So what is the responsibility of the GFC? I made this argument decades ago as a member of the deer committee that recommended buck restictions. Why can't a deer manager/property owner/hunter manage his deer population to harvest only spikes or yearlings? What if he/she didn't care about older bucks? Is it the States responsibility to have a "mature" buck age structure in the population or only to allow people to manage "their" herd as they see fit. As long as they don't wipe them out, they should be able to manage for 1) maximum population 2) minimum population 3) trophy bucks 4) shooting any bucks. Should we rely on the State to tell us how many deer we need on our place and what the sex/age structure should be? Hmmm...............
I work on properties where I may kill as many does as I can to keep the population in check. Should I have a "personal limit"? I don't care about horns and haven't shot a buck in at least 15 years and that includes passing 130+" deer.
The problem with that argument is that you cant set all of the regs up to result in the quality being as chitty as it possibly can be and then claim that the state is not in the business of quality…..They are….. its just bad quality……Just like legalizing baiting for example and the impact its had…..That’s a management decision the state made for everyone that has decreased overall quality for many despite what the individual did or didn’t want…….For some the management decision they just made for everyone to increase the doe bag limits will decrease quality…..Extending the season into Feb in north Alabama is a management decision the state made for all of those hunters that decreased quality……You cant have your cake and eat it too on this one……If it’s acceptable to make management decisions for everybody that runs the quality into the ground then its acceptable to make ones for everybody that improves it
