This autumn’s historic flood closed roads, fisheries and hunting seasons, but how does it compare to past flood events?
A couple of weeks ago I was hunting in the Tree Blind (same stand where I killed the 8-year-old doe) in Clinton. At 5:05 p.m., a young buck walked out of the pine plantation into the patch and began eating winter grass and clover.
I checked it out with the binoculars and decided it was a 1 ½-year-old deer that probably weighed 100 pounds; the right spike was about 1 ½ inches long but the left spike was only a rounded stub about 3/8 inches, not a legal point (legal points are greater than one inch). On the B&C scale this buck would have scored zero since the left side measurements (all zeros because the main spike was not 1”) had to be subtracted from the right side measurements.
This 1 ½-year-old buck was below the average in live weight, number of antlered points and spike length for deer in the southeast mixed pine/hardwood habitat. Because the buck is already below the average for 1 ½-year-olds and because it only has limited available browse (mainly privet, yaupon and horse sugar), and because the acorn crop is gone, it will not “catch-up” and become a top-end adult buck. While the food plots have quality forage, there is simply not enough of it to do any good. There is no reason not to harvest an animal such as this, but not wanting to burn my third buck tag with two more weeks of hunting left, I let it walk off.
Two-year-old bucks in the southeast mixed pine/hardwood habitat in Louisiana average 145 pounds, 6 ½ antler points, 3-3 inch base circumferences, 13-inch main beams and an 11-inch inside spread. There is no way this 1-point buck would be able to make these averages for 2-year-old bucks. Harvest the buck and let the forage that it is eating hopefully be eaten by another 1 ½-year-old buck with more potential. The only chance for that inferior deer to “catch-up” would be to remove it from the native habitat and put it in a pen and feed it a high-protein diet for the next few years.
Most of the research that says don’t shoot spikes because it is too early to determine what they will become was done in deer pens or land where deer have access to feed every day.
In the real piney woods world of southeast Louisiana, low-end bucks do not “catch-up.”
This morning (Jan. 27), I was hunting a hardwood drain on some private land adjacent to the property we hunt on. I had hunted this drain one day during the opening week of primitive hunting in November and saw a doe and fawn. I eased into the south end of the drain well before daylight, and sat down with my back against a big water oak tree. It was a beautiful morning, cold and crisp, with a light freeze and very little wind. I did my usual grunting with my Haydel grunt call and a doe bleat call. I would call about every 30 minutes, but the only movement in the woods was the squirrels. At 8 a.m., I picked up and moved to the north end of the drain: the spot I had hunted the first week.
I noticed several nice rubs on some trees in front of me and eased down on the ground against a tree that was in front of a tree knocked down during Gustav. I picked up the Haydel grunt call and made a series of grunts.
I was looking to the right and thinking how great the morning was; turning to my left I saw a nice buck standing on a ridge across the creek from me looking in the direction I had been looking. I could see that it was an adult buck with good beams but not many points. When I raised my .54 caliber Rolling Block, the buck turned and stared at me. I settled the crosshairs on the neck and fired. The buck collapsed immediately.
I crossed the creek and checked out the buck. My biologist side kicked in, and I fleshed out the skin around the lower jaw and checked the age. It was a 4 ½-year-old deer with heavy beams but only six points. I later took the antler measurements when I got it to the truck: 20 ½-inch main beams, 4 ½-inch bases and 14 ½ inches on the inside. It weighed in at 150 pounds.
The buck was in full rut, the tarsal glands were black and stinking, and there was fresh tree bark at the base of the antlers. There were probably half-a-dozen rubs in the area where the buck fell. This is the second peak of breeding in the Clinton area, and this buck was out looking for a hot doe.
When compared to the average 4 ½-year-old-plus buck for southeast mixed pine/hardwood habitat, this buck was below average for number of points (6 instead of 8), above average for main beam length (20 ½ inches instead of the average of 18.2), below in body weight (150 pounds compared to the average of 168) and average for base circumference (4.4 inches is the average) and inside spread (14.8 inches is the average).
The fact that this buck was in heavy rut would explain the low body weight. The lack of antler points could be a genetic trait for this deer since it was average in most other categories. If it is genetics, this deer has been passing on its genes for four years. This was a buck that probably would have been average at 1 ½ and 2 ½ years and below average for points as a 3 ½-year-old. Knowing what the growth and development trends are for these deer in the various age classes helped me in making the decision to harvest it.
The kidney fat level for this adult buck was in the low category. Without a mast crop to provide some good energy once this second rut is over, the buck would have had to depend on winter browse to maintain itself and hope that spring green-out came early. This is one year that it would be beneficial to the deer herd for managers to continue feeding deer once the season ends. Corn is a good substitute for mast, and they need energy food for body maintenance during the remainder of the winter. If deer are in good condition when spring arrives, the deer will be able to utilize more of their forage for body growth and antler development.
