Schultzy

Allot worse now!!

Cougar Mag

I wasn't a kid when I started deer hunting and didn't live in Illinois then, but from the time I started deer hunting in 1977 to now, its much better as far as seeing numbers of deer.

Its also much worse in the sense of finding and keeping land to hunt is difficult.

atlasman

Sometimes I wonder........deer sightings were crazy when I was a kid.......groups of 30-40 commonly seen. Now 3-4 including fawns is the norm. Very hit and miss throughout the state.


I know almost no one who tags out on a regular basis.........to me this says too many tags........not to mention the hair trigger mind set a pocket full of tags creates.


In a nutshell I think the DEC tries ti apply micromanagement to the whole state.

BlueRanger1

Its better here in Arkansas now that we have a 3pt rule.
The bucks are getting bigger and there are more being taken.

peakrut

I would have to say my deer sightings are way down on public since the mid 80's. Now on private I am seeing more bucksthen the past but this was due to myimmaturity.

jackflap

I am not in position to comment on the whole state since it so big and diverse, but for my local area, without a question, it is exponentially better. Prior to 1985 if you told someone you saw a deer they would want to know what you had been drinking.

But with the advent of CRP land in the mid 80's, we have seen a steady increaseinthe numbers ever since. Over the last 20 years, our county has gone from no doe season to aa short limited doe season, then a regular doe season and now over 1400 depredation tags issued county wide in additon to a hunter's regular tags.

It has been fun and exciting to watch this transpire over the years. When I started to seriously hunt whitetails in the late 80's, you might see some deer in 1 out of every three outings.

Today, it is highly unusual not to see at least 5-6 deer every outing.

MGH_PA

First PA guy in on this post? Wow, this was the "debate" of the last 6 years in PA. As a whole, deer sightings in the areas I (the key word being "I") are down (really down at our more mountain terrain cabin land). However, buck harvests are MUCH more impressive. Our cabin sees about 18-24 guys the first two or three days of rifle and a steady 10-12 guys in archery. Yearly, we harvest about 4-5 very mature mountain deer. Before QDM (we actually instituted this before PA did), sure we would tag 12-18 bucks a year (25 members plus sons/guests), but I would say the average wasn't more than a basket rack 4-6 point. PA's deer population is down from what it used to be (but that WAS the point of Alt's plan, even though antler restrictions were there to invoke a positive element as well), but the quality of the bucks is MUCH better (look at the PA deer on this board this year). I believe Alt helped create a much more stable and healthy herd throughout our state, and as such, the overall deer SIGHTINGS may be down, but that is a natural byproduct of the plan.

Now, right here around our property, my buck sightings have decreased throughout the years, but I believe it's a result of other underlying factors (such as too much pressure on our property, lack of sufficient food/water supply, and a 120acre UNHUNTED (for the past 50 years) bordering sanctuary adjoining our property line)).

greenboy

Yeah that about sums up Western New York for you full off hunters that shoot anything that moves leaving nothing for the rest of us[:@]

PreacherTony

huh?

atlasman

x2