Yes, I certainly believe that a single check station report is all the evidence I need. I think the one I go to is going out of business because of the last two years of almost no hunter revenue. Last year one of our group shot a 4 point buck and I doubt it weighed over 70 pounds hang weight. This year I shot a 6 point buck (Pretty small thin rack) and I picked it up by the feet and set it in the back of my truck. Years back I shot spikes I could barely load in the truck myself. The herd is down to the point that it is not in huntable levels where we have always gone to hunt. A couple of us really walk a lot and there was no tremendous mast crop where we were hunting, and there has not been for a couple years. There is no such thing as a "State wide mast crop".

I hunted hard... daylight to dark 4 of the 6 days. Seen 8 deer for the week 6 were racked bucks... 1 button and one doe. Last year I seen a whopping 1 deer in 3 days. Deer where I hunt in Wetzel County are not abundant at all. Couple of the bucks were really nice. Not complaining because I filled both buck tags...however I used to average seeing 20 a day.... like as late as 2007. The 2 hard winters there and bad mast crops in 08 and 09 didnt do the herd any favors. Im not gonna say it was excessive hunting that done it because the area had sustained that kind of heavy harvest fort he last 20 years.

So in my area its a safe assumption that the herd is still recovering from the 2 hard winters. With the 1 doe limit I expect numbers to bounce back pretty quick. This is just my little mountain.. may be different where everyone else is.

Interesting. With the cruddy weather the first few days, I honestly thought the kill would be way down this year. I haven't noticed a change in the deer at all...still way too many, and we shoot a ton. We took some nice bucks this year...but really not dramatically bigger than most years. I will say we saw more "bigger" bucks than we do most years.