Growing larger bucks means letting young ones grow
By V. Paul Reynolds
Growing larger bucks means letting young ones grow
For most Maine deer hunters, a fantasy buck is in their mind’s eye. This is the trophy buck that will tip the tagging station scale in excess of 200 pounds. We have all seen him in our daydreams, a big-racked, thick-necked bruiser of a deer ghosting his way through a tangled cedar bog as the morning mist mixes with his frosty breath.
Some of us are not die-hard trophy deer hunters. Oh, we’d love to have this fantasy buck in our crosshairs, but a doe or a young deer in the freezer will often do. After more than 60 years of deer hunting, and after having hung a few on the game pole, I have a perfect record of never having tagged one over 200 pounds, and I may never. But this November I am still skulking about in the deer woods.
For a number of years now, some hunters have lobbied hard for the state to impose antler restrictions in an effort to bring about a more plentiful age class of older, larger bucks. There are some downsides to antler restrictions and Maine deer biologists as a rule do not support the policy.
There may be another way to grow larger bucks in Maine. It’s simple really: let the young ones grow.
This week the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife issued a press release encouraging Maine deer hunters this fall to take a doe for the freezer and let the young bucks and hold off for a chance at that bigger buck. The Department writes:
“With recent changes to the antlerless deer permit system, the Department now allocates antlerless harvest opportunity using antlerless deer permits, which allow for the harvest of additional antlerless deer. This means that many hunters will now have the option to harvest an antlerless deer and then keep on hunting for a buck. This is the perfect time to consider harvesting an antlerless deer to fill the freezer and then letting young bucks go while waiting for The Big One.”
The Department goes on: “ Let’s look at some of the benefits of allowing younger bucks to grow for another year by looking at antler form and body mass at different ages. Looking at three recent years of biological data from deer in Maine, our average yearling buck sported between 3 and 4 antler points, and our average 2-year-old buck had 6 to 7 points. There’s a lot of growth between a buck’s 1st and 2nd birthdays! While the most significant antler development takes place between the yearling and 2-year-old age classes, it’s not until around year 5 that our Maine bucks begin to approach their peak antler growth potential.
A yearling buck weighed an average of 122.5 pounds dressed weight, and a 2-year-old weighed 148.6 pounds. Body mass continues to increase with age, and around years 5 or 6, our Maine bucks near their peak body mass with an average body weight approaching 200 pounds dressed weight.”
There is some deer harvest data to suggest that we may not need antler restrictions to cultivate larger bucks in our whitetail population. According to MDIF&W, there has been a discernible decline in the harvesting of yearling bucks. It was most pronounced in last fall’s deer harvest data. It may well be that the deer hunter’s new two-deer option – a buck and a doe – may work to produce larger deer as hunters put a doe in the freezer and then hold out for that buck of a lifetime.
The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books. Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.