As we approach a firearm season, most bowhunters will swap equipment. Deer hunters will be shooting deer at longer distances. That, will lead to some, maybe many, small bucks being shot, thinking they were does. Since the abolishment of the “anterless” deer category, those bucks will cost you a buck tag.
More hunters than I care to think about, will check those deer in online and call them does. That does not hurt our deer population a bit. But it certainly has two, adverse affects. (1) It makes liars out of some normally honest hunters. (2) Worse, it nullifies all the harvest data. This was and is, a bad move on the part of the Commission. Abolishing that category without any cause, biological or otherwise, was just plain stupid. Of course, now that those small bucks are included in the antlered deer category, it sure makes those numbers look good.
If you feel as I do, contact your commission representative and voice your opinion. Reducing the buck limit from three to two, without a biological reason was bad enough. But I can live with that. But when you combine that with abolishing the antlerless category, you might just as well have gone back to the 11-buck limit of 20-years ago.
Again, just my opinion and you can be sure my commission representative knows exactly how I feel. How about you do the same. If you do not know who your rep. is, you can contact the chairperson at this email address. [email protected]. Please let your feelings be known