Hold the phone there BT.This topic isn't closed yet.
I know one thing,the deer around our camp are being killed by hunters.As for these collared deer I still have questions.
First of all that area has alot less hunters then it did in the past.Back in say the 80's I'll bet there was more then triple the amount of hunters there are today.Maybe somebody on here can answer that familar with the area.If this is true at that time a higher percentage of deer would have been killed by hunters especially during the first couple of years of brown it's down.In some of the more remote places I'm seeing few hunters anymore so of coarse the percentage of deer kills will go down.Now that brings back the question of why the herd in those remote regions isn't growing in leaps and bounds.Since everybody else has a theory including the dcnr,here's mine.
In the 80's there were alot more deer hunters in the NC including the remote areas.I know because I hunted them.During the first couple of years of massive herd reduction the deer numbers dropped drastically.{don't deny this doug}So you still have the predators with alot less dinnerfare running around the woods.The few deer that are left are hunted harder and have more stress put on them especially in winter when they don't need that.Hence the low deer numbers.
That's my theory until somebody shows me otherwise.Now let's go to the habitat.It sucked over 20 years ago when I hunted potter and clearfield.Lot's of wide open woods where a fellow could see forever and see all these doe and small bucks everybody talks about.We figured it out though and hunted in thick stuff with treestands and 50 yard shots at the most.{rifle}Got some dandy bucks.Those deer numbers existed throughout the 70's into the 90's up to herd reduction.So I'm supposed to believe the habitat crashed the same time herd reduction started?Hmmm.
We had some terrible winters back then including the infamous snow/ice storms that killed alot of deer just from sliding down the mountains.Yet the years following that winter I still saw the high numbers people talk about.Those woods in potter county have been open for a long long time and the deer stayed high in numbers for many years.Anyone interested the area is around patterson on rte 44.I just have questions because of what my own eyes have witnessed throughout the years.To be honest I hope in the end I find out I'm wrong and everything audubon,greenpeace,and the DCNR is telling us is the truth because my trust in government right now is low anyway.Right now I can't trust debernliberal after checking his profile and history.Left wingers make me nervous.