i'm game

Gauranteed it works. Thistlethwaite is in its fourth year
of a 10 year experiment with a four point rule on one side or a spike, or doe being a legal deer. I saw the data and its speaks for itself. They have stats from 1999 to 2009 (not sure of exact years) anyway over the past 3 to 4 years, you see a decrease in the younger bucks killed and an increase in the older bucks being killed. This data can definitly make the case for antler restrictions. If people would make the sacrifice for three to four years, it wouldn't be long before they would be reaping the benefits. This is not my opinions, this is cold hard facts from the spread sheet that I saw on Thislethwaite WMA.

It has nothing to do with the 'health' of the herd. Its all about the horns. Its all about expectations, money, bragging rights and 'city slickers' needing a guaranteed shot when they're too lazy to put in the time and effort to HUNT.

No one makes money in this event. QDMA provides health management and so does Universities if you ask. Knowledgeable clubs offer themselves nutritional avenues by seasonal planting. Public areas dont make money from this idea. So what if the horns get bigger....... Thats a bonus! If your wanting meat there is always a willing doe to feed your family! If thats too much try coon! It is nice to know that management pays off. Esp when your in an area that has goofed up horns and every 2 year old is shot. For the most part it is discouraging to sit on a stand and watch spikes and yearlings, scrubs etc all day! Just my opinion ..... Management of anything works!

I personally don't like the doe rule now. It is a good limit, but on clubs that have alot of members it adds up ! I think we need a law to let young spikes 8 inches or less walk. The cow horn spikes that have 13-16 inch spread need to be taken out. Just my 2 cents...........

slickhead-slayuh it sounds like you just want to live up to your name sake and shoot a bunch of does. 5 does is too much.

I would like to see some kind of management across the state. Maybe like some of the northern states, take a doe before you can take a buck. From all I have read, the doe population could use a drastic reduction. We have the potential for some very good bucks if we let them walk a couple of years. I have a buck that I let walk last year, 3 point, and this year he is a 7 point. Will let him walk again this year, to see what he will be at 3 1/2 years.


Warren

I agree but in the basin leave the doe limit as is there are not as many doe in this area as other places. I think there should be certian doe days like it use to be out there.
Just my opinion.

I think they should open dog hunting state wide including WMA. That should be a good program.

Nope. I like the 5 does thing, because it gives you more flexibility to manage does for clubs that have few people and alot of land. Often times the problem with people's herd is not shooting enough does. I am 100% against any kind of rack-size restrictions anywhere, especially on private land. Regulations should be about managing the quantity of deer, not the quality. Antler restrictions are a type of trophy management, not herd management, and nobody should be forced to be on a trophy management program. If you have a healthy herd, you will have some good bucks.

I feel the same. One of the places I hunt has many 2.5 - 3yrs bucks that grow very little antlers(spikes only 2in). It could be genes or food source but that would limit me from shooting any on that land.

i am a QDMA-Manager , miss.'s regulation/quality is a great big mess, they don't know what to do if this change fails ,, talk is stopping all buck shooting for 3 years , just talk in management practices in miss. imagine if that happens. this year you will see a 75% decrease in buck harvest if reporting is correct.

i can remember a really big post on here about a month or two ago where most posters were complaning about not seeing enough deer in La. to kill more than one ,, i for one think La.'s program is wel balanced,

i hunt all over this state and see no overcrowding and very litte undernurshided deer in this state. i run 2 clubs and one is 3point , the other is 7 point, both clubs each year have very large racks come off of them, the 3 point club ends up with only a few more 4's and 5's that the other don't get ,, only a few each year , so i strongly believe La. is balanced.

louisiana has more hunter ethics than most of the country ,,, Miss. kills over 100,000 button bucks each year ,, La. is half that, comparing to approximatily the same doe harvest. these reports go back 10 years ,, they are accurate, Just my 2c. A.B.

There will never be a time of no killing bucks for three years. The insurance lobbyists have the legislature in their back pocket, they control the amount of deer killed not you, not some qdma manager, not some biologist. They want as many deer killed as possible so they don't have to pay for you to get your car fixed when you hit one or worst yet get killed when you hit one. Deer seasons have absoutely nothing to do with quality deer management, it is strictly a numbers game. I am actually shocked they have these new regulations in MS, they probably did this to increase the number of does killed, in their mind the less does the better. They figure you will give up on waiting for a legal buck and just waylay a few breeding does.

I am involved in two large privately owned clubs(both over 1800acres) in miss. and we shoot wall hangers and does only
It is amazing to be able to go on stand and see 5 bucks and not just shoot the first one you see like in La where as soon as a buck crosses the property line he's dead meat. It is something I never experienced hunting LA as a child b/c we went by 'if its brown its down' which is how most ppl hunt.I am a firm believer in killing does, the regions of LA that I hunt have about a 1:5 buck to doe ratio, Im not saying that everyone should shoot every doe they see, if we could only get this down to 1:2 or even 1:3 I think it would be a great improvement.I also think passing spikes and any 1.5 yr. old buck should be a mandatory rule on all WMA's and optional on private land
I personally try to shoot only 3.5 yr old bucks and better (i dont always succeed at this but i do more times than not)

also anything statewide wouldnt be good, MS based their system off of regional soil types, and kids 16 and under would be able to shoot one buck each year that didnt meet the antler requirements

Keep it the way it is! Thank you LDWF for doing such a fine job of managing our resources!

Herds are increasing and harvest are good and way better than years ago!

You guys that want to hunt trophies;set the rules for yo'peice of ground (private or leased)and leave the rest'us to hunt whats legal and use'm up those tags they keep giv'n us!!!

any more opinions, need input for a college assignment

Call LDWF and see if you can find a number for either Dave Moreland or Justin Thayer. Dave's recently retired from LDWF as the state's whitetail expert. Justin just completed his Master's Degree telemetry project at LSU watching West Baton Rouge bucks and their development over several years. Both are extremely well informed and would probably give you an earful.

I gave up Hunting in Louisiana for Mississippi 4 years ago. I really enjoy it so much more. I love the restrictions because it gives my grandsons and I a lot of Young bucks to look at all the time. I saw 37 deer in one sitting last year and 16 were bucks. I would sit on my stand in Louisiana and just pray to see a yearling just to say I saw a deer. There were pleanty deer where I hunted they were just all nocturnal. Putting out 1000's of pounds of corn and running of dogs day in and day out all year make them only move at night. In Mississippi I see Deer all day long My favorite time to hunt is 8 to 1 in the day. I hunt acorn trees mostly and I see deer all day long. I shot one doe last year and it was because of my choosing not because it was the only deer I saw all year. My kids and grand kids kill enough for meat that I don't have too. I can just sit back and enjoy watchuing them. Mississippi people for the most part don't litter up the woods and trash there hunting spots but as soon as someone from Louisiana comes around trash gets left every where. I just don't Understand. I will hunt in Mississippi till I die.

Something like 85% plus of Louisiana deer hunters do not kill more than two bucks a year. If the statewide limit is now three bucks per hunter how is limiting 15% of the hunters going to improve age structure among bucks very much at all. I read the reports that past LDWF deer expert Dave Moreland wrote about the Tri Parish 6 point or better experiment a couple of years ago. I am glad he retired. The report focused on improving antler size among age classes rather than recruitment of deer into older age classes regardless of antler size. Of course age class antler size did not increase because of the passing of younger bucks. That would take culling by very educated hunters, if it would even work at all. Plus don't forget does carry horn genes also. How do you select for that. I personally think that many programs fail because of neighboring properties shooting young bucks. If something is done on statewide level results would be different. Like someone mentioned earlier a real life trial of this is going on at Thistlewaite. Maybe the results from that should serve as an example of what can happen. Good or bad.

I would like to see some type of antler rule because I know it works. I think the state needs to make more management areas with selective buck hunting so people have a choice what they want to hunt for.

no matter how long you boil the horn you still cant eat them.i hunt cause of the meat.

That what i am talking about that way you have a choice. Some people just need one or two deer to eat and would like a rack others are greedy and think everyone should be the same way.

slick head this is a good post , i see every type of different opinion's here ,,, that democracy at it's best ,,,
Question for all who love Thistlewaite and what has happened at Thistlewaite in the last 5 years (meaning the nice racks taken out of the management)? question isd do you know why the manaagement is undergoing major forrestry cutting ? ,, let me know if you do ,, I do ,, i love Thistlewaite also ,, but i have info that might suprise some of you.

Well, the devil's in the details of the program, but I wouldn't mind seeing a 4 point or better rule implemented some how.And having doe days might have been better. However, sometimes you need to take "mature spikes" or "scrub bucks" out of your population, so how would you work that? I hunt with guys that have that attitude-"If it's BROWN,it's DOWN!" no matter how small the deer is. This is why we hunt many days with no luck at my club. They don't give the herd time to replinish itself. Every doe in the woods gets taken in the 1st week with the present system.No does=no babies.

I Personaly don't like just an antler restriction. I like to have point,beam and weight but you have to start some where that is not to complicated for everyone. We need to keep youth and new hunter interested.

To all you Mississippi guys...

If it werent for your surrounding states you all would starve to death. If you dont like us shooting your "game" dont come here and take our "jobs".

When I hunt/fish Missislickwilly anything legal comes to my freezer. :::))))

Just to clarify since there seems to be some confusion. Mississippi no longer has ANY point restrictions. For a buck to be legal it either has to have main beams of over a certain length OR a spread of a certain width. This allows the taking of so called cull bucks. It is designed to not encourage the killing of the better 1.5 year old deer like the old system did.

Its best to shoot your younger bucks earlier and your bigger bucks later. This ensures your bigger bucks make it through the rut.

I have been employing this ideal on my property for 3 years and it is working...

everyone has different views , i used to shoot the first deer i seen ,because where i hunted there wer'nt many deer.
some people hunt for food and i think those people should
shoot whatever is legal. some people hunt for the love of the sport. some people hunt for the challenge of finding and connecting on the big one. i hunt for all of these reasons. I have been around enough to know that there is plenty oppertunities for all of us.

LOUISIANA SPORTSMAN PARADISE LOL