Lucas McCain
New member
Where I hunt deer, our gang has been practicing what we call HERD MANAGEMENT. If you want meat shoot dry does,spikes and forks,leave the basket racks alone. If you want to shoot a buck it should be larger than anything you have ever shot. My biggest buck is 156, so I have to wait for the 160 class to show up. The club advocates VOLUNTARY RESTRAINT. We are in farm country and our gang is made up of neighbors who have hunted together for 5 generations. We control about 3000 acres , and in the midst of it is a public hunting area.
The other neighbors and hunting gangs saw the success we were having and started to use the idea. This morphed into a deer hunting club of sorts. We get together in the winter and have a coyote hunting contest with 3 cash prizes.
During the rifle season we don't have a big buck contest. We only have a big doe contest. The entry fee is $25 , $20 goes to the contest and $5 dollars goes to the annual hunter banquet. entry fees for hunters under 17 years old are paid by the club and they pay $5 at the banquet only if they attend. There are 5 cash prizes for the big doe contest and 2 cash prizes of $50 for the 2 youngest hunters who shot a deer for that year, buck or doe.
For the experienced hunters if you shoot a buck you get disqualified from the big doe contest. There is an average of over 70 entries in the contest. The prize money is split between the hunter and the landowner 50/50.
After the season is over we have a hunters banquet. Wives and families are invited and charged $5 a head at the door, under 6 free. Those who got nice deer generally bring their horns to show off. Deer stories old and new are told and a couple members are musicians so there is good music. We have door prizes donated and several gun raffles and good times had by all. Some land owners don't hunt but sign up just for the social event. They ask hunters who hunt their land to join the club. We now cover 2 townships of participating members. I have a 40 X 56 shop where we hold the banquet and its getting full. Each year we pick up a few more hunters
We don't have any APR by the state and I personally don't agree with them. We have young hunters eager to draw blood, so let them draw blood. We have old hunters who don't get many chances to shoot deer so let them shoot a basket rack or fawn if they want to.
My belief is that primarily the #1 important thing is that its about deer hunting and having a pleasant experience. I've learned that a lot of trophies don't have to have big horns. I can tell by the smiles when they show of the animal and tell the stories. That trophy smile tells it all.
#2 important thing is herd health, dry does need to be taken and the population cannot be more than the habitat can support. Without adequate food, large horns can't be grown. And does don't produce fawns. Up north in a bad winter the does absorb the fawn they are carrying if the food supply is bad, result is no fawn crop.
#3 is antler management. If the herd is healthy, and food is adequate, the horns come. During a hard cold winter the alpha bucks are the first to die because they come into the winter with no fat reserves. That is due to all of the energy they spend during the rut chasing does. This is where that basket rack is important because he may well be next years alpha buck
We have a very healthy herd, and there is a good number of big bucks being seen and shot.
Different areas require different management tactics. I am no expert by any means but I do see that what we are doing is having positive results. In our agriculture environment this system works. For the most part we are all neighbors or know each other and as a result its been fairly easy to get all on board with the idea. Where there is a lot of public land in large tracts it would be difficult. We have public land here also but its waterfowl production areas that 40 to 160 acres. But in the Big Woods it would be hard or impossible to get all the hunters together. Thats where hunters want the state to step in with APR restrictions. This makes for not to enjoyable hunts for young hunters and old hunters.
My complaint is that the Fish & Game depts. are involved in to much BS politics from the legislatures who are making decisions based on lobbyist money instead of sound science. There the problem lays. As a hunter we need to get politically active and let the SOB's know what we want.
The other neighbors and hunting gangs saw the success we were having and started to use the idea. This morphed into a deer hunting club of sorts. We get together in the winter and have a coyote hunting contest with 3 cash prizes.
During the rifle season we don't have a big buck contest. We only have a big doe contest. The entry fee is $25 , $20 goes to the contest and $5 dollars goes to the annual hunter banquet. entry fees for hunters under 17 years old are paid by the club and they pay $5 at the banquet only if they attend. There are 5 cash prizes for the big doe contest and 2 cash prizes of $50 for the 2 youngest hunters who shot a deer for that year, buck or doe.
For the experienced hunters if you shoot a buck you get disqualified from the big doe contest. There is an average of over 70 entries in the contest. The prize money is split between the hunter and the landowner 50/50.
After the season is over we have a hunters banquet. Wives and families are invited and charged $5 a head at the door, under 6 free. Those who got nice deer generally bring their horns to show off. Deer stories old and new are told and a couple members are musicians so there is good music. We have door prizes donated and several gun raffles and good times had by all. Some land owners don't hunt but sign up just for the social event. They ask hunters who hunt their land to join the club. We now cover 2 townships of participating members. I have a 40 X 56 shop where we hold the banquet and its getting full. Each year we pick up a few more hunters
We don't have any APR by the state and I personally don't agree with them. We have young hunters eager to draw blood, so let them draw blood. We have old hunters who don't get many chances to shoot deer so let them shoot a basket rack or fawn if they want to.
My belief is that primarily the #1 important thing is that its about deer hunting and having a pleasant experience. I've learned that a lot of trophies don't have to have big horns. I can tell by the smiles when they show of the animal and tell the stories. That trophy smile tells it all.
#2 important thing is herd health, dry does need to be taken and the population cannot be more than the habitat can support. Without adequate food, large horns can't be grown. And does don't produce fawns. Up north in a bad winter the does absorb the fawn they are carrying if the food supply is bad, result is no fawn crop.
#3 is antler management. If the herd is healthy, and food is adequate, the horns come. During a hard cold winter the alpha bucks are the first to die because they come into the winter with no fat reserves. That is due to all of the energy they spend during the rut chasing does. This is where that basket rack is important because he may well be next years alpha buck
We have a very healthy herd, and there is a good number of big bucks being seen and shot.
Different areas require different management tactics. I am no expert by any means but I do see that what we are doing is having positive results. In our agriculture environment this system works. For the most part we are all neighbors or know each other and as a result its been fairly easy to get all on board with the idea. Where there is a lot of public land in large tracts it would be difficult. We have public land here also but its waterfowl production areas that 40 to 160 acres. But in the Big Woods it would be hard or impossible to get all the hunters together. Thats where hunters want the state to step in with APR restrictions. This makes for not to enjoyable hunts for young hunters and old hunters.
My complaint is that the Fish & Game depts. are involved in to much BS politics from the legislatures who are making decisions based on lobbyist money instead of sound science. There the problem lays. As a hunter we need to get politically active and let the SOB's know what we want.