Is your woods better or worse compared to 5 to 10 years ago? Explain why It Is or Isn't also. As for myself the woods I've hunted In for the last 20 years has really gone down the pots with mature buck numbers. The genes are here, they just don't get a chance to show their potential. The neighboring landowners don't know what It takes to manage a deer herd period. Our doe to buck ratio Is pretty high, hardly anyone shoots doe's In my area but myself. That's the biggest problem I believe. 70% to 80% of the deer shot around my area are 1.5 year old bucks during the gun season. The Mn DNR Isn't helping out the situation here either, It's pretty much a one tag area most years In an area that has way to many doe's. Our population Is big, the quality of It Isn't. 10 years ago my mature buck sightings were almost double what they are now. It's to the point now that If I do see a mature buck (4.5 year old) I should consider myself damn lucky. This thread Is no rant on hunters and how they hunt (each to their own), It's just the reality of my woods and what It's turned Into. It Is what It Is whether I like It or not. Lets hear It folks, how's your area's holding up? Looking forward to the replys. Thanks!!
Getting better, but we're putting in the effort big time. Planting food plots, creating funnels, mineral licks, planting trees etc, talking to neighboring land owners etc. It's nice to see it getting better, that's for sure!!
I thought by now that most states have figured out that a high doe to buck ratio is counterproductive. It sounds like when I hunted in New Jersey and Pennsylvania back in the 70's and 80's. Back then Pennsy only allowed one deer per hunter per year, if you took a doe on the first day of bow season you were done till next year. We'd go spotlighting the fields and there'd be hundreds of does and hardly any bucks. I'm not sure how many does one buck can impregnate a year but I'd guess the real number is less than ten.
what my uncle and i have been doing is. not allowing anyone who hunts with us shoot anyting less that a 2.5 year old buck. and our bigger buck numbers have gone up over that past years because of that. I still wish we could however keep the smaller bucks out of neighboring poperties cause unfortunatly they wont hesitate to shoot those little guys. it really is a bummer.
10 years ago we (5 guys) shot every deer we had a tag for. Bow, gun, ML, pistol....the tags were filled. Lots of fun but didn't do the trophy potential any favors. Fast forward to today, me,dad, my 2 boys hunt 300 +/- acres. We see far fewer deer, kill fewer deer, but see much larger bucks than we did 10 years ago. I'd honestly trade a little buck quality for some quantity. Hard to keep little kids interested when they aren't seeing many deer.
I'll go back 10 years, and relate to both the woods themselves & the deer population. 10 yrs ago the woods were nice, with about a 2-3 yr old selective cut making up most of my core area. The woods were too overbrowsed. The population as solid, but few mature bucks existed. Even seeing a single 2.5 yr old was cause for great excitement, as it was a "huge" buck. A lot of people hunted the area and shot a lot of does and bucks. Now, the cut has thinned some and the huge population boom of the deer have really browsed out a lot of areas in conjunction with the natural growth stage. Due to antler restrictions we are seening some pretty decent mature bucks, enough to actually make holding out for one, semi-reasonable. There are tons of does. The hunter dynamic has changed some. Slightly fewer, but they hunt more often but seem to kill less deer overall. Doesn't really add up.
I hunt a large military base of around 45,000 huntable acres. I have been hunting it for the past 10 years and the deer kill numbers are down significantly. The overall body size of the deer is on the rise however, probably due to lower deer numbers and less competition for food. For example, we averaged about 1,000 deer killed per year on the base for many years, then the overall kill number dropped to 800 about 4 years ago and has slowly slipped down to just 600-650 deer, which represents a near 40% drop in overall deer kill numbers. We have been killing many more does and rut intensity seems to be slowly rising (which is a good thing). The mature buck kill numbers are about the same....maybe 1 mature buck is killed every 400-500 acres. Have fun with that statistic when you are trying to arrow a large buck. It can be tough, and in fact I have never done it.
I really feel like my property is in a unique situation. The landowners to the north live out of state and do not hunt, they do however have trespassers who will shoot anything, although they usually shoot a ton and kill very little (we usually find one they have wounded every off season). The owners to the south and east both are hunting only big bucks and have told me "we wait to shoot the does during the doe only season later in the year". We have been killing 20+ deer a year on our property for over 5 years now. We have a very large herd and high pressure. I see and get pictures of Boone and Crockett deer all spring and summer because we have the mineral sources, the food (ag fields, spring and summer plots, fall and winter plots), two large creeks that intersect, everything they need. We have a 3-4 to 1 doe to buck ratio in the herd. It has gotten better but only by our efforts. We have put tremendous pressure on the herd to get the balance I am striving for, but it must be done IMO. These big deer are going back to fall patterns that unfortunately are on neighboring properties. My neighbors should be VERY thankful for our efforts. However all the young deer have seemed to have been displaced onto our property, this is where my property is unique because it allows us to balance the herd better and to grow more bigger deer by not shooting those 1.5 & 2.5 year olds. We are seeing the quality go up year after year. Our primary 3.5 year olds are now shooters for the average hunter. We implemented a new 130 inch minimum, but I am trying to get everyone on the same page of aging deer on the hoof rather than looking at the antlers. I am waiting for those 5.5 year old 160+ that I know are abundant within the radius. Once I can get the herd to a better balance (almost there), then everyone will enjoy all the hunting experince that much more.
Most areas in my state are about the same in my 28 years of hunting... With the exception of the northern most WMA, which has put a 4 points minimum limit on bucks to help assure a better/older age distribution amongst the bucks. However, the southern tier of my state has risen dramatically. The state allows what I believe is 6,000 "antlerless only" permits in the WMA I live in. As far as my experiences, I would have to say a definite "YES" in my area, as the big bucks, along with the overall deer harvest is up, for the most part in the last 10 years or so.... Of course it varies by 10 or 15 percent depending on hard winters/snow/ice etc... Above that percentage I would say it would a problem??!! This will be an interesting post Steve - good job!
In my primary woods that I have hunted for 20 yrs I would say more deer than ever, but fewer big bucks, still some goods ones there, but the deer herd is out of balance....makes for some good sits with seeing 6-15 deer a sit, but too many does, not enough good bucks like it used to be.
Getting better. 20 years ago, deer were extremly rare. 10 years ago, a "big" buck awas 120. Now we have booners and plenty of does. shhhh
Talk to Justin and I and everyone else who hunts around here (at home). It's not nearly the same as it once was.. it once.. for many years up to about 8 or 9 years ago was just awesome around home.. not even awesome really.. but SO MUCH better than it is now that it seems like awesome when you look back at it. What changed? FOOD and HABITAT. It's all but gone around here and with the food sources went the whitetail... and now homes cover much land I once hunted in.. or mountain biked on or whatever. My home sits on a what was once a huge cornfield where I used to see does in nearly every time I went by it. No more. I remember those days when seeing 7 or 8 deer was a good night.. now when I see 2 or 3 I get happy... and that doesn't happen often. This is why I travel so far from home.. for more open spaces.
I agree it all has to do with how this world is expanding to quickly. People house and sub divisions are being placed in old farmers fields and what not. Its all taking away from where these animals live. I've noticed it here along with our states stupid Earn a Buck program has really thinned the herd out.
This is the year 5 PD, for me (that's post-divorce :d ), so I've only really hunted hard for the past 4 seasons. In that time, I haven't noticed much of a change at all. The population, buck/doe ratio appears to be the same. One thing I have noticed is that I'm seeing a few more, and bigger bucks, every season. But I'm fairly certain this can be attributed to time in the field, combined with lessons learned about location, timing, tactics, etc., from past seasons. Still can't kill 'em, though!
