Hunting antler-less deer counts for strongest herd management
posted Wednesday, November 21st, 2012 @ 1:24 pm

By Rene Hatten
Special to The Citizen

Hunting clubs have encountered unneeded conflict in the harvesting of antler-less deer. Our hunting club, under the DMAP program for the past four years, decided to maintain its own management program because of the lack of participation and the lack of reporting in the harvesting of antler-less deer.

This widespread and unneeded conflict seems to have developed from the belief that if you kill does out, that lowers your numbers in herds. This is compounded by the harvesting notion that does are button bucks taken by mistake.

Under the DMAP Program, a buck-to-doe ratio was determined and tags issued. These tags were not filled. Hunters didn't keep records or at least turn them in for sufficient herd analysis.
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