Sorry forgot to post. They come out every week. Week 4 archery deer total so far: 17,967 :: Prairie State Outdoors ::
A lot of people are buzzing & the bloggers are too now. Justin's "is it slow" thread took off like wildfire also. I am not saying there is an issue, but alot of people are. Here is a fresh sample: Heartland Outdoors :: Scattershooting :: Concern over deer herd spreading
Thanks for the link. I at first figured it was probably due to the large ammount of corn that was still standing up until about 2 weeks ago also throw in a some ehd cases. But as the season goes on and guys are still not seeing the numbers they normally see I am starting to wonder if this great state of ours has once again mismanaged something and our deer herd numbers are nowhere near what the state claims they are. I guess only time will tell.
In Sangamon County, the deer herd seems strong. I saw 3 bucks, and took one. Two other bucks have been taken by friends and a big 10 was chasing this morning. Can't begin to tell you how many does are out there, but many. And... I have seen zero coyote so far! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The state archery harvest is down 11%. How does your county look? http://www.prairiestateoutdoors.com/pso/article/weather_keeps_archery_numbers_behind_last_year
I guess we will see what the numbers look like next week. With shotgun season here and with those 20-17 degree temps on Saturday and Sunday morning, I see big things happening. Of course this will ruin my bowhunting for the year, but I got my Buck, so....
Here in my area everyone is just now seeing heavy rut behavior. With shotgun season this weekend there could be alot of deer killed in three days.
I cant wait to get out monday and tuesday i have one tag left to fill and we dont allow gun hunting on our property in grundy and lasalle county. So it helps us out a ton it pushes so many deer on our property. Bucks and does i see alot ive never seen before also. The last 3 seasons in a row ive taken my best deer during this time we have very little tillable a ton of crp grasses and a ton of woods and deep ridges were right on the illinois river.but opening day of firearm i know deer are moving to our place i get alot of trail cam pics also during this time but for harvests its been grest since opening day been seeing a ton of does this season also and spikes so thats a good sign but alot of counties got hit hard this season by ehd also so i expect numbers to be low this year the percent of ehd deer are up from last year here in illinois.
Personally, I am not worried. Activity has been slow and we have had some wacky weather. We live in the best Buck state in the country. If it is a down year, I am confident we will rebound.
I figured they would be released today, last year they were released on the 20th, 2 days after the season ended. Maybe they're trying to figure out how to explain it. I'm guessing we'll be closer to 60k just from hearing people's reports through different forums and such. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 20, 2012 Illinois Firearm Deer First-Season Harvest Totals Over 72,000 Deer SPRINGFIELD, IL – The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) today reported that hunters in Illinois harvested a preliminary total of 72,111 deer during the opening weekend of the 2012 Illinois Firearm Deer Season, Nov. 16-18. The second portion of the firearm season will be Nov. 29-Dec. 2.
We had a terrible weekend in Wayne County. Heard about half the number of gun shot s we normally do. But is was nice to see the DNR patroling our area. First CO we have seen in a few years. I stopped him let him check me out and thanked him for being in our area.
I dont gun hunt but between the reports from other hunters, the meat markets and the taxidermist Im going to say that Fulton County will come in 40% to 50% below average.
Still waiting on official tallies, but seen this. Excerpted the main point of it Firearms deer season starts off slow for area pantries Whitney Williams Nov 25, 2013 5:41 p.m. Veihl said they usually see a larger number of deer brought in, but said the cold weather put a damper on the weekend. "We're about in half, of what we normally see this weekend," Veihl said. "Like I said, I think the weather and then there're blue tongue disease going around right now, I think that's had a lot to do with it. Just the number of big bucks are down this year too."
