The State Thinks We're Shooting Too Many Small Bucks

Laws rarely change culture. People comply because they have to, but when a rule tries to reshape a culture against its will, you tend to get compliance and not much more.

Michigan just tried it anyway, and I'm rooting for the culture to follow.

In May, the Natural Resources Commission approved a major rewrite of deer hunting rules. Lower Peninsula hunters are limited to one antlered deer per season, starting in 2027.

The single basic license is good for either an antlerless deer or a buck with at least three points on one side. The combo license gets you one buck and one doe, or two does. Earn-a-Buck is being piloted in the southern Lower Peninsula.

That's a lot of regulation laid on the deer woods at once, all of it pointed at the same target. Michigan has a hunting problem, and it’s us.

We don't shoot does, and we like small bucks.

About 80% of Michigan hunters won't take a single antlerless deer in a given season, even when the DNR is begging us to.

We're proud of small bucks, too. Friends and family often post pictures of immature deer like they're trophies.

The buck-to-doe ratio is getting worse, which means we're shooting bucks faster than they can grow up and not shooting nearly enough does to balance the herd.

Ohio and Illinois have habitat, soil, weather, and ag-edge food options that we don’t. But they've also got hunter cultures that look at a four-point and say, “That's a deer for next year.”

They have tighter regulations and communities that don't accept what we accept. The result is hunting that draws nonresident dollars and out-of-state envy.

Michigan is famous for a lot of things, but top-tier whitetail hunting isn't one of them.

The new rule is trying to legislate us into a better hunting culture. Hunters will follow the rules, and the DNR will check tags and license records. Anyone who tries to shoot a second buck is poaching. People will comply.

Compliance is not culture, but it does change things.

Cutting the second buck tag changes the math for the 41,000 Michigan hunters who tag out on two bucks every year. The three-point minimum on single licenses means a buck has to be mature before he can be a legal target. In Zone 3, the Earn-a-Buck pilot lets hunters take a second buck only after they've taken a doe.

That might be enough.

Pennsylvania ran the same play in 2002, and 20 years later their buck harvest age structure looks completely different. Mature bucks made up about 20% of the harvest in 1990. They've held above 60% for the last several seasons.

The rule didn't change the culture directly, but it did change what walked past the stand, and the culture caught up.

I'm hopeful the same happens here.