Many clubs impose their own regs. but I'm curious what other states public land requirements are. Mississippi's is 10" where I live and 12" a little further north.
The county I hunt in here in Texas, and most of the surrounding counties, bucks have to have at least a 13'' inside spread or at least 1 unbranched antler.
In NY in certain areas they have a 3 point rule
Nothing here yet. Some of our draw hunts do have an earn-a-deer. The Trad Only draw hunt at MCAAP reportedly allows those that kill a doe to immediately redrawn the following season. When I hunted on Ft. Sill they would give extra doe tags to hunters that killed coyotes or bobcats, 1 for 1.
In Missouri we have a 4pnt on on side. Lately, they have lifted that reg in many counties to try and suppress the CWD spread. (That's a discussion for later)
Nothing here in Va. But all know this is a heavily hunted dog state...
No min. requirements in Iowa.
Antlers on Iowa deer don't taste good.
QuoteOriginally posted by pavan:
Antlers on Iowa deer don't taste good.
They don't here either Lawrence,even after marinating.
I can't accurately estimate the antlers on most of the bucks I see. I'm glad I'm not hampered by such a regulation.
3 per side here. I like the rule. The bucks are larger. A lot larger. I'm from the spike buck generation. 3" spikes were legal. And they were scrawny!
The 3 point rule has been in place for years, but it still seems weird. And it's still a topic of discussion like it just happened.
The rule isn't a perfect. There have been a few times I cursed the rule because I had to try to count points and it cost me a shot. Where our hunting camp it is a big public land area. Most hunters including myself do not pass a legal buck. So there are a lot of mistake kills in gun season and even in bow season. And there are cases of mature deer without enough points that should be legal but you can't shoot. And like my local deer at home this year. I had 4 regulars that showed up. All not legal because of some form of rack defect or broken of horns. Thats a lot of deer for my little suburban hunting spot. I couldn't shoot any one them.
But mostly we have a lot bigger bucks.
Tedd
We went from visible above natural hair line to 4 point to 10 inches.I'm good with points but inches are a tough guess.
Florida, yes Florida, has antler regulations by deer management regions that are generally either 3 points on one side or four points on one side. A ten inch main beam can make bucks without forks legal. Kids fifteen and under do not have to abide by the antler restrictions.
Visible in CT. Does and buttons are antlerless, all others are antlered.
The problem with regulating sizes on public land around here is that the public parcels are small, just a few hundred acres and broken up. There can also be the other odd thing of mature final size. This year I pursued a very large even 12 with a perhaps a 24" spread, saw him squeezing in and out of private parcels a few times, never got a shot. In our public side of the valley was a very large and mature 8 pointer with a thick stubby little rack, that would not pass the 12" minimum, another Barney rack. We had Little Barney and Big Barney. Both about the same large body size, Big B had more little points than I could count with a 20" spread and Little B had mittens on his head.
Missouri has 4 points on one side and its legal In the AR counties.