Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

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?

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Did you guys have Blue Tongue?

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Animals go where the water is. Is there no water source for them on/near the base?

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Maybe they've just finally got the numbers down far enough such that 400 may be your new yearly sustainable harvest?


Seen it in a managed park around here. First few years they'd get 200-250 does. After about the 1st 3-4 years of that the herd stabilized and they take much fewer now.

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Bingo!! That did it at the farms we hunt. One of the farmers up the road told us yesterday he found 80 deer on 3 properties, all of which have ponds and were the last remaining water source during the drought. Deer sightings and kills are down to around the same as your numbers. Normally we would take between 15and 25 deer annually between 5 guys. This year we are down to 7 kills as of today.

Its Mother Natures way of thinning the herd. She breaks all the weak branches off trees in high winds, knocks weak trees over, kills weak animals in severe cold or when overbrowsing occurs, etc.

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Bruce, there is water...a few big lakes and some perennial streams. But I remember a few years ago when it hit a really bad drought, many of the 3-4 foot streams were completely dry for 3-4 months. It was also really dry this summer.

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Many factors come into play. I know here in NY, we have plenty of deer. Their movements have been funny this year, though. Well conditioned paths that were a lock for seeing deer before went unused this year. I know in part this is due to a group of coyotes that have taken residence in the area. Still, I see deer almost daily, just slightly shifted in their routine. Time to get rid of some "yotes", I believe. :D

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Some streams on public land I hunt were dried up this year but, since that wasn't their only water source in these places, it really didn't seem to have any effect. Perhaps it was Blue Tongue down your way. Was there any/many dead deer sightings? I can't say that I heard about any BT deaths here in So. MD.

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

I hunt NO VA, primarily Madison, Culpepper, Prince William and Fauquier counties. I've seen more deer this year then in years past. I must have seen 60+ deer on the way home from work, just last evening. One group of deer at the PW and Loundon county line of 30+, playing in the side yard of a million dollar home. Deer were moving all over the place yesterday, to bad I was stuck in the office. 2 Saturdays agoI saw over 35 deer in one group during a morning hunt. I was unable to get off a shot because of the dogs who were close on their tails. The only difference I've seen from years past is the weather pattern. This year we didn't seecooler temps until late November early December. No need for the deer to move if it is brite, sunny and 70 degrees. They can feedand drink all night long. IMO the only thing the so called drought impacted were the farmers crops and the flowers my wife planted. The only thing I saw dried up were very very small creeks and run offs. All the resevoirs, ponds, streams and runs had plently of water to sustain any type of wildlife. On only4 occassions during this years hunting season did I not see any deer. On each occassion I only hunted a half day. Time to get off the base and hunt some other ground. Maybe, they don't like all the guns. LOL

I don't understand whypowers to be, say were having a drought. The water was flowing just fine out of my kitchen spicket. I'm sure the peopleof Africa would love to have a Virginia drought.:eek:

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Here's some more real life numbers.

Last season.....I had 326 deer SIGHTINGS in 46 sits......and I harvested 5 whitetails.

This season....I had 203 deer SIGHTINGS in 48 sits......and I harvested 9 whitetails.

I have my own way of looking at this.....but it would be interesting to see what others thought was "different", this year.

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

A bit off the subject, but on the way to work the other day, I passed a field where I routinely see turkeys. I had to stop to count Monday. There were 46 turkeys in the field. I started back down the road and in the very next field there were at least 25 (I didn't stop this time) more turkeys. Just crazy!

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Deer harvest is way down in Oklahoma as well. I bet I didn't see 30 deer all season. In years past you could see that in one weekend.
Kinda scary!

Darrall

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Here are some stats from our neighbors to the west.

Preliminary data collected from game checking stations across the state indicate deer hunters in West Virginia harvested 66,570 bucks during the two-week buck season, which ran from Nov. 19 through Dec. 1, according to Frank Jezioro, director of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.

The 2007 buck harvest was slightly higher than the 2006 harvest of 66,115. The top 10 counties for buck harvest were as follows: Preston (2,323), Hampshire (2,231), Greenbrier (2,215), Hardy (2,104), Mason (2,083), Jackson (2,070), Braxton (1,986), Randolph (1,960), Monroe (1,952), and Roane (1,903).

Twenty-nine counties reported an increase in the buck harvest over 2006 while 22 reported a decrease. The decline in several counties may be related to an outbreak of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD-Serotype II virus) that occurred in several northern and western counties during the months of September and October.

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

The trend is showing an increase

Virginia Deer Kill, 1947 to 2006

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Also remember how many guys were complaining about the high heat in the early part of the season. That could explain a decline in bow kill numbers, too hot to hunt. Do you have a breakdown of the number of hunters who hunted Quantico this year? We've had cases of EHD in VA. I haven't seen any evidence locally. I did see a lot more ticks on deer late into the season this year, not EHD related but interesting. Could be reaction to hunting pressure, deer moving into neighboring suburban areas where foliage is watered and therefore more succulent, any number of reasons.

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

I have seen much less deer this year than past with more effort put into hunting

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

tourangeud..."Time to get off the base and hunt some other ground. Maybe, they don't like all the guns. LOL"

I don't have anywhere else to hunt.

I have probably hunted 25 sits this year and have seen less than 25 deer. My buddy who is a fantastic hunter tells me the same thing in the amount of deer he has seen. He has hunted a good amount as well. I just hope that we are thinning the herd and that things will pick up again.

Talondale...Not sure about the number of hunters using Quantico this year...my feeling is that the numbers are DOWN. That is just by what I have seen day in and day out. That may factor into it.

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Its been like this all over the country. Deer sightings down. Deer harvests down. EHD doesn't explain everything. Best advice I've heard is to NOT use this year's data to make any deer management decisions. This has been a year like non-other.

I have been hunting since Sept 8 at Fort Gordon in GA, and have seen 3 deer all season, all young bucks. NO DOES! That freakin' blows my mind.

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

Is the base strictly bow only? Do they observe the same regs as the county or do they have their own regs concerning what you can harvest? I hope thing pick up for everybody during these last couple of weeks. I'll be in the woodsas much as possible, begining this coming Saturday. I'm on vacation till next year. :D

RE: Thoughts confirmed on less deer this year where I hunt--stats and possible reasons
 

"Do they observe the same regs as the county or do they have their own regs concerning what you can harvest?"

They have their own regs. They have bowhunting only for the first 6 weeks. There is no muzzleloader season. Gun season season starts in mid November with only a limited number of doe days. Prince William County, and Fauquier County have season long doe days, but the base is federal so it has only a few doe days leading into the last two weeks of the season, and at that time the season opens to buck/doe days for the last two weeks.