Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 year?

Coldfusion

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

Interesting thought. I think it would be good for specific high pressure areas like WMA's I would like to see them close them a seasons every 5 years or so. You could rotate which one is closed each year so there's other options. For low pressure areas I don't think it would make much of any impact. I would support this practice in limited use.

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Stalkhunter

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All bucks and doe would never survive due to poaching and being hit by cars and trucks. The weak killed by predators.

If it happened I would travel to my home state and hunt.




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TheLBLman

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

I think the long-term aspects would be bad,
mainly because a lot of hunters would just quit deer hunting permanently.

Gotta keep in mind our "average" deer hunter is just not as passionate about it as most of us here reading & writing about it. That average hunter is already hunting very little annually, and it might be all he needs to develop new non-hunting interests is to just not hunt for a year. The result of no hunting for a year might become fewer hunters in the future.

At some point, deer would again become over-populated,
but instead of more hunters stepping up, we would more likely just grow some government agency to control the deer herds?
 

Winchester

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

It would definitely help put more older age class bucks in the herd, which in turn would help the most for the same group of people who are consistently killing them now. I dont think a lot of people really understand that having more older age class bucks in a herd, doesnt make them much easier to kill. Sure a few more accidents will happen, but those old bucks still act like old bucks and are just as hard to kill. A lot of misconceptions hunters have about killing big bucks comes from hunting states in the Midwest where the antler per age class is quite a bit above what we average here in TN. What I mean is, a guy will go yearly to ILL. and see several what he considers shooters, even kill a good buck that scores say 120 on a fairly consistent yearly basis. He wants this same scenario here in TN so he lobbies to lower limits, shorten seasons, take the kids good Nov wknd for themselves, etc. Then he still cant consistently kill the same size buck as he does in ILL?? Reason being, hes been shooting on average 2.5 and an occasional 3.5 yr old buck in ILL. Back here in TN if he shoots that same 2.5 or occasional 3.5 he may be killing a 100" deer on average. But hes not happy and wants to know why we cant be like ILL??????
On top of all that many Midwestern states are simply easier to hunt with tons of Ag and limited woodlots, far from the rolling ridges and thickets we hunt in much of TN.
 

fairchaser

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

Winchester":b21o4rnq said:
It would definitely help put more older age class bucks in the herd, which in turn would help the most for the same group of people who are consistently killing them now. I dont think a lot of people really understand that having more older age class bucks in a herd, doesnt make them much easier to kill. Sure a few more accidents will happen, but those old bucks still act like old bucks and are just as hard to kill. A lot of misconceptions hunters have about killing big bucks comes from hunting states in the Midwest where the antler per age class is quite a bit above what we average here in TN. What I mean is, a guy will go yearly to ILL. and see several what he considers shooters, even kill a good buck that scores say 120 on a fairly consistent yearly basis. He wants this same scenario here in TN so he lobbies to lower limits, shorten seasons, take the kids good Nov wknd for themselves, etc. Then he still cant consistently kill the same size buck as he does in ILL?? Reason being, hes been shooting on average 2.5 and an occasional 3.5 yr old buck in ILL. Back here in TN if he shoots that same 2.5 or occasional 3.5 he may be killing a 100" deer on average. But hes not happy and wants to know why we cant be like ILL??????
On top of all that many Midwestern states are simply easier to hunt with tons of Ag and limited woodlots, far from the rolling ridges and thickets we hunt in much of TN.

This! Couldn't agree more! It would take more than one year for deer to lower their guard and get easier to kill. Five minutes after the season opened we'd be back close to where we are now.
 

poorhunter

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

Coldfusion":2whzdztg said:
Interesting thought. I think it would be good for specific high pressure areas like WMA's I would like to see them close them a seasons every 5 years or so. You could rotate which one is closed each year so there's other options. For low pressure areas I don't think it would make much of any impact. I would support this practice in limited use.

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I don't hunt WMAs in TN, but did in Indiana. This is a great idea I think!
 

Coldfusion

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

A few replies i think have strayed from the OP's thought. He didn't advocate making hunting easier he simply implies allowing deer to age an additional year. Also i don't think it's valid to introduce poaching and car accidents into the equation because this is a minute percentage of deer killed over all and these variables will always exist.
I do agree with peoples perception of a big buck to an extent. Overall TN will never produce IL size deer consistently, but TN does produce some nice deer non the less. In theory another year on the earth allows these deer to reproduce more which in turn leads to more off springs with their dna and on and on.

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Mike Belt

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

Something like this would never fly but I could live with it. More deer living to another year and more does dropping fawns to replenish what was killed the year before couldn't help but boost populations. The 3 doe/day has done more to stymie populations than anything else I can think of. I don't know that closing the season for a year would do much more than just closing all doe hunting for a year. At present, the buck population around me has done a pretty good job of surviving another year even with the season open, lol.
 

poorhunter

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

Mike Belt":zophs9vx said:
Something like this would never fly but I could live with it. More deer living to another year and more does dropping fawns to replenish what was killed the year before couldn't help but boost populations. The 3 doe/day has done more to stymie populations than anything else I can think of. I don't know that closing the season for a year would do much more than just closing all doe hunting for a year. At present, the buck population around me has done a pretty good job of surviving another year even with the season open, lol.

Yet another good point.
 

Coldfusion

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

What if they just limit does for 1 year. I forget the number but someone added up the total amount a deer you can kill each year if you max out every day and it was over 100 if I remember right. And I'm sorry but that ridiculous. I hunt for meat 1st which is usually 1-2 deer and then depending on freezer space I may trophy hunt for 1 deer. Many hunters could restrain themselves and contribute to conserving more. I know this probably steps on toes even on this forum but I believe we should hunt responsibly not just to go kill stuff.

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GRIT

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

No deer hunting for a year most hunters can't make it from season to season without withdraws it would be like The Purge if they went a year.
 

MUP

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

Winchester":su60xied said:
It would definitely help put more older age class bucks in the herd, which in turn would help the most for the same group of people who are consistently killing them now. I dont think a lot of people really understand that having more older age class bucks in a herd, doesnt make them much easier to kill. Sure a few more accidents will happen, but those old bucks still act like old bucks and are just as hard to kill. A lot of misconceptions hunters have about killing big bucks comes from hunting states in the Midwest where the antler per age class is quite a bit above what we average here in TN. What I mean is, a guy will go yearly to ILL. and see several what he considers shooters, even kill a good buck that scores say 120 on a fairly consistent yearly basis. He wants this same scenario here in TN so he lobbies to lower limits, shorten seasons, take the kids good Nov wknd for themselves, etc. Then he still cant consistently kill the same size buck as he does in ILL?? Reason being, hes been shooting on average 2.5 and an occasional 3.5 yr old buck in ILL. Back here in TN if he shoots that same 2.5 or occasional 3.5 he may be killing a 100" deer on average. But hes not happy and wants to know why we cant be like ILL??????
On top of all that many Midwestern states are simply easier to hunt with tons of Ag and limited woodlots, far from the rolling ridges and thickets we hunt in much of TN.


I agree with this post. And I was waiting for the "thought" of closing season as a "next step" possibility as well ever since the 2 buck limit was imposed. It would probably happen before the limit was cut to 1, yes? No?

I also wonder about deer over population as a result of just one year of closed season. Not so very much here in East TN, but for mid and West mostly.
 

Stalkhunter

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

I don't think it would be a bad thing. Just getting everyone to do it. That would be the hard part


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hunter0925

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

Coldfusion said:
A few replies i think have strayed from the OP's thought. He didn't advocate making hunting easier he simply implies allowing deer to age an additional year. Also i don't think it's valid to introduce poaching and car accidents into the equation because this is a minute percentage of deer killed over all and these variables will always exist.


I believe it is ignorant to believe poaching is a minute percentage of deer killed. Poaching is rampant and I personally know of 2 people who, by theirselves, will kill nearly 100 deer a year out of the window of their trucks, and most of them bucks. Poaching is much more widespread than many people believe, either due to ignorance or just the desire to believe it doesn't happen.
 

ImThere

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I think so many hunters would never by a Tn lic again we would have a serious problem


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hunter0925

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

Mike Belt":a08getz1 said:
... and how many times have you reported this to the authorities?

They are very well known and brag about it. Gamewardens know them by name but the county judge lets them off every time they are caught. It helps that one of them was the best man at the judges wedding. Gamewardens have their hands tied when a judge refuses to prosecute.
 

TheLBLman

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Re: Thought experiment:What if we closed deer season for 1 y

hunter0925":1xlkbvge said:
Mike Belt":1xlkbvge said:
... and how many times have you reported this to the authorities?

They are very well known and brag about it. Gamewardens know them by name but the county judge lets them off every time they are caught. It helps that one of them was the best man at the judges wedding. Gamewardens have their hands tied when a judge refuses to prosecute.
Exactly.
Some judges (especially the few who are themselves hunters or fishermen) will prosecute wildlife crimes, others believe wildlife crime is a trivial matter.
 

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