I'd like to start another discussion and look at it from another perspective. If anyone has discussed this before, I apologize. I must have missed it.

To begin, I'd like to ask this question.

Based on the available food in most areas of Tennessee, do we have too many deer? Not really too many deer to support, but too many deer to have a surplus of nutrition for massive antler growth.??? I know that this past season, my county (Haywood) went to a three does per day limit. That tells me that maybe we DO have too many deer in some areas.

If we have too many deer, should we even THINK about lowering the buck limit? Bucks are deer too and eat just as much as the DOES do. Shouldn't we be more concerned about deer numbers and overall health of the herd BEFORE we start "fining tuning' the ratio of average bucks (100 inches)to trophy bucks(150 inch)?

My way of thinking is this.....if we lower the number of deer in the herd, then we can supply the remaining deer with more and better nutition and thusly "possibly" see more trophy bucks.

I realize that genes and soil and so forth are contributing factors, but nutrition is as well. When the herd is stressed due to the lack of food, then one of the first things to suffer is the antler growth, IMO. Just like trees drop their foliage quickly when they lack adequate water and nutrients, it is my opinion that bucks antler size suffers in the same way, when nutrition is lacking. If nutrition is adequate during the growing period, all's well and we have average/somewhat healthy deer. If nutrition and food is at a surplus, then won't we have more "better than average" size bucks... If not, then the nutrition will go to overall health (inner body)and not be used for antler growth.

Am I making any sense here?

With that being said......should we get the deer numbers DOWN FIRST, before we become so concerned about growing trophies.....??

any thoughts?

BH

There are many areas in the valley region of Unit B that IMO the population has seriously spiraled out of control. The population has gotten to the point they have dramatically impacted the habitat, and the health of the animals IMO.

To the original question I do think that in places our herds are far too large, and need to be knocked back in a big way. However, it is difficult to do that with the tools provided under the current regs.

Sorry, but I have to disagree. It was just a year or two back hunters around here(East of Knoxville) were saying:" I don't see the deer we use to". Now we think we need to thin the heard...No...time will tell...And yes I could be wrong but I love seeing the number of deer we have seen this past season. And it seems to be working out here....