MikeHanback.com

VA’s New Earn-A-Buck System

My home state of VA has instituted Earn-A-Buck for 2008 in certain counties where there are too many does, and I am happy and proud to report that the game department and biologist Matt Knox got it right! 

EAB is now mandatory on private lands during all archery, muzzleloading and firearms seasons in Bedford, Fairfax, Fauquier, Franklin, Loudoun, Patrick, Prince William and Roanoke counties (mostly suburban to urban counties). The first deer you shoot can be a buck or a doe. After the first buck you will be required to shoot at least one antlerless deer (if you mess up and shoot a button that is legal, but try not to) before you can kill your second buck. On EAB lands east of the Blue Ridge Mountains where the season is longer (too long IMO but another story) and more tags are available, you will be required to kill a second doe before you could kill a third buck. If you meet all those requirements you might want to stop hunting, you’ve killed enough deer for the year, man.

This progressive system is simple and reasonable. Nobody can bitch about not being able to kill a buck right out of the gate. Whether you choose to bust a 4-pointer or wait for a mature 8 is up to you. Then you have to drop a doe or 2 before you can shoot another buck or another one. Furthermore, I understand you can shoot a doe first and be “pre-qualified” to then shoot 2 bucks. All of it makes perfect sense to me, what about you?

Hey, just hit me that with yesterday's post and now this one, we're having "doe week" here on the BIG DEER blog. That's cool, like your granddaddy said, "Better eating."

New Jersey Giants: Don't Restrict the Hunting!

Hey Mike: Some true giants are harvested here in NJ every year. These bucks primarily come from residential areas where unfortunately hunting access is already extremely limited. I have included 2 pictures. This first dandy was taken with a firearm in 2002 and apparently went 191 1/8! The second picture below is the 1995 NJ Bow State Record (189 typical).

One of our big-buck haunts is Wall Township. Despite a pre-existing state law that “prohibits a person from having a loaded firearm or nocked arrow while within 450 feet of any building, school playground or municipal park” the township is now attempting to usurp that law and unilaterally increase that distance to 650 feet, thereby eliminating hunting in a great deal of the already restricted areas.

We have contacted the NRA on this issue and are receiving their support. I would appreciate any support you and the BIG DEER bloggers could provide in helping to ensure that this restrictive anti-hunting bill is not passed. Here is a link to the NRA’s site calling for action. Thanks, Jeff

Thanks Jeff for all you do at the grassroots level to monitor and fight restrictive proposals like this. We have talked about suburban deer hunting quite a bit on the blog recently, how these are fertile grounds for monster bucks. And with private lands shrinking in eastern states, urban/suburban areas offer some of last best hunting opportunities. Ironically, the wildlife agencies desire MORE hunting in these areas to help control the herds.

Any bloggers in and around NJ, go to the NRA site and see how to voice your opposition to this proposal. Everybody else, be on the lookout for similar small but not insignificant proposed changes to your local  laws. We all need to become more vigilant and involved at the ground level because more hunting restrictions could be coming to your and my suburbs soon.

Will Hunt for Food: PA Doe Tags Selling Out Fast

A press release from PA says doe permits are selling like hotcakes. Of the 849,000 antlerless licenses originally allocated for the state, agency employees have distributed about 679,000 applications to county treasurers for sale. Doe tags are already sold out in 12 WMUs.

IMO this is because of high gas and food prices, and I expect the doe-hunting trend to spread across the U.S. USA Today has documented that record numbers of Americans are planting gardens and fruit trees, slopping hogs, raising chickens, etc.

Shooting does fits into this nouveau life-off-the-land lifestyle. Rather than driving the SUV down to Safeway, burning up $3.50 gas to buy a package of 3 strip steaks for $20, why not get a tag, hunt close to home, bust a 120-pound doe and cut it up yourself. You'll get some 48-60 pounds of boneless, healthy red venison. Bust 2 or 3 skinheads (if legal) and you’ll pack the freezer with free meat for a good while. Notice I said legal; in these tough times, I hope we do not see an uptick in deer poaching, but I fear it is possible.

I predict we’ll see a moderate increase in the number of new, legitimate hunters as people gun for cheap meat this fall. I also think a lot of guys who used to hunt but for whatever reason stopped will be back in the woods busting does with bow and gun, especially in rural areas where things are lean.

Silver lining: While doe tags are not a huge windfall, this is good for game-agency budgets, and it helps deer managers control herds in the suburbs. Will you join the trend and hunt more does for cheap food?

Guest Blog: More on WI Earn-a-Buck

Thanks to Doug in WI for this excellent guest blog about Earn-A-Buck (EAB) and its origins in his home state.

EAB was first used in Wisconsin in 1996. According to Jason Fleener, asst. deer & elk biologist for the DNR, the idea was developed after previous attempts to bring the deer herd down to acceptable levels proved insufficient. 

EAB has been highly controversial since its inception, although it is not really a new way of managing deer. In its early years EAB was utilized through 4-day antlerless-only hunts (also called T-Zone Hunts) in October. Hunters had to shoot a doe (or a buck with antlers less than 1") in order to pre-qualify to shoot a buck in the regular November Gun Deer Season. There were also antlerless hunts in December, after the gun season had ended.

Due to the backlash by hunters, EAB was discontinued and not brought back until 2002, when the DNR made public their findings about Chronic Wasting Disease. This created something close to hysteria about CWD and its effect not only on deer populations, but its potential to be passed to humans who ate venison.  Many people quit hunting due to fear they could contract CWD. When CWD was "discovered" in 2002 the EAB program was brought back to eradicate herds in units where CWD was most widespread. 

In 2004 units that did not have CWD were made EAB for the first time. Hunters had to shoot an antlerless deer in October to qualify to shoot a buck during November gun season. Due to more hunter outcry the DNR stopped using EAB in non-CWD units in 2005 and in CWD units in 2006.  Hunters failed to bring the deer populations down to the desired goals in these years, however, and EAB was brought back yet again.

Louisiana's New Crossbow Deer Regulations

Finally, all the bitching and moaning over the crossbow can stop!

Louisiana got it right when Governor Bobby Jindal (on McCain’s VP short list BTW) recently signed a new bill that allows the state’s wildlife commission to “establish the following special deer hunting seasons: (1) a bow and arrow only season, and (2) a bow and arrow and crossbow season.”

Prior to this only handicapped hunters or 60-year-old guys could use crossbows in La. After this, a lot more crossbows will be sold and used in the state (and more does especially will be killed, though probably not a significant harvest number in year one of the new law) .

Hmm, why didn’t somebody think of this years ago? Possible scenario this fall: Regular vertical bow season opens around Oct. 1 and runs for weeks, so those guys get first shot like always. Then a special season allows crossbowers to come into the woods alongside the vertical guys. Special bow/Xbow seasons can be set to run into January along with gun season. The deer rut late down there, so there is ample time and chance for everybody.

If this is done right, I believe it will become the pilot program for setting and refining special archery/Xbow seasons in all the whitetail states. You give both constituancies opportunity to do their thing, and a fair shot at the bucks. What's not to like about that?

BTW, full disclosure: I hunt with a compound, but I want to see any and all opportunities opened up and expanded for deer hunters, and this includes the Xbow. We need it to recruit/retain hunters and to harvest more deer in many areas.

Minnesota Proposes Tighter Deer-Shining Law

Mike, here in MN you can “shine” deer until 10 p.m. during hunting season, and all night the rest of the year. But because a lot of people associate it with poaching, they are thinking about changing the law and restricting shining to one-half hour after sunset. What do you think? George in MN 

George, my proposal: Restrict all spotlighting from August 1 until January 31. A lot of bucks with new big racks are shined/poached pre-season in August and September, when they are visible in fields near roads and haven’t been hunted for a year. IMO, no hunter needs to shine deer during the season—use trail cameras, good old scouting, etc. to find your buck, not a super light. By January 31 surviving bucks have lost their racks everywhere, thus they aren’t vulnerable to illegal spotlighters.

This would give your “recreational shiners” 6 months to do their thing, but I have to wonder, how many good people really shine deer as their hobby?

No doubt spotlighting gives legitimate hunters a bad name. It can be damn dangerous too. Here in my VA county some years ago, sheriff’s deputies and COs did a sting on a notorious summer shiner group;  one night a gunfight broke out and, tragically, people were killed.

All landowners and most hunters I know would have no problem with tighter spotlighting laws and would in fact welcome them. What about you? Is poacher-shining a problem in your area?

Blood-Tracking Deer Dogs

Awhile back I posted on whether or not you should leave a bow-shot deer overnight. Ken blogged:

Dogs are a great way to recover marginally hit or just plain old hard to find animals. I have been raising and using dogs for blood tracking for several years now. I have tracked many deer here in GA that were left over night. Some I would not hesitate to put on my table; others it was obvious that they had already started to spoil.

United Blood Trackers is a national organization that promotes the use of tracking dogs. For those interested in learning more about it, check out their website. They have a tracker map page for anybody who needs the services of a tracking dog (come bow season).

I've had blood dogs (one Lab, one black-tan mutt) find a couple of deer I shot down in MS. Man, it was fun to watch them pick up the trail and find a buck I might otherwise have lost.

The hard-core blood-dog owners, like a lot of bird dog guys, would rather run their dogs and find somebody else’s deer than hunt themselves. (In the photo: Neal Meyer of IL with a super buck recovered by his dachshund Chloe.) It is fun to be around those guys and to watch their dogs; it's a cool niche to the sport.

Anybody got a deer-tracking dog, or maybe watched one work?

The Earn-a-Buck Truck

Earlier I asked if some people were trying to beat the WI earn-a-buck system... I don't know if this is proof that they were, or maybe it's just for fun. Anyhow, pretty clever in blaze orange and 900 number and all :) Thanks to Ian for sending it along, he actually saw the van while he was out hunting one day last fall.

Wisconsin Earn-a-Buck (what do you think of it?)

From the AP and startribune.com:

Hunters in much of the southern two-thirds of Wisconsin will have to kill an antlerless deer this fall before they can take a buck under new regulations… The annual revisions to the state's fall hunting rules set up 35 earn-a-buck zones. They generally fall along the state's Minnesota border…

The earn-a-buck program requires hunters to shoot an antlerless deer before taking a buck. Hunters generally dislike the program because it forces them to pass up trophy bucks if they haven't killed an antlerless deer, but state wildlife officials say the requirement is a crucial tool in controlling a burgeoning deer herd.

Is that true, “hunters dislike the program”? I give the WI deer managers props for trying something innovative and different.

Also, I hear that people have learned to cheat the system by registering road-killed does or re-checking a doe (whose ear was not cut at the check station) that a buddy had killed. Rumor has it these cheaters are bragging online and offering “tips” for beating earn-a-buck. I hope this is not true in any significant number, but it would not shock me if it were, there are always a------- that ruin it for the rest of us.   

More Crossbow Hunting in New York?

New York is the latest state to consider opening up crossbow opportunities for deer hunters, possibly as early as this October. The NY DEC has submitted a bill (#A01154) with language:

…it would be desirable for the Department to have authority  to  allow  the  use  of crossbows… crossbows  (have) the potential to be a key factor in achieving desired deer harvests in specific locations such  as suburban  areas… Concurrently, the legalization of crossbows could expand the  number  of  hunting  participants. The Department would propose, if granted regulatory authority , that crossbows be allowed for use for deer hunting in regular big game seasons, and for use in all seasons by senior  and  handicapped hunters. Further, the  Department  would propose allowing crossbows in some archery-only areas where deer harvest is inadequate.

DEC notes that hunting license sales have declined during the past 20 years in NY while deer populations have increased by some 75%.

I started with a recurve, now shoot a compound and have never killed a deer with a crossbow. With that background I say no-brainer—enact the law, as they did similarly in my home state (VA) a few years ago. Times have changed, man. If the Xbow allows options to thin/control suburban deer, and if it recruits a few new hunters and, more likely, keeps some old guys in the woods a couple more years, why not?

I am sure there is howling that the sky is going to fall from old-school vertical hunters and anti-Xbow organizations. I respect their opinions, but I believe they are fading into minority. Every time I write a mag story or blog on this issue I see a pro-crossbow trend. We’ll see if that holds this time, let your comments rip.