flips2

As the general firearms season is winding down I was just wondering what my fellow VA hunters thought about the amount of deer this year. It seems to me I have seen less deer and have taken less deer this year. I have had some personal factors happen that haven't let me hunt as much this year but I still was able to get out on key dates and it seems I didn't see as many deer on the farms/places that I have to hunt. I have been seeing some deer in NOVA but in the other parts of the state that I hunt I didn't see the amount of deer I am accustomed to. I have also heard through the grapevine the game biologist have said as much as 60% of the population were killed off from last years winter storms in parts of the state. I would like to know what everyone else thought about the possibility of the snow having a major role with the population this year. I know it did have some because the deer around the state are not used to that much snow but 60% seems to be a high number. With this figure it would mean that roughly 600,000 deer died last year due to the snow. Our average harvest has been roughly 200,000+ the last 4-5 years and with those numbers it would mean we roughly have at best 200,000-300,000 deer left in the state.

I will be very curious to see the deer harvest for this year when it comes out and compare it to years past. I will take an educated guess that the harvest for this year will be down from the 5 year average but it will interesting to see how much if any at all. If the winter kill was that much I would imagine the limits will be reduced in the future because the overall herd would be in check and the need to harvest more antlerless deer would not be necessary. I know it sounds odd, but could any mortality rates from the winter storms last year have helped the overall herd in the state? I was thinking it may have possibly helped the doe to buck ratio and may ultimately produce a better hunting situation in the future.

Any thoughts or comments on this?