not quite so stringent as I hold myself to during rifle season. Nobody makes me hunt this way, I enjoy it. But if they get their way I won’t be able to shoot a buck like the half rack one I missed with my longbow last week if I tagged one during the rifle season.
I guess this was all just to vent and say that I hate how competitive hunting has become with the advent of social media and cell cams, and the like. When I was a kid we had much lower bag limits but we could still shoot a buck with every method of take. And only the disabled were allowed the use of a crossbow. Optics of any type weren’t allowed on muzzleloaders. Nobody does anything the hard way anymore.
The wildlife department wants, practically begs us, to shoot does. 95 percent of guys won’t, period. Most people don’t eat deer or only do so grudgingly if it’s jerky or summer sausage so I don’t see this movement helping thin the does out. I just hope some egghead up there doesn’t get the idea this will help get people to shoot does.
