Hook and bullet club

The new Minnesota deer hunting regulations are out and the changes for 2005 really don’t affect our area directly.There is a change in area 175, but that’s west of 115. If you do hunt there, be sure to apply for an antlerless permit this year as it was changed back to a lottery area.For the rest of us the rules are pretty much the same. For now. But if you look at the regulations being put in for state parks and special areas, you can see the future. The DNR is heading toward selective harvest for deer hunting. Also known as “quality deer management,” this is a big change being pushed by some people inside and some outside the DNR. So far the DNR has stuck with a minimum number of points on each antler for state park special hunts. A minimum of three or four points on one side will be in effect this year in three state park locations. For the rest of the state, the normal rules basically apply but the state park areas are often used to test drive new regulations. Now most hunters will tell you they don’t have a real strong opinion on quality deer management, that is until it affects them personally.We are likely years away from this issue being brought to the surface, but the reasoning behind it is sound. The idea behind not allowing people to shoot spikes and forks is to allow those bucks to grow into mature bucks with bigger racks. Most hunters would likely agree that they would rather shoot a 10-pointer than a spike if they’re out for a wall-hanger. But not every hunter falls into that category.What the DNR has to be very careful of is not to head into an elitist set of regulations. There are enough rules already to confuse people. We don’t need to get to the point that the rules and regs discourage people from hunting.Minnesota still has the benefit of a large group of people who put orange on each fall and head out for deer season. Lose that great asset of deer hunting being nearly a state holiday and new problems will crop up down the road. You can count on that. Hunting and fishing’s greatest challenge is not to put bigger bucks in trucks and bigger pike on poles but to find ways to get and keep our young people interested.Kids today are far more interested in video games than tree stands. I would hate to see a study of the number of kids with fishing poles versus Game Boys. This is where selective harvest programs hurt more than they help. By making it so difficult to figure out how not to break the law, you end up making criminals out of ordinary citizens.Back to quality deer management for a minute. In addition to putting on a minimum number of points before a buck can be shot, here are some ideas floating around out there:• Establishing a buck lottery system;• Eliminating party hunting;• Enforcing a one buck limit;• Closing buck season every couple of years;• Splitting the season with bucks legal only after the rut.Those are not ideas pulled out of the air, they are being discussed already. Now, that said, I would say there are many advantages to quality deer management that bear further discussion.Included would be the use of trail cameras so hunters can see there are bigger deer in the woods. That will make it easier to pass up a spike or fork. The photo shown here of two bucks foraging in western Wisconsin will help my old college roommate Troy decide whether or not to pass up a smaller buck when he’s hunting this fall.Troy is already an avid believer in quality deer management and using a digital camera may help his beliefs even more. Maybe.“I watched for that eight point all last fall and never saw him,” said Troy.There is a true test of selective harvest. He passed up smaller deer hoping to see the one that had appeared on his trail camera but it never showed.Of course that can happen the other way as well. We’ve had seasons where all the tracks, rubs and sightings had been of smaller deer. And then, out of nowhere a massive 12-pointer appeared late in the season. The cameras are not fool-proof, that’s for sure. But more and more you will see hunters using them, especially as the prices for digital versions continue to drop. The 2005 Minnesota firearms deer season is now just 14 weeks away. Will you be able to pass up that small buck when he comes walking by? And it’s 20 below zero? And you haven’t seen a deer all season? Maybe you should hang those trail camera pictures in your stand. You might need a little reminder now and then.