low deer numbers?


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Are you guys seeing alot of deer this year?

I haven't and I'm hunting three parcels of private property that are miles away from each other,all have food plots and corn feeders.There is alot of hunting pressure in this part of the state plus the large ranches have been harvesting a large number of doe's the past 4-5 years,I think this has hammered the deer numbers in this area.

I know some area's need the doe numbers more balanced to the buck numbers but I think we are making a big mistake in the area's that are heavily hunted.:(

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I'm actually seeing way more deer this year than usual, but I'm seeing fewer mature bucks. We've intentionally let our doe (and buck) numbers increase, since the land will theoretically carry more. But now I'm wondering if that were a mistake. In the past, casual observation typically showed a buck to doe ratio of about 1:1.5. This year, I'd say it is closer to 1:3. And while the number of mature bucks may not have actually decreased, the number of sightings has. The net effect in either case is the same - we're seeing fewer mature bucks.

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I haven't seen the numbers that we have had in the years past. I'm in southeast iowa and the buck to do ratio is about the same as last year but i'm only seeing a few inmature deer here and there on the two peices of land that i hunt and driving around on the gravel roads.

During second season shotgun this year we pushed alot of area with quite a few guys and only got about a dozen deer. Out of all three weekends!

I would have to say that the numbers a down considerably.:(

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  • 3 weeks later...

Funny how things turned out this year. The agents of the state here said there would be more deer taken and deer you would not expect to see being seen due to the drought. "Deer would have to move more for food". Makes sense, however harvest numbers are down by a pretty significant margin again this year. The 2006-2007 seasons there were 181,298 deer killed. The 2007-2008 season there were 162,239 total killed. Antlered deer kill numbers were off in this county by about 18 percent, kind of goes against the speculations by the state wildlife people. If anything the addition of more liberal units, the deer harvest numbers should have easily surpassed the previous years numbers, but that was also not the case. My opinion, I think it just further shows the overall herd is on a decline.

County we hunt there were 1060 does, 166 button bucks, 34 antlerless, and 773 antlered bucks killed. The make up of bucks killed were 141 3 or 4 points, 5 or 6 points made up for 228 of those, and 7 or 8 points made up for 229. There were 68 deer with 9 points or more killed. Would be a pretty safe assumption to say the majority of the bucks killed here were probably age class 2.5 and under:(, in yet the state puts out in publications that age class is improving:mad:. This year was also the first time ever I know of that it was recorded here where we hunt that more does were killed than bucks. Overall it was a very disappointing year in the way of deer sightings. Coupling ehd dieoffs with the higher harvest rate for this particular county, I see the potential for a really poor season here next year.

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Guest blindhog

You really cannot kill enough does ! There is enough scientific evidence that shows when you reduce the doe population they will respond with increased multible births . Can you say triplets !!! I did not have any problems this year seeing or harvesting them even with our severe drought . The thing that really amased me was I did not bait this year . I went to them instead of they comming to me I all I harvested 16 deer . Three bucks and all the rest were does . Most were donated to the hunters for the hungry program . Somtimes when its not working you reevaluate what you are doing . I heard an old man say this one day {So you are leaving deer to find deer } Now is the time to walk the land and look for sign !! Deer are creatures of habit and only change when they are pressured to do so . So get out now and find where they have been .

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  blindhog said:
You really cannot kill enough does ! .

I'm sorry but I have to disagree.

I've lived and hunted here for most of my life(I'm 46) and I have never had a season like this.Right now there is hardly any deer sign under the feeders or in the foodplots and with the cold temperatures we've had lately the deer should be hammering them.

I have friends who have access to the best deer property in this area and they're not seeing very many deer either so that tells it all that the numbers are extremely low.

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  blindhog said:
You really cannot kill enough does ! There is enough scientific evidence that shows when you reduce the doe population they will respond with increased multible births . Can you say triplets !!!

Think here harvest data will prove otherwise as well. The lower deer numbers here are a result of does being overhunted in the previous years, it takes a toll over time. I have no doubt about that whatsoever. Without does, you have no new fawns. Some areas it may well be that there is a high enough density to maintain a healthy herd with a large kill off of does, others that simply is not the case. Due to predation even if the increased multiple birth idea held true, the numbers still cannot compensate for liberal or excessive kills on does where there is not a high deer density.

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I have to agree that does can be overhunted. The past few seasons here in wisconsin a majority of the state has been Earn-A-Buck, where you first must harvest a doe before you can get a buck tag. The dnr believes that the deer numbers are too high so through this Earn-A-Buck program they hoped to reduce deer numbers. The problem is that the deer numbers were never that high in the first place, so now with everyone having to shoot more does it has really created a situation where the does are over hunted and no one is seeing the deer they used to.

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Seeing a ton more deer here. I'm surprised with the amount of pressure here in ohio that we still have good numbers in certain counties. Some properties are being managed a little better i think. I hunt a farm were we had 30 extra doe tags and there has been alot of does even after killing alot of does every year the doe numbers seem to be growing fast but not seeing alot of bucks on that farm. But the property i hunt here behind my house seing lots of bucks and not many does. Bow hunted only five days but saw 13 different bucks in that time but only saw five does not that im complaining passed on alot of nice deer that should be really good deer next year. But over all deer numbers seem to be up here. Also drove through west virginia and virginia last week on a buisness trip saw tons of deer on the sides of the highways.

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Last i checked we were down 10000 in harvest here in ohio BUt i think it was because of bad weather rain the first day of gun numbers were down 70% first day but still seeing tons of deer

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