Winchester said:
Wes, why do you feel that antler high grading is so much more of a problem in your area than anywhere else in TN? We all have the same seasons and the same bag limits (Buck wise).
I don't necessarily feel that antler high grading is more a problem in my main hunting area than "anywhere else in TN", but do think it's more an issue in my area than in more rugged terrain areas (such as much of East TN).
My main hunting area is an area of large QDM clubs, one club after another joining another, covering many square miles. They are not all practicing the same level of QDM, but I can say most have harvested more female than male deer many years running. I can also say that most bucks age 2 1/2 or younger with below average antlers for their age class are typically allowed to walk by not one, but by multiple hunters, often several different hunters passing the same buck in the same day.
Would also say as a "group" of hunters, hunters in a controlled club situation are commonly hunting "less disturbed" deer (move more in daylight) than hunters who come and go on either public land or where the landowner let's several people hunt who don't know each other.
It may be that the average deer hunter in my "club" circumstance is far more experienced than just the "average TN deer hunter". For example, most of the hunters in this group and surrounding groups each average killing multiple deer annually, probably about 3 a year each on average. Statewide, the average is quite a bit less than one deer annually.
Over the years I've noticed that whenever there is a top-end 2 1/2 (say one scoring around 115 or better), that buck will almost always get killed by the first hunter he walks by. Yet, when a 4-point 2 1/2 is identified, he will be allowed to walk by multiple hunters multiple times over the course of the season.
I would say most of the 2 1/2's survive to 3 1/2, but we're observing similar harvest patterns on the 3 1/2's. The best 3 1/2's are the least likely ones to make it to 4 1/2, while the very small antlered 3 1/2's are repeatedly passed by multiple hunters (just like me and you).
By the time we get to the 4 1/2-yr-old age class, what's left are mostly the smallest of the smallest racked bucks that ran the gauntlet of hunters as 2 1/2's and 3 1/2's. Yes, it is possible for a genetically superior antlered young buck to survive to 4 1/2 or older, just saying it seldom happens in my hunting area.
This may be antedotal, but something many can relate.
Why is it that so many of our top-end antler scoring records were set back decades ago when our statewide deer population was maybe 100 times less, and the annual deer harvest was less than 1% what it is today?
Note that the TN state record typical was killed in 1959. The highest scoring bucks from the Catoosa WMA have not been killed following years of QDM, were not killed when Catoosa had a high deer population pre-QDM, but were in fact killed back in the 1960's, or was it the '50's? Part of the answer may have to do with age. But I suspect less high-grading back then made it more likely for a genetically superior young buck to survive to maturity.
And then why is it that most of the records being broken today (in lots of states) are being broken by bucks that are only 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 years old? Remember that "world record" Milo Hansen buck? 3 1/2. The answer to this question is simply because we have so many more deer that we're more likely to encounter that 1 in 1,000,000 that grows a 180-plus rack at a young age. But "imagine" what those could become by 5 1/2.
Winchester said:
As I stated before, many times a buck can go either way, especially growing out of maybe being a late fawn or having a ruff first year.
Very true.
However, "when born" (early or late), stress, and food supply become lesser issues by 4 1/2 or older.
