Buck limit Change

[mike243]

Sounds like they will drop the buck limit to 2 as some folks think it will put a buck behind every tree, It might help some bad hunters kill 1 but who knows. Seems most of the folks wanting change live in area's with a good limit of doe's are possible with some type of rifle,here in the east chances are limited . reckon I may start fishing more

[gregintenn]

A lower buck limit makes for better quality bucks; not necessarially more bucks. With lower limits, people will be more selective, and therefore the bucks are allowed to mature before harvest.

[roverboy]

I don't have a problem with it. I usually only kill one buck a year anyway.

[TacoBubba]

I don't have a problem with it. To be honest, and this is just my opinion. I wish they would set a limit to 4 on one side. I think it would make the quality of hunting much better in the long run.
Another thing, harvesting a doe should then allow one to obtain a buck tag. But, that's just my opinion.

On the flip side of that,hunting in the eastern end of the state differs from middle tn and all points west. We do have some good mountain deer in this region. I would like to see them grow.

The limit would keep hunters more selective. But, hunt for meat as well so I can see both sides.


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[10-Ring]

Here are a few thoughts and observations from a guy that shoots quite a few deer and honestly prefers a doe over a buck.  I did limit out on bucks last year, none were nice, one had the potential to have been nice one day and I honestly should have let it walk and regret not doing so.  The other two I killed were scrubby spikes that were not formed well.

 

-   I'm all for this.  Heck I might even be in favor of a one buck per year limit.

-  Tennessee has two drastically different regions when it comes to deer this is pretty much divided at the Western edge of the Cumberland Plateau.  IMO these two distinct areas should be managed completely differently from one another.  When I lived in East Tennessee I didn't even bother deer hunting there because of the super conservative limits on does so I can understand the frustration of people in that area.  Again, IMO, the solution is not to keep the buck limit at 3 in this part of the state but to raise the doe limit, maybe not to what it is in Unit L but raise it some, where I lived in Blount County I could kill 2 does IIRC over a period of 5 days last season.  Ironically I saw plenty of does, even in the portions of the county that did not allow the harvest of does at all during rifle season. 

-  Kentucky has had the 1 buck per year limit for years and they have some very nice buck coming out of there. 

-  This past season I observed several bucks, I saw one with a decent rack but there were tons of 4 pointers and spikes running around.  Too many scrawny bucks IMO, perhaps a lower limit would help this, I'm not a biologist so I can't say that with any certainty.  This was the first year that I've ever tagged out on bucks and I didn't set out to do so, the bucks were just the opportunities that I had.  It leads me to believe the population may be out of balance.  I'll note that none of the deer were taken closer than 5 miles from each other and none further than 20 miles.  They were all taken in Wilson County.  

-  Instead of flat out having a two buck limit I'd like to see  something like 1 buck then another tag issued after harvesting a doe.  Or one with a rifle but a hunter can harvest another with a muzzleloader or bow.

-  As a meat hunter hunting in Unit L I'm not going to care that much what they do to the buck limit as long as I can continue to harvest my 3 does per day.  I don't care that much about taking a deer with a big rack but I'd enjoy seeing some bigger deer wander around out there. 

[Omega]

I am in Unit L and though I think the limit is fine here I would not have a problem if they went lower as I like my small does. This year most bucks on my cams showed up at night, they were good looking bucks and I would of dropped one given the chance but don't regret not seeing them in my scope.

[mike243]

Its been proven that rack restrictions hurt the the young bucks with potental, theres also not enuf doe's in order to validate a kill of 1 before a buck in the east end of the state. In this computer age i could kill a doe at day lite ck it in on my phone while I stood there looking at a buck I just shot.30 minutes latter ck the buck in. not a good idea as it cant be enforced.  Im just a deer hunter but would like to shoot a monster but I know with out a doubt that very few bucks will make it to 3.5+ years of age. When you have a large group that dont kill a buck every year they may get a chance at 1,the folks that loose are the ones with the private property that holds deer year round that they spend $ on. I dont see me changing my hunting other than may county hop to kill doe's during the county doe hunts. I try to not kill limits of doe's at any 1 location to keep the #s up but may rethink this pratice .Trophyism isnt what hunting is for me and the shows and magazines that portray such  just dont happen every day in every part of the state..

[Slappy]

I've never hunted East TN and it surprises the heck out of me that your experience has been that you see more bucks than does. Have you been limiting out with your 3 bucks every year?

Last deer season, the state of TN reports that 95,498 bucks were killed and 69,424 does were killed. That's a difference of 26,065 more bucks than does. I don't think that's because there are more bucks than does, I think it's because many hunters think that if a deer has balls then it must be a trophy. Certainly there are hunters who just want the meat and I can understand that.

The above numbers is a huge reason why we don't have more true trophy bucks visible and walking around. If the numbers were more balanced, bucks would have to compete harder and travel further to find does. As it stands, a mature buck 4.5+ won't travel far from his comfort zone because he doesn't have to. That's why he got old in the first place.

I am a private property owner. We are managing our land to QDMA specifications. Protecting the young bucks and balancing out buck/for ratio and reducing our carrying capacity in relation to the amount of food we have.

The past 3 years, we have killed does in the double digits. The first 2 years we protected all bucks. (Except I gave my buddy with Muscular Dystrophy the go ahead on a 2.5 year old 8pt). Last year was the first year we have started to see some bruisers walking around. We got our chance at one of them (see my pic below). So the fruits of our labor are paying off. In a perfect world, the entire state would adopt this fact based approach and the quantity as well as the quality of both bucks and does would explode.

I say all that to say this, that I think dropping the buck limit will help the quality of our bucks in TN and for those that limit out every year on bucks, hopefully they start taking more does and being more selective on the bucks they take.

[mike243]

spoken like a unit L hunter lol, we have few deer here and the buck limit dosent affect the herd #s much, taking more doe here would hurt. we have a lot of hunters here that dont kill a buck for 1 reason or another and if they up the doe killing the buck sightings will drop to record lows imo,

[Omega]

spoken like a unit L hunter lol, we have few deer here and the buck limit dosent affect the herd #s much, taking more doe here would hurt. we have a lot of hunters here that dont kill a buck for 1 reason or another and if they up the doe killing the buck sightings will drop to record lows imo,

Well hopefully they make changes per unit instead of a blanket change for all TN.  Here we have an over abundance of deer which is probably why we have such a high doe limit but for the past few years it looks like we have not been harvesting enough.  Road killed deer have increased quite a bit out here and much of that has been due to new housing pushing deer out into other areas but it seems that there are a bunch more deer as well.  Maybe some of our Eastern TN hunters need to come down and take a few doe back with them.

[mike243]

we have tried going to a few wma's but a lot of local hunters have not been helpful and have read of trucks getting torn up  so im about thru trying to hunt out of this area. Time will tell if changes help any body or not.

[mike243]

Well its a 2 buck limit for at least the next 5 years. button bucks look out lol ,also unit L hunters got 5 days added to their doe killing after the rest of us have to stop hunting :puke: