Will R5 ever have an end to the 10 Day Closure and Concerns about it.

[twoSevenO]

Everyone wants a big buck, but they can't pass up the medium bucks. You can't shoot a big one if you shoot an average one. If you want a big one, hunt for a big one. This is gonna mean you eat your tag some years. They're out there, always have been, always will be. It comes down to whether or not you are willing to put the time in and work for one.

This is true. However, I think a lot of people are pretty discouraged. Even experienced hunters that I've been in touch with are just seeing so few deer in their usual hunting spots that holding off on a monster buck is almost impossible when you can't even get yourself to pass up 140s when you simply aren't seeing them around.
It's pretty dismal how few deer are in some areas that used to have big numbers.

Having said that, yes, there are still giant bucks out there. I've seen pics of some really big ones taken in BC this year including a really nice 190+ typical that I'm not allowed to share.

[xcaribooer]

I bought a place at Bridge lake this year and was excited this fall to go explore my "new back yard". I have to say I was quite disappointed after much cruising in 5-1 and 3-39 FSR's and saw ZERO deer. The only deer seen were the ones along hwy 24 that have figured out it is safest to live around private property.
I would be ok with drastic action like eliminating the any buck season for a few years and just have 4 pt only season.

[Bugle M In]

This is true. However, I think a lot of people are pretty discouraged. Even experienced hunters that I've been in touch with are just seeing so few deer in their usual hunting spots that holding off on a monster buck is almost impossible when you can't even get yourself to pass up 140s when you simply aren't seeing them around.
It's pretty dismal how few deer are in some areas that used to have big numbers.

Having said that, yes, there are still giant bucks out there. I've seen pics of some really big ones taken in BC this year including a really nice 190+ typical that I'm not allowed to share.

Certainly there are big bucks to be had and I don't mean to sound like there isn't.
Next season, even with dozens of hunters all over the hills, I could run into that big one when I least expect it.
But as you said, even the guys that passed up on 140's, to find at least a 160 and even then think twice, are giving up on
passing, like I did this season, and as I said, if I had passed him up, that buck would have been hanging in the camp beside me
as I do run into that crew in the same areas, and they wouldn't have passed on it.
And the reason they wouldn't pass it up is because they also feel discouraged at this point.

Before it got busy, which was about 10 years ago (so, when the R5 closure came into affect), if you saw that 140, you would
pass him up and felt pretty sure you had just given that buck a pass for the season, and wait for him to get bigger/older.
You would feel confident that he wouldn't be hanging from a tree or in the back of the box of another hunter.

But, its just so damn busy now, and I do see the small bucks that are being taken on a regular basis now, and it is hard to
"keep it up" so to speak, and passing bucks up will pay off.
Its just not happening any longer.

For years, most bucks at that time of season, were at the minimum, 150's that hunters would take.
Everyone that saw a smaller buck who tell themselves to hold off, "there is better around here".
And i suppose some of these same guys are there in October already, getting a feel for the upcoming rut, and they are seeing
tons of hunters, lots of new faces, and a lot of small bucks being taken.
One fellow told me he feels like there are twice as many young bucks being harvested in the any buck season now for the past
5-7 years then at any other time in the past.
And this is a fellow who is really passionate about the deer hunting there, lives close by and is in there often.
He knows more what happens on a week to week basis in there then I ever could.

Its hard to keep the "pass on the small buck" philosophy, when you feel like your the only one doing it and you surrounded by
way too many hunters now, and the coup de gras is, the passing it up is no longer paying off at all.

[Bugle M In]

I bought a place at Bridge lake this year and was excited this fall to go explore my "new back yard". I have to say I was quite disappointed after much cruising in 5-1 and 3-39 FSR's and saw ZERO deer. The only deer seen were the ones along hwy 24 that have figured out it is safest to live around private property.
I would be ok with drastic action like eliminating the any buck season for a few years and just have 4 pt only season.

I have always been a supporter for those that want to hunt the Any Buck Season.
And i still want to, as i think it is a necessary season.
But if someone tomorrow said, we need to make changes, so pick your poison, either LEH or remove the Any Buck Season.
I would have to go with get rid of the any buck season.
In part because i don't feel lucky when it comes to winning LEH.
And, I doubt they would hand out enough authorizations per season, and some think the wait would only be on average
3 years, but based on all the hunters, i think some could be waiting a minimum of 10 years!
They just don't realize it.

I know there are hunters out there during the Any Buck season, who are just trying to fill the freezer.
BUT, I am also starting to think that there are some out there during that season who just want the "I cut my tag" status.
They want to say "I got my deer" and add that "I get a deer every year"!

Maybe I shouldn't be judging, maybe its just the simple fact that word of mouth has spread, and the fact that there are so
many more hunters in the area, just means more bucks are hitting the dirt.
The only part I can be certain of, they are damn small now.
Very few folks now, when it comes to the 4 pt only season, are practicing the "gotta pass on the small ones".
And the proof is in the pudding, or should I say say, hanging from the meat poles!

I bet you all, Dana still hops onto hbc from time to time, lurking there, reading some of the threads.
Probably reading this thread and having a chuckle and saying to us all, "told you so".

[horshur]

Which part of "majority of Canadian Citizens are not OK with Trophy Hunting" do you not get? For now the majority can justify hunting for consumption so there is some support there.
You are on here basically complaining you cannot find a big buck. The province does not manage for Quality.The public will not be in support of it nor should they be so you won't get your 4 point only season but risk losing it. Losing it won't help deer numbers either. And why exactly do you need too shoot a bigger buck anyhow?

Val Giest said Mule deer where doomed. Are you really smarter then him?

[twoSevenO]

Which part of "majority of Canadian Citizens are not OK with Trophy Hunting" do you not get? For now the majority can justify hunting for consumption so there is some support there.
You are on here basically complaining you cannot find a big buck. The province does not manage for Quality.The public will not be in support of it nor should they be so you won't get your 4 point only season but risk losing it. Losing it won't help deer numbers either. And why exactly do you need too shoot a bigger buck anyhow?

Val Giest said Mule deer where doomed. Are you really smarter then him?

Chill out, man. Let's look at it another way: do you know a single hunter who is boasting about numbers of big bucks seen? I don't.
You make it seem as if he is complaining while everyone else is killing big bucks. And that's just not true.
Sure, big bucks are being taken, but significantly less than years past. let's not look at it as complaining but rather discussing the issue.

I seriously doubt the general population of non hunters even knows trophy hunting of deer is even a thing! If anything, following the grizzly ban, sheep and goats and cougars are next to be complained about ... not trophy mule deer.

[blacklab]

Which part of "majority of Canadian Citizens are not OK with Trophy Hunting" do you not get? For now the majority can justify hunting for consumption so there is some support there.
You are on here basically complaining you cannot find a big buck. The province does not manage for Quality.The public will not be in support of it nor should they be so you won't get your 4 point only season but risk losing it. Losing it won't help deer numbers either. And why exactly do you need too shoot a bigger buck

Val Giest said Mule deer where doomed. Are you really smarter then him?

A whole bunch of common sense right there.

[horshur]

Sorry but I don't think you are grasping the levity of the culture change. Our managers are not necessarily and more every retirement pro sport hunting of any kind, current "diversity" based hiring of government guarantees this trend to continue. The CO on Vancouver Island is just an example.
You are making an assumption that it is a naturally occurring phenomenon for surplus older class males to even exist in numbers that maintain a linear harvest. That is not how nature is.

I just can"t help but see the dichotomy. The sign of a healthy population is not top heavy older age class. You just saw what happens. Overnight they are gone.
You want to harvest at the top with the assumption that it is a closed system like a farm. It is not a closed system and it is a pyramid. Managing for high numbers of mature class inverts the pyramid. The population is not replacing itself they are using all the resources because there are too many at the top. What is remarkable is that it is hard to see happening because your Does are getting bred they have fawns every year it all looks good every fall but the Does are also getting old. Finally, you lose your older Does by attrition and surprise they never were replaced.

[twoSevenO]

I'm not saying you are wrong.... but I do understand people's frustration and disappointment when even finding a 140/150 buck is hard for a lot of people who used to pass them up all the time only a few years ago.

It is very clear that this province does not manage for quality. There is no doubt about that.

[elch jager]

While all this is interesting, soon enough it will not matter. In 5 to 10 years there will be no access to public land. Public land will no longer exist. Enjoy what you can now because 'freedom as service' is coming...


If you want to hunt, you will need to abandon your law abiding moral compass and become a poacher. And as Geist recounts in his stories growing up in Europe, poachers were shot on sight...

Have a listen to this podcast - a discussion between Whitney Webb and James Corbett as they break down the latest attempt to monopolize the world's natural resources and how this financial scam represents the next step along the path to the Great Reset, Agenda 2030 and the 4th Industrial Revolution.

https://www.corbettreport.com/interv...ng-the-planet/

Governments are right now bargaining away our natural resources to pay off their debt... this is real, and Trudeau is at the front of the line.

This Plandemic was designed to plunge all governments so far into debt that the only way out is to barter all their resources to Black Rock, Vanguard, et al.
If they slap a 'Green' or Climate Change' label on it, the lemmings will go along with it just like they rolled up their sleeve for their experimental jab.



This makes bitching about the size of the bucks we see a bit irrelevant.