anybody else noticing a major decrease in their deer numbers

pjhunts · 12-16-2009, 05:23 PM

I'd say my sightings are down by at least a third, that's including just driving around looking for deer. We had 3 does that I watched all summer long and none had any fawns. Not sure wether they lost them or were never bread. My neighbor has had 4 calves attacked by a "big cat", i'm not going to say a cougar or large bobcat, but the vet believes it was a cougar. I saw pics and it looked like Freddy Kreuger got a hold of them. there was hardly any place on them without a claw mark. So I wonder if this is the cause of the lack of deer. I did find deer parts a few times this summer. Just curious to see if any body elses sightings were down too or if it was just my arrea

mossberghunter93 · 12-17-2009, 05:02 AM

I can definitly say that my sightings are significantly down I saw three does the entire week of gun season. and im everaging less than 1 deer per sit.

MOhunter46 · 12-17-2009, 06:34 AM

In this area i think we have more deer now than we have had in past years. Seems like i saw deer just about every sit this season, im averging just under 2.5 deer a sit. But the bucks are a different story. We didnt get hardly any bucks a camera this year just a lot of does. Probably just means i need to kill more does and ive killed a good number of them this year so we'll see what happens next year.

Lanse couche couche · 12-17-2009, 06:44 AM

PJ,

Where are you at in central Illinois? There are still plenty of deer in southeast Illinois. Folks didn't see as many until well into November because the farmers were so late in getting their crops out. Even after that it seemed like there were days when the woods were crawling with deer and other times when it looked like they had dropped off the face of the earth.

Would be interested in hearing more about the possible cougar up there. But even if it is a cougar, I think that you would need to have a lot of them operating for a long time in the same area before you would see any noticeable decline in deer numbers.

dyb3and88 · 12-17-2009, 06:49 AM

Defiantly no wheres near the deer this year. I didn't see a single deer the whole entire gun season. And was only able to get one shot at a doe during the first bow season, and choked. It late bow season now and the deer have gone completely nocturnal...... This will be the first time in about 15 years I did NOT get a deer.... I am so discouraged right now, I might not even buy a license next year. With not much of anywhere to hunt and fees have doubled, not sure its worth it right now.

sharpizzio · 12-17-2009, 06:54 AM

No loss of numbers here in SE Ohio...............I have killed six so far this year. I have seen plenty and killed 5 (1 buck 4 does) with my bow. I only gun hunted the last Friday evening and Saturday and saw 7 on Friday and 22 on Saturday (killed one doe).........

Down&OutHunting · 12-17-2009, 07:53 AM

My sightings are deff. down here. Last year i was seeing at least 5 or so deer a sit and at times more than that. This year im luck to see 2-3 deer a sit. Opening morning of the first gun season has been my best day in the woods i seen 14 deer. I think that around my area this late cold front has got the deer moving alot better and ive been seeing more deer than i was before.

IOWABUCKHUNTR · 12-17-2009, 09:00 AM

Crops were late in my area of Iowa, but we still were seeing plenty of deer. I averaged probably 3-5 deer a hunt within bow range, but I'm pretty sure they were the same deer for the most part; young bucks. Outside of bow range was a different story, late movers both in the morning and evening hunts; coming in right at dark, and almost 9 am, strage year overall though.

teedub31 · 12-17-2009, 09:02 AM

I have one area of the county I hunt that I can drive by every evening and see 15 to 20 does/fawns. Outside of that square mile, I hardly see any deer. I had almost 100 hours on stand (bow and gun) and saw less then 15 deer (8 at one time). In an area I hunt with my dad in a neighboring county, we actually see more bucks then does. And the does never have more then 1 fawn. Been that way for a couple of year now.

bowfly · 12-17-2009, 09:45 AM

the area i hunt in NEPA is doing just fine, multiple deer sightings everytime i went out in archery, not uncommon to see 10, 15, even 20 deer in a night...during archery i personally saw 14 different bucks, and many not a single sighting, but multiple

the new land i hunt around central PA appears to be doing very well, during early archery i counted 44 deer in front of me...that was a single evening

i think pa is doing fine where i am at