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Visitors to the annual Virginia Deer Classic in Richmond, where they can tour headmounts of trophy bucks, among other displays, are in agreement about the improvement of deer quality in the state.
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VIRGINIA'S GENEROUS deer season just finished two weeks ago and many hunters took bucks that they plan to have mounted for trophies. These deer will provide lifelong memories for the hunters and good money for the taxidermists.
The white-tailed deer is America's most popular big game animal. A recent national survey of American taxidermists by the National Shooting Sports Foundation had a majority reporting a growing number of customers and a trend toward larger white-tailed deer bucks.
Informal checks with taxidermists around Virginia also indicate hunters seem to be bringing in a better class of deer than typically seen 10 to 20 years ago.
This trend is visible at the Virginia Deer Classic, staged at the Outdoor Sportsman's Show every August in Richmond. Frequent visitors to the show regularly comment that Virginia's deer quality seems to be improving.
The quality potential was always there. Matt Knox, deer program manager for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, collects biological data from hundreds of hunt clubs and other cooperators in the state's Deer Management Assistance Program.
"I don't think, within any given age class of deer, that antlers are getting bigger. What we are seeing from our cooperators' data, though, is that hunters are taking deer that are getting older," Knox said. The number of yearling bucks taken as an overall percentage of harvest has been steadily decreasing, while the number of 2-year-old, 3-year-old and older deer have been increasing
This is reflective of a quality deer management mind-set that is becoming increasingly popular among hunters and landowners. Many hunt clubs have strict rules about not taking immature bucks.
Knox thinks a combination of education and peer pressure over a decade has resulted in this trend, which he said he sees not only continuing, but also accelerating.
For example, Shenandoah County, after several years of debate and deer management education, adopted regulations that went into effect this year specifying antler point restrictions. The goal was to protect younger bucks.
"People are talking today about the number of bucks they pass up annually," Knox said. "Even the average hunter often passes up younger bucks. This was uncommon in Virginia 10 to 15 years ago."
Knox said Bedford County hunters, basically on their own, have become role models for hunters opting for quality bucks. He told an anecdote about a large walk-in cooler near the Peaks of Otter where hunters can age venison before butchering. "A decade ago, the cooler was full of yearling bucks, today you have to look hard to see these smaller deer among the older, bigger deer with nice antlers," he said.
Organizations such as the Quality Deer Management Association have long touted factors such as age structure and buck-to-doe ratio, genetics and nutrition. Matching deer population to a habitat's carrying capacity is also critical.
Knox said age management is much more effective than food plot management, although he says enhanced nutrition may add a couple percentage points in antler mass to deer over time.
While quality is on the upswing, Knox has written articles cautioning Virginia hunters about lofty expectations of nurturing Boone & Crockett Club trophy bucks.
"If you want a Boone & Crockett buck, a Texas fence would be helpful," Knox said with a chuckle.
He thinks Virginia hunters should happily count most mature bucks with adult antlers as a fine trophy. Mature basically means Virginia hunters have to let bucks get to 3 years old, the age where they begin realizing the brunt of their antler potential.
Incremental antler gains occur to about age 6 and then taper off, with many bucks seeing antler declines in later years.
Short of forking over big bucks of another kind (the ones with pictures of American presidents) to hunt inside a high-fenced ranch in Texas or elsewhere, your average Virginia hunter won't find too many bucks reaching those older age classes.
People with adequate amounts of land in quality habitat, usually thousands of acres where they have complete control over herd management factors, can sometimes manage for deer reaching greater antler development.
Sound herd management basically means achieving a good buck-to-doe ratio and protecting those yearling bucks sporting three or four antler points, for they likely have the most potential for antler growth.
This doesn't mean, though, that spike-horned yearlings are bad. There is no truth to the still-heard statement, "once a spike, always a spike."
Knox has ample photo proof showing how little spikes eventually mature and became fine trophy bucks with heavy, tall antlers. Knox, however, advises selecting for the best and if you must cull yearling bucks, cull the spike horns. The key is having enough property to afford this type of qualitative decision.
Hunters other than DMAP cooperators, including those hunting public land or federal properties, will also start seeing the value in selecting for quality bucks, Knox believes. He added that eastern Virginia hunters who use dogs also can be selective and protect young bucks, citing Southampton County as an example where this is well practiced.
Knox and many of the regional wildlife biologists make themselves available to talk to groups of hunters and landowners interested in managing for quality deer. Part of their presentations often include a popular "shoot or don't shoot" segment that helps educate hunters on how to quickly size up a Virginia trophy.
One of these presentations may be arranged locally by calling the DGIF's Fredericksburg office at 899-4169.
KEN PERROTTE can be reached at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia Street, Fredericksburg, Va. 22401; by fax at 373-8455; or e-mail
Email: outdoors@freelancestar.com.
