From the Minnesota Whitetail Alliance

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Does intensive mean multiple tags? I consider allowing everyone the opportunity to shoot one doe intensive and non-survivable up north.

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Intensive means 4 does and 1 buck per hunter

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Does intensive mean multiple tags? I consider allowing everyone the opportunity to shoot one doe intensive and non-survivable up north.

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Intensive means 4 does and 1 buck per hunter

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Or 5 does.

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The MN DNR is in essence selling what equates to about 80,000 “fawn licenses”……

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It would be intresting to know how many of those tags were used for tag soup.

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The MN DNR is in essence selling what equates to about 80,000 “fawn licenses”……

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It would be intresting to know how many of those tags were used for tag soup.

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A lot…given 724K tags were sold in 2012 and the harvest was about 187K

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Does intensive mean multiple tags? I consider allowing everyone the opportunity to shoot one doe intensive and non-survivable up north.

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Intensive means 4 does and 1 buck per hunter

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Or 5 does.

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So when its not an intensive area in MN do they still allow either sex tags to hunters?

Some units allow for additional tags, called bonus tags I believe. I held these licenses in Mn this fall.

Archery Any Deer – Tag Soup

Bonus Antlerless deer(can’t recall if this was limited to archery, but I bought it at the same time and used it via archery.)

Gun(rifle in my unit) Any Deer – Tag Soup

Muzzleloader Any Deer – Tag Soup

Now, I was limited to shooting one buck, no matter what tag I used.

I did fill my bonus tag with a doe I harvested early season with my bow. I never looked into this but I suppose I could have shot does with my 2 gun tags(rifle and muzzleloader) & an Archery any deer for a total of 4 does.

I believe the bonus tags can be filled by any legal weapon that happens to be in season, but don’t quote me on that.

If every gun tag allows a doe then we are still sunk. Needs to go back to lottery.

That was kind of my thought too. Now, I was hunting private land that has an abundance of deer so that is also a caveat.

Let’s not forget that the areas of the state that only allow a hunter to harvest 1 deer can register the animal online. Even though I agree online registration makes the registration process easier for hunters to register deer, I don’t agree with it for the reason below.

For example, I hunt in a Management Zone which used to be an Intensive Harvest Zone. I know for a fact that some hunters were shooting deer the past couple of years in a the Management Zone across the river and registering the harvested deer on-line and saying it was shot in the Intensive Harvest area. They did this so they could shoot more deer in the Management Zone without losing a usable tag. I think this practice is ridiculous and was pumped to see the Intensive Harvest taken away from the area this past season. (For obvious reasons)

The # of deer harvested in the area went from 4300 down to 2300 in a matter of 4 years and I can almost guarantee the # would be lower if deer had to be brought in for registration. The Intensive Harvest Limit was way too liberal for the area but because hunters were able to register online, the #’s were inflated.

With hunters not having to actually bring the deer to a registration station the # of harvested deer for each given area is skewed across every region of the state. I know this brings up an entirely different argument but it’s true. It should be mandatory to bring deer in for registration (like it used to be).

As for the APR deal. I can see Pros & Cons for both sides. I believe there is a place for APR in the state of MN but at what cost to the majority of hunters? I like the idea that there would potentially be more mature bucks running around every year. However, I think APR would take away from the difficulty factor and could make it easier or more accessible for the everyday hunter to shoot a nice buck. Not that making things a little easier is a bad thing. I personally just think it would make “Trophy Hunters” look for bigger or better and set the stakes higher than before. It’s about the challenge of shooting a mature buck and not the size of the rack. Just my 2 cents.

I guess, I’m just trying to make a point that APR works for the purpose it was intended and protecting 1.5 yr old bucks from getting shot would definitely increase the deer population. Because anyone who has hunted for a while knows that next to fawns, 1.5 yr old bucks are the dumbest deer in the woods (especially during the rut).

I attached a few pics of a deer that was shot by a neighbor as a 2.5 yr old in 2012. I could’ve shot him 3-4 times but didn’t even consider it because of his potential and age.

Pics 1&2 show Spindle as a small 1.5 yr old 9 pt
Pics 3&4 show Spindle as a nice 2.5 yr old 13 pt

I have close to 100 pics of this deer and the rip in his left ear is a dead give-a-way to who he was from one year to the next. I know he was an exceptional 2.5 yr old but just wanted to give a prime example to letting a deer grow just 1 additional year.

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I’ve been absent from this forum for quite awhile and haven’t been following threads here..so please excuse me if this has been discussed here.

Is everyone aware that the total deer kill this year is about 46% less than it was in 2003? Are folks here aware of pre-fawn deer densities in various units around the state? Aware of hunters per square mile in units?

As an example, I live and hunt in unit 215. Pre-fawn densities here are just under 10 deer per square mile. Hunter densities per square mile for firearm hunting are also just under 10 (9.6 I believe). This hunter density does NOT take into account any muzzie or bow hunters. So…going into season there are an about equal number of deer hunters and adult deer per square mile. Yet, each hunter here can take two deer. It doesn’t a lot of number crunching to see that areas like this are being managed with far too liberal numbers of antlerless tags.

Are folks here aware that using the DNR’s numbers there were about 648,000 adult deer going into 2013 deer season? Aware that in 2012 (2013’s numbers not yet available that I can find) the DNR sold about 724,000 deer tags of all types? The MN DNR is in essence selling what equates to about 80,000 “fawn licenses”……

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Yeah, but tags sold to deer population is a little skewed. For example every year I buy a rifle, bow and Muzzy tag. I can tag a total of one deer with these 3 tags. I also buy a bonus tag to take a doe in the metro zone. So I buy 4 licenses and can tag 2 deer. My kids and brothers do the same thing. That’s 6 guys I know of for sure that buy a minimum of 18 licenses and can tag 6 deer.

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I’ve been absent from this forum for quite awhile and haven’t been following threads here..so please excuse me if this has been discussed here.

Is everyone aware that the total deer kill this year is about 46% less than it was in 2003? Are folks here aware of pre-fawn deer densities in various units around the state? Aware of hunters per square mile in units?

As an example, I live and hunt in unit 215. Pre-fawn densities here are just under 10 deer per square mile. Hunter densities per square mile for firearm hunting are also just under 10 (9.6 I believe). This hunter density does NOT take into account any muzzie or bow hunters. So…going into season there are an about equal number of deer hunters and adult deer per square mile. Yet, each hunter here can take two deer. It doesn’t a lot of number crunching to see that areas like this are being managed with far too liberal numbers of antlerless tags.

Are folks here aware that using the DNR’s numbers there were about 648,000 adult deer going into 2013 deer season? Aware that in 2012 (2013’s numbers not yet available that I can find) the DNR sold about 724,000 deer tags of all types? The MN DNR is in essence selling what equates to about 80,000 “fawn licenses”……

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Yeah, but tags sold to deer population is a little skewed. For example every year I buy a rifle, bow and Muzzy tag. I can tag a total of one deer with these 3 tags. I also buy a bonus tag to take a doe in the metro zone. So I buy 4 licenses and can tag 2 deer. My kids and brothers do the same thing. That’s 6 guys I know of for sure that buy a minimum of 18 licenses and can tag 6 deer.

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Absolutely a valid point. My only point is that the DNR is selling more tags (at least 80K) more than the number of adult deer which exist in the state (again, using their own numbers). That just seems like bad management to me. It also seems very deceitful as well as being nothing but revenue driven.

Just want to let anyone who is interested know that the MWA is not going to officially support the MN Deer Density Initiative. They state they do support what it stands for, but due to a “political move” they will not officially back the MDDI. They are certainly entitled to that stance, however when/if the push comes to expand APR’s to units where they make biological sense and where the majority of hunters support them…the MWA is gonna need as much support as they can get. They just lost one guy (that’d be me) who is pretty vocal and willing to “nut up” when it comes to backing something they believe in. We need unity RIGHT NOW…and the MWA isn’t helping out on that front.

Steve,

You do realize that the only reason MDHA was opposed to the regulation was because they wanted it to be voluntary and not a regulation right? Directly in-line with the QDM philosophy.

MDHA was also opposed to the regulation due to the survey that “hunter support” was based on. The questions were written to directly lead respondents to answer the question the way the DNR wanted them to.

MDHA certainly doesn’t advocate people shooting little bucks all the time, but they also don’t advocate regulating away someone’s decision on what they want to consider a successful hunt. A large focus of MDHA is education, and education involves teaching people ways to manage the herd.

I suggest you get in touch with MDHA’s corporate office and find out what their beliefs truly are, and not what you read in an Outdoor News article, or hear from Ted W. or Mr. Sieve, or the rest of the BWA friends with an agenda.

You make some valid points and I wish that more hunters would let the young bucks walk voluntarily but the reality is that without the regulation it will just not happen.

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A large focus of MDHA is education, and education involves teaching people ways to manage the herd.

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Where could I find MDHA’s educational information on ways to manage the deer herd?