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Post by jkd on Mar 20, 2009 16:40:34 GMT -5
GregHopper - thanks for posting that chart... I've never understood either the call for "taking it out of the rut", since it's already out of the peak period... or for that matter, the fact that "the rut" happens repeatedly during the entire season, e.g. secondary rut, as bucks search for does who didn't get bred during the November period... or the fact that most breeding happens at night... As was asked, what's the alternative? Move it into muzzleloader season? Move all seasons post-November back a week or two? I say leave it where it is... I didn't see any mature bucks during gun season at all until the last weekend, when I took a nice 8pt, and from posts on the various boards, that was the experience a lot of guys had last season... "Slip back down the ladder..." ?? Trends: Indiana has consistently taken more older bucks vs. yearlings for the past, what, six seasons... where is there a need to change that?
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Post by ribbuster on Mar 20, 2009 17:22:44 GMT -5
GregHopper - thanks for posting that chart... I've never understood either the call for "taking it out of the rut", since it's already out of the peak period... or for that matter, the fact that "the rut" happens repeatedly during the entire season, e.g. secondary rut, as bucks search for does who didn't get bred during the November period... or the fact that most breeding happens at night... As was asked, what's the alternative? Move it into muzzleloader season? Move all seasons post-November back a week or two? I say leave it where it is... I didn't see any mature bucks during gun season at all until the last weekend, when I took a nice 8pt, and from posts on the various boards, that was the experience a lot of guys had last season... "Slip back down the ladder..." ?? Trends: Indiana has consistently taken more older bucks vs. yearling's for the past, what, six seasons... where is there a need to change that? I would like to interject this thought ----> How do they know what age the majority of bucks killed age is Honestly they do not check any deer killed at any of the local check stations withing 25 miles of here so without hands on the other 95% of the deer taken in this state the absurd claim of the DNR of older deer being taken is much higher and 1.5 year olds much lower is silly and simply conjecture.I can go to specific check stations and age deer in areas know for big old bucks on opening day and make such ridiculous claims as well! The DNR age less than 5% of the deer killed in Indiana !!!???I do not get this claim at all really. So until every deer taken is jaw bone aged on site by biologist this claim by individuals and a few DNR officials is simply spin to support the claim of some big shift to taking older deer .I know for a fact the local paper here prints the antler count and weight of all bucks taken and I am sorry to say that they are exactly the same point counts and weights by percentage here over the last 20 years . I watch the trends here very closely . So explain to me how we are saving any bucks since all the years takes are higher than they were before the OBR was put in effect ???And all this with less hunters supposedly ??!!!Sorry this holds no water and its sensationalist claims .I think its more about the availability of information,TV shows and peer pressure causing any change in hunter mentality not some limiting anti legislations .BIG BUCKs CAN NOT BE LEGISLATED !! I am not pushing for a argument at all .We all have our own opinions .But here goes the young hunters are not great hunters and the mindset that they needed some sort of DNR intervention to take big bucks .But in reality they just needed to spend time in the woods to learn how to hunt and kill the big old bucks that have always been out there .Its funny how hunters who were relatively young or new to the sport when the OBR was adopted think this is why they think that they are seeing more big bucks .In reality they just matured as hunters and learned how to hunt them. So in short the hunters like myself who who have 30 or 35 years or many more serious adult hunting years of deer hunting in our state or more ,knew long ago "before the OBR "that huge bucks were all over IN woodlots .And if the young hunters {under 35 years old } hunted the 1980s and 1990s they would of saw and known the record books were filling up fast especially in the 1990s when trophy deer management was all the buzz and hunters were communicating it like women talking about the neighbor at the back yard fence on a summer Saturday afternoon..
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Post by lugnutz on Mar 21, 2009 1:14:25 GMT -5
Correct me if i'm wrong, but i think Indiana has had more "record" bucks in the past 6 years, than the previous years. In turn, makes ya think that older bucks are being taken.
I still havent heard a decent reason as to why the firearm season should be taken out of the rut. If anything i wish it would start a week earlier and last a week longer! A shorter time period for firearm hunters makes them less selective, and we all know what that means.
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Post by RoadKill on Mar 21, 2009 6:04:36 GMT -5
Correct me if i'm wrong, but i think Indiana has had more "record" bucks in the past 6 years, than the previous years. In turn, makes ya think that older bucks are being taken.... Another possibility is that a higher percentage of "record" bucks are being reported. Its for sure I don't know.
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Post by ribbuster on Mar 21, 2009 11:07:31 GMT -5
Correct me if i'm wrong, but i think Indiana has had more "record" bucks in the past 6 years, than the previous years. In turn, makes ya think that older bucks are being taken. I still haven't heard a decent reason as to why the firearm season should be taken out of the rut. If anything i wish it would start a week earlier and last a week longer! A shorter time period for firearm hunters makes them less selective, and we all know what that means. Actually if you have spare time you could see that the number of record bucks has increased yearly since the early 1990s and I believe rogerdaley has a very valid point as well .I know for a fact that the vast majority of hunters even 20 years ago could not care less about the books and would of never payed to put them in .They were somewhat pure in their hunting motives in the past . It was more about the hunt and taking the deer and the camaraderie unlike the breed of trophy seeking loners that todays woods are filled with The big buck craze is reaching deep into hunting society .This I believe is a large reason for jumps in the books stats .It is my understanding that this last season saw a drop in entries though .So I think time will tell in the end. All hunting and things run in cycles. So to dose big bucks and hunters.We have been running high for a long while it is due for a decline it happens . Look at the past 20 years of deer harvest reports . We go up in over all and buck numbers for 3 or 4 years then fall off for a few. Its normal ebb and flow .Hunter numbers were declining for about 4 or 5 years and have now jumped above the 225,000 mark .They may climb for a few more years and will likely fall again. Hunters come and go and so to dose the herd numbers and record entries. But one thing you can bank on even with OBR or TBR .Buck harvest numbers will always be within a few thousand kills from year too year and Will likely go up over time just as they have since the first hunts held in INDIANA.
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Post by lugnutz on Mar 22, 2009 0:52:42 GMT -5
You answered my point rib, with the rack crazed hunters that are out and about in todays world, a larger number of older bucks are being taken, that is unless 1 1/2 & 2 1/2 yr olds are packing around large head wear. The younger bucks that used to be killed in Archery aren't being killed do to the OBR. I'm not at all saying that the younger bucks aren't being killed, but ALOT more mature deer are being taken now, more than ever before due to the TV, hunter maturity, and the OBR. If i only was issued one doe tag a year, i wouldn't be shooting the younger doe cause she taste better, i'd shoot the one with the most meat!
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Post by huxbux on Mar 22, 2009 7:12:32 GMT -5
If hunting for record book bucks and managing for them is the driving force that keeps you in the woods, then you're only half way along the path to enlightenment. Some people never get past this stage and are the lesser for it. dcnr.state.al.us/hunting/articles/stages.cfm
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Post by freedomhunter on Mar 22, 2009 9:44:10 GMT -5
Most of the hunters that "love racks" and "don't get it" in our state have to be in the "experience" phase to hunt years on end without getting a shot at a mature buck. Some bad generalizations in the article, imo. Some of the best trophy hunters I know take kids and other people less fortunate than them hunting, and also manage the deer herd. I respect that type of hunter more than the shooter that takes off the first week of firearms every year and hunts a rut funnel till he kills a small buck and then quits hunting.
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Post by Woody Williams on Mar 23, 2009 8:49:04 GMT -5
The POLL is now locked.
I will combine the two polls and post up a final poll to narrow the suggestions down.
THANKS..
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