# Should Florida change to a "deer tag system"?



## scootman (Oct 6, 2007)

I just returned home from a quick trip to central Florida. Sunday, I dropped by Bass Pro in Orlando and there was a very impressive deer mount display. It was a group pushing for folks to sign a petition which supported Florida converting over to a "deer tag system" in order for the state to track the numbers of deer harvested throughout the state.

I refused the sign the petition and I could tell it bothered the guy that I didn't embrace the idea of having the state *MORE* involved in my hunting experience. 

He was polite, but kept pleading his case about the unknown total harvests taken throughout the state...unknown buck to doe ratios harvested...unknown age...unknown weights...etc...

He even said something which led me to believe he felt the season was too long because he used the following mathmatics (# of days in the season * 2 deer per day = total # of potential deer harvested ****per hunter****). Translated: 124 days * 2 deer = 248 possible deer harvest per hunter.....that's one heck of a season

He felt it was far too dangerous to leave this possibility on the table and we either need to significantly shorten the season *OR* we needed better tracking mechanisms in order to effectively manage the deer population.

I am curious to hear thoughts from other area hunters....would you support a "deer tag" system in our state?

Scoots


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## beulahboy23 (Jul 9, 2009)

Keep it the way it is.


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## deersniper270 (Apr 29, 2009)

People like him are ignorant and aren't hunters. They truly would not even be effected if hunting was ever taken away from them. My whole life revolves around hunting and preparing for the season. 

Probably just some idiot PETA lovers posing as hunters that support this to convince us to sign up so they can regulate our hunting even more and one day take it away for good.

I would vote no with a passion :thumbdown:


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## jasoncooperpcola (Jan 2, 2008)

I vote no. Because if they do the tagging system then they need a way to enforce it. For example Alabama's tagging system is to limit the number of bucks harvested. I got $221 in fines for not tagging a buck last year. Would Florida's tagging system involve punishments like Alabama's if a hunter failed to tag his/her game? 

Wouldn't a better option be an optional survey? Even if everybody doesn't return theirs the state can still figure out what the need.


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## FrankwT (Jul 25, 2010)

NO, they will get you to do this then say the limit is 2 antlered deer a year...


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## Outside9 (Apr 30, 2008)

I will say this: Last year I killed two 9 points (I let several racked bucks walk), one in Alabama with a black powder and one in Florida with my rifle. I have hunted all my life, in my mid 40's now and never understood these guys who feel they need to shoot every buck they see.

I would rather put a kid or someone else on their first buck or their biggest.

To each their own, but if you kill a nice 8 point today, why would you want to kill a lesser buck the next day or the next day after that.


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## scootman (Oct 6, 2007)

so far, you guys are united.....Be warned a petition exists and I personally saw *A LOT* of people sign the petition calling for a tag system.

I always considered myself a person with an "open mind" to other opinions and viewpoints. Hopefuly, someone will be brave enough to chime in and make a case for the tag system. I'd like to hear their thoughts too.

Scoots


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## CurDog (Nov 14, 2010)

Outside9 said:


> I will say this: Last year I killed two 9 points (I let several racked bucks walk), one in Alabama with a black powder and one in Florida with my rifle. I have hunted all my life, in my mid 40's now and never understood these guys who feel they need to shoot every buck they see.
> 
> I would rather put a kid or someone else on their first buck or their biggest.
> 
> To each their own, but if you kill a nice 8 point today, why would you want to kill a lesser buck the next day or the next day after that.


 
I agree... Too many idiot hunters with the mentality of " Well, if I don't shoot it, somebody else will". "I shoot evrything legal".
My father-in-law has this mentality. And he wonders why he never gets any big rack deer w/over 6 points. He hunts on a very large private hunting club. He has a mass of spikes, 3pt, and 4 pt racks. 
Now how ignorant can a person be?

But does this make me want a "tag" system? NO, I do not.

On the private lease I go to, rules there are 8pts or better, and you HAVE to have it mounted. Once you get an 8pt., you can only shoot 9pts or better, no matter how many seasons have passed. 
I've got an 8pt, then a 10pt., now I can only shoot a 9pt. or 11pt or better. 
I too, only shot 2 bucks last season on public property and did not hunt the private property. I let numerous spikes and small rack deer walk. 
I did shoot a "cow-horn", but it was in shoddy physical condition and very old, almost completely white faced. I thought very hard before putting him down. But decided his best days were over. I also got a 6pt. and let another 6pt walk. 
This is just the way I am, and only my .02 worth.


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## bare bones 24 (Oct 3, 2009)

I must say yes yes yes yes. I hunt in illinois and you get 1 buck tag with a bow and 1 buck tag with a shotgun or muzzleloader. Unlimited doe tags for $5. When you have to decide is this buck my season you will let average deer pass. Every midwest state has tags....where are the record books filled from?.....we have close to 100% sucess on 130" or better bucks....when is the last time you shot a 5 1/2 or 6 1/2 year old buck in florida or alabama? 3 things are needed for quality deer ...food, age, genetics in that order. We can have much better bucks if we can let them age. And a limited number of tags per license will do this. In the midwest you must have a tag with you and attach it as soon as you recover animal and call it in to i.l.d.n.r. By 10 pm that night. Do we all remember how many redfish we caught 15 years ago compared to now? American red snapper? Annoying arse conservation and regulation pays off in the end. If you need or want the meat shoot nanny's. Just my opinion but i have seen what it can do.


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## FrankwT (Jul 25, 2010)

Bare, you can have 100 yr old deer in FL and they will never be a midwest deer, so what is the point? tags are a government accounting system to hurt hunters and add taxes to the treasury. I am anti government so want NO interference. we only have 1 week of doe hunting and are over run w them too. On my lease we are an 8 point club, that is good enough!


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## bare bones 24 (Oct 3, 2009)

frankwt said:


> bare, you can have 100 yr old deer in fl and they will never be a midwest deer, so what is the point? Tags are a government accounting system to hurt hunters and add taxes to the treasury. I am anti government so want no interference. We only have 1 week of doe hunting and are over run w them too. On my lease we are an 8 point club, that is good enough!


 if you shoot a 3yr old 8 pt he will never be a 4 yr old 10 pt. When you can shoot him and shoot another just like him for 60 more days no incentive to let him live. The doe thing in my opinion is a bigger problem kill the crap out of does if you have a decent population. They will have twins instead of singles if the food is there. In illinois we see about the same number of bucks as does. If they allowed 4 bucks a yr. It wouldn't screw up most folks traditions. Midwest deer are bigger but we can get better deer here than we average now. I can show you some bucks from a friends farm between defuniak and freeport that gross in the 150's and dozen's in the 140's he has taken 25-30 does and about 5-6 bucks from 1200 acres for about 15 yrs. He gets tags from state for does . As far as no govt. Interference.. I am as conservative as anyone you know. It wouldn't need to cost more for tags... Doe tags were free last time i got them..thats been several years ago in florida. It really dont matter to me sir but it's just my humble opinion.


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## scootman (Oct 6, 2007)

Thanks bare....I appreciate your opinion.

Scoots


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## zwagner22 (May 17, 2011)

I am from PA and the antler point restriction works better than a tag system...killing the bucks with an antler point restricition TYPICALLY means bigger bucks which means older bucks....but to grow those deer they need to allow you to kill ALOT more does on public land in FL before anything will change with the bucks! TOO many does does not let the mature bucks to breed as many does and young bucks dont have as good of a chance of breeding larger deer.....THE DOES MAKE BIG BUCKS NOT THE BUCK!!


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## PanhandleBob (Mar 16, 2011)

"when is the last time you shot a 5 1/2 or 6 1/2 year old buck in florida or alabama?" Last year...


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## Hopin4aboat (Jul 5, 2009)

No I will not and would never suport a tag system in florida. I love the long season as I am rather busy and don't always have the time to hunt. I grew up in PA and the whole county I lived in would nearly shut down for the week of rifle season. This allows me to hunt more and not kill a lesser buck as I have the time to find what I want.


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## coachmo32 (Dec 12, 2008)

FrankwT said:


> Bare, you can have 100 yr old deer in FL and they will never be a midwest deer, so what is the point? tags are a government accounting system to hurt hunters and add taxes to the treasury. I am anti government so want NO interference. we only have 1 week of doe hunting and are over run w them too. On my lease we are an 8 point club, that is good enough!


 Amen Frank! It all about self control and conservation.


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## fishinchick1 (Aug 2, 2011)

I have to agree with others, no tag system.
248 deer per season, although allowable under the current regulations,is not realistic. 
Most hunters can only get into the woods on weekends, and there is no guarantee that they will take even one deer,let alone 2 everytime they go in the woods.
The opportunity to take does needs to be increased.One week out of the season is not enough.On private land you have the opportunity to get one doe tag per 150 acres.If you give them out to club members there is no guarantee that every member will get the opportunity to fill it.
Case in point, I was fortunate enough to have doe week off last year. I took 3 does during doe week, however I didn't see any does other than during doe week. I didn't get the opportunity to fill my doe tag. For that matter, if I wasn't off work that week, I would have only taken 1 doe, as 2 of them were taken on week days.
Our lease has a six point or better rule and the deer has to be at least 3.5 years old.I didn't take any bucks last year.


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## Robin (Mar 22, 2011)

Tag or no tag lawbreakers will still kill everything that they see cause it's their God given right.Tags work for those that want to follow the rules.......................


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## coachmo32 (Dec 12, 2008)

Robin said:


> Tag or no tag lawbreakers will still kill everything that they see cause it's their God given right.Tags work for those that want to follow the rules.......................


That statment couldnt be anymore true.:notworthy:


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## 706Z (Mar 30, 2011)

*deer tags*

The subject of more regulation(red snapper,deer)really piss me off.I"ve seen legal horn go from 1/2"above the hair line to 3pts on one side.This is on WMA.Ya cant eat horn!!If ya want to shoot trophy horn go join a club like Franks(8pt)or go where they gotem like that(mo.,ill,.ohio,tex).This is FL,where avg. deer on wmas have skak racks or spikes there entire life.avg weight 115#FWC wants more input{surveys} so they can pass more reg.Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!


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## Miami Matt (Jun 20, 2009)

Hell no!


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## Jaw Jacker (Jul 29, 2009)

706Z said:


> The subject of more regulation(red snapper,deer)really piss me off.I"ve seen legal horn go from 1/2"above the hair line to 3pts on one side.This is on WMA.Ya cant eat horn!!If ya want to shoot trophy horn go join a club like Franks(8pt)or go where they gotem like that(mo.,ill,.ohio,tex).This is FL,where avg. deer on wmas have skak racks or spikes there entire life.avg weight 115#FWC wants more input{surveys} so they can pass more reg.Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!


:thumbsup: That right!! tell them like it is. I've got enough Deer heads on the wall. I hunt for meat.


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## johnsonbeachbum (Oct 1, 2007)

bare bones 24 said:


> I must say yes yes yes yes. I hunt in illinois and you get 1 buck tag with a bow and 1 buck tag with a shotgun or muzzleloader. Unlimited doe tags for $5. When you have to decide is this buck my season you will let average deer pass. Every midwest state has tags....where are the record books filled from?.....we have close to 100% sucess on 130" or better bucks....when is the last time you shot a 5 1/2 or 6 1/2 year old buck in florida or alabama? 3 things are needed for quality deer ...food, age, genetics in that order. We can have much better bucks if we can let them age. And a limited number of tags per license will do this. In the midwest you must have a tag with you and attach it as soon as you recover animal and call it in to i.l.d.n.r. By 10 pm that night. Do we all remember how many redfish we caught 15 years ago compared to now? American red snapper? Annoying arse conservation and regulation pays off in the end. If you need or want the meat shoot nanny's. Just my opinion but i have seen what it can do.


This sounds like something PETA would use as propaganda to get new members.
"See. they are not hunting/killing for food, they are hunting/killing for the sport of it and to stroke their egos to obtain trophy kills.


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## saltgrass (Sep 1, 2008)

I can say from what we where told in our club meeting last year. It is going to happen i do belv. and we arent going to get much to say bout it witch sucks. that come from the FWC officer that was there. 

And to say Fl is not the mid west yes you are rite. But we do have the pot. to grow bigger deer if we wanted to. Buy feeding them and letting them get a little age on um. In the last two years I have seen some nice 130" plus deer killed rite here in Escambia county there was a 138-140 killed next to us. 2 130's on our club the year before and a 140" plus killed 500yrds from my back yard off of south hwy 97 this year.


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## Stumpknocker (Oct 3, 2007)

706Z said:


> The subject of more regulation(red snapper,deer)really piss me off.I"ve seen legal horn go from 1/2"above the hair line to 3pts on one side.This is on WMA.Ya cant eat horn!!If ya want to shoot trophy horn go join a club like Franks(8pt)or go where they gotem like that(mo.,ill,.ohio,tex).This is FL,where avg. deer on wmas have skak racks or spikes there entire life.avg weight 115#FWC wants more input{surveys} so they can pass more reg.Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!



It wouldn't hurt my feelings if ALL management areas went to 3 points on one side or at least a forked horn rule. I'm not much of a trophy hunter, but I'd like to at least give those smaller deer a chance to grow. 

As for a tag system, I don't think it's necessary.


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## billrv (Jan 8, 2008)

We have to manage our self first than the heard, on private land why would anyone shot anyhting less than a 3 1/2 yr.old GOOD buck with all of the doe tags available, several clubs have proven that letting 'em walk will produce 175# plus good bucks unfourtanatly all a good young buck has to do is cross the wrong property line and all of us loose the benefit of another year of his genes being spread


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## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Against the tag system for lots of reasons with #1 being - the less government we have the better off we will be. But another reason is that I am not sold on limiting deer kill numbers, so that they can get older & be real trophies. In my experience deer in our area peak at 3.5 - 4.5 yrs. after that our dirt cannot support the genetics and horn growth goes back down. On our club last year we killed 5 bucks over 100" one 4.5 yr old, one 3.5 yr old and three 2.5 yr olds. And to answer another posters question about "when was the last time you killed a six year old in Fl"... here are two fine culls I removed from our herd last season. The one on the right was a 6.5 yr old five point (killed on Halloween) The other is a 7.5 yr old 7 point killed with a muzzleloader in Feb. The one on the left was too tough to even eat


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## 706Z (Mar 30, 2011)

I also totally agree with Tryin Hard.The less Gov. and FWC knows about your buss. the better!The land here dose not support monster antler growth like the black belt of Ala. or other places.Sure, we can feed add sup. to grow horns but,dose not occurr naturally.Stompknocker,I like eating small deer(tender).Now FWC wants to cram deer tags down our throats!Of coarse there will be a charge included!They want you to buy your way into being able to hunt,butwant to reg. it to death!PRESERVATIONIST!!NOT CONSERVATIONIST!!JUST BECAUSE OTHER STATES DO IT,DOSE"NT MEAN ITS RIGHT FOR FL.FWC HAS TO FUND ITS EXSITANCE IN THESE BUDGET CUTTING TIMES!!Saltgrass ya need a higher fence. I"M DONE!


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## hogdogs (Apr 19, 2010)

Not only do I support goin' to a tag system but I think they should triple the price of a license and only allow one buck and one doe... additional tags should cost $100 each!

Unless you are named hogdogs and born at 6:47 pm on august 25th 1968... then it should be left alone with a possible drop in lic. fee.

brent


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## FrankwT (Jul 25, 2010)

Damn Brent, my High School class ring is older than you!


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## CurDog (Nov 14, 2010)

Lol


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## deersniper270 (Apr 29, 2009)

Another thing to add to the deer get better with age around here..

We used to have a lease between Milton and Munson that we hunted for almost 10 years with a 3 point on one side or better rule. Well in the last 4 years that we had the club I was old enough to understand what to look for in a mature deer. Our portion was right on the creek between two great food plots where a lot and I mean like over 20 different bucks stayed during the day working between the two plots. Out of the 20 or so bucks I saw, about half were 4 points and half were spikes with some having a spike and a fork. 5 of the bucks that were spikes ranged anywhere from 3-5 years of age and weighed around 150lbs+ Including one that we aged to be about 5 with spikes about 8-10 inches long. Another buck was almost 7 years old with a spike and a fork and went from 180ish down to 150 in two or three years. Now these deer had plenty to eat anything from corn to clovers to beans with plots year round to eat. 

Now why did these bucks never grow? Every year we saw the same bucks with the same size antlers with a variation in size and shape but no growth.


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## hogdogs (Apr 19, 2010)

Dang, Frank... My heart bleeds biscuits and venison sausage gravy fer yer old butt...:no: Well not so much...

I might look and feel older than you after a few hours of anything more than this HUNT and PECK key pokin' I do...:whistling:

I didn't know moses and his buddies actually wore "class rings"... I thought ya'll escapees from pharaoh were so meager ya'll were happy with unleavened bread and grass seed that fell from the sky...:thumbup:

Brent


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## mrmojo2136 (Feb 16, 2008)

Wirelessly posted

Ha ha ha!! Brent and Frank, you guys are cracking me up!! IMO we are not going to have the deer in FL like they do in the north. The only reason I could see going to a tag system here is if the populations were getting low! An 8pt buck could weigh 200+ lbs up north. Here, we are lucky if he's 170?? There's a reason we don't have guided deer hunts in FL.


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## FrankwT (Jul 25, 2010)

yours are 170?? Mine are more likely 150...lol


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## mrmojo2136 (Feb 16, 2008)

Wirelessly posted

I knew I was giving it a few pounds, but I was saying that excellent bucks in this area would get attention at that size. Up north they may not even put the scope to a buck in the 170's!!


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## FrankwT (Jul 25, 2010)

All I know is i have a 10 and 12 pointer walking around and I don't care what they weigh, I want 1 of them this year, otherwise it will be all does.


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## skullworks (Oct 2, 2007)

Well...I'll throw in even though I'm from and hunt Alabama. Where we hunt in Macon County, Alabama we don't base upon antler size, spread or anything like that. We try to kill based on age characteristics. Now we do kill a 2.5 year old 110" 8 point on occasion because hunting is supposed to be fun. We also don't kill many deer period because we don't have a huge population on our property but we have very good genetics which has produced several 120" deer as well as a 152" 8 point and a 161" 10 point. I do believe that antler restrictions help but you also need a liberal antlerless season...maybe not as liberal as Alabama's(a whole different discussion) but the biggest bucks are achieved through trigger control. Like has been said before though...you have to have the genetics, food, and age. If that doesn't matter to you then shoot whatever is legal. I would think they could get a good idea of how many deer are killed through processors. I know not all the deer killed but a pretty good idea. I hate to see the government get to involved too. The main reason I hunt is because it is fun and I enjoy getting out in nature. I love for someone to kill a deer out of a stand I put up...it means I won too by picking the place to put it. If it becomes like work or I have to look over my shoulder all the time then I'll quit doing it.


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## skullworks (Oct 2, 2007)

Oh... we hunt 1100 acres with 6 or 7 guys and we killed 5 bucks and maybe 5 does all year. 1/2 of those bucks were old spike on one side bucks.


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## Funman (Aug 8, 2008)

I moved from Navarre Florida to New Mexico last year. Hunting in New Mexico is a chore compared to Florida. Please do not let Florida go to deer tags or anything close to that idea. In NM you have to draw for a tag, then if your lucky enough to get one, you got it , one deer all year. I cant wait to come back to my home in Florida. On the other hand coyote hunting here is tremendous!


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