As soon as I got my deer out of the woods, I loaded it onto my car carrier and headed home with it. I was nervous about letting it hang in the warm weather we had since we weren't going home until Wed. As I drove out McGeorge and Four Mile Rds., I was amazed at the lack of cars. Hardly anyone parked along the roads. A nice buck screamed across Four Mile in front of me on my way out. As I got to the old nursery, about 1/2 doz. vehicles parked.
When I got my deer to the butchers, it was about 12:00 noon. Already some really nice racks there. Really nice. Dropped the old girl off, and headed back to camp. Saw no more deer the rest of the day. As far as hunting pressure out our way, it definitely was down. We did some driving on Tues., and although we saw some doe, no more bucks. I know they are or were still around, as some of our guys saw some really nice ones coming and going during bear season, and they didn't get them all, I'm sure.
Like you I didn't apply for antlerless in 2G. I did have DMAPS.
In archery season, one of my camp buddies saw the biggest bear he ever saw in his life. He said it looked like a black Volkswagen coming at him. It got to within about 50 yds., stood up, and must have been looking for him, as his scent probably caused it to stop. Denny said itwent down on all fours again, made a couple more bounds in his direction, stood up again to look for him, and then dropped to all fours, gave a woof, and bounded off in a 90 deg. direction. He said it was several minutes before he could regain his composure. But, we never saw it in bear season, naturally. Hope you're right about the poachers not killing all the bucks. They cheat all of us.