how has your area changed?
 

Over the years since you started hunting, how has the hunting changed? Are there more/less animals, bigger/smaller racks, body size, etc?

RE: how has your area changed?
 

Some areas have no deer left but great McMansions and townhouse developments. I have lost three great spots to urban sprawl. Out of the two I still hunt one has more deer than you can shake a stick at while the other has been affected by the adition of a shotgun season about three years ago, there are now less big deer since every idiot and their momma show up shooting anything they can with their shotguns.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

I have had the unique opportunity to watch an area go from almost zero deer population to an area that today is like most others in that it now is above ideal carrying capacity. This has occurred over a 23 year period.

How has it changed. 23 years ago, it was a BIG deal if you even saw a deer. Now it is a big deal when you go out for a morning or evening hunt and don't at least see something.

It is Texas and is all private land and back then, you could hunt just about anywhere by just asking.

Then as we got more deer and the word got out, the city folks started coming in and leasing the places that I used to hunt for free. There are deeer blinds all over the countryside and most of it leases for $5-$10/ acre.

Luckily we have land of our own and a fewneighbors that I am still able to hunt.

Is it for better or worse? Like in most things, it depends whether your pitching or cathcing. While some of you complain about the high costs of leasing etc, I see the other side of it where a lot of older landholders have some cash flow that they would not have otherwise. It is called supply and demand.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

Well my best stand I can look right into someone bedroom window[&:]

We have less big bucks do to pressure

RE: how has your area changed?
 

I have not seen the deer change much on the properties I hunt but many other things do. On what was my two 'best' properties for big deer - and deer in general - activity is drying up in the last three seasons. The landowners slowly opened thier doors to more and more people to have access (and I know they have every right to, its thier land) but the hunting greatly suffered. Now ATV and horse riding paths crisscross them and deer are few and far between - very little sign, not to mention actually seeing animals. All good things come to an end - so I do my homework and have a couple new potential hotspots lined up this year.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

The deer are smaller in bodysize and thepopulation is down about 1/3 of what it was 25 years ago, in the counties I hunt. Biologist said, the reason for smaller deer and reduction in the herdis due to an over population of turkeys.The deer and turkey arecompeting for prime browse, less deer are making it through the winter and does are having less fawns.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

Both were getting better and better all the time.

My favorite farm is 20 acres surrounded by a highway on one side and a river/creek on another....It is a thick tangled mess where they bed in the middle, and great funnels on two corners....a Deer Magnet....Over the past 4 years I have seen 4 different bucks that easily top 140-150. Missed one with the muzzleloader and couldnt pull off a shot on another during rifle two years back that was a big NT. I think it was the deer my neighbor killed that went 195 and change.[:@] With neighbors learning of the potential and encroaching in, it is getting worse and worse. One farm is a brown=down philosophy and invites a HUGE group of friends from Alabama for the slaughter, they have really hurt the quality deer here. All the other neighbors are on the same page as me though. This year the farm is completely underwater due to beavers on neighboring property, and deer hunting is out all together.[:-]

We picked up a new farm last year and through scouting found a bachelor group of 4 bucks, all P&Y quality.;) Never got one in range during season, but my buddy did. He killed one rifle season from 15 yards on the ground chasing a doe not 150 yards from where I was bowhunting. 11 pointer, not sure of score. Once the landowner found out about the potential, my buddys uncle mind you, he proceeded to lease out the hunting rights this year.



So flooded timber and leasing rights cut me out of my prime spots....I feel like a lost dog now, don't know where to go.[:o]

RE: how has your area changed?
 

since i was a kid.. I would say better for the whitetails thanks to all the logging practices.. out here we have huge clear cuts .. that get burned and replanted.. these plantations make for great feed for the critters.. like a food plot basically... almost every buck i have ever killed I found him feeding in a clearcut during the summerprior to hunting him

elk on the other hand.. have been hit very hard in some areas of Idaho by wolves.. cutting some herds in half or more..

RE: how has your area changed?
 

Absolutely less animals since the start of our concurrent "buck/doe" rifle season (affectionately known as Brown-it's-Down Season)......some bigger bucks and a serious influx of people and housing developments since we are so close to the Maryland border.

Seems like everyone is moving into this area and sucking up every bit of farmland they can find.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

The biggest change is in my area is the amount of ground that you cannot hunt. Most of the ground around where I live is being leased. One thing that has done I believe if increased the deer population, which is not what needs to happen.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

In the areas I currently hunt there are fewer big bucks, although a nice population. Fewer nice bucks but more does due to higher pressure because of more hunters. In fact not enough does are taken. Sharing the areas with other hunters now has put lots of pressure on the herds and their natural travel patterns have changed.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

The deer numbers have gainedsince I started hunting, but the trophy sized bucks have become lower. All of this mainly because of hunting pressure. Body size it's the same, rack wise the same..

RE: how has your area changed?
 

really not much has happened in my area. The deer still come and really this size is about the same. But we are goin to let it sit for a year with no gun hunting and hope we get bigger ones in.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

Thereare a few more houses and people, but ive spent more time in the woods and noticed more larger bucks than ever before. Im lucky to live where i do, and im lucky that my family owns many acres that will never be touched by a development.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

Lets see, I will try to keep this brief so much has changed in 20+ years of hunting the same spot.

Land-The forested area was predominantly black cherry & other mixed hardwoods, and the rest was abandoned strip mines that were VERY rugged and thickly overgrown. Access to all the surrounding properties was excellent. Selective logging has produced far fewer cherry trees, but still good numbers of oaks, and huge thick bedding areas. Almost too many. The old strip mines were reclaimed, smoothed out and left as fields. Some remain mowed, others have grown up a little, but not much. Access to surrounding properties has been cut in half.

Deer-Populations were ok. Not scarce, but not that many. Late 80's early 90's they started booming and accelerated with the logging. Currently we have WAY too many. Everyone has fallen under the "no deer left" mantra that has hit other parts of the state, but not this one. Also with more limited access and people's resistance to shoot does the numbers have boomed.
Mature bucks have also gone up. Not exactly sure how much, because back in the day, a 100" buck was a monster so my idea is probably a little skewed. I wish more people (of the ones that hunt there) would shoot does. Its heavily pressured, but not heavily harvested.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

The woods I hunt is my dads woods. Its 160 acres of ag and wooded land, half in half. Back when I was a kid 17 or so years ago this woods was on fire come mid October. It would be no surprise to find 100+ scrapes in the woods. Lots of 6 to 8 inch rubs also. We even had a few 12"+ trees getting hit for a few years. It would literally stink and smell like buck piss when you walked in the woods, It was awesome! A year or so later they had a 3rd gun season, they said not enough deer were shot the previous 2 weekends so they opened another weekend for the slug hunters in my zone. It sounded like WWIII going on. I was steaming being I thought it was a bad idea to begin with. That next spring we found over 100 dead deer within a mile of where we do our hunting. 90% of the deer were all wounds, meaning gut shots, etc. We found 2 140" bucks dead and a pile of 1.5 olds also. This was back in 1991 I believe and now finally the last few years its starting to show some sign of what it use to be like back in the late 80's early 90's. The wonderful Minnesota DNR doesn't have a clue in what they are doing, all they care about is revenue! Minnesota was one of the top states for B&C bucks, reasons like I just explained are reasons its going down hill and will keep going down hill.[:@]

RE: how has your area changed?
 

Great post,I was thinking about this last week.I've hunted the same farm for 27 years and wow has it changed.The farm sat at idle for 22 years and was growing up nicely.Then they leased it out to a farmer and everything has went down hill.Clearing and farming has madhuge changes in the deers patterns.In the middle of the farm was a 1 1/2acre apple orchard that was all overgrown.I killed 7 bucks out of there with my bow.Now they even cleared that for farming.[:o]The rest of the farm has spots that are getting thinner too.It just don't have the cover that it did.My other spots would be better if you could find a tree without a stand already in it.[:@]

RE: how has your area changed?
 

I guess Im pretty fortunate. I grew up in the city of Richmond, VA and when my wife and I decided to get married and buy a house I was totally against any neighborhood setting. I searched and searched rural areas surrounding our choices. Finally a place jumped off the page and I just had to see it.

Had to take the interstate to get there 22 miles outside of Richmond, and took an exit called Goochland/Oilville. Drove 3 miles down a rural route, saw farms, equestrian ranches...and right in the middle was a 5 acre tract with a home, pond, and borders a major powrline. I had to have it! After meeting my neighbor(s) one turned out to be my age with a child similar to my daughters. He was a custome home builder who just happened to own several hundred acres of land he had hoped to develop. Turns out that each piece had been sitting still for 10 plus years and nobody given permission to hunt it.

I had a party at my house, welcomed him and his family, did a few shots of Makers mark bourbon, and by the time the party was over he had given mea 5 year leaseto hunt it all. After a year of hunting, and seeing tons of wildlife and the potential to start food plots, etc. I had him sign a lease which gave me ultimate hunting rights. The previous owner grew straw there, so all of the overgrown stuff is a product of just unmowed, overgrown weeds, briars, etc.

This land is in a county with very low property assessment, and with his other projects he has going...will be 10 plus years before he ever decided to do anything with it. I also have a 200 acre dairy farm across the street where the farmer splits his crops between oats, alfalfa, and corn. I happened to see him drive in his driveway one day and asked if there was anything I could do to help out with his farms.

A smile as big as Texas came over his face and he denied, but thanked me and asked if there was anything he could do to help out our new family. I did not hesitate and told him I was a bow hunter and asked if he minded I walk his 1000 plus acres of ag and cows to find a tree for my climber and he gladly accepted.

I dint see any growth other than a few more head of cattle and battling the decades old hunt club lands surrounding me. Hell, if all else I can sit in a stand in my yard over a pond and shoot a nice 6 pointer Ive been watching.

As far as as changing, its just getting better! If a developer does put up a house around here its rediculously priced and seems to sit on the market for years. Nothing is happening in this hick town...at least not this one!

Here is the area Im gonna clear to maybe 5 acres of just field!

RE: how has your area changed?
 

i'll add one more thing.. food plots are MUCH more popular here now and only adding to the nutrition of the critters that come down from the mountains especially in the winters.. I know one ranch that feeds over 200 elk a winter.. with standing winter wheat and alfalfa ... yes its a big controversy but personally I see more elk numbers since the ranch is just over the mountain from my place.. each spring the elk disperse out of that southern facing ranch and over into my northwestern facing property.. mine and my neighbors ... the cows seem to like to calf over near our places.. cooler and thick thick timber behind my place...we hold them on our places with oat plots.. dang do they taste good after feeding on oats all summer .. and oats last much longer than alfalfa here.. they last into Nov .... Alfalfa/clovers, etc all dry up and are done in late August early Sept if they are not irrigated..

So to make a long story short.. Logging plantations scattered all over the mountains combined with low land privateplots offer up great feed year around for the critters... if it wasnt for our hvy predation/harsh wintersthis country would be ridiculous in deer and elk #'s

RE: how has your area changed?
 

Mine changed with the way it was managed. We leased it (i know bad word <<<) It was very very over loaded with hunters that killed everything. Most of us that are leasing it have became picky, and like big antlers so for the last five years we hav been passing numerous bucks and starting killing some 3.5's- 4.5's They have certainly grew is size and numbers due to phasing out most of the hunting pressure.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

WAY TO MANY DOES AND NOT ENOUGH BUCKS!!!!! The few bucks we see are small racked. We have HUGE bodies but small racks[:@]I'm working on fixing that problem

RE: how has your area changed?
 

The biggest change is the amount of land i can hunt. We(my family)had about 1400 acres to ourselvs. About 400 we had leased and the owner died and the kids sold it. Another 400 the conservstion all of a sudden said no hunting and it's been that why ever since.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

Less private land available to hunt,decreased amounts of deer on public land because of over mature forests and no logging being allowed on state land.Significant hunting pressure on the state land that is easily accessible.I know the hunting was better many years ago.We do have antler restrictions in place in a couple of management unit's hopefully that will help.
Unfortunately we have had most of ouer private land purchased by second homeowners from New York City and by and large they are not hunter friendly.Because there is very little consistent food at higher elevations because of the over mature forest we have our largest concentrations of deer on private lands down low.Not the best of circumstances.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

most of my areas i hunt got alot smaller in the past couple years,
due to extremely heavy construction devolopment in my state,but the upside of it the deer really did not leave so it has made hunting alot easier .

RE: how has your area changed?
 

I hunt on state land mostly (bow only;)), and nothing has really changed except I see more bigger (not big)bucks thanks to AR's.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

HOUSES & ROADS!![:@]

RE: how has your area changed?
 

I used to have an apple orchard about a half mile to the West of me, and there is a 400 acre park to my East. About 100 acres of the park is a bike trail the rest is thick woods. The 2 were connected by a creek that runs thru my property. The deer would travel thru the creek bottom every evening to feed on the apples and the rest of the veggies grown there.

Now the apple orchard only grows $400,000 homes.They bulldozed every single apple tree out. Add to that, there are some new neighbors in my subdivision that let their dogs run loose and I don't see near as many deer around the neighborhood these days.

Now they have no reason to leave the park. Except to visit my food plot once in a while.;)

I also had an older couple that would let me hunt their property, just down the road. It has lots of oak trees on it and the deer would pile into their yard to feed on acorns. Now a young couple with 3 kids and 2 German Shepards live there. Not even worth asking anymore.:(

RE: how has your area changed?
 

The areas I hunt are mostly smaller plots and most of those have been cut and are to thick to even walk in,but the biggest change over the years has been the explosion if land that has been set aside or reforested which has really helped the deer population but has spread the deer out over a laarge area which also results in deer not moving much due to the fact that they practilly live in the stuff and have no reason the venturee far

RE: how has your area changed?
 

wow boys look like we are loosing alot of woods ,according to this
preety soon wewill be hunting from balconies and porches if it continues at this pace.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

I have two (2) areas where I hunt pretty frequently, my friend's 200 acre property on the PA/WV border, and the small funnels and patches around my housing development. The 200 acre property is heavily posted/patrolled and enforced. We have seen a remarkable improvement in the quality of bucks in the previous 4 years since antler restrictions have made it 4 pts. on a side. OVerall numbers of deer are down slightly though. The area around my house has seen an increase in hunters, mostly trespassing hunters. I have permission to hunt the area owned by a local university, very limited access. I found more lock on stands and tree steps on this "limited access" property than on public land. Sign of the times.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

When I started bow hunting in the late 70's I could go anywhere. Now it's hard to get in anywhere.

In northern Wis. things have went down hill. Baiting has taken it's toll. Most hunters are from far away and will shoot the first buck they see. Bait has made shooting the small bucks easy. The age class has been destroyed.

RE: how has your area changed?
 

Less deer, more posted land and the locals got scared after they let us hunt with rifles.