Introducing Kids to Deer Hunting:

Should Antler Restrictions Be Eliminated for Beginning Hunters?

 By  Charles J. Alsheimer

These are exciting times to be alive, especially for whitetail enthusiasts. It’s safe to say that deer management has progressed further in the last 10 years than in the previous 50 combined. Since the early ‘90s, many portions of America have gone from the traditional way of managing deer to a concept that emphasizes quality over quantity. From this the Quality Deer Management movement has begun to flourish.

In a nutshell QDM is a form of deer management that produces quality does, fawns and bucks. Yearling and 2-year-old bucks are protected to produce mature males, and doe harvesting is emphasized to control the buck-to-doe ratio. In addition, the practice strives to keep deer habitat at a high level. QDM also strives to improve landowner relations and the quality of hunters. The end result can be a quality hunt.

 On paper the QDM concept looks like a no-brainer. After all who would argue with anyone who wants to improve both the whitetail resource and human side of the sport of hunting. It all appears to be pretty easy. Unfortunately there is a part of the QDM component that has caused considerable debate, both with the experts and participants. It deals with what antler size guidelines to use for new or young hunters. On one side of the equation are those who feel new and young hunters should go by the same antler restrictions as experienced veteran hunters. On the opposite side are those who believe it’s important to ease youth and new hunters into both the sport of hunting and the QDM concept to insure they do not lose interest in hunting.

Many of the leading experts in the QDM movement feel that first-time hunters should abide by the same rules as everyone else when it comes to the size of the bucks that can be harvested. The question/comment heard from many of these authorities has been, “What kind of message are we sending to our kids if we allow them to go by different rules than everyone else?” In many instances there doesn’t seem to be any room for youth concessions when it comes to dealing with kids and QDM.

Two years ago I was asked to do a quality deer presentation for a county in Maryland that was attempting to get antler-point-restrictions passed in their county. The organizers knew in advance that I advocated allowing young hunter the ability to harvest young bucks. They asked me to refrain from using any slides or making my personal opinion known to the public. We wound up striking a compromise by allowing me to share what we do on our farm in New York.

When biologists and leaders in the state of Pennsylvania began proposing statewide antler restriction a couple years ago, the Game Commission proposed that the restrictions apply to everyone. When the antler point restrictions were finally passed in 2002, concessions occurred allowing hunters in the 12 to16-age group the right to harvest any buck with antlers longer than three inches.

In the last five years, numerous articles have been written by some of the leading QDM proponents advocating the need for one set of harvest rules for all, when it comes to antler size. It’s been interesting to watch the process evolve. During this time I’ve written a QDM book and numerous articles dealing with quality deer management. I’ve also conducted more than 300 deer hunting seminars across America in the last five years. At each stop along the way, one of the frequent things I am asked is my opinion regarding how new and young hunters should be handled when it comes to QDM antler restrictions. It’s no secret that I’m not a “one size fits all” kind of guy when it comes to the subject of new and young hunters treatment. I have a myriad of reasons for feeling that new and young hunters should not be required to go by spread or point restrictions when they begin hunting.

Changing America

For a long time I’ve been thinking about hunting’s future. If you look at the never-ending array of hunting magazines on store shelves you’d conclude that deer hunting is a healthy pastime. If the millions of dollars being spent on whitetail-related paraphernalia were analyzed, the consensus would be that deer hunting is a vibrant industry. If you attend any number of the more popular deer hunting extravaganzas in this country you’d immediately want to invest money in the industry’s stock. On the surface all looks very rosy.

In spite of this, hunting – and deer hunting in particular – is heading into the eye of a huge storm. The problem with hunting in America comes into focus when the hunting population is analyzed. For starters the average age of deer hunters in this country is 45 years old and rising. Further analysis reveals that roughly 10 percent of the deer hunting population is made up of teenagers. The bottom line is that hunting is an aging industry with a negligible youth movement. Recruitment is the number one problem facing hunting in this country.

The reasons for the shortfall of new and young hunters are many. Split families, decreasing places to hunt, anti-hunting sentiment, peer pressure, stringent rules and the fact that hunting has far less action than other endeavors that compete for kid’s time are just a few.

Several years ago I did an article entitled Is Hunting Too Slow For Today’s Youth.  At the time my son was 16 years old.  While preparing the article I asked him, “Do you think deer hunting is too slow for today’s teens?”

Without hesitation he said, “Yep!”

“Why do you think so?”  I responded.

“Because it’s true. Look at the guys on my high school baseball team. All are good athletes, we all live in a rural setting and only a couple of us hunt. Hunting is just too slow paced. It can’t compete with everything else the world has to offer today’s youth.”

Too Many Options

He went on to elaborate why he felt this way. “If you look at what drives today’s kids you’ll see that much has to do with speed games and fast paced life styles. I mean, how can hunting compete with sports, rock music, videos, CD’s, computer games or the world’s mind-set? I love deer hunting but let’s face it, it’s pretty slow compared to the other things kids do with their free time.”

In spite of my living in rural America, it’s becoming more and more evident that the options available to today’s youth are vastly different than when I grew up. In the ‘60s, when I was a teenager, I spent uncountable hours playing team sports, swimming in the nearby river and hunting woodchucks on our farm. Back then TV was in its infancy and home computers weren’t on anyone’s “radar screen.” There weren’t nearly as many options when I grew up as there are now.

Today, most Americans suffer from what I call “acute hurry sickness.” It doesn’t matter if one is standing in line at a fast-food restaurant or waiting for something to happen, if things don’t occur quickly they often lose interest or get irritable.

Placing antler restrictions on young, speed-crazed kids is not the thing to do if hunting is to prosper.    

The Antler Connection

Those who claim that new and young hunters can be satisfied by shooting does are not dealing with reality. Since the dawn of time man has been connected to antlers.  One look at primitive pictographs will quickly reveal this. Observing the relationship between antlers and the hunt is unavoidable.

I’ve been photographing whitetails for more than 30 years, and I’ve had only one request for a doe photo suitable for a cover during this time. There simply are no does featured on the covers of the major hunting magazines. Any major editor would be committing suicide if he ran a doe on a cover. Even if kids were raised in a bubble they’d still gravitate to antlers. Antlers are one of the driving forces behind hunting; they always have been and always will be.

This can be easily verified by asking any 10 hunters to recall their first doe kill.  Most can’t do it. However, they can give you a blow-by-blow of their first buck harvest.  To a first-time hunter, any size antlers are a trophy and a momento to hang on the wall.

Rite of Passage

For the most part, those who advocate antler point restrictions are biologists. They know the hard science and why it’s necessary to allow bucks to mature. Many I’ve spoken to don’t waiver in their feeling that everyone must go by the same rules, regardless of age or entry level to the sport. Unfortunately they fail to consider the psychological side of hunting.

I have a friend who is a true heavyweight in the hunting industry. He holds a Ph.D. in education. Part of his educational background focused on child psychology. He operates a whitetail research facility, and there is no stronger proponent of the Quality Deer Management. With one exception, he practices all the tenets of QDM. The exception is his treatment of youth and new hunters.

I asked my friend to respond to the idea of no exemptions for first time hunters or youth hunters when it comes to antler restrictions. He said.  “I think it’s ridiculous to place such rules on kids. Kids are processing a lot of rules when it comes to hunting…. safety, taking good shots, ethics, etc. Overloading them with all this, then requiring that they be able to make a snap decision regarding the size of a buck’s antlers width is a bit much. They cannot handle it. If you place too many rules on youngsters, they’ll quit.  Kids want to be successful. There have been many studies done that show that kids who are not successful drop out of the endeavor.

“People don’t understand the concept of ‘rite of passage.’ Learning is a developmental process. Why do we begin kids with reading readiness to prepare them for reading?  We can’t start them with a fifth grade reading book because they are too young.  It’s about training wheels on bicycles and T-ball before little league. Try putting a kid in a ballpark with 350-foot fences and say to the kid, ‘be a man and hit it out’ and see what happens. It’s ridiculous to think that we can demand an advanced skill from those with little or no experience. In the real world kids must be brought along slowly and not be throttled with adult rules.

“Let young hunters come to the big buck rule on their own, in a more natural evolving setting. The first buck is the ‘rite of passage.’  My son is a classic example of the process required for becoming a deer hunter and land manager. His first whitetail was a 3-point and it’s mounted. When he harvested that buck, you would have thought he had just killed the new world record. It was an incredible experience. I shudder to think what would have happened to him if he had not been allowed to harvest it because of antler restrictions. His early bucks helped him to understand the whole picture. Too often biologists appear to be trying to get involved in child rearing. They shouldn’t be doing this. There is a bigger picture here than antlers. It’s respect for the resource, the land and how they hunt. The key is developing good sportsmen.”

Fear of Failure

The quality deer management concept is the only program my son, Aaron, has ever known. We began managing our farm for QDM when he was 12 years old. In New York a youngster must be 16 before he can gun hunt. Though we have antler restrictions in place (16-inch inside spread and 8-point minimum) he was allowed to harvest any buck that met the New York minimum, which is 3-inch antlers.

For 25 years I was a baseball coach, at every level from little league to high school, and fully understand what I call the “failure factor.” Simply put, failure to be successful drives individuals away from an endeavor. So, when Aaron was old enough to carry his own gun, he was allowed to kill any legal buck. His first was a spike and he was happy beyond measure. He grew and learned and along the way became quite a doe machine and an excellent hunter.

Had I not allowed him to come at his own pace, I’m sure I’d be hunting alone instead of having him with me each deer season. He’s now 25 and during the course of putting this piece together, I asked him what he thought of throttling kids when it comes to what they are allowed to harvest.

“I think it’s unrealistic and would be very discouraging for a kid,” he said. “If you look at how kids develop certain skills there is always a progression. If you start a kid out who doesn’t know how to hunt and force him to abide by adult rules, his development will be stunted. If you are trying to teach a kid to read you don’t start him out with War and Peace. When you are young, the big thrill of the hunt comes from harvesting a buck. I’ve killed four times as many does as bucks but it’s the bucks that keep the fire lit. That’s the way we are made. So, if a kid can’t shoot any legal buck when he starts out, he’s going to lose interest real fast.

“Our society equates success to harvesting a buck and if the chances of doing so for a young hunter are reduced he will go and find a sport or pastime where he can find success. The average kid wants instant gratification and stringent rules in hunting only serve to discourage and cause kids to be disinterested in the sport. The heart of it is that you have to give the kid a fair chance. In a place like South Texas, a youngster can have a good chance of harvesting a mature buck. If he’s in the North, his chances are minimal.

“Hunting skills are acquired. Harvesting does can develop hunting skills and a kid needs every possible opportunity to develop good hunting skills. But a young hunter wants to prove his worth in our society and when it comes to hunting, this means killing a buck.  People who think differently are simply not paying attention or are out of touch with the core values and tradition of deer hunting.

“Forcing kids to abide by antler restrictions isn’t the way to go because the bottom line is that you’ll lose a lot of hunters. In our society you do things to be successful and tradition says you are a successful hunter if you harvest a buck. There are so many things for kids to do today where success is much easier than hunting. So placing antler restrictions on kids before they have a chance to develop their skills and understand what true deer management is all about is counter productive. It’s one of the fastest ways I know of to kill the sport.” 

To all this I say, “Dittos.”

Though these are exciting times for whitetail management in America, many daunting issues face us. Whether we experience the thrill of the hunt as we have in the past will depend on a host of factors. The greatest of these is who will be playing the game five, ten and twenty years from now. Developing sound deer management practices will not matter if we don’t have the hunters to carry out the plan. Our future rests with youth. And unless we are mindful of what makes kids tick we may win the short-term battle but lose the war.

Everyone from biologists to mainstream hunters need to be cognizant of what it takes to make a deer hunter. Rules are great and antler restrictions can be very productive. However, when it comes to how we handle kids and antler restrictions, we’d better understand that throttling them will only lead to our demise. The resource and hunting’s future demands that we pay attention.