Mr. Yox:
It's nice to see you on the forum. I agree that it is becoming increasingly more difficult for the state to manage the deer herd effectively with all the land that is being put off-limits to hunters. However, as far as the hayday of the 80's and 90's being over..I'm not so sure. I have a large family and most of our deer that are taken during gun season are a result of conducting deer drives. Over the past 30-40 years we have probably averaged around 15 bucks (and sometimes more a year) and have held these numbers until this past season. We haven't had any slump in our deer hunting over the past several seasons. My preseason scouting has definately showned no decline in deer numbers in the last several years. Over the past few summers (velvet footage) I've videoed some of the nicest bucks that I've ever seen in this area (Units 8P / 8R in Steuben County) including a number of 130-150" or better bucks, which are outstanding deer for this area due to the amount of hunting pressure we see. In fact, 2002 was probably the best that I've ever seen around here for numbers of nice bucks being taken. During that season, several exceptional bucks were killed within a few miles of my house. A friend of mine killed a 22-pt. that grossed close to 190" NT, another local guy killed a 11-pt. that grossed 170" on land that I used to hunt and another guy I know killed a 24" 13-pt. that had to have grossed over 160" (too bad he shot one of the main beams off, although he found all the pieces and had it fixed). There seemed to be no shortage of deer around this summer...but this past season certaining had alot of people puzzled. There should be alot of nice trophy-class bucks around for next year with the number of bucks that made it through season this year (at least in a few areas that I know of around here). I sure hope that what occurred this year doesn't become a trend [:'(].
I just started shed hunting this past spring and had a blast doing it. I ended up with 8 sheds including a 61" 5-pt. side and 3 other single sides that should have been 50" or better 5-pt. sides if it hadn't have been for broken tines. I can't wait to get out there and doing so lookin' over the next few months. All that I've been thinking about since the end of deer season has been about getting out there and trying to find some big antlers. It doesn't help much that a friend of my dad's has some land were there is a bunch of standing corn and he told my dad today at the store that he's seen several really nice bucks around since the end of muzzeloading season, including a couple of real monsters, one of which has a long droptine! It sure is neat to video a buck or find one of his sheds and then see that same buck feeding out in a field the next summer.
Was that 180" buck that you mentioned a typical or nontypical?
Here's a photo of the 4.5 yr. old 22-pt that my friend killed in 2002. The pic. doesn't do the 8.5 lb. rack any justice! Interestingly, I watched this buck for two years and have over an hour of velvet footage of him in July 2002. In 2001 I saw him twice and he was a 13 or 14 pt. that would have went around 130-135." Too bad he didn't make it another year because he probably would have been a booner. A friend of mine has the 2 yr. old sheds off of this buck. I've heard from several people (including the guy who shot the 22-pt.) that there was a huge typical running around the same area that year that was far more impressive than this one. Unfortunately, no one ever got him or has seen him since.