4-point rule 117/121

[Whitpirate]

Unless they quit using quota for cats and open wolves to de-listing soon it won't matter what point restriction we have.  Pretty frustrated tonight... got off the phone with Uncle who has 2300 acres near the Rustler's Gulch public ground we've hunted for the last 20 years.   3 cats have killed at least 30 deer in the last 50 days.  We've done a winter feeding program every year and never had under 20 deer at evening feeding.  Even with the snow Unk has had a max of 3 deer in.  Saw two wolves as well from the "Diamond Lake" pack and the local warden sounded like he had kittens when told and said "Yeah isn't it great?"      No snow before the end of the year and a quota enforcement means no hunting season for us next year it seems...luckily I'm working on new spots for my 9-year old's first hunt.

[Jonathan_S]

There were alot more bucks this year over 4 points this year.But as to seeing that world class deer, i dont think so. Anything with 4 points are gonna be gone .Theres alot of presure on those deer now.It dont matter to me if they change it or not ,i hunted before the rule and with the rule sometimes got one ,sometimes didnt hunting was still fun for me .I know theres always gonna be a number of deer taken out of season ect. I dont feel that bad for youth and seniors cause they get 4 days to shoot any doe they want.But i do think youth and first time hunters should get a any buck tag(people that have never shoot a deer).I just dont think they should make rules that wdfw cant no way enforce.Cause we wont see the diffrence that we should be seeing from it.I guess if there is one deer saved for next year,better than nothing.

I agree with you except for the bolded part.  I could never believe that under the current seasons in those units that all those mountain whitetail 4 pt+ will be gone.  Too many escape areas in my opinion.

[hunter399]

Jonathan s u are right im sure there is one somewhere in these game units to much private land/public land mix for them to hide.But years down the road,we might over harvest mature animals and all we will have is a bunch of yearlings if wdfw dont watch what there doing.Im just seeing whats going on around my house and not looking at the huge chunk of land 121/117 combind are.So i might be way wrong.Time will tell. 

[stickbuck]

It's easy to make the assumption that over harvest of mature bucks will occur or that a all the mature ones will be gone like you've posted hunter399. Once a buck reaches maturity, the likelihood of seeing him in daylight decreases every year, thus you might think there are fewer mature deer when you're still gonna see those young bucks no matter the time of year. Herd numbers have spiked in a positive direction and it's nice to see a lot more deer as well as more big bucks all over those units. I sure hope this restriction gets extended.

[huntnnw]

Once that buck hits 4.5 most hunters dont ever see a 4.5 yr old hunting and thats not because they dont exist they are smart. Give that buck another year at 5.5 and good luck. I read a stat on bucks over the age of 5 that their chance of being killed by a hunter was under 5% !

[PA BEN]

Once that buck hits 4.5 most hunters dont ever see a 4.5 yr old hunting and thats not because they dont exist they are smart. Give that buck another year at 5.5 and good luck. I read a stat on bucks over the age of 5 that their chance of being killed by a hunter was under 5% !

I hope the mentality of most hunters that travel to hunt here is not the OutDoor Channel mentality. "All I have to do is hunt 121/117 and I will have my pick of a world class buck."  Between '75, the first year I started hunting and the mid. '90's, there would be nothing but headlights stacked up on HWY 395 the night before season opened, all headed North. After the Blue Tongue out break  the fall of '92 and the hard winter of "92/"93, the hunting pressure has dropped. BTW, the deer season of '92, if you drew a doe tag it was a double doe tag and after the big kill the season of "93 was a double doe tag too. All the deer #'s dropped, the hunting pressure dropped and the endless rolls of headlights went away too. Now with all this talk about the numbers of big bucks the pressure will surly be on the rise. If it was about deer #'s there should be no antlerless tags or hunts at all. One buck can breed a lot of does. 

[huntnnw]

rifle pressure has dropped and archery in the last 10 years has increased 400%

[tonymiller7]

I have friends who live there who originally hated the idea but after putting in extra time, hunting hard, and shooting some of their biggest bucks ever, they like the rules now.  Especially during the late hunt.

[Shane54]

I think for mule deer in select areas it should be moved down to 2 point min. I have seen so many brutes and didn't have eye guard.

[PA BEN]

I have friends who live there who originally hated the idea but after putting in extra time, hunting hard, and shooting some of their biggest bucks ever, they like the rules now.  Especially during the late hunt.

You are right, but most if not all who live here agree it should be lifted for youth, disabled and seniors.

[PA BEN]

rifle pressure has dropped and archery in the last 10 years has increased 400%

If the deer population was in that bad of shape then all doe hunting should be done away with. With late archery a hunter hunts those big bucks doesn't get one, the tag is filled w/a meat doe.

[bearpaw]

rifle pressure has dropped and archery in the last 10 years has increased 400%

If the deer population was in that bad of shape then all doe hunting should be done away with. With late archery a hunter hunts those big bucks doesn't get one, the tag is filled w/a meat doe.

I would have preferred to have seen no doe for the late archery, we would have had an even faster recovery. But that wasn't the way they did it. In the areas I have been turkey and bear hunting the deer numbers are definitely rebounding from a few years ago in 121 and 117.

I hope WDFW is collecting solid data so that we can compare other area units with 117/121 after the 5 year trial is completed.