Sunday, March 9, 2008

Seminar Report

Local co-host of WHO radio's Sportsman's Notebook and field editor for the Iowa Sportsman magazine Ron Kuntz, moderated the weekend seminars featuring Lee and Tiffany Lakosky, at the Iowa Deer Classic on the Hunter's Specialties Stage. The Lakoskys along with Matt Morett and Ron White fielded some questions after introducing themselves. Lee, a trained Chemical Engineer and Tiffany, a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines met in Minnepolis, MN. The couple became aquainted at an archery shop where Lee was employeed. Tiffany said her family was into fishing and Lee's family enjoyed hunting. Six years ago Lee invited Tiffany on a hunt. She declined the first invitation, but on the second invitation she agreed to go to see if she would like it. Well, as things worked out she brought down a 6 point buck her first shot. From that moment until now she says that is her trophy buck because of the circumstances that surrounded its take. After that hunting trip Tiffany was hooked both on the hunting experience and on Lee. The joint decision to buy land, and move south to Iowa, to continue the deer hunting passion brought them south five years ago. They now own 3,500 acres in the Mount Pleasant area in Henry county. The floor was opened by Ron to a few questions focused in the direction of Lee. A question was asked concerning being able to determine the difference in appearance of a 6 year old buck in comparison with a 3-4 year old buck. Lee responded that he likes checking out the neck and shoulder structure. Most older bucks have a larger mass over the whole body but the neck and shoulders are much thicker under the influence of hormones in the rut, than are the younger bucks. Then he made a point that they may be the first to lose their antlers with declining hormones and stress during the later seasons. He commented that caution should be practiced in the "Doe only"season, individuals traveling alone are most likely anterless males, females usually still have fawns at their side. Great points which I observed more this past season myself. The discussion turned to Lee's love of watching the deer from the couples bedroom late at night on the infrared trail camera over the food plot closest to the house. A big supporter of all season feeding, the Lakoskys have 72 seperate plots of various sizes. When asked about filming their show they revealed how long it could take to get the right shot, to make enough good material. Hunting is a full-time job for this young couple. They hunt 100 days a year. These people eat, breathe, and sleep ethical whitetail deer management in an effort to bring healthy specimens to their hunts and for the future generations to come...

6 comments:

Marian Ann Love said...

Whitetail Deer Management is the only way to go for the future of hunting and harvesting quality deer. I've hunted on deer managment land that is owned by a huge lumber company that my husband retired from. Seen some big bucks! :)

CDGardens said...

Marian - I agree, have decided to try my hand at planting some little plots this summer. The thought has arisen in my mind though, some animal rights yahoo could come along and find a reason why we shouldn't if they already haven't. Maybe even likening it to the practice of feeding out barnyard animals for slaughter? And we all know they aren't fond of that. Yes, we want some BIG BUCKs 'round here!

SimplyOutdoors said...

I think that deer management is definitely the right way to go as well, and although I don't own property and I'm not able to do food plots I still practice a ton of the QDM practices that are out there. We only shoot older bucks and we shoot as many does as possible to even the ratio. It is just a good practice to do. Helps the herd and helps make it more likely for BIG BUCKS to be roaming the area.

CDGardens said...

simplyoutdoors - The positive of improving deer health is the pay off of providing quality meat for the table.

Windyridge said...

Deer management is a huge issue here with TQM being the buzz intitials. Total points on one side limitation for bucks or not?

I wrote a post over on my other blog about a 3d shoot club we visit. You might find it interesting:
http://www.othersideofnewyork.com/?p=120

CDGardens said...

Windyridge - I have been reading about states that are requiring hunters to tag out with does before bucks...I can see some validity in that theory. Then try for the older bucks or the spike bucks that have reached their potential and won't get any bigger.

The 3d hunt club looks very interesting.