Unit L doe limit

[Nevermind]

And while I'm thinking of things cuz I'm bored on a Saturday night and refuse to work...

I just picked up a lease with my closest bud (and my dad and my brother) in Unit L and although we're excited about the unlimited opportunities we have... isn't three does a day excessive?

 

[scn]

The purpose of the Unit L doe limit was to give persons with limited time afield the ability to do herd management with their limited time in the field. It was never designed as a mandate to shoot every doe you see.

If you checked the kill statistics, you would find that very few hunters take even a daily limit of antlerless deer. The limiting factor isn't really the limit, but is freezer space and processing time/costs. Thus far, it appears that the limit is working as we hoped and is not a problem.

 

[BigGameGuy]

I see you come from the "highlands" (Nooga) so these liberal regulations must be new to you. Fear not, we got it under control, I'm just glad you're interested enough to ask a question.

As you know Unit L sits primarily in the Central Basin, Highland Rim and Coastal plain. These three physiographic regions comprise the best deer habitat in the state of Tennessee. There is a tremendous amount of diversity with a good scattering of forest lands and grasslands. This creates a tremendous amount of edge effect which deer thrive on. Because of this, we see our highest deer densities in these areas. Our thermal imaging surveys which were conducted a few years ago revealed densities as high as 30 deer per square mile POST hunt. That's pretty thick!

In an effort to reduce and/or maintain the deer herd we wanted to send a message to all of our deer hunters that it is okay to shoot does, hence a 3 does per day bag limit. First of all, we knew our hunters would not go crazy killing deer simply because many factors limit them. First and foremost, freezer space usually means most people are happy with one or two deer. Then there's time restraints, spousal restraints (are you done hunting yet??), and plain old some folks just aren't that good. Anyhow, when you look at the stats about half of the hunters don't even kill a deer, and the majority of the rest only kill one. That leaves only a handful of hunters to do most of the killing. In order for them to do that, we wanted them to be able to kill up to three deer per day.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard people say, I shot three deer in one day once and I'll never do that again (Deer Assassin the exception). Anyhow our regulations in unit L allow hunters the freedom to manage their properties as they see fit with little concern of overharvest. The crazy thing is, even though you have practically unlimited does and only three bucks, the majority of unit L counties continue to harvest slightly more bucks than does. Anyway, it has worked well for about seven or eight years and we have yet to pull the county out of unit L.

Did that answer your question?

 

[BigGameGuy]

Or what Steve said.

 

[Nevermind]

Or what Steve said.

I snorted laughing at that, sorry. Both good answers; never a bad day when I get to hear about biodiversity and edge effect.

 

[Frank G]

I'm in unit L, I took 2 only one time I donate 2 > 3 a year. Having said that ....... not again, it is a lot of work . Had to take the next two days off just to rest, I was beat!

 

[TAFKAP]

�..The crazy thing is, even though you have practically unlimited does and only three bucks, the majority of unit L counties continue to harvest slightly more bucks than does.

Does the TWRA find this coincidental, or might there be a relationship between a healthy doe "harvest" and buck kills?

 

[BigGameGuy]

In a perfect world there'd be a 50-50 buck-to-doe kill. Then there's no was any ratios could be skewed and the only worry is keeping the herd within the means of the habitat.

 

[encore06]

.....

First and foremost, freezer space usually means most people are happy with one or two deer. Then there's time restraints, spousal restraints (are you done hunting yet??), and plain old some folks just aren't that good. Anyhow, when you look at the stats about half of the hunters don't even kill a deer, and the majority of the rest only kill one. That leaves only a handful of hunters to do most of the killing. In order for them to do that, we wanted them to be able to kill up to three deer per day.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard people say, I shot three deer in one day once and I'll never do that again (Deer Assassin the exception). Poor ole DA.

...