Shoot or don’t shoot

The archery season kicks off in about 45 days, and even now, the thoughts of a "shoot-don't shoot" scenario are rattling around in my brain. For me, shooting or not shooting has long been a day-to-day and sometimes a minute-to-minute decision for me.

Other hunters say they plan to shoot the first antlered buck they see. Good for them, but over many years and shooting many, many bucks, I've begun waiting until late October or November. I study the bucks that come to me, look them over, and keep waiting. Save a small buck like the one above for a year or two from now.

A couple of bygone years I didn't shoot a buck. I'd pass them up after drawing and aiming at them, and in 1989 for instance, I passed up 48 antlered bucks before I shot the 49th antlered buck. Many of the ones I passed up were much bigger than the one I eventually shot, but I chose an animal with nasty looking antlers to take him out of the gene pool.

Spare the young bucks and shoot a doe instead.

A few years ago was different than every other year for the past 25 years. In the past I seldom shot a buck early because I love hunting too much to fill a buck tag early. That wasn't the case that season.

On October 2, 2005, I saw four bucks but only two were within range. I've written about the 8-point and a 10-point fighting in front of my pit blind, and I was holding out for the larger 10-pointer although the bucks seemed almost equally matched.

The bucks quit sparring, and stood motionless out in front of me, and in less than a heartbeat and without thinking anything more about it, I shot the nice 8-point. He ran just a short distance and dropped.

Last year was a very bad year for me. I accidentally fell, and messed up five discs in my back. I was only able to hunt six days last yars and who knows what this year will bring. However, at this point in time, I plan to revert back to my old habit of watching bucks for most of October, and take a buck during the chasing phase of the rut.

Enough about me. What about you? What are your hunting plans for the 2010 bow season?

Will you study other bucks, and learn from them, or will you dust off the first spikehorn or 4-point that comes your way? Will you take the easy shot at the little deer or will you pass up the small bucks, give them another year or two or three to grow, and hold off in hopes of a bigger buck?

There is nothing great to be said about shooting a small buck early in the season. Most of the young 1 1/2-year-old bucks are really pretty dumb, and all shooting a small buck does is give a hunter bragging rights over a fellow sportsman that doesn't score. Big deal.

Hunters in this era are far better off sitting back and waiting for a good buck than arrowing a small one. Time, plus genetics, food and lack of stress, are the key ingredients in growing a big buck.

I'm not about to argue deer management with anyone except to say that one increases his/her odds of shooting a larger buck if they wait for a big buck to show up. Shoot a small buck early, and one more buck has been removed that could have grown a big rack if he had been allowed to live two or three more years.

Except for last year, I've averaged hunting 86 days each deer season for many years. I don't want to shoot a buck early although a few years ago was a new and dramatically different experience for me. I'd rather shoot a big doe than small buck. They are harder to hunt in most cases. One year, just to level the playing field even more, I shot my first buck with a bow during the firearms season. Some of my hunting is about the challenges of the sport.

Anyone who does the math, and works from the premise that most does have twins -- a buck and a doe fawn -- will, if they extrapolate shooting only bucks and not shooting does, can figure out why some areas have too many does and not enough bucks. It is simple math.

I wound up taking a dandy 9-point later in the season a few years ago, and it came about after studying the deer for months. Shooting that 8-point on the second day of the bow season that I wrote about above was a most unusual scenario for me.

The hunting is more important than the killing to me, and both deer died immediately from well-placed arrows. Two does also were shot with a bow, one on a block permit and one on my other tag over those two years, and I did my part in saving small bucks for the future.

Passing up a young buck gives them time to grow into larger trophy bucks.

How many bucks did I pass up two years ago? About 40 animals, but six or eight of them were repeats. Were all of them small bucks? No, I had a weak chance at a 10-pointer but chose not to shoot because the animal was at the far end of my self-imposed shooting distance, and the only opportunity was a low-percentage shot. So I didn't shoot.

This year, with luck, some of those small 8-points that I've passed up over the 2008 and my abbreviated 2009 season will be larger animals, and if I hold off for another year and no one else shoots them, they will be even larger.

The question for all bow hunters is: to shoot or not to shoot? It's a personal decision, and it deserves some serious consideration before the season opens. Is a small buck better than shooting a large doe?

I don't think so. And the doe will offer better table fare.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors