How are the Whitetails fairing in your neck of the woods?

Just curious with everyone out scouting and shed hunting. How are whitetails looking this winter. What are your outlooks for this coming hunting season.

Here in Northern Idaho, the deer seem pretty taxed and worn out from a long high snow packed winter. Skinny and a lot of ribs showing. I am just getting my shed hunting underway as the snow levels are finally getting down to a foot or two.

We have had 3 extreme winters in a row and its taking a toll on our mature bucks. I dont see this winter helping out either. I am concerned about what I am going to find in these next couple of months while shed hunting. I have a feeling a lot of deceased deer.

Lets hear how your areas are shaping up?

 

They're getting skinny up here in northern MN, but I haven't seen any ribs yet. We've had a ton of snow too, but its the warmer weather that's effecting them right now. Highs in the upper 30's have softened up all the hard packed trails and drifts. Poor things sink up past their bellies with every step. At least when its cold they can climb on top of the snow to reach higher browse. It either needs to get cold again, or melt all the snow. We still have +3' of ice on the lake, so we got a ways to go!

 

I was suprised on my shedding trips to see that the deer look really good around here, nice and fat. This has been one of the hardest winters in recent years but they held up fine. What is even more crazy is that there was almost not acorn mast this year and most of the fields were planted in soybeans instead of corn.

I also have only found two dead deer this year, by this time in the past several seasons that number would have been more around a dozen or higher.

 

Besides the heartcrusher of a shed buck I found dead while sheddin' the other day, I think the herd is doing well around here.

On my way home from the last scouting trip I saw 35 deer. The biggest herd was 20, all hittin' the cornfield that evening. They all appeared healthy and doing well. Luckily the snow has melted, the cool temps are slowly drifting away, and green sprouts are starting to pop in the bean fields.

I got some potential for one or two big bucks next year. A few others might be a year or so away. It will really be just a matter of where they go after they break from the herds.

 

Lookin pretty healthy around here too. Heck most of the bucks still were packing antlers 2 weeks ago. Been out twice and haven't found a shed or a dead head so that's sorta good news. Headed out tomorrow to see what I can find.

 

NOT good around home here.

My dead head number is MUCH higher than my shed count.. 21 dead deer thus far with the next 6 weeks still of sheddin' left. OUCH!

And reports from alot of the other guys I know.. are the same.. HIGH dead counts. Not cool.

 

That's a shame Mike. I didn't know you were that high in the dead head department.

 

Whats your reasons for all the dead deer?

 

They look good around me. There's a lot of food around. The snow pack came early and stayed for a month or so which isn't too bad.

 

While a few have been dead within a few hundred yards of roads.. I would guess mostly predation to be the largest problem where I live.

Where I call home.. hunting land access is EXTREMELY limited.. I would say less than 10% of the land in my county is private or public and huntable.

The other 90% is OFF limits.

The trend is.. forest preserves are buying all the last remaining tracts of land.. and estate homes for the Chicago wealthy are taking the other larger tracts.. which in lies the problem.

A HUGE coyote population exists.. and are un-checked. No access to land is hard on deer hunters but has practically wiped out completely ANY coyote hunter.. so.. it's a free meal ticket here.

And while I hear people complain about the yotes.. they also won't let you do anything about them.

Ah.. the suburbs.

So left un-checked and in huge numbers that continue to grow every year.. the young deer and weak deer are becoming easy meals during the winter.

Just to give a little tid-bit about our yote population.. It's been 5 years now where I haven't seen a rabbit in the woods. Used to see them all the time.. but no more. Poor bunny's.

On 1 hunt I had in 2007.. I saw 11 different yotes in less than 2 hours.

 

Ouch!! I'd say you got yourself a problem there. Good luck with that one Mike.

 

Sounds like prime Coyote hunting land! Duke do you hunt the coyotes at all???

 

That is a pile of coyote's! We have a lot but nothing like that. Aggressive trapping would be the only way to put a dent in a population like that and it may not be practical or possible in that area if it is heavy residential.Hunting them would be a partial answer,but unless a lot of folks were going at it quite hard I don't think you would put much of a dent in their population.
Our deer herd has had a rough winter,I am not seeing near the deer numbers that I am accustomed to seeing,in general our numbers have dropped significantly over the last two or three years.
I am curious to see how the area I hunt in Idaho was effected.I was of the impression that this winter wasn't nearly as bad as last,I am not liking Troy's impression of what is going on in his area.

 

Though I have not been up to camp in Canada yet, I have talked to my warden......not good.

Our biggest problem is the extremely high wolf population. The deer herd skyrocketed in the last 5 years and the wolves have followed.

With the 3'+ of snow and a couple 40+ degree days a few weeks ago, mixed with some rain, and you have a playground for the wolves. There is a good crust that allows the wolves to run right across it, while the deer break through.

I suspect that the deer herd is going to take a major hit this year up there and will be on the down cycle. The good news is, the wolves will follow.

It'll be interesting to see what we find in a couple months.

 

We just got back from sheddin this morning and we only found 1 dead buck about 115-120 class but we found another 8 dead does. Now the big quetion I have is we don't have blue tongue or anything like that and these deer were all around a picked corn field and I must say it is the worst picker I have ever seen with tons of spilled corn all over.. So can deer get that stressed out that they die while there is tons of food for them?? Walt

 

I wonder Walt If It Isn't because of the corn and that's all there eating? Corn really doesn't do much for them, makes them crap damn good and that's about It.

 

Scot, though I am not exactly sure how the winter is fairing down around elk city where you hunt, I can say up north here, its not looking good. The snow came all at once in Dec and early Jan 80+ inches at 2500 (spokane,cda etc.) Then it got really cold and the snow settled in like concrete, it made if very hard for the critters to get around and dig for feed. The browse is still avaialable but yotes, wolves and mountain lions are thriving in this ... They all just cruise across the top thick hardpack. I was out this morning shed hunting until I got snowed out, dang near bizzard, high winds. The temps are dropping down again in the low teens/single digits this coming week. The snow from christmas has been rained on a few times but it is still 1.5 to 2 feet deep in the norths at lower elevations and much deeper in the higher elevations above 3000k. A few souths are burnt off but very few for this late into the winter.. Scot, the deer look as bad as I have seen them look in years, very sickly and tattered and thats down around the lake here in the lowest elevations. My neighbor and i have shot 4 coyotes off our porches in the past 2 weeks. Everything is pushed low. The moose, deer and elk are invading our suburbs and citys.. On the news daily.

Obtw, I didnt find a single shed or dead today, spent most of my time trying busting through the crusty layer under the fresh snow to get into a south once i got into the south there was 6-8 inches of fresh.

We really need a thaw/warm temps and some rain..

 

A lot of dead bucks here in my county of Wisconsin. I have found 3 within the last 2 days and my buddy just to the
north found 5 this week.

 

I'm actually still bowhunting 'til the end of the month. But with temperatures around 80* it's hard not to think about fishing.

 

Wer'e overrun with 'em :d