The plan to revamp deer-hunting season

What kind of new deer hunting plan might come out of public meetings where no two people in the crowd have the same suggestion?

Probably not much.

I expect the Missouri Department of Conservation knew that when they began announcing that in the upcoming months they will meet with hunters to hear ideas about the fall deer seasons, and what might be done to improve deer hunting and the health of whitetail deer all across the state.

I have watched the Missouri Department of Conservation become a real bureaucracy over the years. I have seen a great deal of mis-spending and downright corruption, and a trend toward making as much money as possible and putting less and less of it back into true game and fish management.

One thing I know will come of this attempt to revamp the deer season. Nothing will be put in place which does not provide the possibility of the same or greater number of deer tags being sold, and more revenue for the department.

I have a suspicion that what changes will be made are already being planned and that the “public meetings” are being done to win support from hunters for their willingness to listen.

I have heard some talk of an October doe season, and I think that is the worst idea they can come up with. October should be left for bow-hunters, turkey hunters, squirrel hunters and fishermen.

Can you see the army of orange-clad hunters from the suburbs, many of them whom have never seen a big buck in the wild, watching a nice eight-pointer walk by deep in the woodlands in October and saying, “No, I’m going to wait for a doe!”

The doe season should be abolished, because even as it has been used, as a follow-up season, it has accounted for perhaps thousands of button bucks and illegal bucks being killed each year. There’s a large percentage of hunters out there who won’t pass up a good-sized set of antlers, because they know how valuable they are.

My suggestion is, scrap the “doe season” and forget it. There are not enough conservation agents who get out of their pick-ups and get out in the woods to apprehend those who kill bucks during that doe season.

Some day the department needs to think about doing something to spread out and thin the number of deer hunters, and that could be done with an early November season of seven or nine days, and a second late-November season of 12 to 16 days. Let a hunter pick one of the seasons, but not both.

That way, there wouldn’t be such a crush of hunters on what is now the opening weekend. Probably 60 percent of the deer hunters would opt for the opening season, but the rest would choose the later season with more days to hunt.

And through both seasons, allow one buck only per hunter and if they remain set on selling all the doe tags they can, they won’t lose any money. With that done, the experts can set up zones and three-point antler restrictions where they want.

Another thing that is needed is a break for those of us who like to hunt with a muzzle-loader, not the modern day versions, but the true old-time primitive weapons. Let a muzzle-loader enthusiast have a special seven- or nine-day season wherein he can be in an uncrowded woods. I’d like to see that season in the last days of October and the beginning of November, and have it so that whomever buys a muzzle-loader tag cannot hunt during any of the other gun seasons.

That gives the muzzle-loader season back to the true hunters who once loved it, and keeps it from the fellow who has some leftover tags from the regular deer season he wants to fill. Today, an awful lot of “muzzle-loader” hunting is done with a regular .30-30 rifle or a shotgun with slugs.

If you don’t believe that, look at this year’s over-all deer kill decline compared to the increase in the “muzzle-loader harvest.”

Again, there isn’t much fear of apprehension. I have heard too many deer hunters say, “They don’t care so much how and where you get ’em, just as long as you buy tags for the ones you get.”

My advice: Get rid of the doe season, it kills too many bucks which get left in the woods minus their antlers.

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