Bowsite.com

Doe tags

I see they are reducing doe season bag limits down to 1 doe in Mason Co and 15 other counties. I think that is good thing in mason co where i hunt.

Right on hoppie.

It'd be a good thing where I live in Jackson Co. as well. Fields across from my home, where 20 years ago I could watch 50 to 75 deer any evening, I now see three or four.

A lot of the counties in the western side of state were cut back because of EHD. Populations need a chance to bounce back. Deer herds used to bounce back fairly quick but with the increase in bear population and everybody’s favorite Wiley E Coyote now they may not bounce back so quickly

Predators was the reasoning that I was given for not killing more does than buck. I didn’t know the predators would distinguish between doe and buck when chasing down a meal.

What I dont understand is the pick and choose on what county gets the earn a buck designation. Makes zero sense to me.

It is not a earn buck program, It is more about getting hunter to take more doe in certain areas where needed.

list of counties proposed change in doe tags

Even the DNR refers to it as an earn a buck light designation. If you have to kill a doe before you can kill a buck, even a second buck, it's earn a buck.

Look at the harvest of bucks per square mile of gun season and the earn a buck counties don't add up.

I have never read in any wv dnr regulation or publication , the use of the phrase earn a buck . wv dnr bases all it deer management practices around antlerless harvest numbers. Wv dnr aims to harvest 70 antlerless deer to every 100 antlered deer taken. They (DNR) will increase or decrease antleress tags to keep this numbers as close as possible.

Hoppies56 that is the way it was explained to me at the meeting Monday night.

Rutbuster , please elaborate on what you where told, if you would rather not do that is fine. Thanks

Well there is your problem. I am not a biologist nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night but shouldn't we be killing more does than bucks?

I was told that WV was where they needed to be as far as the doe harvest. They like to keep the doe harvest at 40% of the total harvest. They pointed out on a graph that only 20% of the bucks harvested were 1.5 yr old deer. He said a lot of the spikes killed are 2 or 3 yr old deer due to poor soil conditions and bad habitat. The WV system was working due to the low number of 1.5 yr old bucks being killed. (I asked him if he thought any of that was due to self imposed restrictions and he replied that the numbers can not be affect like that with just a few people being selective) I was also told that PA kills a higher percentage of 1.5 yr old bucks than WV and that PA's restrictions were not working. Ohio has a different sub species with good top soil and good habitat so we can't compare with Ohio either.

Thanks Rutbuster Some of what he says may be true. I have a couple of friends who grew up in wv , they now live in PA and hunt both states . they like Pa restrictions and cant understand why wv doesnt try something similar. Thanks again

I honestly don't know what is true and what isn't true but I do know when something doesn't pass the smell test. I know what I have heard from other people in other states and I know from my experiences in hunting that some of this is not true. If the state has a certain way of managing that is fine but at least be straight forward and state the reasons for your way of management.

That is indeed interesting. I was in a meeting with Fred Richter, Tim Reed and Chief of Wildlife and assistant chief of Wildlife 3 weeks ago and was told that self imposed restrictions by hunters was likely one of the reasons for bucks reaching an additional age class, along with opening doe during buck rifle as well as the “earn a second buck” regulations. and with WV habitat it would be likely that a 4.5 year old buck could easily have 125 inches of antler on its head. Also, if WV is where it should be as far as doe harvest why are the biologists requesting the “earn a buck” criteria to expand across all weapon choices in 12 counties this year? I heard it would have been upwards of 23-25 counties if WV didn’t have the EHD dieoff last year.

Let me take a wild guess Rutbuster, did you happen to go to the meeting in Marion county?

Bingo Gobbler. It was indeed Marion County.

I see how the poor soil and habitat is affecting those southern wv deer from the bow hunting only counties.

I see how the poor soil and habitat is affecting those southern wv deer from the bow hunting only counties.

Sundaynwv, I asked them that same question after their soil and habitat remark. They said it was due to old age and being bow only. LOL. I guess that would not apply in the rest of the state.

Old age? Imagine that! I’ve hunted all 4 of the bow counties off and on since the early 90s and have never seen a 2.5 or 3.5 year old spike in what according to the DNR habitat map is some of the worst quality habitat in WV. If they’re that common I guess I just have bad luck

I had an interesting conversation with Brian Murphy today who is CEO of QDMA and outside of some sandy coastal areas in Fl, GA, and SC where soil is some of the worst in the USA he said in his career he has only seen a handful of 2.5 and older spikes, yet we’re led to believe we have an over abundance of them in WV.

He works with some of the top Deer biologists at some of the top Deer research universities in the USA and I fully trust his knowledge base. While I’m not saying that a 2.5 + yr old spike buck doesn’t ever happen in WV I am saying that in a properly managed Deer herd in our habitat it should be a rarity and certainly not common.

We had a very enlightening conversation.

Let's see the proof in the pudding. According to 2014 deer aging data,260 spikes were 1.5, 27 were 2.5, and three were 3.5. It's also interesting to note that spikes are notated as 2 points so a 3.5 year old four point with a broken beam would be documented as a 2 point.

89% of spikes were yearlings according to data collecting by Crum and others for the DNR. So when he collected the data how can he say we have numerous older aged spikes?

18.5 percent of our harvest were spikes. According to Bowhunter annual surveys as many as 40% of deer spotted were spikes.

I have been hunting whitetail deer for almost 50 years. One time back in the 90s a fellow hunter killed a spike we guessed was a 3.5 year old , other than that one i dont know that i ever saw one.

Register here to reply to this topic