Hunting Mature Deer
The secret to killing mature bucks during hunting season means implementing harvest management: Don’t shoot them. Well, at least not while they are young. If bucks are protected when they are young and allowed to age then they will become mature. Makes sense, right?
Shooting mature bucks down the road means not filling your tag/s with young and middle-aged bucks this year, or maybe even next year. More and more deer hunters are subscribing to this deer management philosophy. But at some point, young bucks grow up to be old bucks. And shooting older bucks is exactly what US hunters did during the 2014-15 deer season.
The deer harvest data we are discussing today is from the season prior. It takes some time to compile the information from each state and put it into a cohesive report. It will be equally interesting to see how the 2015-16 whitetail season shakes out.
Deer Management Practiced, Bucks Mature
According to harvest data compiled by the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) in its 2016 Whitetail Report, deer hunters in the United States tagged more mature white-tailed bucks than 1 1/2 year old (yearling) bucks for the first time in recent history. Yearling bucks comprised 33 percent of the buck harvest, continuing the steady decline since 1989 when yearling bucks made up 62 percent of the buck harvest.
Source: “Since QDMA was founded in 1988, we’ve watched the harvest pressure on yearling bucks decline steadily from the extremes seen after restoration, and this resulted in climbing rates of mature-buck harvest as more older bucks became available. However, the 2014-15 season will be remembered as the first where the two trends intersected and hunters took more mature bucks than yearlings.
“The ongoing decline in harvest pressure on yearling bucks means that more and more hunters are enjoying an opportunity to see and kill mature bucks. They’re also enjoying other benefits of hunting deer populations with healthy numbers of older bucks, like intensified rut activity, more rubs and scrapes, and better success with rattling and grunt calls. This is good for hunter retention and participation, which is good for ensuring the future of deer hunting.”
Top States for Mature Whitetail Bucks
According to the 2016 Whitetail Report, the top state that killed the most mature bucks during the 2014-15 season was Mississippi, where 74 percent of bucks killed were 3 1/2 years old or older, followed by Arkansas and Louisiana at 67 percent, Texas at 62 percent and Oklahoma at 60 percent. The 5 states also had low harvest rates for yearling bucks.
Complete state-by-state estimates of total buck harvest, buck age structure, and other harvest data are available in the full Whitetail Report. This document is chock-full of deer data for the 26 reporting states, which includes most of the white-tailed deer’s range. I recommend checking it out for some interesting and eye-opening reading.
Will the trend of killing more mature bucks continue in your neck of the woods? That’s to be determined, but the trend is definitely our friend in this case. Harvest data suggests that whitetail hunters are increasingly passing on young bucks during the hunting season so we should all be very optimistic about the deer hunting seasons ahead!
Managing for Maturity
Passing on young bucks is easier said than done. We are all human, so we all have a desire for immediate gratification. Deer hunting is no different. Besides, there are ways to avoid eating tag soup over winter. First, start out with a plan. A deer management plan is a great first-step towards putting population management and a harvest strategy into action on a property.
The initial steps will involve figuring out what you have to work with, taking inventory of both plant communities and the deer found on a property. Next, it will be a matter of identifying your goals and establishing objectives so that you can get there. If one of the goals is to kill mature bucks, then it’s going to take hold off on younger bucks during the hunting season. Again, it’s not easy. Having a plan that can serve as a roadmap, however, will help tremendously.