New buck limit

[walker]

I know this has been beat to death over and over so here is my opinion. I hunt east tn.and really don't shoot bucks anyway most of the time I would rather have a doe to eat.the new limit may just may help the buck age class in some places! but the areas in east tn.that I hunt it will not make a hill of beans difference because of all the poaching that goes on! twra. knows all about it and they patrol the roads all season .But they do little to stop it just not enough officers! The best I can tell is we here in east tn. lost one deer that we could take because they reduced the bucks and didn't give any more does!! and after 2 or 3 years of the new 2 buck limit I don't see it making a difference at all in the amount of big bucks tagged!!!

 

[AT Hiker]

The amount of big bucks tagged is up to you as a hunter, all you can hope for is a better age class of bucks and all the "potential" benefits that come along with that.

As for the poaching, I hate that and wish something could be done. Im glad I dont have to deal with it like some of you guys.


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[stringtalker]

I live in east Tennessee, Monroe county, and we don't need more doe seasons here. We don't have a good population of deer now. Making a more liberal doe season would deplete the deer heard dramatically

 

[WG Taxidermist]

I know this has been beat to death over and over so here is my opinion. I hunt east tn.and really don't shoot bucks anyway most of the time I would rather have a doe to eat.the new limit may just may help the buck age class in some places! but the areas in east tn.that I hunt it will not make a hill of beans difference because of all the poaching that goes on! twra. knows all about it and they patrol the roads all season .But they do little to stop it just not enough officers! The best I can tell is we here in east tn. lost one deer that we could take because they reduced the bucks and didn't give any more does!! and after 2 or 3 years of the new 2 buck limit I don't see it making a difference at all in the amount of big bucks tagged!!!

As many on here has stated bad people are going to do bad things and the number of deer a poacher kills is irrelevant to the numbers they are trying to push. IMO poaching is only going to get worse the more political the sport gets.

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[Setterman]

Nothing is going to change in East TN until the mentality of the hunters change, period. The mentality has changed dramatically in Mid and West TN, more and more hunters each year are passing on small bucks in hopes of killing mature bucks, and the results are beginning to show. However, the culture in East TN is entirely different, and around here anything with antlers is dead, most of the time up to the legal limit. It's hard for me to understand and relate to because I've been targeting mature bucks for 25 years and have absolutely no desire to take a small buck, and would be embarrassed to kill one. I live here, and talk to a ton of other hunters around here and it is just not in their DNA, and may never be to be honest.

I think part of stems from the inability to kill Does for so long that people never have come around to passing on bucks until a big one walks by, or Doe days are in. That is solely on TWRA, along with a lack of education for hunters as to the benefits of passing on younger deer. What is not on TWRA is poaching, TWRA does all they can to try and keep people in line, but at some point we hunters need to provide a helping hand and keep an eye/ear out for law breakers. I personally do not think poaching is the issue, I think the issue is hunters not being educated enough, having the desire, or unwilling to pass small bucks up to have more mature bucks to hunt each year.

One thing to also keep in mind, the parcels of land here are chewed up, so hunter x may have 50 acres he hunts, and next door are 4 other 50 acre tracts with 10 hunters. With numbers like that it can be almost impossible to have any bucks surviving to maturity IMO.

 

[Plain Old Dave]

I agree with the OP, and expressed the thought to TWRA this year. RIGHT NOW, there are two does bedded in my back yard here and we have a terrible doe overpopulation problem here in Anderson County. ORPD is contacted regularly about deer obstructing traffic here in the city and I quote from my input. Feel free to copy/paste when TWRA has more comments available.

Change the county-by-county either sex hunts to 'reigonal' hunts based on habitat. Instead of a hunt in one County then one a week later in the next County over with 1 each, you'd have a 2-week hunt in both with a bag limit of 2. Deer don't particularly care about county lines; thoughtfully and strategically reduce the number of does and watch your bucks AND does get bigger and more mature. This seems to be a much more effective means to ensure a larger, more mature herd.

Others may hunt for other reasons; I can only speak to my motivation. I could care less about Boone and Crockett scores, and hunt because I like the health benefits from eating venison. Do I want to shoot a trophy? Sure, but you don't eat horns. Once the freezer is taken care of, people like me can afford to be a lot more choosy and we honestly don't care much for being told we're lesser hunters for not passing on does or small bucks.

 

[stringtalker]

Nothing is going to change in East TN until the mentality of the hunters change, period. The mentality has changed dramatically in Mid and West TN, more and more hunters each year are passing on small bucks in hopes of killing mature bucks, and the results are beginning to show. However, the culture in East TN is entirely different, and around here anything with antlers is dead, most of the time up to the legal limit. It's hard for me to understand and relate to because I've been targeting mature bucks for 25 years and have absolutely no desire to take a small buck, and would be embarrassed to kill one. I live here, and talk to a ton of other hunters around here and it is just not in their DNA, and may never be to be honest.

I think part of stems from the inability to kill Does for so long that people never have come around to passing on bucks until a big one walks by, or Doe days are in. That is solely on TWRA, along with a lack of education for hunters as to the benefits of passing on younger deer. What is not on TWRA is poaching, TWRA does all they can to try and keep people in line, but at some point we hunters need to provide a helping hand and keep an eye/ear out for law breakers. I personally do not think poaching is the issue, I think the issue is hunters not being educated enough, having the desire, or unwilling to pass small bucks up to have more mature bucks to hunt each year.

One thing to also keep in mind, the parcels of land here are chewed up, so hunter x may have 50 acres he hunts, and next door are 4 other 50 acre tracts with 10 hunters. With numbers like that it can be almost impossible to have any bucks surviving to maturity IMO.

Most hunters are not "trophy" hunters, I myself am a "deer" hunter. I could care less about how big the antlers are, yes I do love to kill big bucks, but I hunt for the sole purpose of putting meat in the freezer for food, not a trophy on the wall. There is nothing wrong with being a trophy hunter, but most of the land I hunt is public land and if I pass a buck that I don't think is big enough or old enough, I want never have any meat in the freezer.

 

[Simpleman.2]

Nothing is going to change in East TN until the mentality of the hunters change, period. The mentality has changed dramatically in Mid and West TN, more and more hunters each year are passing on small bucks in hopes of killing mature bucks, and the results are beginning to show. However, the culture in East TN is entirely different, and around here anything with antlers is dead, most of the time up to the legal limit. It's hard for me to understand and relate to because I've been targeting mature bucks for 25 years and have absolutely no desire to take a small buck, and would be embarrassed to kill one. I live here, and talk to a ton of other hunters around here and it is just not in their DNA, and may never be to be honest.

I think part of stems from the inability to kill Does for so long that people never have come around to passing on bucks until a big one walks by, or Doe days are in. That is solely on TWRA, along with a lack of education for hunters as to the benefits of passing on younger deer. What is not on TWRA is poaching, TWRA does all they can to try and keep people in line, but at some point we hunters need to provide a helping hand and keep an eye/ear out for law breakers. I personally do not think poaching is the issue, I think the issue is hunters not being educated enough, having the desire, or unwilling to pass small bucks up to have more mature bucks to hunt each year.

One thing to also keep in mind, the parcels of land here are chewed up, so hunter x may have 50 acres he hunts, and next door are 4 other 50 acre tracts with 10 hunters. With numbers like that it can be almost impossible to have any bucks surviving to maturity IMO.

Most hunters are not "trophy" hunters, I myself am a "deer" hunter. I could care less about how big the antlers are, yes I do love to kill big bucks, but I hunt for the sole purpose of putting meat in the freezer for food, not a trophy on the wall. There is nothing wrong with being a trophy hunter, but most of the land I hunt is public land and if I pass a buck that I don't think is big enough or old enough, I want never have any meat in the freezer.

X2...Sometimes I think people forget the true meaning of "hunting" ...the buck that some may consider "embarrassing" might mean the world to another hunter. Don't get me wrong I love shooting big bucks as much as anyone, but at the end of the day hunting is about spending time in God's creation after the pursuit of deer whether it be big or small.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Mentality is the main problem in my area. Literally almost every "hunter" is a poacher in my area. If they aren't spotlighters, then they are road hunters, if not that then they at least hunt over corn,kill over the limit, trespass or all of the above. People think you are an idiot if you DONT shoot a good buck you see from the road, even if it's a state highway. There were 5 in the court report just this week for spotlighting alone and that's with 1 warden. It really is difficult to find a hunter in my county that actually doesn't poach. Despite the limit, poaching is the #1 limiting factor in my area, and there's nothing that can be done about it, it's engrained.


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[WG Taxidermist]

Nothing is going to change in East TN until the mentality of the hunters change, period. The mentality has changed dramatically in Mid and West TN, more and more hunters each year are passing on small bucks in hopes of killing mature bucks, and the results are beginning to show. However, the culture in East TN is entirely different, and around here anything with antlers is dead, most of the time up to the legal limit. It's hard for me to understand and relate to because I've been targeting mature bucks for 25 years and have absolutely no desire to take a small buck, and would be embarrassed to kill one. I live here, and talk to a ton of other hunters around here and it is just not in their DNA, and may never be to be honest.

I think part of stems from the inability to kill Does for so long that people never have come around to passing on bucks until a big one walks by, or Doe days are in. That is solely on TWRA, along with a lack of education for hunters as to the benefits of passing on younger deer. What is not on TWRA is poaching, TWRA does all they can to try and keep people in line, but at some point we hunters need to provide a helping hand and keep an eye/ear out for law breakers. I personally do not think poaching is the issue, I think the issue is hunters not being educated enough, having the desire, or unwilling to pass small bucks up to have more mature bucks to hunt each year.

One thing to also keep in mind, the parcels of land here are chewed up, so hunter x may have 50 acres he hunts, and next door are 4 other 50 acre tracts with 10 hunters. With numbers like that it can be almost impossible to have any bucks surviving to maturity IMO.

Most hunters are not "trophy" hunters, I myself am a "deer" hunter. I could care less about how big the antlers are, yes I do love to kill big bucks, but I hunt for the sole purpose of putting meat in the freezer for food, not a trophy on the wall. There is nothing wrong with being a trophy hunter, but most of the land I hunt is public land and if I pass a buck that I don't think is big enough or old enough, I want never have any meat in the freezer.

X2...Sometimes I think people forget the true meaning of "hunting" ...the buck that some may consider "embarrassing" might mean the world to another hunter. Don't get me wrong I love shooting big bucks as much as anyone, but at the end of the day hunting is about spending time in God's creation after the pursuit of deer whether it be big or small.

Agreed!

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[Setterman]

Nothing is going to change in East TN until the mentality of the hunters change, period. The mentality has changed dramatically in Mid and West TN, more and more hunters each year are passing on small bucks in hopes of killing mature bucks, and the results are beginning to show. However, the culture in East TN is entirely different, and around here anything with antlers is dead, most of the time up to the legal limit. It's hard for me to understand and relate to because I've been targeting mature bucks for 25 years and have absolutely no desire to take a small buck, and would be embarrassed to kill one. I live here, and talk to a ton of other hunters around here and it is just not in their DNA, and may never be to be honest.

I think part of stems from the inability to kill Does for so long that people never have come around to passing on bucks until a big one walks by, or Doe days are in. That is solely on TWRA, along with a lack of education for hunters as to the benefits of passing on younger deer. What is not on TWRA is poaching, TWRA does all they can to try and keep people in line, but at some point we hunters need to provide a helping hand and keep an eye/ear out for law breakers. I personally do not think poaching is the issue, I think the issue is hunters not being educated enough, having the desire, or unwilling to pass small bucks up to have more mature bucks to hunt each year.

One thing to also keep in mind, the parcels of land here are chewed up, so hunter x may have 50 acres he hunts, and next door are 4 other 50 acre tracts with 10 hunters. With numbers like that it can be almost impossible to have any bucks surviving to maturity IMO.

Most hunters are not "trophy" hunters, I myself am a "deer" hunter. I could care less about how big the antlers are, yes I do love to kill big bucks, but I hunt for the sole purpose of putting meat in the freezer for food, not a trophy on the wall. There is nothing wrong with being a trophy hunter, but most of the land I hunt is public land and if I pass a buck that I don't think is big enough or old enough, I want never have any meat in the freezer.

I understand what you're saying completely, but this goes back to the mentality I was speaking about. The view of if I don't shoot it the guy over the ridge will, so I might as well kill it is part of why East TN is so far behind the rest of the country. Sure the next hunter may hammer that deer but they also may pass on it, not see it, or screw it up allowing that buck to survive.

Another thing is the mentality that if I don't shoot it I'll not have any meat for the freezer. Granted our doe opportunities are limited we can still kill 4 each year minimum here. 4 Does is enough meat to feed an entire family for a year, and a mature doe is going to provide more food then a 1.5 Spike, so if freezer meat is the goal Does are the better option. With that said this falls on TWRA and their archaic management, doe tags are handled in an awful manner in this region, and there's no denying that.

Look I get it to some extent, but the topic of this thread is why there aren't more big bucks in East TN, and the reasons why are exactly what you say along with the overall mentality of East TN hunters. At the end of the day it's your tags and your hunt, but keep in mind the original question asked.

 

[ImThere]

Nothing is going to change in East TN until the mentality of the hunters change, period. The mentality has changed dramatically in Mid and West TN, more and more hunters each year are passing on small bucks in hopes of killing mature bucks, and the results are beginning to show.

With the influence of people moving here to mid and west Tn from other states it was only a matter of time before they started making it more like the state they left. That attitude will change more than deer seasons. It's coming. Be prepared.


the one and only "ImThere"

 

[stik]

i would wager that the percentage of mature bucks in the east population is near or equal to mid/west tn counties. sure there are not as many. there are not as many deer period!

 

[Setterman]

i would wager that the percentage of mature bucks in the east population is near or equal to mid/west tn counties. sure there are not as many. there are not as many deer period!

I don't think it's even close, if you look at the quality bucks posted here this year the vast majority of them are from places other then east tn, sure there are a few, but the numbers pale in comparison.

The reason I stopped hunting here last year is I can put 30 days in a tree stand and might see a handful of bucks over 2.5 years of age. I can spend 3 days elsewhere and see a handful of 2.5 year old bucks almost every hunt.

Seeing deer was never an issue in East TN for me or anyone I know, the issue is that it's all does or immature bucks.

I really wish it was a poaching issue, because that's much easier to address then a mentality issue. To change how someone thinks is almost impossible, especially as deeply rooted as the views of hunters in this area are in their views.

 

[landman]

i would wager that the percentage of mature bucks in the east population is near or equal to mid/west tn counties. sure there are not as many. there are not as many deer period!

stik I would have to agree, like him or not Bobby Worthington have proven it many times

 

[ImThere]

I would love to see a poll on where the two buck supporters come from I would wager it isn't from TN

 

[walker]

i would wager that the percentage of mature bucks in the east population is near or equal to mid/west tn counties. sure there are not as many. there are not as many deer period!

no dough that east TN has a pretty good population of mature bucks!but what some people are not factoring in is the hunting conditions up here in the mtns. you will not catch a mature buck in the fields here food plots or not!The counties I hunt could definitely stand to lose a few more does!I'm not saying every county here can and I'm not wanting 3 a day either!

 

[Mark71211]

Walker, if you think that poaching is a problem then it time to take actions on it. The club I'm in has 700 aces and we gave the game warden a key to every gate we have or combo to the locks. They like to sit back behind those gates and set up fake deer in the fields to catch poachers. We also report any thing that looks like a poacher or poacher activities. At one time the road which our land boarders was one of the most poached roads in that state. I like to think that we helped to put a stop to that.

 

[WG Taxidermist]

Walker, if you think that poaching is a problem then it time to take actions on it. The club I'm in has 700 aces and we gave the game warden a key to every gate we have or combo to the locks. They like to sit back behind those gates and set up fake deer in the fields to catch poachers. We also report any thing that looks like a poacher or poacher activities. At one time the road which our land boarders was one of the most poached roads in that state. I like to think that we helped to put a stop to that.

Sounds to me that in the op that the wardens know about it but it's falling on deaf ears.

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[Setterman]

Walker, if you think that poaching is a problem then it time to take actions on it. The club I'm in has 700 aces and we gave the game warden a key to every gate we have or combo to the locks. They like to sit back behind those gates and set up fake deer in the fields to catch poachers. We also report any thing that looks like a poacher or poacher activities. At one time the road which our land boarders was one of the most poached roads in that state. I like to think that we helped to put a stop to that.

Sounds to me that in the op that the wardens know about it but it's falling on deaf ears.

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The above is a statement made with zero knowledge of our law enforcement officers and the job they do in this state. There's basically no chance that a TWRa officer is ignoring poaching, and I mean zero.

It's more likely a hunters paranoia is not able to be fulfilled by TWRa because there's no violations occuring