Hunters who believe that we are the best deer management tool available get their first chance to prove the point this weekend. When the early portion of the antlerless hunting season opens Friday (Oct. 10), hunters will have three days to make a positive difference in many proven ways.
Holding out hope for the once-in-a-lifetime, magazine-cover megabuck is the thing deer hunter dreams are built on, but the real measure of success for keeping deer numbers in check is doe harvest. Taking antlerless deer in the early season can also improve the odds for that big boy showing up in mid-November.
First and foremost, doe harvest provides the true tool for population control. With an estimated statewide population nearing two million, there are few areas where the herd is not overwhelming its habitat. Removing females slows what has been exponential growth. Official estimates at the turn of the century were closer to one million deer in Missouri.
The National Deer Association offers five solid suggestions for harvesting does early in the season. The article by the organization’s chief communication officer, Lindsay Thomas Jr., was originally published in 2012, but its message resonates still.
1. Early in the season the pressure on all deer is low. The November portion of fall firearms season unleashes a half-million hunters in the woods. “By late season, does may be as wary as bucks, and just when you are ready to start shooting them, you don’t see any,” Thomas says.
2. There is less margin for error. When several antlerless deer are seen together in early October, it is easier to recognize the difference in size between adult does and fawns. While those young-of-the-year button bucks are legal targets, they are not the deer the season was designed to remove.
3. Hunter anticipation is high in October. Most of us have been waiting nearly a whole year for another shot. As autumn stretches into November, enthusiasm begins to chill along with the weather. Summer-like temperatures are not hunter friendly, but the potential for deep freezes in December are even less appealing.
4. Forage distribution was my favorite fact from the NDA article. “An adult doe requires about 6 to 8 percent of its body weight in forage every day,” Thomas says. That’s up to eight pounds of food for a 100-pound doe daily. If she is removed in early October, what she doesn’t eat is available for the deer that remain.
5. What does early doe harvest mean for bucks once breeding season begins?
“Taking does before the rut arrives will change the buck-to-doe ratio and can help intensify competition that year because there are closer to equal numbers of does and bucks,” Thomas wrote. “This means bucks have to be more active to compete for breeding opportunities, so they are more visible, and rut behaviors like chasing and fighting are more common.”
Hunters who put meat in their freezers in October can be more selective in November. Waiting for that big buck is easier when you know there is plenty of sausage already in storage. Other considerations for harvesting antlerless deer this weekend include supporting Share the Harvest deer meat donations and opportunities for expanded chronic wasting disease testing.
The antlerless portions of firearms season are open in all 114 Missouri counties except for four in the extreme northwestern tip of the state and 10 in the Bootheel region. In 96 counties, including Jefferson, hunters may purchase and fill up to four antlerless-only firearms hunting permits during all seasons combined.
An any-deer permit for residents costs $18 for hunters 16 and older, and $9 for younger hunters. The antlerless-only permits are $7.50 each for adults and $3.75 for hunters age 15 and under. The late antlerless portion of the season is scheduled for Dec. 6-14. For more information visit mdc.mo.gov.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas for the Leader outdoor news page, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.