OK let's really kick over the worm bucket. If the state owns the deer how come someone can imprison them behind a high fence. :?
I've got mixed feelings on both of these issues (high fences and antler restrictions). I'm on a 1,000 acre lease near Uvalde with five other hunters all of who hunt with a rifle. I passed up a buck with an inside spread of about 17" because I thought he was a young deer, just to see him shot on opening weekend by one of the rifle hunters. I also saw four other young bucks with small racks taken. Odds are we will never have big deer on this place, at least not on a regular basis.
Where this gets to be a real problem is in counties that have a lot of small ranches/ranchettes (by this I'm talking of counties where most of the ranches are probably 300 acres or smaller). Here the bucks with the better genes don't live long enough to have any kind of breeding advantage (cause almost all of the bucks are killed when they are 1.5 years old).
Someone has to decide what is best for the majority. I'm not particularly a QDM person and no offense to either side of this, but most people seem to like the idea that they might have a chance for a bigger buck. To do that means letting most of the smaller ones walk. Especially on the smaller acreages.
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