wallhangr

Meant there was no way for me to answer that question from the stats they make available.

MOTOWNHONKEY

You can buy multiple doe tags here but only one buck tag. I would bet more does hit the ground here. We don't have to check in deer here. You tag it in the field and take it home.

GMMAT

Understood, Wall....my bad.

GMMAT

Chris you can shoot UNLIMITED DOES in NC on private lands......and we phone in our kills.....and we have a 2 buck limit.

STILL we kill more bucks than does.[:@]

gzg38b

It's that stupid "restricted" tag that we have. You can shoot a spike and still have another buck tag to use, as long as the next one has at least 4 points on one side. So there's no reason to pass on the young bucks because you've still got another buck tag in case a nice mature buck comes along later in the season. The problem is, because of the system, that mature buck is hardly ever seen because he was killed as a 1.5 year old.

The restricted tag isn't bad because it encourages people to shoot too many bucks. Heck, most 2nd buck tags go unfilled. The restricted tag is bad because it encourages people to shoot too many YOUNG bucks.

In Michigan, too many guys (gun hunters especially - sorry but its true) would rather shoot a 1.5 year old buck than a mature doe - just to tell the guys at work they filled their buck tag for the 10th year in a row. It's a badge of honor. Killing does is for sissy's around here. It's too bad, but that's the way it is. It's starting to change SLOWLY.

If we only had one buck tag, guys would think long and hard before blasting the first 1.5 year old basket rack that walks up on their bait pile: "Do I REALLY want to waste my only buck tag on this forkorn? Naw, I'll let it walk and wait for a bigger one..." You get enough guys thinking this way, and Michigan could be just as good as Illinois someday.

As longas the two buck system exists, in which there there is no reason to pass young bucks, we'll be forever known as the spike and forkhorn capital of the USA.

rybohunter

I'm almost positive, we used to kill more bucks than does, but with the new regs the past 5-6 years that has swapped.

MNpurple

Kinda interesting to look at.

2006 Minnesota Harvest (all types):

Adult Male: 105,769
Fawn Male:32,780
Adult Female: 105,434
Fawn Female: 26,795

Bucks: 138,549
Does: 132,229


More bucks taken in MN but a large portion of that is attributed to button bucks. EAB wouldnt eliminate the taking of these deer however as any buck with less than 3 inches of antler is registered as anterless.

Very interesting numbers, especially the number of buck fawns that never see their first rack.

YooperMike

Since Michigan is plagued by severe mental retardation at the state level, there is NO registration of any kind, so they have NO way of knowing anything about the harvest. But, the number of doe tags is very limited. So, way more bucks than does, and two bucks each at that!

greenboy

Im gonna say more does are actually killed, but if you count in the amount of bucks that are mortally wounded and not found they would be about the same bc it seems out here that we get alot of people wounding and not recovering their deer

janesburg

Are your nub bucks counted as a buck or antlerless(doe)? In WI they count as an antlerless not a buck.