"Patterning" big bucks has become an obsession with serious trophy hunters. But as we shall see, there is another side to the coin..."

HOW BIG BUCKS PATTERN YOU

The old buck moved quickly along the mountain trail bathed in silvery moonlight, instinctively placing his hooves to avoid making noise. Though he moved with some urgency, the first streaks of dawn in the eastern sky were still nearly an hour away.

While he did not recognize it as such, opening day of hunting season was only a short time away. The buck understood only that once again man had invaded his world, and the resulting feeling of dread pushed him quickly toward the seclusion of his ridgeside safety area.

Long before he had been born a terrible, howling wind had slammed into the mountainside, leaving the huge trees scattered like so many straws along it's steep sides. Over the ensuing years the land had slowly reclaimed the area, and now a myriad of vines covered the rotting logs. With many hidden holes beneath the vines the area was dangerous for man, and thus ideal for deer. His favorite bed was alongside a huge uprooted oak, and vines literally covered him as he lay against it’s upturned roots. No one ever bothered him there, not even the one who spent so much time on the mountain, looking at tracks and examining the trees he pushed against as he readied himself for each fall's breeding season.

A sense of unease came over him as he thought of that solitary hunter, but even that one was easy to avoid. Several times over the years the man had been within yards of the buck's hiding place, without even knowing he was watched from such a close distance! It seemed that man did not use his nose very well, and even his eyes and ears seemed almost useless.

But now he would change his normal patterns, moving only at night and feeding in those remote openings deep within the forest itself. Luckily, the sweet acorns had begun to fall, and he would be able to gorge himself without venturing too far from his security zone.

The stirrings of fear were not new to the buck. He had now endured six hunting seasons, and he had learned their lessons well. He knew that soon the terrible sounds would again turn his woods into a place of terror, and well he remembered the searing pain one such sound had caused him during his yearling year. The hurt had finally gone away, but the hunter's bullet had left him with a lingering limp that caused one hoofprint to be light and indistinct even now. Though he could not know this, it was an identifying trait that had long identified his tracks to every hunter in the area, and men often drove many miles to simply gaze at the huge impressions where he had crossed a wet road or snow-covered field.

He paused as the sounds of laughter floated up from one of the campsites below. Man gathered at that particular spot every year, their noise and woodsmoke combining with the stench to make it a place to be avoided. Lights still burning in several of the tents and trailers indicated that some of the late-night card games had lasted well into morning. That was good, because there would be many sleepy hunters in the woods that day, and those would head back to their camps soon after sunup.

Most also left their vehicles wearing the same heavy coats and gloves they would wear when on stand. Their sweat under the layers of heavy clothing would quickly make them cold and uncomfortable, along with making their stench even worse. Those who became chilled would be walking aimlessly through the woods soon after daybreak, their discomfort combining with their lack of faith in their hunting spot to put them on the move. Damp clothing and boredom had saved many a buck over the years!

He paused in a dense growth of pines and watched the first pinpoints of light moving into the woods far below. The flashlights winked like fireflies as he checked to make sure of their direction. Even with the help of their lights humans still moved noisily. They broke sticks and rustled leaves underfoot as they plowed through the underbrush, their contact with low-growing vegetation leaving their scent everywhere they went. Oddly, he had occasionally encountered human trails that smelled faintly like a fox or even bobcat, and several times the solitary one who hunted on the mountain had left no scent at all. That had been disconcerting, because in some way that hunter had come up with a way to confuse his nose, which was his most trusted warning system!

The hunters who moved slowly and quietly, like the one on the mountain, were the dangerous ones. They used the platforms that could be easily and quietly moved, and a flashing arrow from one such during his third fall had taught him to watch for unnatural movement in trees. It had left a stinging cut across his back that the flies had bothered for days!

He thought back to the preceding autumn. A late-spring ice storm had destroyed the white oak acorns, the food even an old buck enjoyed above all others. But even with no acorns falling, the humans had continued to hunt their stands in the vast oak groves. Few deer had been taken, because they had been feeding on honeysuckle and greenbrier along the mountainsides.

Just as the eastern sky began to turn pink, the buck slipped into the dense blowdown where he would spend his day. Maybe around midday, when man invariably left the woods to eat and rest, he would grab a quick bite of honeysuckle and a drink from a small spring inside the edge of the thicket. But if man came near during the morning he would forego even that chance, remaining in his bed until full darkness again blanketed the mountain. With the help of a full moon he might even finish feeding in time to ease down into one of the doe areas. THE time was close, and he had felt the stirrings rising in his body for some time. Fortunately, he lived in an area where does were plentiful, so it was not necessary to take long jaunts looking for a mate.

He gave the sapling on the edge of the blowdown a few pushes with his massive rack before disappearing into the densest part. The six-inch cedar, worn half through by his annual rubbing, was a 'signpost' that marked this particular area as his, and warned others not to come there. None had for many autumns.

The old buck would stay in his secure area as long as man was in the woods, and by so doing would live to see another summer. As a brilliant dawn broke over the sharp ridges, and as the first volleys of shots rolled across the valleys, he was nestled against the upturned roots of the his hiding place.

A buck that thinks? Fortunately for hunters, deer do not have the ability to 'reason' as we define the term. But they certainly have an ‘awareness’ of virtually everything that takes place in their world, and repeated contact with man will make them alter their patterns and habits. Understanding that, and altering YOUR habits accordingly can make the difference between success and failure

   I remember the conversation well. It took place back in June of 2000 and I was talking with Hugh Durham, who had just been hired as Director of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AGFC). We were  discussing his plan for deer management in the Natural State.

   "Antler restrictions are merely one piece of the puzzle," Hugh said. "They are not a stand-alone management program, nor are they necessarily a long-term answer."

   Here in the central Ozarks where I live, I believe that the 3-point rule has had a positive effect. Buck age structure has improved and both antler and body size have increased overall. In other areas of the state the results have been either great or terrible, depending on who you talk to, but a majority of hunters still seem to favor the rule.

   But questions do exist. Consider a statement made recently by Larry Castle, deer program coordinator for the state of Mississippi.
   "Mississippi currently has a 4-point restriction statewide," Larry told me at the Hunters Expo in Shreveport. "Our concern is that we may be highgrading future deer populations by the continued removal of the 'best' (larger-antlered) members of the yearling age-class."

   Stephen Demarais, professor of Wildlife Management at Mississippi State University, concurs with Castle's opinion. After intensive monitoring of buck kill on the state's Sunflower WMA, his statistics show a gradual but definite decrease of the Boone and Crockett (B&C) scores of 3 1/2-year-old bucks taken on the WMA since the 4-point rule was adopted.

   The 3-point rule has now been in use for seven years here in Arkansas. Are we on the edge of seeing antler size beginning to decrease?

   Cathy Helm is one of the prime forces behind the annual Arkansas Big Buck Classic held each January down in Little Rock, and is directly involved with the event's popular statewide big buck contest.
   "When the 3-point rule first went into effect we saw an immediate and dramatic increase in antler size of the bucks entered in our contest," Cathy stated. "But the last couple of years that trend has leveled off, and has maybe even decreased a little bit."

   Those comments, by someone who year after year sees a majority of the state's largest bucks, would seem to agree with the opinions mentioned above.

  So OK, if we do have a problem, or soon will have one, what are the alternatives? 

   Here's where it get 'dicey', because the answers are sometimes ones that a lot of hunters simply don't want to hear. So let’s look at some of the possibilities, along with the pros and cons of each.

*SPREAD REQUIREMENTS. Some biologists suggest adding a minimum inside antler spread to the current point restriction. 
PRO: This would certainly protect more 1.5 year-old bucks, very few of which would have a 15-inch inside spread. 
CON: It would be even harder for the hunter to determine rather or not a buck was legal, and could possibly lead to more bucks being killed and left in the field.

*SLOT LIMIT FOR BUCKS. Hunters may take bucks with LESS THAN three points on one side;or MORE THAN four. This is being tried on a limited basis in some areas right now. 
PRO: It gives the 'meat hunter' an opportunity to take his venison; would protect the quality 1.5 year-old deer; and would also would help to take a few inferior bucks out of the herd. 
CON: Offhand I don't know of any. IF you're going to have antler requirements, this one seems to make the most sense.

Those two options are merely adjustments to current point restrictions. While many hunters view the 3-point rule as being the entire quality management package, that is not true. In actuality quality management is much more far-reaching, and there are numerous other herd/buck improvement options which have nothing to do with points.

*LOWER BUCK BAG LIMITS. Kentucky has drastically improved it's buck age structure by reducing the bag limit to one buck per year. Quite a number of other states utilize the same approach. 
PRO: It's certainly common sense that reducing the buck kill will increase the number of bucks moving into older age classes. 
CON: This would be a hard sell with hunters from areas that have allowed two bucks in the past.

*REDUCING SEASON LENGTH. Longer seasons result in more bucks being killed, so reducing days would cut down on harvest. 
PRO: In addition to fewer bucks being killed, shorter seasons would also probably tend to make the 'average' hunter less selective, thereby reducing the number of older bucks taken.
CON: I'm like about everyone else, I don't like losing days afield.

*ADJUSTING SEASON TIMING. Kansas, a noted big buck state, and quite a few others as well, do not open their gun season during the breeding period. 
PRO: Since bucks move more when under the influence of their breeding urge, and since the Arkansas gun season opens during this time, changing season dates could definitely lower the number of bucks taken. 
CON: If you take away hunting the rut, my deer hunting enjoyment goes down greatly. I think probably a majority of the state's hunters feel the same way.

*MORE PRIMITIVE ARMS HUNTING/LESS MODERN GUN. The McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma is known for the number and quality of it's bucks. One of the primary reasons is that only bowhunting is allowed there for bucks; shotguns are permitted during doe-only seasons. 
PRO: Again, this certainly cuts down on buck kill, and overall kill as well. 
CON: It isn't feasible on a statewide basis. Maybe on certain WMAs, but not as an overall solution.

To sum up, I really don't know that Arkansas is in dire need of any of the changes mentioned above right now. Aside from the 'slot limit', along with the 1-buck limit currently in use in certain zones, I have not heard about real discussion by the commissioners of potential major changes for the coming year. Of course that could change.

But it is time for us, as hunters, to educate ourselves, and to become aware of the various options, and even to begin making our opinions known about them. It is our right, and it is also our duty.