shooting hens ?

[LongBarrel]

GH22,
You think the deer population was damaged or just displaced? I know that I still see around 8 to 1 does for each buck. It may just be overpressuring the deer. Starkvegas and the surrounding areas are crawling with deer.
Is it the Starkville area you were referring to? Take a ride out to Eastman Properties on South Montgomery at night. Be careful, you may hit an old doe crossing the road. PLENTY of deer out there.

[Greenhead22]

There is no doubt in my mind that there are parts of the state that do need to reduce doe numbers. What these biologists need to do is get up off their booty and get into the field and determine where the does should be taken out. When they made it legal to kill one doe that gave a lot of people the ability to kill as many as they want. They think this tele-check is going to help with the set limits, it's not, they just won't call them in. There is really no way to police how many deer a person kills. As much traveling as I do I like to see deer on the side of the road, unlike others cuz they are scared that the deer will run out in front of them. Go buy some of those deer alarms and put them on the bumper, they work, let me tell ya. The deer herd in my part of the delta is hurting now, due to the tremendous number of does taken each year. Every evening after we get through hunting we count of the deer each person saw. We counted up 15 deer seen Saturday, and the majority of them were the same deer seen at each stand.

[ December 11, 2001: Message edited by: Greenhead22 ]

[dos gris]

Duckmen-

I have a few research papers you may be interested in. PM your address and I will mail them to you.

"Effects of restrictive and liberal hunting regulations on annual survival rates of the mallard in North America."
D.R. Anderson and K.P. Durnham (1978)

"Role of hunting regulations in migratory bird management"
A.D. Geis (1963)

[ December 11, 2001: Message edited by: dos gris ]

[MSDuckmen]

This will be my last response simply because it will not matter what is said to those that feel it is ok to shoot a hen.

The study shows that the hens when they lose a mate will mate again but the clutches will be smaller for the first two years.

Don’t know where barrel got that the drakes will mate again but what ever.

The drakes will mate multiple times with multiple hens the study done in 1985 called Mating strategies, including mate choice in mallards by Edward Roemers talks about the Drake and how they will mate with multiple hens.

The study shows that the hens are already taking a blow from the loss of their paired drakes, thus causing a reduction in the clutch, So how is it that you can’t see the correlation in adaptive harvest of the hens as being destructive.

Less drakes = less clutches and Dead hens = no clutches.

You’re right we are damned, that is exactly why I choose not to shoot hens.

My point is made.

[LongBarrel]

I don't know about them deer horn alerts. I got a nice 9-pt last year. It ran into the side of my truck with my wife yelling like a banshee... [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[Jeff]

Well as most know, I am from S.E. La, if a mallard period comes into my spread it is big time lost, it is such a rarity it wouldn't matter what kind it is Drake, Hen, or something in between, it would have seen it's last view of the marsh. When I can I try to shoot drakes, but otherwise I shoot the bird that is on my side and closest. I applaud people who do other things, but I am not one of them. I agree not shooting them will help the ducks in the long run, If I hunt with someone that doesn't shoot hens then I won't, but on my ground, a hen in the dekes is a dead hen.

[btyler]

Duckmen,

I have been hunting ducks in the delta for twenty-five years. If at all possiable I try and let the hens go by. Sometimes I might shoot a hen by accident or if I take a young first time hunter I'll tell him to just shoot so he can see what hunting is like. I think if it had a major dent in the duck population the feds wuold ban it. I went on my first duck hunt in 1976 and I dont remem

[btyler]

Duckmen,

I have been hunting ducks in the delta for Twenty-five years. If at all possiable I try not to shoot hens. I learned duck hunting from my father and he from his. The reason that I am responding to your post is the very first thing that my father taught me about duck hunting was that it was the only "true gentleman form of hunting". Now I believe that your cause of "hen shooting" is noble but to put yourself on another "higher level" than other duckhunters puts you in the same class of people that I would not like to pass on the duckhunting tradition. Take this for what it is worth and remember that not many people have the privalage to hunt ducks and it is for true gentlemen only

Rebelgreenhead

[H2OFowl]

I cant believe this topic even made it this far. It's simple. DO NOT SHOOT HENS! If you think you gotta bust a hen to get your limit(or for bragging rights) you missed the point years ago. Yeah eveyone gets a lil bored or takes a shot into the sun, but if you know its a hen and think if you dont limit you aint gonna get to brag about how you killed your limit youre not a sportsman, your a joke. Man I wonder about some people.

[Bigpoppa]

H2oFowl,
Apparently you didnt read the other 38 messages. This has nothing to do with bragging rights or the limit. It has to do with wwether it hurts the duck population and if it makes you a bad person to shoot a hen.

I am glad to see that some of those of you who are dead set against shooting a hen dont condemn the people who do.That is class.I am not trying to change anyones opinion, just trying to state mine.

It just doesnt add up, you have to have a drake and a hen to have little baby ducks.In some way, you could say killing either is hurting the duck population. That is a lame argument to me. I try to shoot greenheads if I am hunting a good area but it doesnt always work out. So be it.

On the doe thing. In Mississippi biologist do not care at all about what happens to the deer population or they would track the harvest. There is no tagging system. I know of people who have killed 30 to 40 deer a year consistently for 10 years. Yet every year you see bogus , made up harvest info on deer in magazines and brochures. Where do they get this? I have never been asked.The honor system is a joke because there are hunters out there who are not honorable.

OH back on the hen thing. I am going to shock you but I would just as soon shoot a Gadwall and would much rather shoot a Pintail on most days.

Duck and deer are my primary diet until I run out.

[Hung Up]

Shoot em if they are close!!!!!!!!!

[Dirty Duck Hunter]

If 2 grenheads and a hen comes in my hole, guees what gets shot?????

2 greenheads and a hen, everytime!!!!!

[ December 11, 2001: Message edited by: Dirty Duck Hunter ]

[ December 11, 2001: Message edited by: Dirty Duck Hunter ]

[MSDuckmen]

hehe

Dirty Duck Hunter that is fine for you.

If two drakes and a hen come into my spot I will kill two drakes and tell momma to find her another sugar-daddy.

Heck I would be half way through my mallard limit and would simply wait till the next group come in to finish. I'm not out there to get the limit as fast as possible.

Heck if I did that I couldn't rag you about missing the two mallards and killing the hen.
[img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Just funnin ya now, so do go balistic on me. [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[Bigpoppa]

Good to see you are in a good mood Duckmen. I don't want to cross you when you are not in a good mood. Start us a good topic tonight.

[hemingway]

It is about time we got some good debate around here!
Heres my $.02: To each his own...what I mean by this is simple, we all have our own perspectives of what a "trophy" is for some killing a doe is a trophy(new hunter, playing chess with same deer for years, etc). I personlly dont shoot does and I personally dont think that sitting in a tripod with a 7Mag and 20 acres of rye grass is "hunting", nor is shooting bears as they rummage through your dunkin donut boxes...but I dont knock other people if this is their trophy(well, maybe i knock em a little). The same thing with hens...Itry not to shoot em and would love for all my limits to be 4 greenheads and 2 drake woodrows but that dont happen all the time...and i will take a hen.
It takes two to procreate...period so for every drake you kill there possibly could be 5 hens he knocked up....Are we men just protective of Women or what???Now u know y women dont need to be in combat but that is another thread!!!

And for those who rely on the feds for harvest control and think they are the answer...boy are you naive!!! [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]