wvparker

I can only speak for the farm I hunt in Dodd. Co., AR's have worked so far for us. This was our 6th year & it's getting better every year. This year we killed 6 bucks the 1st day, smallest being a 6pt. Including archery season a 7 buck total for the year. Our antlerless total was 12.
I myself don't see AR's being implemented on a statewide basis, it's going to be up to the individual hunter to do that. I would like to see a 1 buck limit, that would help alot. As for the number of hunters, that to me has dropped off. There are alot of hunters going to Ohio & Pa. now days, more so than most could imagine. I live in Harrison Co. and would like to know the number of hunters going to Ohio, I know of 20 some in just the ones that I personally know.

ash2042

I wish I had enough land to try and do a littleAR myself but unfortunately I don't.

Pro-Line

Ash...It takes a ton of land. I would estimate that you need in excess of 1,000 acres to do any good with AR's. Here's my logic...

We watch bucks all summer and early fall. We know a good bit of the bucks on our place. When the rut comes.....they're gone. My uncle owns a place a couple miles away, and they've killed bucks at their farm that we've watched all summer. That's how much they've moved.

The deer move so much during the rut and hunting season that I've learned that all I'm doing is letting bucks grow up so someone else can shoot them.

wvparker

1,000 acres would be ideal, we have approx. 425, give or take a few. One of the bigger obstacles we had to overcome other than the neighbors shooting what we let go for the 1st 2 or 3 years, was keeping the deer in our hunting area or close to it.
We had a biologist come & look at our property, one of the 1st things he noticed was that we had a "pretty woods" and that "pretty woods don't hold too many deer for long. They will pass through, but as for bedding & such wasn't such a good thing. So we timbered only the mature trees & let the brush grow. Had the loggers doze out a couple of large areas for food plots. It has helped a whole bunch.

sproulman

i like to take time to thank everyone on here for nice words etc..this is best place to tell TRUTH and not be slandered..

back to AR..we are seeing bigger bucks on publicland BUT less deer..hunters are killing button bucks..kids are killing little bucks and a lot of hunters are using kids tags,in crews, to shot ANY BUCK..

we go back to hunters..if hunters would go by book, i know that many of those spike bucks and button bucks would have made it through to next year..

this is why i feel that it should be 3 points to side for all of us,kids, disabled, military..

then AR could be something to see..BUT if hunters continue to shoot at tails of deer,fawns /button bucks dont stand a chance..

that is what i am seeing..funny, 2 of hunters i saw with fawns this year said to me, SPROUL, IT WAS RUNNING AND IT LOOKED BIGGER..

no sportsman would shoot a running FAWN..no sportsman would KILL a fawn..

is our future in danger, you bet..

i have good friend in wisconsin..he told me about the deer they had there 20 years ago..now, he said if you see deer, its something to see..

hillbillyhunter1

The future of hunting may be in danger but no way is it in danger because of lack of whitetail deer.

Misjudgement can happen to the finest sportsman, never mind the fact that some have no problem with shooting small deer/fawn if it suits there purposes. If one of my friends or I happen to shoot a button buck for a doe, we don't cry about it, we just say "dam" then move on with our lives. It's when hunters can see that a deer has got "small forks" and shoots them as their 25th "forkhorn" as opposed to big fat doe (or even mistaken button buck)that makes me wonder "why?"

sproulman

hillbilly, only time i made mistake was at 12 years old..maybe some did not have dad like i did, so they did not get chance to grow up way i did..

for adult to shoot a fawn,i cannot understand but, i am raised different..

without fawns, future in your hunting area will not be good..i am seeing this now where i hunt..

others all seeing it also..

as for AR,it will work as long as you folk, let fawns and the small buck live..

if you do, you will have something to be very proud of, a nice mature 6 or 8 point buck..

problem with pa.its only half working and could fail, if hunters dont stop shooting fawns and small bucks..

people say,OH KID IS HAPPY WITH A SMALL DOE.. give me a break..hell, i was kid too..

you look at face of kid with buck, a nice buck and then tell me he is excited about a small fawn or doe..

if we went to school and said,I SHOT A NICE BUTTON BUCK,you would be STONED to death..

now, PGC wants to make a kid into a great hunter with hunting doe all their life..

well, i am OLD SCHOOL, never was i raised to be proud of killing a doe after i was 12 years old..

hillbillyhunter1

That sure is sad to hear. I've killed many an"ol doe" and been proud to do it and had lots of fun doin' it.



well we don't look to go out and slaughter all the baby deer like an Egyptian Pharoah would, but the occasional one won't hurt anything and will actually have the lowest impact on overall herd numbers (as immature deer have the greatest chance of death anyway)



So was I, and hell, I was happy with a few rabbits or squirrels (not because I was starving), so why wouldn't I be happy with an ol doe?

I am even more happy when some nice youngster gets a big ol doe bigger than they are

Pro-Line

Wvparker...I also own give or take 420 acres. I find it impossible to manage deer on that small a piece of property in the mountainous land of WV.

I'm not arguing with you....just wondering how you do it. If we spook a single deer, it's off our property. We cannot keep rutting bucks in our area, and we have lazy hunters on 4 wheelers spooking deer on our boudarys.

It seems impossbile for us to manage them....and we've tried for at least 10 years. We've killed some big bucks now and them, but all in all I see little advancement.

Just my opinion, and not an argument.

wvparker

Pro-Line, the deer run off our property also, but they seem to return sooner or later. But now when they run off they aren't being blasted as often as they once were. The timbering & food plots seem to be keeping them around. In the area we are there wasn't hardly any good grass at all, everything was all grown up fields. We may now have around 10 or so total acres of good grass that seems to attract & keep them in the area very well.