Hunting under Apr's(antler restrictions)

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kenn1320
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Hunting under Apr's(antler restrictions)

Unread postby kenn1320 » Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:05 pm

Some areas of Mi are starting to get APR's, while others have had them and others have none. I think its a good thing for promoting buck age structure, but I'd like to hear from those that have hunted under them. Tell a story or two about deer you wanted to shoot, but couldn't identify number of points. During bow I have time to count points fairly easily, but during gun with further distances and running deer it seems like it can be real tough. Not really looking for pro's/con's of APR's or bashing of them, just situations that limited your ability to shoot a deer.

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Re: Hunting under Apr's(antler restrictions)

Unread postby Jeff G » Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:29 pm

Where I hunt in south east MN, apr has been implemented last 5 years. It's great, you see way more bucks than before. Can't shoot at running deer with gun. Way to hard to count, unless it is an absolute huge rack with no questions. Seen a few huge 6pts that I have had to let go that I normally would have shot. They were outside the ears. I find myself looking at all deer through binos right away to confirm size before picking gun up.

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Re: Hunting under Apr's(antler restrictions)

Unread postby Jeff G » Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:31 pm

Our restriction is 4pts or more on 1 horn. Laws do not comment on drop tines as points. Our neighbor shot one and the dnr was giving him a hard time about it not being a point. He got to keep it because it says 4 points which are at least 1 inch long. Does not say if they point up or down. Regardless, it was a huge buck.

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Re: Hunting under Apr's(antler restrictions)

Unread postby wiscbowhntr » Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:35 pm

I personally have never hunted in a APR area, but would love to see it implemented in WI for the very reasons/observations Jeff G said.
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Re: Hunting under Apr's(antler restrictions)

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:56 pm

I hunt a bit with some friends in the TB zone of northeast lower Michigan. The area has historically had a high deer population. when I first started going up there in 1996 there were a lot of scrubby bucks.

They instituted a policy of shooting deer up there, lots of doe tags. I fitted right in as I like to shoot deer. I don't remember when they started the aprs, but I will guess the last 4 or 5 years. I have seen some nicer bucks come out of there , but agriculture has picked up up there as well. I took a several years off from going up there (8-10) and now go back at least 2 x a year. So with the change in agriculture practices and instituting aprs it seems different up there. I used to see 40 -50 deer a day, that is down considerably. And it seems like nicer bucks have been taken. 130" deer still aren't common up there though.

Also, I had the aprs 2 years ago take away an opportunity at what would have been my best buck. But I wasn't upset. It was a wide 8 with small brow tines. Upon closer inspection I felt the browse weren't the 1" minimum and it had a broken tine, making it a big 5. Brow tines in that area are small. I shot one a few years back that had barely 1" brows and a busted tine, so I had some experience gauging the little brows. It was probably 19-20" wide with 5 long tines. But I really think the idea of aprs are to take that buck that just doesn't make it and give him another year or two and let him develop and spread some genes.

Good topic, curious to see where it goes.
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Re: Hunting under Apr's(antler restrictions)

Unread postby TallTines » Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:25 pm

I think the APR is a good thing its saved a lot of bucks where I hunt bucks got to have 4 points on one side no more its brown its down they have to see what there shooting at.I see a lot more does being taken then bucks so the smaller ones can grow witch means more bucks for the next year.They left a lot of the crops up this year so that will save a lot of deer also

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Re: Hunting under Apr's(antler restrictions)

Unread postby PK_ » Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:36 pm

I pushed a tall fork horn out of his bed Saturday and as he was running in slow motion through the water I could not get a good enough look to see if he had brow tines.

3 point APR in that area.
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Re: Hunting under Apr's(antler restrictions)

Unread postby SSMinnow » Sat Dec 06, 2014 5:21 am

the restriction on the public land i hunt is 4 points on one side with an outside the ear caveat. which i like bc you can still shoot those big 6 pointers

and even tho we have no deer checking requirements at all, the restrictions still seem to have some affect as that Public Land Hunting Area always turns out better deer than those without the restrictions
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Re: Hunting under Apr's(antler restrictions)

Unread postby d_rek » Sat Dec 06, 2014 7:45 am

Southeast Lower Penninsula MI hunter here.

It's hard to know the true impact APRs have made in the areas I hunt for a few reasons:

1) Have only been in place in DMUs i hunt this season.

2) Deer numbers have been very, very low according to a lot of sources

3) AFAIK many hunters are circumventing the true intent of APRs by shooting 1.5-2yr old bucks. For example, a 3+ pt on ONE SIDE restriction still allows a hunter to shoot a small 6 pt deer, or a forkhorn with 1" browtines. Or a 'cull' buck with a fork + browtine and a spike on one side. Also the APRs on a regular deer tag in the majority of DMUs I hunt start at a 'spike' deer with 6" spikes or longer. Not very many mature spikes running around out there...

Personally i'm more excited for the next few years under APRs in the areas I hunt. I've heard many, many good reports about the APRs in place in the 'NE12', and the quality of bucks coming out of those areas seems to be much higher than in recent years.

I think it's important to get people to think about what they're shooting before they shoot it. I don't expect APRs to have a dramatic effect in only 1 years time. It will be interesting to see how this changes michigan hunting culture and how the hunting community will react.
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