This year, when crossbows were allowed for all of the MD archery season, a number of folks claimed it would "ruin everything". Well, the early season numbers are out and the overall archery take for September and October dropped 3 percent. Guess everything did't get ruined after all. In contrast the muzzleloader take for the October ML season increased by 11 percent. Those dang ML guys are shooting too many of my archery deer. They have "ruined everything". http://www.dnr.state.md.us/dnrnews/pressrelease2010/111510b.asp
LOL ..... people really don't give the deer enough credit .... I LOVE watching deer outsmart hunters .... I will laugh as I watch deer evade other hunters and then they come by and say to me .. "The deer just aren't moving today!" ... little xdid they know they just pushed 2 bucks and 6 doe that they NEVER saw ...
good info.... if only i could beat the sense into the clubs up here.. theres 2 clubs i know of that have a no anterless kill rule.. thats been in effect for 5-6 years strait......but they believe its good deer managment.
Deer harvests are down, overall, in NC, too. We opened up for crossbows in general archery season this year, too. Go figure. Chicken Little's got some 'splainin to do.
Pretty simple to figure out why. This is not a knock on gun hunters, but what happens is you have gun hunters using gun hunting tactics with an archery weapon. They are not paying attention to the wind, or how to get to and from their stands, etc. They are spooking more deer, putting more pressure on deer. Which is turing the deer nocturnal sooner.
I think, with the economy the way it is, folks are going out to put deer down and in the freezer. They don't have a lot of time, perhaps needing the hours at work or needing to get a job or....,so instead of spending a lot of time bowhunting the picked up their ML this year. You notice a lot more does were taken also, according to the DNR. Maybe folks don't have the luxury of "buck hunting", waiting on that big buck, this year so they are taking out the does as soon as they see them. Or maybe the muzzleloader guys are just not taking the small bucks so that they will grow into big bucks for the bowhunters to shoot.You do know that the the reason bowhunters can't shoot big bucks is because the dang gun hunters are shooting all of the small bucks and not letting them go to grow?
In my woods there isn't a 120yd shot. And from what I read, a lot of bowhunters have a max range well past 40 yds .
Well they are all better then me You can make some mistakes and still get one with a gun, Uncle trigger saw a big buck on the 10th with his Xbow. THe buck saw him and booked, samething happen with a gun opening day, but he got this one.
So what are you trying to say Bruce, Muzzle loaders got smarter and bowhunters got dumber? I mean they didn't kill more deer because crossbows were allowed into bowseason did they? Let me explain this the best I can, every time another Patato Bud Eared, Bugger Nosed, Fart Stained Panty Wearing Crossbow Packing Sissy (or any other Human) moves into a public area I am hunting, my chances of filling a tag go "DOWN" not up! I think the fact that Maryland didn't get no bug killing weather till ML season had more to do with the harvest numbers than crossbow hunters. "And it is good deer management" if their antlerless numbers remain low!
I thought I expalined myself pretty well: I think, with the economy the way it is, folks are going out to put deer down and in the freezer. They don't have a lot of time, perhaps needing the hours at work or needing to get a job or....,so instead of spending a lot of time bowhunting the picked up their ML this year. You notice a lot more does were taken also, according to the DNR. Maybe folks don't have the luxury of "buck hunting", waiting on that big buck, this year so they are taking out the does as soon as they see them. We still haven't had any bug killing weather. I had mosquitos on me in November. I was knocking flys off of a skull yesterday when showing it to my neighbor.
silver the deer numbers are not that low... its jus the older generation that all they do is ride 4 wheelers not gettin off the beaten path an seen one deer then go to the monthly meetings an say there are no deer no killin of the does.. the numbers are there an its greatly more does than bucks... im a firm believer in tryin to level out the ratio here......believe me if i spent all year huntin hard an not seein anything an its the same story for others then sure im all for not killin does...
The hunting weather has absolutely stunk this year in our area Bruce. I do not ever remember hunting more 60 degree plus days in November. The warmer temps/bluebird days put a serious dent in the daytime deer movemet this year.
Through the first 6 weeks of Ohios bow season our harvest numbers are down 8% from last year and we have had crossbows in the archery season since 1976. 49,384 deer were tagged by an estimated 345,000 bowhunters through the first 6 weeks of the season.
