Bocajnala

How can I tell if they died from Blue tongue? I found six dead deer on a 600 acre propert I hunt in PA. I had suspicion that a farmer was gut shooting them out of a field and they were running down in the woods and dying, but all the carcasses were too old and torn up to see if they had been shot. Any way of knowing if it was blue tongue or not?
-Jake

Tekel

The property I hunt on and the surrounding area were hunted fairly heavy last year so that may of played a part, but I didn't see a SINGLE deer during the daylight this year. We have several pictures of deer at night. Last year in 1 sitting counted 8 does (maybe some repeats), this year in the same location. None.

There was an insane amount of food out there and the full moon didn't help out either. Pretty much everyone I talk to tells the same story.

WestVirginiaBrent

That's a 2007 buck, the year 'Blue Tongue' devastated the whole area, not a buck from this year. And 3 on 250 isn't a die off, the 26 in one field 3 miles up the road was. I did fine this year, as I do every other year, and as I suspect I will next year as well.

Rem1100

statewide total harvest for WV was down 32%... add the 12 or so % from the previous yr, and you have nearly a 50% harvest over 2 yrs... the buck was down 31%.... the deer are NOT in the #s that they were... even in those areas west of I79, which hold the majority of deer AND top ten buck kill counties...people can talk mast, but that's incorrect, as even the DNR has alarmingly stated in their press report(available at WVDNR.Gov)... the numbers are DOWN, are expected to STAY down, which is why officials are looking to lower limits,etc, to correct the problem...thius is NOT a 1 yr event, but a steady decline over 2 decades.....pA even knows about dwindling deer herds...and why they have/are going to ARs....

Pawildman

.........I've got mixed emotions about AR. Up here in PA it's been the rule for years now.. with 3 pts. on a side in most of the North/Central Counties, and 4 pts. on a side elsewhere. I live in an "elsewhere" county, have a camp in Northcentral PA. Down home here in SW PA, I hunt an area I can walk to from my house. For several years, I have seen bucks with six point racks that had no brow tines. Illegal here. Not illegal at camp. What bugs me is that the longer those bucks are allowed to remain in the gene pool, the better their chances of passing that gene on to their offspring. Not right. Those deer need culled. Additionally, with a lot of the larger bucks being taken in archery season, it permits the younger and less magnificent to do a lot of the breeding. I understand that the PGC is contemplating revising the rule in the 4 pts. & up on a side to a modified "3-up" classification to permit the harvesting of the ones I've been discussing. I know most hunters were a lot happier with the old rule of "one or more antlers 3" in length or greater". Don't even get me started on antlerless seasons and limits up here.....

Rem1100

that's NOT what the DNR is saying now.... the say (according to UPI report in todays newspaper from Charleston)that a drop in License sales = 12,000 less...and THAT,along with KNOWN LOWER NUMBER OF AVAILABLE DEER( they admit to being off with their estimates...amazing,huh?), and good mast(yes, a factor, but not THE factor)... but according to their whay of thinking, the 32% less bucks killed were due to noone hunting, and that 12000 more hunters would have made the 32% difference.... but the math don't add up.... I stand FIRM on my original statement...the deer numbers were NOT there, and the DNR FINALLY admitted it!!!!

Rem1100

every day that I was in the woods I saw 2-3 deer...on private farm...you're partly right about the bait pile situation, and thats' something the DNR should've dealt with decades ago...but we don't feed, altho the neighbor does, he killed 0 deer... we killed 0 deer( we chose NOT to take does at this time,there's NO abundance of them from years of calculated slaughter.what bucks we saw pre-season were good bucks, but heard of noone taken any,but 1 nice 10...
as for the "estiumated" numbers...how could you ever trust ANY number the DNR would give, as they're stumped as we are at the declining of deer statewide... they truely don't know..

wvdeer4u

The deer herd size is down because of 23 day doe seasons and being able to kill 9 does a year. Reducing the herd size is what the dnr wanted in certain areas. It took 8-10 years but they got it down where they want it now I'd say. We will see if they can keep it at these numbers now. One thing that they probably didn't account for 10-15 years ago was the expanding coyote population. Now that they got the numbers down are they going to continue to drop or will they be able to maintain where they are now.

Tekel

I think I need to find these counties you guys are in for tag limits... looking at the DNR book I see tag limits of 3-4 with doe limit of 1-2. In my county there is NO doe rifle, only with a bow.

On another note I heard rumors of rifle season being expanded an extra week next season. I have not heard this from the DNR or a first hand source. It is all 2nd hand hearings. Anyone else heard this?

I have also read several articles about the number of crop damage reports and vehicle accidents being up due to the deer pop being to high. So in the last 4 posts we have people saying we have to many deer and to few deer.

Rem1100

http://wvstatechapternwtf.com/files/...aire_2011_.pdf