Button question

[Pinefarm]

I and others have suggested that maybe we should try a "no button buck" rule for archery season. One reason I feel it would work is because of the short distances in archery season. Others felt that that wouldn't work because some may shoot a button and leave it lay. Well, I just looked at the waterfowl regs, and you cannot shoot canvasbacks this year. My question is, how are the two different? Is someone shooting a cann and leaving it lay acceptable? Why isn't anyone saying anything about it? I'm not trying to pick a fight, but there seems to be a double standard. It seems the DNR and Fed's feel that duck hunters are smart enough to tell the difference between a cann and a redhead, but deer hunters are too stupid to tell the difference between a button buck and a doe. Just my take on it.

[boehr]

Maybe it has something to do with 700,000 plus deer hunters and only a small percentage of that number being waterfowl hunters.

Or maybe it has something to do with waterfowl hunters don't just hunt anywhere like deer hunters almost can.

Or maybe it has something to do with the population of canvasback compared to the population of deer.

Or maybe a lot of other reasons, I don't know for sure, just guesses.

[2PawsRiver]

Have been hunting deer with a bow for 33 years and have never taken a button buck. Find it hard to shoot an animal that is still, for lack of a better word, a kid. Didn’t even know anybody that would intentionally shoot a button buck until I moved to the Lower Peninsula.

I did shoot a yearling once. They were begging 2nd season archers to take yearling. It had been a low harvest and a heavy winter was expected. UP Outdoors said that lowering the yearling population would minimize adult deer loses through the winter. Shot one and carried it out with one hand. Couldn’t have weighed more then 50 or 60 pounds. Felt terrible about it and wouldn’t do it again.

People I hunted with most of my life would hesitate to shoot a young spike or a fork and if they hunted with a rifle it was a bolt action….you should only have to shoot once and you wouldn’t be allowed in the bar if you were the kind of person that would shoot a deer and let it lay, or shoot a deer and not track it because it is too cold, etc. etc.….but alas things change.

[Chuck]

I have hunted for 20 years now and have never taken a button buck or fawn for that matter. I dont shoot at running deer becouse the first deer I ever shot was running ( a real nice 10 pt) and I proubly would have gotton him If i new better but I chased hiim all over the place. I found a gut pile at the end of it all. But after that I dont do it any more.

My dad is a great shot with his smoke pole and he will take a running shot if he has a good one. He wot shoot at deer ruig flat out if there lopig alog he will ad doset miss.

Last year he took his first button buck of his who knows how many years of hunting. He had 2 does moving threw about 45 yards away in sort of thick cover. He found an opening and made a good shot on the second doe. This was on thanksgiving day, and we were hunting in a swamp. We had a heck of a time tracking the deer it went about 150 yards from where he shot it in the liver but there was alot of water. This was the first time me and my dad had tracked a deer together in some time. He said I had become a great tracker. I felt kinda proud and with out sonding like a hallmark card this was one of the most rewarding hunts I have ever done. When we found the deer and started to gut it it was a button buck. It weighed 85 pounds, only around 20 pounds lighter than most yearlings (1 1/2 year old deer) we have shot in the area.

With out a doubt I do not think my dad did anything wrong. If you saw where he shot this deer you would be amazed. Most wouldnt be able to pull it off shooting a side hammer with round balls. When its time to kill some times God only gives a small amount of time to make a discision and when you make the descision you better commit entirely to the end. That is in my mind what makes a good hunter.

[Banditto]

I have taken 2 buttons by mistake. It happens.

Duck hunting with special rules takes time and practice. Know how birds fly, and extremely small difference in wing design, color, etc. is a skill that is learned.

I duck hunt, but frankly I don't duck hunt as much as my duck hunting buddies do. They basically coach me on which birds to shoot and which to not.

[Trophy Specialist]

Buttom bucks should indeed be off limits to hunters and farmers. If someone shoots one by accident, then they should be forced to buy a special buttom buck permit for about $25-50. If they shoot one and don't get the permit, then it's the standard illegal deer treatment with $1000 restitution plus fines and costs.

[mal]

in order to minimize button buck harvests, the attitudes of hunters must first be changed. I sat in my tree stand two deer seasons ago and witnessed a deer drive on the adjoining property. they had six guys surrounding a thicket and two guys in beating the bushes. anything that came out they blasted at. looked and sounded like rabbit hunting rather than deer hunting. three wounded deer from that drive came onto my property. two had minor limps as if they had some buckshot in the hind end but one button buck came right under my stand and had a severe wound in the chest/gut area. i made a mercy killing. the other two made it as i continued to see them throughout the late seasons. shooting deer without properly identifying the age/sex is gutless and unethical but by using this kind of barbaric hunting method, it can not be curtailed. the attitudes of hunters that would surround a small herd of deer and indiscriminantly kill must somehow be changed as i believe that this is how most fawns/button bucks are killed. i have actually heard idiots brag about the size of the buttons like this makes it a trophy or something. this will never change until attitudes are changed, which probably will never happen.

[Oct.1]

Well Bob,
I am a 100% supporter of if it legal o.k. But this time I agree with you. Taking a button is just like taking a fawn. Been there, done that and won’t do it again.

[jamie7117]

it's worse than taking a fawn.

[mich buckmaster]

I am 100% against shooting buttons or yearlings.

But, I do believe down deep that there are many tracks of land that people hunt that dont have many deer on them. A 12 year old boy has a button buck come in with low light conditions, adrenaline racing and shoots a button double lung. I just dont see any crime in that. NOW, he or she may NEVER do that again. I guess everyone has to have their 1st, and if it happens to be a button I am not going to be the one pointing fingers.

Now in the scenario that someone stated earlier with the deer drives. I find that insulting and degrading to our sport.

[jamie7117]

i agree mistakes happen, i too have made a snap decision i have regretted, deer>>>crosshairs on vitals>>>>shoot! only to find a button at the recieving end. made me SICK! absolutley nauseated! know i no longer shoot a lone antlerless deer unless i am absolutley CERTAIN it is a doe, if i am unsure i will pass and wait for a group and pick out the biggest baldy in the bunch.

one mistake is enough after that you should have to pay the piper, sacrifice a buck tag or pay a fine.

[BackStrap]

There is nothing wrong with shooting a fawn. I don't shoot buttons anymore, but when I was young I did. I would still take a 6 month old doe over a 1.5 or 2.5 doe...they taste better. I don't hunt for philisophical reasons or for trophies only...I hunt for MEAT - first and foremost. My family eats more venison than any other family I know. Last year we ate 8 deer (6 people)...we want 10 this year. I hope that 2 or 3 of those will be fawns.

You can flame me if you want, but I'm an outdoorsman.

By the way, I don't think it is "wrong" to shoot a button...I just choose not to.

[TSS Caddis]

I don't think you can compare duck to deer. To a large part deer season exists as an population manangement tool to prevent over population, where as duck limits are set up more to mantain a huntable duck population. I get your point about distinguishing between a Can and button buck, but I think it's mute due to different management philosophies.