One-buck proposal for the combined muzzleloader and gun seasons

[338Shooter]

What if you had to shoot a doe before you could legally take a buck in any season?

 

[willystruck]

I see no problem with what they are proposing, as long as the season limit for muzzle loader and rifle are still 2 deer. I'm happy to shoot does and stock my freezer. To make it more challenging just take that scope off your smokepole and use a pistol during rifle season. Anytime you can kill a deer cleanly at 25 yards or less you've had a hunt to remember. I don't need multiple racks hanging on the wall! I do love my venison though!!!

 

[big-triple-d]

Trophy this, trophy that all It means to me is that the price of hunting will go up. I believe it's up to each hunter to decide what a trophy animal is in their eyes. The habit in Oklahoma is so diverse that painting to whole state with one brush dose not seem like a good idea.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

Imagin the possibility of some real quality deer... One buck combined seasons limit.

 

[rlt7272]

I'm all about the new proposal.

I wish the ODWC would re-evaluate their antlerless days in Zone 10, SE Oklahoma. Perhaps their buck to doe ratio is not as far off as the rest of the state, but I somehow doubt that is the reasoning. Having only three days to take a doe during gun season and no bonus holiday season is flat out ridiculous. If you really want to increase the number of does taken, shouldn't you provide more opportunities to harvest a doe? I would love to hear the actual reason they came up with these dates.

Just got back from a SE Oklahoma hunt and could not agree more

 

[Buzzgun]

While you may have some valid points, it is speculation and your opinion that lots of people will not hunt both seasons, resulting in less tags and a lower doe harvest. It could have the opposite effect. There are lots of meat hunters that like a nice set of horns too, so if they can't shoot another buck, they may just as well take another doe. I can't say. The purpose of the proposal is not to increase the doe harvest, but to increase the age of the bucks taken.

My points are no more speculative than the idea that a reduction in the buck limit will increase buck quality!!

According to the ODWC website, in 2011, only about 8% of deer hunters killed 2 bucks and that included archery, primitive and gun seasons. ODWC statistics also tell us that archers killed more deer than primitive hunters last year and we know the proposed regulation changes do not affect archery hunters because they can still kill 2 bucks if one is taken with archery equipment. So, at the very best, the decrease in bucks taken, if this regulation passes, will be substantially less than 8% and will likely be closer to 4%. Hardly a significant reduction in buck harvest.

Have we seen a measurable increase in buck quality that can be directly contributed to the reduction of the buck limit from 3 to 2?? I certainly haven't!

Let's face it, many deer hunters in Oklahoma only hunt during gun season, reducing the buck limit will not have any significant effect on buck numbers or on "quality" of bucks out there because the proposed change does not affect someone who only hunts during gun season.

You want an increase in buck quality??? Let the little bucks walk! Reducing the buck limit will not change the fact that most of the bucks killed during gun season are 1.5 years old or younger. If all deer hunters were required to sit through a Noble Foundation deer management seminar, they would understand that the controllable factor in buck quality in Oklahoma is not genetics or nutrition, it's age, and reducing the harvest quota doesn't fix that problem.

We haven't even mentioned how extremely easy it is for someone to buy a tag for their kid, wife or buddy and online check a deer they shot on someone else's license, so much for the one buck limit!! Like dlbleak said, this regulation would only apply to those who want to follow it.

 

[Buzzgun]

Apparently, Jerry Shaw, ODWC big game biologist agrees with my "speculative" points:

http://newsok.com/should-oklahoma-deer-hunters-have-a-one-buck-limit/article/3719011

Should Oklahoma deer hunters have a one-buck limit?
Although a growing number say limits would improve the quality of the herd, most hunters are opposed.

By Ed Godfrey | Published: October 13, 2012 20
28

Should Oklahoma deer hunters be allowed to kill just one buck each year?
Heath Herje thinks so. The man who started the first Quality Deer Management Association chapter in Oklahoma says the state's deer herd would benefit.




Should the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation impose a one-buck limit for the deer hunting seasons? Send your opinions to [email protected].
Right now, there are too many does and not enough mature bucks in Oklahoma's deer herd, he said.
“That's an opinion shared by a lot of people,” Herje said. “Just take the plunge and go to a one-buck limit, at least for a try.”
Jerry Shaw, big game biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, said a one-buck limit might happen someday, but at present the majority of deer hunters in Oklahoma do not support it.
“Most of our hunters are still more interested in hunting opportunities,” Shaw said. “But it's not as big of a majority as it was when I started this job 18 years ago, that's for sure.”
Herje, who holds a degree in Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources from Oklahoma State University, said Oklahoma hunters are harvesting too many of what biologists consider immature bucks.
Although, that number has improved since the buck limit was reduced five years ago from three to two, he said.
Still, based on 2009 data, 57 percent of the bucks killed by Oklahoma deer hunters are just 2½ years old or younger, Herje said. Twenty-seven percent of that group was just 1½-year-old bucks, he said.
Compare that to Kansas, which has a one-buck limit where only 9 percent of its buck harvest is 2½ years old or younger whitetails, Herje said.
Reducing the buck limit is not about trophy management, Herje said. If a buck tag were removed, Oklahoma hunters would shoot more does, the state's deer herd would become more balanced and mature bucks would be doing the brunt of the breeding, he said.
“The antlers would just be a byproduct,” he said. “That's the focus of some people, but in my opinion, it's more biologically the correct thing to do for the deer herd and less about the antlers.”
The eventual result would be a healthier, more socially balanced deer herd with stronger bucks doing the breeding, Herje said. Oklahoma hunters would see more intense rutting behavior, he said.
“People would see things in Oklahoma that you don't get to see now but when you hunt in a state like Kansas or Ohio,” he said.


Shaw agrees Oklahoma hunters need to harvest more does and that getting a more balanced age structure is a good thing.
But the Wildlife Department worries a one-buck limit actually might cause fewer does to be harvested because hunters would spend less time in the woods with only one buck tag, he said.
Hunters can also manage their land for more mature bucks, if they choose to do so, he said. The Wildlife Department even will assist landowners in such deer management, he said.
“If they want to be more restrictive, that's well within their power to do so,” Shaw said.
The Wildlife Department will manage the deer population, first and foremost, based on what the science says is best for the animals, and secondly, based on what Oklahoma hunters want, Shaw said.
“We can provide ample opportunities and still have a thriving deer herd,” he said. “We can satisfy both sides of the argument.”

 

[Oklahomabassin]

I wish they would allow you to take your full season limit of does during the holiday doe season.

 

[Buzzgun]

I wish they would allow you to take your full season limit of does during the holiday doe season.

I like that idea!

 

[retrieverman]

For an out of stater who is spending $280 per season, I don't see why I can't use my buck tag on another doe if I don't see a buck that tickles my fancy. I know that you can do this on the last day of season, but I almost never happen to be up there on the last day. BTW I am hunting in Alfalfa county and see does in "covies".

We have been on a "one buck" program on our place for years.