2 buck limit question

[WGK]

No, of course it hasn't "ruined" my hunting.

It was completely unnecessary and really divided a lot of hunters. Tennessee was already making huge strides VOLUNTARILY. I know several people who really feel like the suburban hobbyist (or town hunters as one friend says) have forced their will on others because of the trophy hunting influence or product marketing TV shoes. Sure there will be some benefits to killing fewer bucks, but at what expense to the hunting culture?

It doesn't affect me personally as I don't fill a buck tag most years anyway, but I'm glad that many hunters are honest enough to admit they needed government regulation to show them the benefit of trigger restraint, but they would have likely caught on as voluntary restraint was becoming more and more common. And others weren't going to exercise that voluntary trigger restraint until they felt like EVERYONE was required to. Several of the most vocal proponents of taking away the third buck opportunity from their neighbors would kill 3 bucks themselves-in my eyes a display of hypocrisy although unintentional I guess.

I really try hard not to laugh when I hear "just hunt and be happy" from the guys that just three years ago could not be happy knowing that someone else (or 1 percent of everyone else in reality) might shoot a more bucks than they thought they should (or one that didn't meet their standards).

I believe management is a personal decision and best left up to the hunters. I've hunted QDM and TDM since 1992 and have learned that most can't agree on what is best anyway. About 10 or 15 years ago I realized it was inconsistent with my limited-government beliefs to try to employ government regulations to try to force my personal preference on my neighbor. The #bucklivesmatter movement will come to that realization when two bucks isn't good enough for some, or OH, KY, IL, TX, etc does something "better."

Ronald Reagan once said of Tennessee deer hunting: "If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth." take all this with a grain of salt. Many of my best friends and hunting buds are two-buckers and they know it's nothing more than a different view and in no way affects our relationships. TN is still my favorite state to hunt and has the best hunting culture of the states I have experience with.

Since you asked...

#bucklivesmatter
#hornsupdontshoot
#spreadthebucksaround







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Great post.

 

[ImThere]

still against it, there was no biological reason for the change other than to make the 1 buck bunch a little more satisfied :roll:

I don't think it made a difference at all, in any form shape or manner. I didn't expect it to.

I think the trophy hunter will not be happy until we have a one buck limit and limited opportunities to hunt. Short seasons, limited rifle hunting. I think when they get a one buck limit, no does and a $300 or $400 license so all is regular folk can't hunt their deer they will be overwhelmed with glee.

I think the one buck limit would have been the only way to see a difference


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[TheLBLman]

I think the one buck limit would have been the only way to see a difference

Wonder why Illinois (and many other "trophy" destination states) have a 2-buck limit?

You may sleep well in knowing that relatively few hunters in TN would prefer a 1-buck limit,
and I don't see it happening in either of our lifetimes.
You'll see KY go to a 2-buck limit before a 1-buck limit occurs in TN.

 

[Daniel90]

It took 1/3 of my deer hunting away with out 1 good reason imo

I 2nd this

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[TheLBLman]

It took 1/3 of my deer hunting away with out 1 good reason imo

I 2nd this

Disagree, because the real "opportunity" for most is the number of gun hunting days,
not the buck limit.

Or think about it this way:

Would your deer hunting have "doubled" if the limit had been raised to 6 bucks annually,
but the season was only 1 week long?

 

[ImThere]

I think the one buck limit would have been the only way to see a difference

Wonder why Illinois (and many other "trophy" destination states) have a 2-buck limit?

You may sleep well in knowing that relatively few hunters in TN would prefer a 1-buck limit,
and I don't see it happening in either of our lifetimes.
You'll see KY go to a 2-buck limit before a 1-buck limit occurs in TN.

I didn't know you could take the trusty ol .06 and go shoot two bucks in those states?
I also think relatively few hunters wanted a 2 buck limit but yet hear we are.


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[TheLBLman]

How would it effect muskie fishing opportunity,
if the muskie fish limit was doubled, size limits removed,
but we also had a 6-week annual "season" (instead of year round),
and you couldn't fish for them outside those weeks?

By the "limit" line thinking,
this would be a tremendous increase in muskie fishing opportunity?

Deer hunting (and fishing) opportunities are about everything,
not just limits, or any other one thing.

 

[TX300mag]

It took 1/3 of my deer hunting away with out 1 good reason imo

I 2nd this

Disagree, because the real "opportunity" for most is the number of gun hunting days,
not the buck limit.

Or think about it this way:

Would your deer hunting have "doubled" if the limit had been raised to 6 bucks annually,
but the season was only 1 week long?

Or it could have been left as it was.

Why wasn't "just hunt and be happy" statement fashionable until AFTER the 3rd buck tag was taken away?

 

[ridgehunter]

Yes, if I kill a small buck in bow ,I know I have let everything walk if I want to muzzle load and gun. That is ok if you are out there just to kill a big buck but I like to just hunt doe are buck and eat them and enjoy hunting its took some fun out of hunting for me. The only deer I have seen has been 3 small bucks and I killed one now I want to go but I know I can't kill a buck UNLESS its a big one and I like to hunt with family during muzzle loader and gun. I have let a lot of small bucks walk when it was 3 buck limit, I would killed the first deer I see during bow so I would have meat and I could kill another buck for meat if I wanted and still be able to hunt gun and never ever had any problem

 

[Mike Belt]

For those of you that fear a 1 buck limit it's a safe bet it will never happen. Granted, there were many that wanted to stay with 3 and even some that wanted more than that. Most were in agreement with 2. So if you felt outnumbered crying out against the 2 buck limit, and you really don't want the 1 buck limit should the talk of it ever raise it's ugly head, you can rest assured that the large majority of hunters out there will make sure it stays at 2. I do believe that there would be such a revolt among hunters that there's no way TWRA or the commission could pass anything like that.

 

[TheLBLman]

Or it could have been left as it was.

THAT is exactly what so many hunters asked,
when the buck limit was raised to 3 from it's long-term "2-3" (we had not been able to kill more than 2 bucks with a rifle since 1997)
just a few years prior to being changed back to two.

For nearly two decades (since 1997)
hunters had complained about our regs being "complicated".
This was in part because of various season segments opening, closing, re-opening, re-closing, etc., and it really was a bit confusing.

Adding to that confusion was our "2-3" annual buck limit,
whereby "special" weapons enthusiasts were allowed to kill up 3 bucks annually,
but the "average" TN deer hunter was only allowed 2 with a modern rifle.

The season segments were simplified by "simply" having archery, muzzleloader, modern rifle,
in that order, and no scattering of open "special weapons" season segments in between closed days for other weapons.
It is much simpler now.

At this same time, there was the issue of whether we should go with either a "simple" 2 or a "simple" 3-buck limit.
The majority of hunters truly didn't care which it was.
Among those with an opinion, it was almost equally split (at that time).
Some biologists believed it should have been made 2,
but the biologist with the most seniority on this, wanted to make it 3 --- and that's how it happened.

Bottom line, it was almost a "6 of one, or a half-dozen of another" choice,
but it couldn't be 2 1/2, wasn't going to be 1, and wasn't going to be 4.
"3" was made official.

In the years that followed, those with an opinion trended more towards the simple 2-buck limit,
so beginning with the 2016 season, the Commissioners (not the TWRA) simply made it two.

Most of the controversy would never have happened (or would be long gone by now)
had it simply been made "2" instead of "3" when the basically "2 1/2" was undone.

 

[TheLBLman]

I've said this many times, but will say it again:

The average TN deer hunter doesn't even kill a single buck as often as every 3 years.
Most years, he kills nothing, not even a doe.

Most of us posting on TNdeer.com kill several deer every year,
and we must sound like a selfish lot to any of the more average deer hunters who stumble upon this site.

Fortunately for those younger, less avid, and less accomplished TN deer hunters,
their opportunity to kill "a" deer, any deer, buck or doe,
has never been better,
in part because of our 2-buck limit,
in larger part because of more either-sex regs replacing the old "buck only" regs.

 

[TX300mag]

I guess we're supposed to believe that the majority wanted the 3" antlerless regulation to go away, too.

People have been using politics and govt to take away the rights of others for their own benefit for a long time-hunting is no exception.

The bottom line is that the suburban hobby hunter has won a couple of political victories and didn't mind at all that many hunters would be upset, feeling that they were being restricted for the benefit of the other group.

I've killed one buck in TN in the last five full seasons, I think that speaks for my personal views on how many bucks should be killed. It's been many years since I've felt the need to impose my beliefs on anyone else-especially when buck hunting was getting better and better each year.




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[knightrider]

I've said this many times, but will say it again:

The average TN deer hunter doesn't even kill a single buck as often as every 3 years.
Most years, he kills nothing, not even a doe.

Most of us posting on TNdeer.com kill several deer every year,
and we must sound like a selfish lot to any of the more average deer hunters who stumble upon this site.

Fortunately for those younger, less avid, and less accomplished TN deer hunters,
their opportunity to kill "a" deer, any deer, buck or doe,
has never been better,
in part because of our 2-buck limit,
in larger part because of more either-sex regs replacing the old "buck only" regs.

you have to be a politician , I know not one person who was in favor of losing opportunities

 

[Boone 58]

Absolutely not.................how could it since a very small % of people ever shot 3 bucks anyway? If you don't pull the trigger on the first thing with bone I hardly see how an "experience" could be less than it is. I shoot what I consider a trophy, and one year it took seeing over 50 bucks before that happened on this one.

 

[redblood]

Great deer

 

[redblood]

Since going to a statewide 2 buck limit has your hunting experience been ruined?

Has it had an extremely negative experience on your hunting seasons?

You definitely sound unbiased in your inquiry, lol. But to answer your question. Nope my experience has only been enriched knowing that a few more bucks will make it another year

 

[TheLBLman]

Between 1998 and the 2017 deer season (that's actually 20 seasons),
for how many of those years could anyone kill 3 bucks during our main "deer season" (referred to as "rifle" season)?
Just saying, the buck limit was in fact 2 for most hunters for most of these years.

It's been many years since I've felt the need to impose my beliefs on anyone else-especially when buck hunting was getting better and better each year.

How is anyone's preference for a 3-buck (yours?) vs. a 2-buck (or even a 1-buck or an 11-buck) limit
whatever preference any less or more "imposing" of one's beliefs?

There were many hunters in 1998 demanding the buck limit go back to 11 because it was their right to kill that many, and no one else had any right to "impose" a different preference on them. And they had the legitimate argument that we had more deer, more bucks than ever before, some even claiming there was no reason for there to even be a buck limit.

Actually, your imposition suggests you don't believe we should have any game laws at all?
I know you don't really think that; just saying I believe you're dividing hunters with a false imposition of buck limits carrying so much weight.
There has been relatively little change in our buck limits since 1998.
Yet our statewide opportunity to kill deer has increased dramatically over these years.

. . . . you have to be a politician , I know not one person who was in favor of losing opportunities.

And you have to be a "trophy" buck hunter? As in "any" buck is a better trophy than a doe?

I also know not one person who would be in favor of losing opportunities.
But I do know many (actually most) who believe they've gained deer hunting opportunities over the past decade.
The opportunities to kill a deer, not just a buck, have increased dramatically.

 

[AT Hiker]

The opportunities to kill a deer, not just a buck, have increased dramatically.

Some will argue it's the Nanny State of TN that is imposing laws on ALL to benefit the less fortunate.[emoji14]

So the opportunity logic only applies when we had a 3-buck limit. [emoji848]



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[bloodtrailing]

Did not hurt or help. I agree with Mike that the unit L doe harvest has hurt and increase in the turkey limit has hurt.

What has impacted deer hunting more negatively are TV hunters. Score, hit list, smackdown, trophy at any cost was not the norm when hunting was more fun.