can you call it a bad season?

corey012778 · 12-18-2008, 07:40 AM

I have only got to go out about 10days of 30 days. seen an total of 20 deer (does and yearlings during antler). missed 2 does during the doe days. seen 2 bucks maybe 3 all on the road going to or from work.

last year I got out about every day. had 4 shots on 4 bucks (chocked). took an doe, last week of the season.

in my mind, I just have not had the same amount of time I did last year. only getting when I can, weather sucked (rain and high winds). the area I hunt is getting over hunted [:@].

I think it not. I have asked off for the last 2 days of the season which hits about the same time as my weekend off from work anyway. have a new hunting ground. pretty much a guild to help me on it. still have just under 2 weeks to go with the option of going to another county that has an longer season.

what yall think?

gregrn43 · 12-18-2008, 07:55 AM

Well I took a week off for ml and gun season. I get off work on friday mornings and dont go back till monday night. I have bow,ML or gun hunted every weekend since oct 1 except for one weekend. I have killed two 8pts, but nothing really big. I havent even seen a really good buck this year. Seen some good sign, but not much else. I saw a total of 1 buck chasing does. I have a doe tag that im not gonna fill this year, its to late to use it now. So as much as I have hunted its not been a good year. I still have a while to hunt, but the best time is over. Well will see what happens.

falcon · 12-18-2008, 08:13 AM

It was a good season for me.Muzzleloader deer season started out slow when i passed up shots on two does with fawns. Hunted for about 7 more days before i got a shot. Did not shoot that buck right and he went about 400 yards before i got him.Killed another small buck in deer rifle season with a muzzleloader. Then got a bonusdoe after another long track and a long uphill drag.

To quotea guy who used to post on thesesites: "i went hog hunting and only gota deer."

Am nearly 70 years old and i thank Godthat i am holding up pretty good. Am still able to get out in nature, walk a long ways, hunt and kill adeer or hog now and then. However, dragging hogs and deer is getting tiresome.

There are a couple of holiday doe seasons coming up but i will probably just go for the hogs. Got a list of folks who want some pork.

oldsmellhound · 12-18-2008, 08:14 AM

Well, I think it's all about perspective. Last year I probably got out for bow & ML hunting about 12 - 15 days, got a buck with the bow and a doe with the ML. This year, after a move to the big city I have spent 0 days hunting. It looks like I'll be able to go 1 lousy day with the ML around Christmas-time. So compared to my misery, it sounds like you're doing okay

corey012778 · 12-18-2008, 08:14 AM

gregrn, I'll call that an good season. lol

kinda still a beginner hunter (but not at shooting) one my part, one doe. like to put some in the freezer. now thinking of it. I may go do and see if I have any left. lol

cayugad · 12-18-2008, 08:30 AM

Good luck.. be glad you're seeing deer at least.

corey012778 · 12-18-2008, 08:51 AM

dave, the worst part, I have seen them most of time has been passing right in front of me at night when I am driving home

or when I am driving home with shooting time left and end up having no time to get an gun ready to go out.

kinda sucks live close to where you hunt.

dmurphy317 · 12-18-2008, 09:21 AM

My season did not go as well as I had hoped. In NM we have to put in to a lottery to draw a tag (no preference point to increase your odds). You can only draw one tag per species (1 deer, 1 elk, etc.) and the tag is only good for a specific 5 day hunt. If the weather or work or family issues interfere with those 5 days it cuts down on the amount of hunting you can do.

For me, I drew an elk and a deer tag this year and was able to hunt all 5 days of the elk hunt but saw no elk. I was able to hunt 3 days of my deer hunt (due to work issues) and passed up the only, barely, legal buck I saw on the first morning, I was hoping to find something a bit larger than the small fork horn buck but never saw another legal buck after that. Even so, I still consider the hunt a success since I was able to get out and spend time in God's creation and saw animals almost every day, just not the ones I had tags for.

spaniel · 12-18-2008, 09:38 AM

I had the unusual and phenominal opportunity to go to Montana this year and tag out on both a bull elk and muley, but that awesome week was the only time I've ever done that.

It's all about perspective. In Michigan growing up, I hunted almost every day of the season and was fortunate to get 1-2 deer in a season. In college, I lived 10 hours from home and the far north hunting around the school was bad (tried it 2 years, saw only a handful of deer) but I still got home over holiday breaks and would score 2-4 deer in about 10-12 days afield (hunted AM/PM or full day). In grad school, I was 2.5 hours from home and got up there many of the weekends, and also got permission to hunt a VERY productive suburban stand and got 6-8 deer per year and went afield on at least 20 or more days between bow and gun season. It was great.

Then I moved to Indiana. My former haunt up in MI is overrun with does and has long, extended seasons and I can't get up there to hunt. My own land (16 acres) is a former elk farm yet there are few deer locally and only 1 ever spotted on my property since I owned it (next year is aggressive habitat development time). I have to drive 1.5 hours to where I have permission on several large tracts of deer-rich land.

Due to this, I got out ONE morning for bow (saw 1 doe), ONE morning for regular firearm opener (9-pt with the Omega), and ONE morning for ML opener (1 doe with X7). Excluding Montana as an unusual opportunity, I got only 9 total hours in the field hunting this year!!! It it hadn't been for Montana your 10 days would be looking pretty good to me...I used to live outdoors in the fall and all I could manage locally in a full fall was ONE DAY'S worth of hunting time. Even without Montana I may have gotten 1-2 other days.

bronko22000 · 12-18-2008, 01:31 PM

I feel the same way as Cayugad. You're lucky to even be seeing deer. I've hunted a lot more than 10 days, probably closer to 20 or 22 and saw a total of 5 deer and 4 of them were onlytails. I did manage to get one nice buck that you guys know about during archery season. But that's PA hunting on public land. Same I guess as WI from what I am gathering from Cayugad. A sad but true fact. The Game Commission is not listening to the hunting public and allocating too many tags.
Now I don't expect to go out and see 10 or 15 deer a day like it used to be. But one or two would be nice.