Anyone else Hunt a “Trophy Zone”?

[Herd Buck]

I have a place in 4G where we are limited to what bucks we can shoot, been hunting there for 20 years and haven’t noticed an increase in buck size over that time, we have a ton of bucks with no brow tines. Interested in what others are seeing or have experienced. 

[Rusty]

I’ve been hunting a zone in NJ that is on the NY border for 50 years.   Back in the day, bucks with 5 points on a side were relatively common.   24 years ago they implemented APRs and today bucks with 5 points on a side are virtually non existent.  High Grading is clearly evident here.      

Edited September 22 by Rusty

[dmandoes]

53 minutes ago, Herd Buck said:

I have a place in 4G where we are limited to what bucks we can shoot, been hunting there for 20 years and haven’t noticed an increase in buck size over that time, we have a ton of bucks with no brow tines. Interested in what others are seeing or have experienced. 

 

 

31 minutes ago, Rusty said:

I’ve been hunting a zone in NJ that is on the NY border for 50 years.   Back in the day, bucks with 5 points on a side were relatively common.   24 years ago they implemented APRs and today bucks with 5 points on a side are virtually non existent.  High Grading is clearly evident here.  

What can u shoot there?

[Rusty]

26 minutes ago, dmandoes said:

What can u shoot there?

3 points on one side.  

[Trial153]

High grading is the biggest bullshit I ever heard.

I own property and Hunt int two AR areas . the Hunting quality has increased substantially since they’ve been implemented. Furthermore, that’s the general consensus to all the landowners that Hunt. 

there is absolutely no comparison comparing what the Hunting was 10 or 15 years ago to what it is now. It is substantially better. 

 

if you look at the data that is taken yearly in regards to age, number of points, circumference of the bases, all have which trended upward. So other than talking bullshit is no Data that substantiates “ high grading” 

Edited September 22 by Trial153

[Trial153]

also, I’m not sure where the term” trophy zone” is used. Point restrictions are implemented quite frankly, for thr lowest common denominator we assume most hunters can count. The idea was and is to improve the age structure of bucks in our population to a more natural balance. As opposed to what was taking place unfortunately with about 75% of the bucks  killed being under 2 1/2 years old.  Antler restrictions have changed that trend substantially. 

[Rusty]

Trial,  that’s too many words without any pictures.  My ADHD kicked in after your second sentence and I started chasing a squirrel.   

[Trial153]

4 minutes ago, Rusty said:

Trial,  that’s too many words without any pictures.  My ADHD kicked in after your second sentence and I started chasing a squirrel.   

how about you show us where there is scientific data from either the New York or the New Jersey game department that high grading is occurring? 

It should be pretty easy New York does a  yearly addendum to their deer plan . goggle is your friend. 

Edited September 22 by Trial153

[grampy]

1 hour ago, Trial153 said:

High grading is the biggest bullshit I ever heard.

I own property and Hunt int two AR areas . the Hunting quality has increased substantially since they’ve been implemented. Furthermore, that’s the general consensus to all the landowners that Hunt. 

there is absolutely no comparison comparing what the Hunting was 10 or 15 years ago to what it is now. It is substantially better. 

 

if you look at the data that is taken yearly in regards to age, number of points, circumference of the bases, all have which trended upward. So other than talking bullshit is no Data that substantiates “ high grading” 

The problem is that on private land those who hunt it, can choose to take more mature bucks. And that's fine. But......on public land with no AR's alot of hunters are still shooting the first legal buck they see. Our land borders public, and we still see lots of one year old bucks dragged out over there. You see, not everyone cares about a big buck. Some just want to get meat in the freezer. And that's OK too.

[broomeguy]

Other states that have implemented ARs have not found evidence of high grading. 

[mowin]

I thank God I don't live in a AR zone. 

[Rusty]

8 minutes ago, broomeguy said:

Other states that have implemented ARs have not found evidence of high grading. 

The only way that they could do that would be if they took average antler scores of each age group before they implemented the APRs, and then collect the same data each year after they were implemented.   Nobody did, except Mississippi,  guess what they found?   

[mowin]

19 minutes ago, Rusty said:

The only way that they could do that would be if they took average antler scores of each age group before they implemented the APRs, and then collect the same data each year after they were implemented.   Nobody did, except Mississippi,  guess what they found?   

Let me guess.. High grading? 

[fletchny11]

High-grading is a real thing even if Trials wide ranging personal property experience scientific paper disagrees.

There are a bunch of studies out there that are just a search away. Look at some of the ones from Michigan. Sorry I don't do research for you or my kids.

Teach a man to fish not give him the fish.

[Wolc123]

38 minutes ago, Rusty said:

The only way that they could do that would be if they took average antler scores of each age group before they implemented the APRs, and then collect the same data each year after they were implemented.   Nobody did, except Mississippi,  guess what they found?   

I’ll go ahead and guess that they found evidence of high grading.   It would not make any sense if they didn’t.  How could protecting only the six pointers without brows and only allowing hunters to harvest the young eights not lead to an increase of the inferior antler traits and a decrease of the superior  ?

It don’t seem like a difficult concept to understand so there ought to be plenty of evidence out there to back it up.  

Edited September 22 by Wolc123