Jacob Garrett

The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency has screwed deer hunters in unit L. I have hunted since bow season 4 different public areas. About 5,000 acres all together. I have seen 1 deer and almost no tracks around mudholes or anything on the public land. I have seen only 5 deer on private land. They opened our season (which runs from Sept-Jan.) to 3 does a day and 3 bucks per season about 5-6 years ago and the deer have been thinned out to the point there is not many being seen. The harvest numbers still look good on their website because they add new counties to unit L to keep them up. The counties that have been in L since they started has been wiped out. The state does some crazy count by driving down certain roads and counting the deer. They say we still have plenty of deer but none of the hunters I have talked to are seeing them. One of our randomly selected roads they use in their count runs thru alot of preserve type land thats no hunting of any kind. I can drive threw there and count 15-20 deer every evening but its the same deer and noone can mess with them so they shouldn't count. The state should have to count around huntable areas. I have seen 1 deer on state land since November last season. I coon hunt out their at night and we don't even see any then. We have over 2 weeks of season left and about everyone I know has already gave up. Only 2 people in our whole hunting circle has killed a deer. Most has seen less than 10 all season. All the older guys said they won't buy a deer hunting license next season and I dought that I will. Deer hunting gets old when you never even see a flag run off. Anyway Sorry for the long rant! Haha Just super frustrated with not seeing anything for weeks while hunting. Any ideas on how to get the TWRA to change the bag limits?

Heartlandnimrod

I have seen this done in several area's,they increase bag limits and season lenghts and before long the deer numbers are way down!
Alot of these increases are because of insurance companies,they pressure the states or pay them off to lower the hurd numbers,to in effect lower the number of claims by drivers hiting deer!

Master Chief

Where is unit L? Like what counties? (NM, found the list on the TWRA sight)
We've killed 7 and have seen anywhere from about 40-50 on our farm. And who knows how many while driving around and on public land we hunt.

TN is full of people who shoot whatever they see wherever they see it though. Too many little deer killed and way too many deer killed illegaly. A few weeks ago a road rider shot a big buck on the land adjacent to mine... my dad watched the game wardens pull it away, but they cut the antlers off so we couldn't tell exactly what he was,big bodied though.

We should put the limit to antler size, do more to catch poachers and reduce tags because I do agree with you on the season being too long and you get wayyyy too many doe tags. 3 bucks a year is reasonable though.

Backwoods7

I agree with y'all I hunt in 3 diffrent countys in unit L and I have seen a whopping 2 deer this year. One buck(shot him) and 1 doe that's it. For years I hunted there and last year was a rough season so I bought the non quota tag to kill a doe with a gun well I waisted 22 dollars on it. The farm I hunt the most(outside Henderson). Has some big bucks but few does and the bucks are hard to find too much hunting pressure on too little amount of does.

Master Chief

I live in Henderson :P

Do you live near Lexington or parsons... if you do you live right by a State park... thats all I'll tell you though lol

LKNCHOPPERS

It's just as bad in North Carolina. We have a 2 buck area and a 4 buck area in this state. They also took the daily bag limit of 2 per day away. Now you can shoot all six deer in a day. They just made the gun season longer too. Pretty tough to kill a big buck around here. It's rare to see a deer in a field day or night. There just are not that many deer in this part of the state to warrant the changes in my opinion. I would like to see an antler restriction, short gun season and one buck per year, but that will never happen.

Jacob Garrett

I used to hunt a farm in Henderson. We saw a decent number of deer on it but had a huge problem with people driving by and shooting them in the fields day and night. They would shoot them and leave them if they weren't big bucks. You could see their tracks in the mud where they ran out and checked them. I have a brother that lives in Parsons and he said the only deer he has seen while hunting was in Perry Co.(not in unit L). If the TWRA doesn't change something we will not have anything left to hunt in 10 more year. On the other hand I have been seeing a crazy amount of turkeys and coyotes. I think I am going to take up turkey and coyote hunting!

Master Chief

Man I knew TN was getting bad but not that bad. I feel bad you guys aren't seeing any deer.

Backwoods7

Went today hunted till 12 seen nothin but squarels I'm about to quit huntin the high ground and move into the swamp that's the only part of the farm I havnt tried this season

vapahunter

Now you know what happened in PA. Thinned the herd to get bigger antlers. Now they have bigger antlers and so many fewer deer. congratulations to being in the future of wildlife management - antler hunting.