I wont even begin to suggest that I have all the answers,or any for that matter but I know what I see.I live in Woodstock NY.I hunt primarily in 3a and 3c.In the archery season I saw plenty of deer,Of the 20 or so times that I was on stand I think there were only two instances that I didn't see deer.In the archery season I typically hunt at much lower elevations,in reality I am hunting in several area's where I couldn't comfortably rifle hunt (legally I could but for me personally it would not be comfortable)I saw eleven different bucks in the archery season as well as either three or four bears and five or six coyote's.Of the bucks that I could have shot which were four or five,I passed on all of them,the best of them were a medium sized six pointer and a small eight pointer.Most of my archery hunting is done on private land with next to no hunting pressure.My sense of the deer herd in our area is that there are pockets where there are lot's of deer,for the most part private land with almost no hunting pressure and there are area's with hardly any deer.I don't rifle hunt a lot at home,I have been fortunate to have rifle hunted in Idaho for the last several years and I am typically out there for about 12 days so when I get back it is later in our rifle season and I have a lot to catch up on with my business and my family.The point of that being is that I am used to not so great rifle hunting when I get home.I have been out rifle hunting about a day and a half since returning and I have hunted in area's that I know quite well that are mountainous I have seen very little deer sign in area's that have always held good concentrations of deer.On fresh snow yesterday I walked many miles and saw only two sets of tracks.Is this enough to draw conclusions about our herd.No but there are a lot of factors pointing to much lower herd numbers,in no particular order.
1)Not nearly as many road kill's,either visually or in my business.(I am a partner in an insurance agency)
2)The taxidermists in our area are way down in the number of animals brought in.
3)The deer processors are way down.ONe fellow did 240 deer last year,he is only at 70 to current date.
4)I travel extensively in my community at all hours of the day(early morning,early evening)there are fields and orchards where I am accustomed to seeing 15 to 20 deer at a time,I am lucky if I have seen 5 or 6 together at one time.
5)The indicator that I place the most weight on,friends and acquaintainces who are very good hunters are not seeing nearly as many deer and are having a lot more 0 for days.
I go along with atlasman and those who have said that it is not our individual responsibility to manage the herd,we need to trust the professionals (biologists) and let them do their job's.Their conclusions should be a whole lot more scientific then ours.I personally believe it is all about habitat.If you have good habitat and little or no pressure you will have game.In the catskill park with no public land able to be logged you have an over mature forest with the canopy not allowing the sun to get to the forest floor.As a result there is no browse or thick undergrowth with the animals more dependant on cyclical foods(mast).So they move lower and lower to the 5,10,and 20 acre parcels where the second home owner environmentalists think that any one who could kill an animal is a heathen.But that is where they are,food and security is where it is at.
Scout.scout ,scout and scout some more.Just this morning I read an outdoor life article that stated thatour kill numbers were down 29% last year.I believe this year the percentage will be even greater.