charlie brown

Ok, I have read several times on here about people wanting to help out their herd, make it grow, get bigger bucks, etc. I am kind of at a loss as to what the reasoning is behind everyones thoughts. For example, Nevada (where I live) is 110,000 or so square miles. The deer herd last year was about 108,000. That is roughly 1 deer per square mile average, but probably closer to about 3-4 maybe in the majority of the area the deer inhabit during the spring/summer/fall months. The herd is fairly healthy, a buck-doe ratio of about 3.5-4 does per buck. The only way I hunt is by spot - n - stock. I sit up on a hill and glass until my eyes pop out of my sockets. I understand that in certain areas of the east, deer populations top 20 deer per square mile in spots, but it seems people are complaining that there are no deer around this year, bucks are small, etc. I can't see this, when people say they have only seen maybe 10 deer this year? How is that possible NOT to see deer with a population density like that? Just this year alone I saw over 100 deer, and that was easy. With 20 deer per sq mile, that should be a cake-walk to see deer. Also, when people complain of seeing only small bucks, does it occur to anyone that with that many deer per sq mile, that they just don't get enough feed? Maybe warranting an idea to bring the population DOWN? I also see pictures of deer coming in to trail cams (not a problem with me), but there is a pile of corn at the bottom of the picture? Doesn't this alter the deer's natural feeding habits?

I am not trying to bash anyone for how they hunt, but I would like to better understand the reasoning behind how you hunt. I am honestly confused about the management practices back east.

cardeer

Very involved Question. To start I'm in Pa. I dont believe the Game commission has any idea how many deer we have.The landscape is much different from where you are .We have lots of thick timber. Cant really see very far. Most private land is posted.Cant hunt there.So you aint seing them deer. On public land if you spotted a deer like out in Nevada most likely there would be 12 hunters seeing the same deer and blasting at it. I often see 3 deer and 20 hunters in a day. Takes only a couple days of that and what deer are there then run to the posted no hunting areas. Simplist way I can say it. This year on the opening day I seen no deer and 37 hunters walking around . When I left I counted over 200 vehicles in a 5 mile drive in the parking lots of gamelands. Dont forget here in Pa we have a million hunters and the game commissin says we have 1.6 million deer last year. So you figure it out.

m.t.hands

pretty much everything cardeer said, its kinda like the needle in the haystack deal, another thing to consider is the carrying capacity of the area, some can support 20+ deer in a mile other area may be hard pressed to maintian 1, this year i have only killed 1 doe so far, we still have a few days left, i have not seen the shooter buck i was looking for. a normal year for me is 4-10 deer i'll shoot all i can (does) during archery season and 1 scrub buck during all seasons, then i'm looking for a good buck, most years i end up killing 3 does and 2-3 bucks, i probably need to kill more does but our archery season this year was the pits, more skeeters than anything because of the heat[:@]

messenger516

Its funny how they can estimate N.Y.'s deerherd at 1.1 million (bowhunter mag. statistics) and we can go days without seeing anything at all. This has been the worst year in a long time according to just about everyone. So i ask, d.e.c. where are all these deer your counting cause they shure aint here!

doughboysigep

I beg to differ mess,

I think that there are plenty of deer. I will grant that there are probably certain areas where local populations are down (and some places where they are high), but overall I think the deer herd in NY is quite healthy. Wiith that said, did I get a deer? - no. Did I have a successful season? - yes. Saw many good deer in bow. Saw several deer during first 2 days of gun - then nothing for 3 weeks! Why? The deer went nocturnal - more so than I have ever noticed before. There were no deer moving during the day, but they were there - tracks in snow confirmed it. Come ML season the deer were everywhere - my group of 3 saw over 35 deer! (didn't bag any - couple misses a few misfires!) Overall, it was a great season and can't wait until next year because I "know" the deer are there.

Another case for low deer pop numbers is the Adirondacks. We hunt in an area with low population figures and generally are lucky to get 1 buck over 3 weeks with 20 + hunters (usually only a handfull of actual sightings). However, this year with the snow there was sign all over and deer running all over. I is quite exciting when you can actually see that they are there.

happy hunting

xxxbuckshot

that is the same as in new jersey except we have all house goin up around our hunting spots. you wont see one deer while hunting but once you get by the houses they are everywhere.

swatts

I live in Louisiana and we have a lot of deer where I hunt. The problem is that it is very thick and we cut lanes about 100 yards long and 8 feet wide thru the thickets so we can see them. Then when the season kicks off and people hit the woods, the deer become night feeders, and the only way you can see them is with a camera. Your only hope for the good bucks is the rut. I have never hunted in an area where you could sit and glass for deer, I would enjoy that even if I didn't get a shot.

swatts

Jeff Ovington

I live in the interior of British Columbia Canada. I couldn't tell you how many deer we have in our province either.To tell you the truth it all depends on the person asked. I do know this much though, the Conservation Officers and Wildlife Biologists of this Province have done a remarkable job in establishing a very high Buck to Doe ratio thruoghout most of the Province in recent years.For years we always had a general doe season,but what I couldn't figure out was why they had one?I could understand it if you had 1.5 million deer ina state the size of Phli, but at the time B.C. had only a population of about 300,000 in the entire Province.The Provincial Gov finally got rid of the general doe season and made it LEH. They also introduced a 4 point our better season in to give the younger deer a chance to get big.Now, 12 years later, we are starting to see big results from this program. It is only my guess but probably close to 30 bucks/100 does.The chances of a 175 class to 200 class deer are more heavilly favored now than 10 years ago. Just bought the big buck mag and an American shot a Buck that ended up grossing 242 inches.I know of six more bucks in the 200-210 class that were taken around the Province.This year I shot one buck that grossed 190 typical my brother shot a buck in the185 class and another in the high 160's.My friend filmed 3 bucks during the season all said to be in the high 190 to 200 class range. We have often been over looked as a Province that produces Big Bucks " The genetics of the the Big Bucks are east of the Rockies " we here this all the time.And maybe for the most part this is true but the people in this Province have never really score their monster racks either. Some get mounted but most end up in Cabins and Garages. Never to be talked about again until somebody asks. It will be only a matter of time befor word gets around about the Deer hunting we have in B.C.

Deerslayer_37

We actually discussed this in class today. When people say they dont see deer even in high density areas, they probably just dont have the deer on their property. the habitat is probably somewhere near, just not there. the deer are there. that and some people probably do things that keep the deer away, like making noise and moving alot and smelling bad.

slayer

sGun

Yeah, we saw a lot of deer on the first day of rifle season but thats about it. After that we only saw a few deer here and there. I think it was the 3rd Saturday of rifle season that the farmer came through his cow pasture on his fourwheeler past a small patch of very dense trees/brush(probably only about 100x50 yards) and 22 deer took off out of it! They know where there safe and they arn't moving if your not pushing.


The last two saturdays of muzzleloader season we did some drives that turned out to be successful at getting the deer moving and getting us some shooting but we never hit anything with the muzzleloaders :-p