White-tailed Deer Management
By T.R. Michels, Trinity Mountain Outdoors
June
Whitetail bucks
and does should be on their summer home ranges by June, and the
does should be done fawning this month. It's time to start working
on habitat improvement: fertilizing, mowing, spraying, and
clearing trails and paths.
Antler Growth
If you want to
see more big-racked bucks in your area the first thing you should
do is use a little restraint. You need to let the young bucks go,
so they can grow. I often hear hunters complain that they don't
see anything but small racked bucks in their area. These hunters
often wait patiently through the season for a big racked buck to
appear, then, instead of going home empty handed they end up
taking a small racked buck. If this pattern continues year after
year those hunters will continue to see nothing but young,
small-racked bucks, because the young deer never live long enough
to grow big racks.
Age and Antler
Size
Deer experts
used to believe it took 4 1/2 years for a whitetail buck to
develop a trophy rack. It is now believed that a whitetail doesn't
achieve full body size until it is about 7 1/2 years old. Until
then much of the food and mineral a buck takes in is used to
develop bone and muscle mass. Once the buck is fully mature,
excess food and mineral can be used to develop antler mass, and
many hunters equate antler mass with a high score.
A close look at
any scoring chart will reveal that it is the number and length of
tines that makes up the majority of inches needed for the rack to
score high enough to enter the record books. The difference
between a massive rack and a thin rack might only add 10 inches,
which is 1/14 of a 140 class buck, not enough to really matter.
Milo Hanson's
World record whitetail has several tines with extremely long
points, and it has long main beams, with a good spread, but it is
not massive. The length of the tines is what made it the new World
Record whitetail. Game officials aged the buck at 4 1/2 years old.
Obviously it had superior genetics, and it lived until it was 4
1/2 years old. It is conceivable that a 3 1/2 year old buck could
make the archery record book, but most trophy bucks are over 4 1/2
years of age.
In many areas
bucks don't make it past their first year, and the chances of a 2
1/2 year old buck making the book are slim. If you want to see
more large racked bucks you have to let the 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 year
old bucks go, so they can grow. By letting the young bucks grow,
and taking does, you not only keep the herd below carrying
capacity, you increase the buck to doe ratio in favor of bucks.
Eventually you will have more older-class bucks, which may
translate into more larger racked deer.
That being
said, scientific studies have shown that antler point
restrictions, whereby hunters judge the approximate age of a buck
by the number of points it carries, may actually lead to smaller
racked bucks in the future. In other words, antler point
restrictions alone, used to increase the size of the racks on the
bucks in the herd, may not work.
What the study
showed is that hunters may not be able to judge the age of the
bucks by the size of its rack, and that some yearling bucks with
larger than normal racks for the area may be harvested by hunters
(who may believe they are shooting older-class bucks. When high
numbers (over 50%) of the large-racked yearling bucks are
harvested it leaves only the smaller-racked bucks to survive.
These smaller
racked bucks may be genetically programmed to grow small racks,
and pass on that trait to their offspring, resulting in the
yearling bucks producing smaller than normal racks (for the herd,
or as opposed to previously harvested bucks) at 2 or 3 years of
age. They may also pass on their small-rack genetics to their
future offspring, resulting in smaller racked bucks in future
years.
This study
suggests that hunter should learn to distinguish yearling bucks
(from older-class bucks) by their smaller bodies, less developed
muscles and rounder faces; and pass up all yearling bucks, no
matter how big their racks are. Then, once the bucks reach 3-4
years of age, you can cull the bucks with smaller racks.
If you are
interested in more deer hunting tips, or more deer biology and
behavior, click on Trinity Mountain Outdoor News and
T.R.'s Hunting Tips at
www.TRMichels.com . If you have questions about deer log on to
the T.R.'s Tips message board. To find out when the rut
begins, peaks and ends in your area click on Whitetail Rut
Dates Chart.
Hunt safe, hunt
ethical and God bless you and yours,
T.R.
T.R. Michels is
a nationally recognized wildlife behaviorist, outdoor writer and
speaker. He is the author of the Whitetail, Elk, Turkey and Goose
Addict's Manuals, and the Deer Addict's Manuals. He is the
innovator of the Moon Indicator, which predicts peak monthly
movement of deer and elk, based on the forces of the moon. T.R.'s
latest products are the 2002 Revised Edition of the Whitetail
Addict's Manual, the 2002 Revised Edition of the Elk Addict's
Manual; and Whitetail Notes and Activity Factors. For a catalog of
books and other hunting aids contact: T.R. Michels, Trinity
Mountain Outdoors, PO Box 284, Wanamingo, MN 55983, 507-824-3296,
trmichels@yahoo.com ,
www.TRMichels.com
