Food for thought (pun intended)

[BSmaster]

This was sent to me today and I think it really outlines where we are in society.  This is about deer hunting but it is not a big leap to move to something else.  I almost named this thread "When opinions become facts"

 

Does are forgotten, almost an afterthought in the popular press. Does are shot for meat and nowadays considered management animals ... that is, if considered at all.

Not much is written about harvesting does during deer season.

Does are forgotten, almost an afterthought in the popular press. Does are shot for meat and nowadays considered management animals ... that is, if considered at all.

Deer hunting is virtually all about bucks.

But consider this: Maybe that old long-nosed doe is the most valuable critter you have on your hunting property if you’re after big bucks.

What?

What about the smaller bucks? Don’t they grow into bigger bucks?

What about antler restrictions (ARs)? Isn’t the modern whitetail management mantra a direct, opposing view?

Yes it is.

But whitetail management is a lot like fitting shoes. There are as many sizes and styles as there are different whitetail management concerns, ranges, properties and goals.

The one-size-fits-all repetitive drumbeat of passing on the little guys and a doe is a doe and just meat, falls far short of being the best management scheme in many areas.

Forty years ago the deer hunting code was generally “don’t shoot does, just shoot bucks.”

And back then, anyone who shot a doe was looked at as “just” a meat hunter.

“You shot a doe? Well, that’s stupid. If we shoot all the does, we won’t have any deer left, now would we? Where do you think bucks come from?”

Then about 20 years ago, the concept of deer management became popular.

And then, ironically, the opposite of the early ethos came into fashion.

That is, you are a Neanderthal if you don’t shoot does!

Now you also have to be a game manager, too.

And often, if you don’t shoot does, you are considered simply as not managing your properties properly!

It is common to hear a wide net being cast, “You can never shoot enough does.” Or they might add, “What you want is a 50-50 buck-to-doe ratio on every hunting property.”

So shoot the does and so it goes.

But here’s a different spin:

What if the old long-nosed matriarchs on your hunting property are the regulators of the rut?

What if that long-nosed gal who has been dodging arrows and bullets, out-running coyotes, and luckily avoiding cars and trucks, and meanwhile dropping a couple fawns on the ground each year, for years is an integral ingredient in our formula for success in finally having a crack at a trophy buck?

Once more the pendulum begins to swing and if that big doe does not get let walk during archery season, we might just destroy our best chance of seeing a peak rut on our hunting grounds.

The old does are as important to the intensity of the rut as their male counterparts.

I know it may sound heretical in the face of all the antler harvest restriction advocates, but it just may be better to shoot a small buck for meat than that old doe on your property. Shoot that four-point, shoot that spike or yearling doe.

That way you won’t affect the rut one bit because yearlings are inconsequential to the formation of the whitetail breeding nucleus (WBN) in any given hunting area.

Sure, yearling bucks “get lucky,” and even in some areas do a significant amount of breeding, but their main use during the rut in a decent age-structured whitetail population is to drive and push the does into the protection of the dominant breeder buck’s domain.

During the late summer and early fall, trail cameras show us that old mature does begin hitting scrapes ... that means the overhanging branch with amazing regularity. Call it the prelude to the rut.

Bucks come in, too, but scrapes are not just a buck thing, any more than fun loving is.

Scrapes and their overhanging branches are points in a pattern through the woods, a mosaic-like olfactory-based moving lek of the whitetail deer.

And this scent-driven network is created and reinforced as much by the doe, synchronizing hormonally with the bucks as much as the other way around, just as we have traditionally thought, the bucks leaving their scent-based emails along the whitetail web for does.

And it goes both ways.

It is not a one-sided conversation.

Remove those long-nosed gals from your hunting area in the early season, prior to the formation of the WBN, and you risk a dead rut or what is euphemistically called “a trickle rut.”

Take it from a deer hunter who has seen a rut begin with all the fanfare and great expectations ... and corresponding WBN dissipate into the deer woods on a property, once the two old matriarchs were both arrowed.

As in many areas of the country, we have a dense population of whitetail deer. Small bucks are a dime a dozen now and old does are at a premium due to today’s modern and fashionable deer manager rule of deer harvesting, shoot the does and big bucks, but for heaven’s sake, save all the scrubs!

If you want a good, action-packed rut, shoot a yearling for meat and let the old doe walk ... at least until after the rut.

Contact Oak Duke at [email protected].

[Lucky13]

More "fun loving"!