I think it is too early to tell whether the increased limits will have any impacts. It certainly doesn't appear to have any negative impact as of this season, which is slightly surprising, but I think TN hunters as a whole are changing. It could also be a result of less total 1.5 year old bucks in the herd, due to the EHD outbreak 2 years ago, which would lessen the available numbers of animals to be harvested. Only time will tell, but for now it looks to be a non-factor.

Maybe Tn hunters are buying license in other states and chasing horns and it has helped TN... That brings up another point... If these other states are selling a lot more out of state license and they have a one buck limit... Is it really a one buck limit when they have more hunter coming in killing more bucks?

Most of the hunters that I have talked to, could have killed 3
bucks, but they didn't. I wonder why? Could there be some kind
of self imposed limit going on......on baby bucks?

Bigger bucks being killed every year now. I wonder why?

It is when they limit the number of buck tags sold.

It will take time to figure out the impact. I think it was a minor setback to the trophy quality of the state, and I do not understand why they messed with it.

It will take time to figure out the impact. I think it was a minor setback to the trophy quality of the state, and I do not understand why they messed with it.

Well it seems they knew what they were talking about is why they changed it.They said all along it would not change harvest totals much.

It didn't and now people want to wait until next year.If the buck kill had went way up these same people would be saying ......told you so

They are starting to sound like Vol fans... The two famous words... "NEXT YEAR"... Still waiting.

Dam- gnb just when I was starting to like you.lol

With the liberal limit this year?Seems like people all over Tn were hating twra when they changed the limits and muzzleloader season this year.the buck kill is about the same as last year.

I thought the buck kill would go up this year a little.So what do you all have to say?I think it worked great.It gave more hunters more chances to kill deer but the overall harvest was not changed much.

I think most are surprised by the results. It appears we killed the highest number of 3 1/2+ year-old bucks ever, and the lowest number of yearlings in decades.

Heck if I know? I sure haven't hurt the herd, except for the one doe I hit with the truck...

Most of the hunters that I have talked to, could have killed 3
bucks, but they didn't. I wonder why? Could there be some kind
of self imposed limit going on......on baby bucks?

Bigger bucks being killed every year now. I wonder why?

I think it comes down to bigger horns and we can't change that... If we closed hunting down for 3 seasons, we still couldn't compete with these one buck limit states that everybody wants to compare TN too.

I think one of two things is happening, either we are still seeing the negative effects of the 2007 year where so many things were bad, EHD, Drought, late freeze, no mast crop, etc. Or maybe TN has topped out and is now leveling back off in terms of Total harvest, as this appears this will be the 3'rd year in a row of declining total harvest. We have had so many things change in the last 3 years its hard to compare them to the past. For example, all the negative affects I mentioned earlier, paired with increased opportunity for hunters, as well as increasing the buck limit, and in some parts of the season and state it was increased by a HUGE amount. It would appear the harvest should have increased, but yet its decreasing. Question is, are these changes due to hunters being more selective and using self restraint (which I think is happening) or is it due to the deer herd???

I hunt in Unit L where the perception is there's a deer behind every tree. Four of us hunt two farms, one is 240 acres, the other is 350. Any buck over 1 1/2 is fair game if he turns you on. This is the worst year we've ever had on these two farms. We weren't any more selective than any other year, the deer simply weren't there. My honest opinion is too many things have been going on the last couple of years to make a solid case as far as harvest numbers go. Hunters being more selective (the state as a whole), EHD, drought, regulation changes, lengthened seasons....all these things, in my opinion, make it very difficult to nail down any one factor as to what exactly is happening. I think after a few stable years, we'll have a better understanding.

Maybe because there were less yearlings to kill. I saw fewer than I've ever seen. Fewer does to get bred during the 07 EHD outbreak, would equal fewer 1 1/2 year olds this year. Just a thought.

Heck, all I saw this year WAS yearlings, with the exception of the 2-1/2 yr old I took during ML opening day. Maybe all the mature bucks have been killed?

I think one of two things is happening, either we are still seeing the negative effects of the 2007 year where so many things were bad, EHD, Drought, late freeze, no mast crop, etc. Or maybe TN has topped out and is now leveling back off in terms of Total harvest, as this appears this will be the 3'rd year in a row of declining total harvest. We have had so many things change in the last 3 years its hard to compare them to the past. For example, all the negative affects I mentioned earlier, paired with increased opportunity for hunters, as well as increasing the buck limit, and in some parts of the season and state it was increased by a HUGE amount. It would appear the harvest should have increased, but yet its decreasing. Question is, are these changes due to hunters being more selective and using self restraint (which I think is happening) or is it due to the deer herd???

As for harvest totals, I think we are seeing the effects of two things: 1) the herd density is lower than it was in 2006, before the EHD outbreak; and 2) the warm weather we had during the MZ season reduced deer movement and potential harvests during the peak of the rut for Middle TN. These two factors combined probably account for most of the decline in harvest this year.

Maybe because there were less yearlings to kill. I saw fewer than I've ever seen. Fewer does to get bred during the 07 EHD outbreak, would equal fewer 1 1/2 year olds this year. Just a thought.

I had just the opposite experience. I didn't see any effect of drought or EHD, except it seemed that I saw fewer does and fewer 1.5 bucks. (In fact, in 06, 07, 08 I was very concerned that I saw almost no 1.5 bucks.) But there were several better bucks I saw in the woods or caught on camera.

This year, on the two farms we hunt (my brother hunts a couple of weekends, other than that it's just me) we only took one buck, only 3.5+ buck seen in the woods, and only caught one or two more on camera. But there were does, spikes and forks running everywhere. Significantly different experience.

I think we have to keep reminding ourselves that on our properties we only get the tiniest peak at what is going on statewide. If I accepted that my experience was representative of the whole, I'd be really concerned. I'm not. We had a great mast crop, hopefully we'll get good recruitment, and next year should be even better.

How someone who practices QDMA in West Tennessee has nothing to do with my brown and it's down goals in Loudon County. Seriously, everyone should hunt the way they feel is ethical, and by the law. I'm just as thrilled shooting a spike as I am a 120" class 8 point. To me Deer is Deer. I think the TWRA got it right this year by not cheating unit B Hunters out of that 3rd Buck tag that we've been paying the same price as Unit A hunters for years.

I agree, we definitely have some things at work here in the last few years, if not, with all the increased opportunity and buck limits, we should have saw increases not decreases. I think TN hunters are on the right track with the right frame of mind. I think we are slowly accomplishing a lot of good things without having to put restrictions in place to accomplish them.

don't get me wrong i would never go for closing the buck season but i think TN would come really close to those other states in terms of big bucks and the only reason i say that is because of the bucks that i know were killed when the seasons first opened in some areas examples are

oakridge
standing stone state park
jackson co.
overton co.
etc.

i list these areas because i know for a fact what was killed the first few years they were open, giants were killed

i'm good friends with a guy that is in his 70's and he killed a giant the first year jackson was open and said all the time that he wished he knowed then what he knows now he could have gotten a few more like that he just got lucky he said because they knew nothing about deer hunting

This is a very important post Mathews338. In fact, this very experience you describe (that was repeated in every state where deer had to be reintroduced) is one of the arguments for QDM.

The principles of QDM are basically three-fold: 1) allow the buck age structure to increase by passing young bucks; 2) keep a relatively balanced adult sex ratio by harvesting does; and 3) keep the herd density well below the maximum capacity of the habitat to support deer by harvesting does.

That last point is very important. Most deer herds are density dependent, in that deer health is maximized when the herd density is lowest and health is poorest when herd density is highest. The habitat only produces so much food, and only a small portion of that food is truly high-quality food. When deer densities are very low, such as when deer were first reintroduced, each deer gets a higher percentage of their diet as high-quality foods (few mouths competing for the best food sources hence each deer gets a higher percentage of top-quality foods in their diet). However, once deer densities explode, many mouths are competing for the best foods, and often these foods are completely eaten out of existence, leaving the deer to share only poorer quality foods. Herd health declines rapidly as this occurs, as the vast majority of each deer's diet becomes only low-quality foods.

The reintroduced deer herds, once the first deer season were opened, looked just like a well-managed QDM herd. They had an advanced buck age structure because no hunting had been allowed to over-exploit young bucks hence mature bucks were present. The sex ratio was balanced because no hunting had been allowed to skew the sex ratio through over-harvest of bucks and under-harvest of does. The deer density was very low because the herds were just starting to be rebuilt. And lastly, although there weren't many deer, they were more susceptible to harvest--even the mature bucks--because they had never experienced hunting pressure before.

So you had a few mature bucks that were at their maximum potential because of the low herd density, they were at their most active during the rut because of the balanced sex ratio, and they were easier to kill because they had never experienced hunting pressure before. This situation produce the record-book bucks killed at the time. If you look at every other state where deer were reintroduced, you will find the same pattern--a bunch of record-book bucks killed as soon as the first hunting seasons were opened.

Unfortunately, that pattern can never be repeated. First, hunters would never stand for the low herd densities required to produce that maximized health (and antler growth). We will never see the buck age structure like that again (it required an unhunted herd). And we will never see mature bucks so ignorant of hunting pressure.

...we are seeing the effects of two things: 1) the herd density is lower than it was in 2006, before the EHD outbreak; and 2) the warm weather we had during the MZ season reduced deer movement and potential harvests during the peak of the rut for Middle TN. These two factors combined probably account for most of the decline in harvest this year.

I will say enjoy it while you can because they learn very quickly!!! This is also exactly where people think you kill too many, because after the first year of hunting the deer become much less visible, and many hunters immediately jump to, we killed too many, their just not here like they USED to be. When in fact all that has happened is they got an education!

I like what the TWRA has done, however i want the week after the first gun season returned back to MZ as this was really crucial this time as it has been in the past to our Rut hunting. I am not for the bow season being almost two weeks before the second gun season.

Welcome to the the world we in Middle TN have lived with for a long time! The one and in some years tow-week gap between 1st MZ and 1st gun is our peak rut time, and we pushed hard to get that gap filled with some type of firearms hunting. Good luck getting it back from us!! We're going to fight tooth and nail to keep it.

Bow Hater

That's me!!!

just pure evil!

That's what my wife says.

I liked the Bow myself, but as I have said before, just as long as its open for something. BSK if you think you had it bad for years with Archery being open, Unit B was flippin CLOSED completely on those weeks!! The best change they have made in many years was opening those closed weeks here in Unit B, IMO anyway!