I hunted 90 acres of private property in Stueben county for opening weekend and all the surrounding property is is stocked with the orange army.........heard about 6 shots all opening day and 2 were from my dad and brother.......sunday we heard and saw NOTHING. What a rediculous and embarrassing example of what the DEC has managed to do even to private hunting land in it's big buck capital. Truely a sad situation.
Where in Steuben County were you hunting? I hunt in WMU's 8P and 8R. You may not believe this, but....I left the woods at 9:00 on opening day after counting shot #400 (granted alot were pretty distant). Yep, I didn't see any deer so I just sat there counting gunshots instead.
I don't know what to make of the past 3 years. In 2002 we had one of the best seasons that we've ever had in this area. In 2003 things were slower and the past two have plain sucked. What I don't understand is that I saw more nice bucks around the house this summer and fall than I have in the past several years combined. There were no shortage of does/fawns either. Once the end of October rolled around the deer just seemed to disappear. I saw plenty of nice bucks while out spotlighting too.
I agree that the whole "harsh winter" thing is a joke. If anything has lower the deer pop. its been issuing an overabundance of doe permits.I believe that the lack of access to hunting land is one of the major problems facing the state's deer management.The amount of land that has changed hands in this area over the past several years is unbelievable. In my hunting area I strongly believe that our lack of deer sighting thus far (despite numerous drives) has been that 400 acres or so of the best bedding cover in the whole area has been posted and put off limits completely. We've killed 7 bucks off of this one drive before and have pushed out over a dozen bucks in a single drive here. Without anyone getting these deer up and moving around...why would they leave the security of this cover during daylight? On Christmas day last year I went for a drive around and counted 72 deer in the two fields bordering this 400 acre block of cover. In fact, one of my neighbors said that all of the big bucks he was watching before season showed back uponce season ended.
Can't wait to go out all weekend and see nothing again...........just got back a few hours ago after walking for 4 hours through yesterday's snow and not finding one single friggin track.
That hasn't been the case at all here. We haven't been seeing the deer....but there's be a ton of tracks in the snow. Hmmm...maybe all the hunting pressure has created a breed of super smart deer??
In summary....I do believe that the deer pop. is definately down from where it was several years ago...but I don't believe that its currently at "desperation levels" in this area.
Good luck for the rest of the season.