After years of managing hunters, I can unequivocally say that trigger control is the driving factor that will impede growing mature, quality bucks.  Whitetail bucks need to live long enough to fully express their genetic antler traits which cannot be determined by the hunter’s eye at one or two years of age.  Three years can be tricky, which I’ve covered in a previous article When Culling Works and When it Doesn’t.

Hunter Management is one of the four cornerstones of Quality Deer Management.  Herd and habitat health can be of the highest measure but with poor hunting practices, you’ll struggle to meet full antler potential and consistently improve hunting opportunities. It’s vital that your wildlife program efforts encompass all four elements of QDM: herd, habitat, and hunter mgnt, along with herd monitoring.

“I think it can be established that the growth of deer antlers can be made subject to man’s control.”  Archibald Rutledge from Days Off in Dixie (1925)

One hundred years after the above quote, hunters are inundated with a litany of aging education readily available to assist with targeting the right buck to meet goals.  Unfortunately, some hunters will never utilize, believe or fully comprehend the knowledge yet they will assume they know best.  Either they become too excited when a young antler set peers into view or they simply don’t care with a nonchalant attitude. The first comes from being “greener than a pepper tree”. The latter is a difficult pill for deer managers to swallow.  Many hunters disregard the significance of maintaining a balanced herd.  They kill based on self-desires opposing the land owner or club’s standards.

Judging antler size and body age on the hoof is a skill honed through time logged in the whitetail woods. Every hunter has a novice stage and some never leave it, unfortunately. There’s nothing wrong with that. In the elk wilderness, I may never leave the novice level and I’ll never assume I know more than skilled and seasoned western hunters. To advance to the next level pursuing game, it’s essential to “know what you don’t know.”

What managers can implement to combat green skill levels is to place them in spots where the least amount of damage can be inflicted.  Avoid areas with long distance views.  Rather, keep the hunter within short distance shot opportunities.  Destination feed sites will likely provide adequate time to examine the body and head to determine if the safety should come off.  Deer are more at ease while feeding. Overall, less movement and additional time to range yardage and prepare for a high percentage strike to the vitals.

Crossing locations and passive trails are complex to navigate during breeding season.  Hunters usually have a heartbeat of time to hastily decide to shoot or pass.  That is not an ideal situation for the inexperienced and it’s when many young bucks are killed.  

Last light (30 minutes after sunset) should be discussed prior to taking the stand.  Give hunters an exact time to unload.  Deer become increasingly challenging to assess at gray light.  In fact, everything becomes harder to identify at dusk! Even though you can place lit crosshairs on the vitals doesn’t mean you know what you’re shooting.  Spikes, buttons and 2-3 year old bucks are typically the victims of late shots. Morning gray light also deceives hunters. I’ve seen several “does” taken at dawn that morphed into spike yearlings once sunlight emerged.

There is nothing I loathe more than a hunter that regrets or degrades a buck they killed merely because it wasn’t the monarch they envisioned on their wall. Mistakes happen but always celebrate the game. The meat, the pursuit, and the King of the Woods, the White-tailed deer. Own it and learn. Keep in mind land managers spend years of blood, sweat, and tears producing the highest quality habitat and herd structure.  Immature buck kills are future opportunities that are no more. Similar to recruiting and developing a 5 star QB only for him to jump ship before reaching the starting lineup.

Other points to consider:

– Recording observations from the stand is imperative to build a foundation of herd data and statistics.  Hunters need to be aware of what to note in a timely manner.  Future management decisions are dependent on accuracy of records. For instance, how many does to shoot and the doe:buck ratio.

– Pressure is directly correlated to deer movement around hunting stands.  Whitetails readily learn to skirt past routes and areas that humans parade.  Hunters invade the woods at dawn and dusk and that’s when the most deer movement occurs.  Meticulously choosing stands and assessing routes in regards to current deer behavior and wind patterns drastically increases success rates.  I cover this in detail within a previous article Using Hunter Pressure to Your Advantage.

– Does must be regulated in the Southeast. Whether the harvest goal is 2 or 200, tags must be filled.  Skipping a season is like missing a year paying taxes.  The problem only compounds with interest. To grow superior headgear, it’s critical to pay your debt with annual antlerless harvests.

– Rifle scope accuracy should be a prerequisite prior to taking the field.  It’s crucial that all guests and club members shoot and touch off the rifle as needed every season.  Many hunters don’t realize their scope is not zeroed only to learn after a deer is either missed or wounded.  It’s good practice to have a “house gun” or two to loan for a hunt should someone need it.  It will save you unwanted pressure from non fatal blood trails and clean misses. A miss can absolutely blow up an area from searching high and low for blood and tracks. It may take one to two weeks for the stand to recover and that’s bad news during the rut.

Many times, after a hunter is disappointed from a poor decision, I’m reminded of a famous line from the Head Ball Coach to Danny Wuerffel after an interception:  “Danny, it’s not your fault…..it’s my fault for putting you in the game.”  – Steve Spurrier.

Time forges woodsmanship.  As managers, we must strive to position hunters to meet goals and standards while promoting QDM. It can be accomplished with preparation and diligence.