Don’t Sweat the Small Bucks

By John E. Phillips

“As long as the hunters who hunt a specific piece of property keep the button buck harvest to 10 percent or less of their antlerless harvest, they don’t need to be concerned about taking button bucks.”

– Brian Murphy, executive director of the Quality Deer Management Association

If your hunting club fines hunters who mistakenly shoot button bucks while attempting to harvest does, the penalty may do more harm to your deer management program than you realize. If the fear of paying a fine prevents your members from harvesting the number of does you need to take to keep your herd healthy, then button bucks may cause the most problems for your deer herd.

 “We need to take 400 does off our place this year, because our biologist says we’re severely overpopulated,” a landowner told me one year. “We would appreciate your help in taking the does, but look the does over carefully. We charge $500 if you shoot a button buck.”

 That afternoon I hunted over a green field as two does came out onto the field. I watched as the smaller deer went up to the larger animal and attempted to nurse. I clicked my rifle off safety and prepared to shoot the bigger doe, but then remembered the $500 fine. Something just didn’t feel right, so I hesitated and put my gun on safety. The two deer moved closer to my shooting house, feeding to within 30 yards. I steadied my binoculars on the edge of the shooting house and studied the big doe’s head. I spotted tiny antler buds that looked like two large ticks on a dog’s back. I’d never know why the younger deer attempted to nurse a button buck. However, if I’d pulled the trigger, I would have had to pay $500. I didn’t shoot any does that year, and I didn’t pay any $500 fines. Had I participated in quality deer management?

What QDMA Says

When I asked Brian Murphy, executive director of the Quality Deer Management Association in Watkinsville, Georgia, “What’s QDMA’s position on button bucks?” he answered, “Our organization promotes managing for healthy deer herds, which promotes the growth of larger and older bucks. To have a quality deer herd in many sections of the country, you have to remove a certain number of does off the property every year. If you remove does every year, some of your hunters will inadvertently shoot button bucks, believing them to be does. We believe any penalty that discourages hunters from taking does in areas where they need to be removed to have a healthy deer herd is not a good idea. As long as the hunters who hunt a specific piece of property keep the button buck harvest to 10 percent or less of their antlerless harvest, they don’t need to be concerned about taking button bucks.”

From surveying state wildlife agencies across the nation, Murphy reports that most states’ antlerless harvests include 22 to 23 percent button bucks. Murphy considers 22 to 23 percent a little high for the number of button bucks that should be harvested from any herd. He believes if a hunting club tries not to shoot button bucks, its annual button buck harvest will average somewhere close to 10 percent of the antlerless harvest. If a hunter mistakenly shoots a button buck, Murphy suggests using a teaspoon of sugar (a little good-hearted ribbing) instead of a pound of salt (a fine equaling a week’s worth to a month’s worth of groceries), to solve the problem. Even trained wildlife biologists, who earn their livings managing deer, will make some mistakes and inadvertently take button bucks they’ve assumed are does.

Murphy, who teaches QDMA classes to help hunters recognize button bucks so they won’t mistakenly take them, provides a good example.

“I’m as reasonably skilled at telling the difference between a button buck and a doe as any hunter anywhere,” Murphy says. “In the past 10 years, I’ve harvested 200 does, and of those 200 does, I’ve accidentally taken four button bucks.”

Mistakes will happen, and hunters – even trained scientists – will bag a few button bucks. Although Murphy believes the mistake factor for taking button bucks shouldn’t climb higher than 10 percent, he agrees that even if you take 20 to 25 percent button bucks in your club’s antlerless harvest, you’re better off to lose that 20 to 25 percent of bucks than not take the number of does you need to harvest from your property each year. The QDMA emphasizes the importance of keeping your herd’s density in check.

A National Perspective

“I always encourage hunting club members not to initiate fines for the inadvertent and infrequent harvest of button bucks as they try and meet their doe-harvest prescription,” said Mark Thomas of Riverchase, Ala., president of Forestry/Integration LLC and vice chairman of the national board of directors for QDMA. Thomas, a registered forester in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, and a certified forester and a certified wildlife biologist throughout the United States – certifications that very few individuals have in both disciplines – knows about the impact deer have on the forestlands where they live. Thomas manages properties from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, across to Maine, south to Florida and over to east Texas. In seminars and symposiums, Thomas teaches how to manage deer better.

“I feel a much better method of controlling button buck harvests is to have a ‘wall of shame’ in your hunting club. Take a picture of the hunter with his button buck, and keep that picture up in the hunting club throughout the entire deer season. I think it’s much better to cause a little bit of embarrassment than to impose fines.”

Why You Can’t Stockpile Bucks

Reason seems to dictate that if you don’t shoot the button bucks on your property, then you’ll have more bucks to hunt the next year. However, according to Murphy, “Research suggests that 50 to 80 percent of all button bucks that don’t get harvested or die of natural causes before they’re one year of age disperse from the areas where they were born and will move one to five miles away. On some occasions, they’ll move away as far as 30 miles. So, don’t get upset if one of the members of your hunting lease mistakenly takes a buck he thinks is a doe, because a majority of the button bucks you raise on your property will move onto your neighbor’s land anyway.”

Research also indicates that bucks will disperse an average of two to five miles in a straight line from their birthplaces. You can’t draw a straight line from hardly any property in the East that extends three miles without crossing property lines. If you want to have more bucks to hunt on your property, you need to promote quality deer management with neighboring landowners. Encourage your neighbors not to harvest button bucks or to keep their button buck harvest down to 10 percent or less.

“In fact, only about one in three button bucks you work so hard to protect actually will reach adulthood on your land,” Murphy mentions. “The rest of the button bucks probably will move onto your neighbor’s property.”

So, lighten up on your hunters who mistakenly shoot button bucks. They haven’t committed the unpardonable sin, your deer herd hasn’t suffered eternal damage, and the harvested button buck more than likely won’t have reached maturity on your hunting land anyway. You can’t keep and stack bucks like cordwood. Deer can’t read property lines, and they won’t stop at fences. No one is suggesting that you shoot button bucks; but if someone does, don’t make a big deal out of it and don’t make him pay a fine like he’s broken a moral law.

How to Avoid Mistakes

Even though mistakes will happen from time to time, you can take certain steps to minimize the numbers of button bucks the hunters on your property inadvertently take. First, don’t wait until the end of the season to take does, when determining the difference between a buck fawn and a doe is much more difficult. Because buck fawns grow much more quickly than the doe fawns, at the end of the season a button buck’s size can nearly equal the size of a year-old doe. Besides, if your club harvests does early in the season when you easily can tell the difference between a mature doe and her buck fawn, you may reap an additional reward. As Murphy reports, “Research indicates if you harvest an adult doe that has a buck fawn at her side, the buck fawn will more than likely stay on your property.”

Does typically run young bucks off a property. Therefore, with a doe absent at the time of dispersal, the buck has a much greater tendency to remain on your land.

You also can avoid mistakes by not shooting under low-light conditions and at long range. These two factors contribute to mistaken identity in part because young bucks that don’t know how to dodge hunters usually will come out in the green field or feed under oak trees first. With minimal daylight available and no other deer around for size comparisons, that young buck may look as big as a doe. Murphy suggests waiting until you have more than one deer in a feeding area if you’re trying to harvest does. You’ll have deer to compare, and you can make better decisions as to which one is a button buck and which one is a doe.

Don’t shoot flat heads. Thomas recommends that you look closely at the top of the deer’s head.

“When you look at the top of a button buck’s head and locate where the pedicles of the antlers grow, you’ll see they extend up from the forehead and cause the rounded portion of the head to become homogenized and look flat. Therefore, when you look at a young button buck’s forehead, you’ll find it flat in appearance. Conversely, a more-rounded forehead usually indicates a doe.”

Why Doe Harvest Is So Critical

According to Thomas, the U.S. deer herd currently comprises between 32 and 38 million animals – a huge number.

“The number of deer in the United States is higher than ever before – even before recorded history. We have grossly over-harvested young bucks and grossly under-harvested does over the last 30 or 40 years, which has led to a chaotic, extremely-stressed deer herd. We’ve got to bring the number of deer down to a more balanced level, reduce the number of does and let bucks move into those older age classes.”

Thomas emphasizes that he sees habitat degradation (destruction) throughout the nation, especially in regions that don’t permit hunting.

“We’re especially seeing habitat destruction in state and federal parks where deer herds aren’t hunted. For instance, Oak Mountain State Park near Birmingham, Ala., first opened its gates to hunters in 2004. Because of this state park’s rampant deer population, the land has become a biological desert, losing about 425 species of native plants. Where hunting isn’t permitted or where insufficient numbers of deer are taken to keep the deer herd at a healthy level, we see browse lines, which can pose a very dangerous situation for the herd’s overall health.”

The Bottom Line

If you fine your hunters for inadvertently shooting button bucks, stop it. The majority of deer hunters do not — and will not — deliberately shoot a button buck. If you have a hunter in your club or on your lease who consistently shoots button bucks, then either educate him on how to tell the difference between a button buck and a doe, or suggest he withdraw from the club. If the fear of shooting button bucks prevents any member of your hunting club or lease from taking the prescribed number of does that need to come off your property, your club needs to take quick and decisive action. Don’t sweat the button bucks. If you do, you’ll hurt your deer management program, and you won’t produce the numbers and sizes of bucks you want to take year after year.