I hunt on Quantico military base in Northern Virginia. We usually kill around 800-1000 deer a year on the base. This year, as of today, less than 400 deer have been killed, with only 3 weeks left of season. Even if we take 200 more deer in 3 weeks(highly unlikley), that would be a drop of around 25%-30%. That is alot of deer. I have spent the majority of my days afield without seeing a single deer. I arrowed all three deer this year during a 10 day period in late Oct.-early November.

Only things I can think of that have been different the last few years have been:

1) 2 drought ridden summers
2) an increase in the coyote population
3) The inclusion of crossbows during the bow season

Those are really the only things that I can think of, with numbers 2 and 3 probably not making any difference at all. Has been a very tough year in terms of seeing deer.

Anyone else have a similar situation? Did the deer herd bounce back?