I still remember my dad taking me up into deer stands at our old property when I was only four or five years old. I shot my first rabbit when I was six, my first squirrel when I was seven, my first turkey when I was only eight and my first deer by bow when I was only 12. Approaching my 29th birthday, I have taken many deer by both rifle and bow. Even those first few years as a bow hunter I refused to shoot little bucks. A trophy to be proud of is different for every hunter. I just tend to set higher standards for myself and I only shoot what I know I will be proud of.
Since my dad purchased our current property in Central Missouri in 1992 our farm has produced four Show-Me Big Bucks, including a 164 4/8 B&C 10-pointer taken in 1994, large enough to make the Boone & Crockett Awards book. (Pictures of these bucks are featured below.) While my dad and I like to consider ourselves trophy hunters, we are better fitted to the ever popular growing title of “quality deer managers.”
We began practicing QDM almost immediately. Since the spring of 1992 we have learned a lot about food plots, habitat improvement, chemical spraying, controlled burns, tractors, implements, the whole nine yards. Sure we’ll always be city slickers but even city slickers can learn how to work the farm. With a willingness and eagerness to constantly learn something new, we have created a wildlife haven.
Our initial goal was to substantially increase our deer population and allow bucks to reach 3.5 years of age or older before harvesting them. However, due to an initially weak doe harvest from 1992 through 2000, our 550-acre piece of land nearly exceeded its carrying capacity by 2001. Since then we have initiated an aggressive doe harvest while still allowing the young bucks to live.
Currently our primary goal is to maintain a healthy herd by balancing the age and doe to buck ratio and continuing to increase the carrying capacity of our land while at the same time maintaining the current population. We believe this will allow each deer even more food, thus improving the overall health of the herd. We believe as an extra bonus and incentive, the result will also be more, older and larger bucks and a better hunting experience overall.
We believe that the owner/manager of the land is the best deer manager but ultimately the hunter must also take on increasing responsibilities as deer managers. If hunters are to become better managers of the deer herd, their management skills must improve. In other words, while the owner/manager takes on the responsibility of improving the health of the herd, the mainstream hunter must also begin to do his/her part toward improving the overall sex and age ratio of the herd. The end result is a healthier herd and a quality hunting experience.
Think about it. How are you ever going to see two mature bucks fighting, growling or snort wheezing when you may not even have two mature bucks within a square mile of the ground you are hunting? “Who cares,” you say? “Wow,” says me. I mean how much more boring can it get if you are content to go out year after year and see one spike buck in two full days of hunting, shoot him, field dress him, toss him in the back of your pickup and cruise on home to show the family another spike buck. Maybe it’s just me but I’d get pretty tired of that real quick. I’d be looking for more excitement next year.
The fact of the matter is there are just too many hunters who currently have the "if it's brown it's down" attitude. While under current laws they are doing nothing wrong, this is surely not the best way to ensure a healthy balanced herd. Moreover, this mentality will never produce more exciting hunts and experiences for the hunter and his fellow hunters. As Americans we want it all, NOW! Well what if we grew some patience and made some sacrifices for a couple years? Maybe, just maybe, two years from now you could see a couple 3.5-year-old bucks fighting and then be lucky enough to take one of them too. I know this is possible because I have already seen it happen just after two years of the point restriction laws in place in our county. Just the other day I witnessed the snort wheeze for the first time ever. While I did not take a deer, I considered that a very successful hunt.
In our opinion, any change that will force, by law, the mainstream hunter to become a better manager will ultimately help the deer herd and as a result pay the hunter back with more quality deer hunts. We believe that change must be geared toward taking more does and allowing younger bucks to live to reach their full potential. The point restriction law in place in many counties in Missouri is already resulting in more mature bucks and a more balanced buck to doe ratio. We are already witnessing the deer community in our area embrace the point restriction simply because of the increasing number of large antlered bucks being spotted.
For any program to work it has to consider the ultimate well being of the resource as the primary reason for change. A well balanced herd with a more natural buck to doe ratio ensures the majority of does bred are in fact bred by the best of class each year and not indiscriminate breeding by younger bucks, that under ideal conditions would never be given the opportunity to breed.
That having been said there are so many different reasons people want to hunt besides trophy hunting. The non-hunting public would probably not appreciate or support a program on the basis that it will produce better and larger antlered deer for us to shoot. However, they would support a program that has the best interest of the herd as a primary objective if the result is an overall decrease in population thus reducing highway accidents, lowering the amount of crop losses for farmers, ensuring a healthy sustainable population, and as a byproduct gives all of us hunters the opportunity to benefit from this resource improvement process.
We personally believe political pressures from other agencies that are not basing their “suggestions” on sound scientific and biological evidence should not be adhered to. We will gladly stand behind the Missouri Department of Conservation in any political struggle with these agencies.
The first premise is to reduce the doe numbers substantially to a level that we can sustain a quality herd. The specific objectives should be set to do that based on where we believe we are today and where we want to go. There are probably as many opinions on how to do that, as there are hunters but again it should be based on sound scientific know how and not just the opinions of a very biased public opinion poll. There are several other states that have used methods to reduce their herds and control the buck harvest. The results have been an improvement to the overall quality of the deer herd and also more opportunities to harvest older deer.
Moving the doe season to late October just seems to us to be logical from a biological standpoint. Why should bucks waste precious energy on does that are going to be harvested in January anyway? Perhaps pushing our November rifle season back a couple weeks wouldn’t be very popular with those who want to hunt the peak of the rut. but if you’re hunting an area that doesn’t have many mature bucks to begin with, just how much rut activity do you really think you’re going to see? I don’t buy for one minute that most hunters see a lot of rut activity because in most parts of Missouri there just aren’t enough mature bucks to partake in it. Even though we have taken several mature bucks off our property we see little to no rut activity year after year. Maybe a few years of low buck harvests will result in more rut activity in early December than was ever witnessed in mid November under the current laws.
We understand most hunters want to hunt bucks in the rut. However, we have rifle hunted in Kansas during the second rut, always occurring the first week of December, and we have never seen more mature bucks in a single hunt. Why? Because where we hunt, mature bucks actually exist! We are firm believers in what Kansas and Iowa are already doing. Just look at the sheer number of record book bucks being taken in those states where the gun season falls after the primary rut.
The general health and sound scientific objectives for the herd should override any other criteria for change, otherwise what is to prevent the non-hunting public to come up with a non-scientific program of their own to eliminate hunting as a means to control the herd? They can insist that our method to control the herd is not working and many other alternatives such as professionals shooting the targeted population would be better. Not a good alternative for us hunters but in the eyes of the non-hunting public maybe so. “It will never happen” you say? Don't count on it. This is already happening in many parts of the world and some communities in the US.
So the other key here is how do you encourage recruitment to keep the numbers of young hunters coming into the program? Through education using sound management practices supported by science and getting that to the general public and young people via the media, organizations and educational programs. Make the opportunities for the first entry hunters unrestricted by antler or sex. Just let the first time deer hunters have some leeway. It takes a long time to get to the point where you graduate to be a quality deer management advocate. Most people won't stay in the sport if they can't get the early successes and that doesn't have to mean a trophy buck. Why deny a young hunter the excitement of taking an antlered deer, no matter how big or small it may be? So let the kids under 16 have a chance to harvest any buck, but once they do or once they reach a certain age, then the same restrictions apply.
If the Missouri deer hunting laws continue to become more conservative in regards to how many bucks a hunter may take or how large the buck must be or how many does they must also take, we strongly believe the mainstream hunter will, after some initial resentment, learn to develop more respect for whitetails and at the same time feel more gratified that they too are helping the herd. Especially when the result is more quality hunting experiences. Of course you will never have 100% of hunters 100% satisfied but you will eventually have the majority of hunters grow to accept and appreciate the new laws. After all, any changes that improve the overall health of the herd and also the sex and age ratio of the herd will benefit all hunters in the long term. It won’t be long before our short-term sacrifices pay off with more and larger bucks in the long term.
These were our thoughts and opinions back in the spring of 2004 when the Missouri Dept of Conservation was holding public meetings on proposed deer management laws. Today, we hear people all over our county talk about how many big bucks they are seeing and how glad they are the point restriction was implemented. We still hope the doe season will eventually be moved to occur prior to the primary rifle season and we would like to see the primary rifle season pushed back a couple weeks but at least we are on the right path.
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This magnificent 12 pointer was shot opening morning of rifle season in 1993 by Rudi’s friend, Jim (pictured above right). It was the first Show-Me Big Buck taken off of our farm. This beautiful buck grossed 148 B&C inches while netting 144 B&C inches. Aged at only 3.5 years, this monster might very well have grown a 170 plus inch rack if allowed to reach his prime of 6.5+ years of age.
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The buck pictured above is the largest buck taken off of our farm to date. Shot just after noon on the second Sunday of the rifle season, this awesome 10 pointer was taken by Derrick when he was just 16 years old. With G2’s over 14” the perfect 10 grossed 168 B&C inches and netted 164 B&C inches, making the B&C awards record book.
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This tall and massive nine-pointer pictured above and below was taken at mid-morning on Wednesday of the 1995 rifle season. This main frame eight-pointer grossed 153 B&C inches. With one abnormal point and very little deductions the net score was a very respectable 148 B&C inches.
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After hunting all through the ’96, ’97 and ’98 seasons without even seeing a 140-class buck, our farm produced another Show-Me Big Buck in 1999 in the late afternoon hours of the first Tuesday of rifle season. With 11 scoreable points, this magnificent buck (above and below) grosses 160 B&C inches and nets157 B&C inches.
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Pictured above is Rudi’s 2003 buck taken by muzzleloader. With a net score of 128 B&C inches, this buck just missed the Longhunter’s minimum requirement of 130 inches.
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Pictured above and below are Rudi's two nicest bucks by bow. The buck above grossed 123 and was estimated to be 4.5 while the buck below grossed 118 and was estimated to be 3.5.
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Pictured alive (above) and after the kill (below) is a perfect example of a management buck for our area. It is a 8 pointer grossing around 120 to 125 inches and estimated to be 4.5 years old. Friend and helper, Mike, took this buck in 2004.
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Summer 2006 update: With the third season of antler restriction just a month away many people in our area are already warming up to the new rules thanks to an ever increasing number of big buck sightings. Deer season 2005 had already begun to show signs of increasing numbers of mature bucks. While we did not take any trophy bucks off of our farm we certainly saw more P&Y bucks than in any year prior. Additionally, many of our neighbors either took a mature buck or, at the very least, saw more mature bucks than in any year prior. Now with the summer of 2006 revealing ever increasing numbers of mature bucks, we are very optimistic that the antler restriction program is already producing more mature bucks for all of us to enjoy seeing and hunting.
Happy hunting and always BE SAFE!