There seems to be much concern about recruiting new hunters and keeping current ones yet Utah discourages hunting by making deer hunters wait a year or two between hunts. Hunters should be able to hunt bucks every year such that they can freely plan the annual buck hunt with friends and family. You make them sit out a year or two and many will just lose the habit and sit out permanently. Hard to recruit new hunters under this system. Employing antler restrictions of at least three points on a side will allow everyone to hunt every year with out damage to the breeding buck herd. Instead of killing mostly small yearling bucks, those will become the primary breeders. The first year of antler restrictions will result in a very low buck kill as most of the yearlings will be spared but the second year kill will rise considerably. The range will have to carry more bucks but we are well under population objectives and can support more bucks. We are smart hunters and will have little trouble adjusting to antler restrictions. We already have buck antler restrictions in the management 3 point tags in the trophy buck areas. We have long had elk antler restrictions in the spike hunts where you can search out a legal 6 by 3 spike or simply take one that does not have an additional point on one side..
The trade off is that we will establish an annual deer hunt for everyone at the expense of a smaller deer kill. The older bucks will be tougher hunt than the little and less wary yearlings that now comprise the bulk of the buck kill. These yearlings have spent most of their short lives hanging with unhunted and unwary does. Another downside will be more pressure on mature bucks and some mistaken kills of younger bucks but far less than the younger bucks taken now. I think many hunters would trade an annual hunt but take home fewer but bigger bucks. Yearlings grow a lot bigger into their second year.
There is precedence, Pennsylvania had a grand tradition of an annual buck hunt for all -usually around a million hunters in an area half the size of Utah. The kill rate was low-under 10% and almost exclusively yearlings. The key was the annual tradition not the kill rate. About ten years ago, they went to antler restrictions of 3 points to a side and in some areas 4 points. The grand hunting tradition continued-you can count on hunting every year with the bonus of bigger bucks than before.
This is a no brainer WIN WIN WIN that has no real downside.
The trade off is that we will establish an annual deer hunt for everyone at the expense of a smaller deer kill. The older bucks will be tougher hunt than the little and less wary yearlings that now comprise the bulk of the buck kill. These yearlings have spent most of their short lives hanging with unhunted and unwary does. Another downside will be more pressure on mature bucks and some mistaken kills of younger bucks but far less than the younger bucks taken now. I think many hunters would trade an annual hunt but take home fewer but bigger bucks. Yearlings grow a lot bigger into their second year.
There is precedence, Pennsylvania had a grand tradition of an annual buck hunt for all -usually around a million hunters in an area half the size of Utah. The kill rate was low-under 10% and almost exclusively yearlings. The key was the annual tradition not the kill rate. About ten years ago, they went to antler restrictions of 3 points to a side and in some areas 4 points. The grand hunting tradition continued-you can count on hunting every year with the bonus of bigger bucks than before.
This is a no brainer WIN WIN WIN that has no real downside.
