Are the glory days of deer hunting coming to a close?

[Mortenson]

Front pg of our outdoor paper earlier this month said the snipers aren't getting it done, so they need a retooling. Can't imagine what that's going to mean. Probably helicopters like they shoot pigs in TX. We don't even have many deer where I live, certainly not herds like in the early 2000s. Last winter they didn't even conduct a survery. Just keep on shooting.

 

[bueller]

Some of my non-hunting friends have been sending me links to "zombie deer" articles for years. I never open them.

 

[Bill]

Front pg of our outdoor paper earlier this month said the snipers aren't getting it done, so they need a retooling. Can't imagine what that's going to mean. Probably helicopters like they shoot pigs in TX. We don't even have many deer where I live, certainly not herds like in the early 2000s. Last winter they didn't even conduct a survery. Just keep on shooting.

View attachment 60881

Gotta kill them all so they don't die of a disease that doesn't kill them all. First case of a wild, non government compound, Elk was found in 1981 in Colorado. Yet 40 some years later there are still wild Elk in Colorado. Who knew.

 

[Bill Loser]

I remember reading somewhere early on in the cwd bs scare, that cwd is a natural disease carried by elk to curb over population and infringement from deer. Don't have any idea if that's true or not?

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Gotta kill them all so they don't die of a disease that doesn't kill them all. First case of a wild, non government compound, Elk was found in 1981 in Colorado. Yet 40 some years later there are still wild Elk in Colorado. Who knew.

and not only some elk, the largest rocky mtn elk herd in the world.
That is till their other brilliant idea of wolves gets rooted

 

[sandbur]

Big headlines the last few days on my news sites about "Zombie Deer Disease". Seems the media is trying a new scare tactic on CWD?? Never heard anyone use Zombie disease with CWD. Geese!

What is the ‘Zombie’ disease impacting the US deer population

Scientists warn that deadly disease devastating deer populations in the US could pose risk to humans

news.yahoo.com

Interesting that the article say hunters should test meat that they have caught from deer. The wording doesn’t seem to come from a person knowledgeable about the topic.

 

[SwampCat]

Well, cwd didnt control colorado’s elk so still needed help from hunters for control measures. Maybe these wolves can get the job done - so sooner of later, there wont be a justification to have those troublesome hunters and their guns.

Fifteen years ago, I about got locked up the day before we were to pack in on a drop camp elk hunt - I discharged a dangerous weapon in the city limits of Durango - my compound bow checking zero. The next year, I was in Golden Co with my wife standing in line to get in a restaurant. It was winter and it was cold. We had on the warmest coats we hand - camouflage. There were two men standing right behind us in line and one sad “how cute, hunting uniforms”.

Colorado has been a fruitcake of a state for a long time.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Well, cwd didnt control colorado’s elk so still needed help from hunters for control measures. Maybe these wolves can get the job done - so sooner of later, there wont be a justification to have those troublesome hunters and their guns.

Fifteen years ago, I about got locked up the day before we were to pack in on a drop camp elk hunt - I discharged a dangerous weapon in the city limits of Durango - my compound bow checking zero. The next year, I was in Golden Co with my wife standing in line to get in a restaurant. It was winter and it was cold. We had on the warmest coats we hand - camouflage. There were two men standing right behind us in line and one sad “how cute, hunting uniforms”.

Colorado has been a fruitcake of a state for a long time.

Well here’s the governor and first man. The individual on the right was very influential on the wolf front.

 

[SwampCat]

Well here’s the governor and first man. The individual on the right was very influential on the wolf front.
View attachment 60882

That might have been them

 

[Bill]

Back to the glory days. I kinda knew the young girls could do a thing on the net to “enhance” stuff. Always looks weird.

But come on…!
I mean why make your hand larger than your head when you killed a baby moose?

For sure the moose’s nose is bigger than the hunter’s head. And his friend must be a little person.

I could be wrong. Maybe he killed the ugliest deformed deer that ever existed.

 

[gunther89]

Since gun season, my cousin has talked to just about all of our neighbors within a 2 mile radius of our land. A total of 24 bucks got shot between bow and gun season. Only 2 of those bucks were 4.5 or older. Same old story of got excited when I saw him so I shot and yeah I shouldn't have shot him. Its the same old story. Just shake my head at what our area used to produce compared to now.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Since gun season, my cousin has talked to just about all of our neighbors within a 2 mile radius of our land. A total of 24 bucks got shot between bow and gun season. Only 2 of those bucks were 4.5 or older. Same old story of got excited when I saw him so I shot and yeah I shouldn't have shot him. Its the same old story. Just shake my head at what our area used to produce compared to now.

It’s amazing how bad people are judging a deer on the hoof…or is it just an excuse to pull the trigger.

Same story here. I’m sure better than 90% of the bucks were 3.5 and younger. My neighbors who likely barely finished high school all the sudden turn into genetic phd’s when it come to analyzing culls from a 2.5 with a broken g3.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Have a good buddy with a good sized high fence. Obviously not my cup of tea but what he has done is so eye opening. In year 3 of managing with 100% native deer they shot a 155, 169 and 174 off his land. Guaranteed the average score of the 20 mile radius around him is 110” or less. It’s just age and nutrition, every one in the neighborhood could have large antlered bucks if they just showed restraint. So simple.

 

[SwampCat]

Around here, it gets back to land size in general, and acreage per hunter in particular. have an across the road neighbor with 1400 acres high fence and he produces some nice deer. I have a neighbor behind me with 1200 acres and they kill nice deer. A 1000 acre neighbor behind him who leases his land - and they have an 8 pt, 14” rule. They have killed 18 bucks so far this year. But they have a lot of folks hunting including kids and spouses. There are some 40 acre neighbors who try a little bit early season and then fold and kill a 2.5 yr old buck or two or three or seven. And the 12 adjacent 5 to 15 acre neighbors dont even try.

There will never be enough mature bucks running around for everyone to kill one. There are too many hunters. To expect a guy who has ten acres to hold out for a 4 yr old buck is not reasonable. To expect everyone who is paying 1500 lease fee to not kill any bucks between the whole family is not reasonable. Many people on this forum live this stuff. The average guy cant go buy 350 acres just to hunt on - the average guy cant buy five acres to hunt on.

Believe it or not, a lot of folks enjoy the whole hunt - just like we do, except when the last day of mg season comes, they arent thinking about winter projects and spring planting, and roller crimpers and grain drills. They are thinking about getting kids to school, working their two jobs, getting one kid to cheer, one kid to baskeball, and one kid to the doctor and stopping by to see granny in the old folks home and picking up grandpa’s medicine to bring home for him - who they take care of.

I have a son who makes GOOD money - a Dr - specialist. He is mid 40’s in age. He gets to hunt about twenty days a year. He runs his own clinic and has three kids at home. He barely has time to sleep. I asked him what he was going to do when he retired - he said “if I am lucky, I am going to do what you do”.

A lot of folks on this forum are living in a dream world - and still not happy.

 

[Baker]

Have a good buddy with a good sized high fence. Obviously not my cup of tea but what he has done is so eye opening. In year 3 of managing with 100% native deer they shot a 155, 169 and 174 off his land. Guaranteed the average score of the 20 mile radius around him is 110” or less. It’s just age and nutrition, every one in the neighborhood could have large antlered bucks if they just showed restraint. So simple.

My neighbor and I owning a total of 2500 acres had been aggressively managing our property for maybe 25+ years. Not shooting young bucks. Food plots everywhere. Supplemental feeding for 15+ years. During that time took ONE buck that was 170. We built a fence around the totality of our property and 3 years later took a 227, and a 220. Over the next 3-4 years have grown 7 over 200 including a buck that died of natural causes we estimate at around 230. We now grow 170-180" bucks every year...

Building a fence was the best thing I have ever done for my property and for the deer!!!

AGE AND NUTRITION

 

[Thomasc19]

Have a good buddy with a good sized high fence. Obviously not my cup of tea but what he has done is so eye opening. In year 3 of managing with 100% native deer they shot a 155, 169 and 174 off his land. Guaranteed the average score of the 20 mile radius around him is 110” or less. It’s just age and nutrition, every one in the neighborhood could have large antlered bucks if they just showed restraint. So simple.

Mind if I ask what state and how big of a piece he has fenced?

 

[T-Max]

My neighbor and I owning a total of 2500 acres had been aggressively managing our property for maybe 25+ years. Not shooting young bucks. Food plots everywhere. Supplemental feeding for 15+ years. During that time took ONE buck that was 170. We built a fence around the totality of our property and 3 years later took a 227, and a 220. Over the next 3-4 years have grown 7 over 200 including a buck that died of natural causes we estimate at around 230. We now grow 170-180" bucks every year...

Building a fence was the best thing I have ever done for my property and for the deer!!!

AGE AND NUTRITION

Baker, your properties aren’t fenced separately? Your properties share a fence?


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[H20fwler]

Crossbow are approaching 50% of your archery totals there. Won’t be long until they do

Ohio already has....not just archery season, all deer seasons combined.

https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-le.../news/ohios-final-2022-23-deer-harvest-report


Most popular hunting implements:

1. Crossbow: 71,701 (34%)
2. Straight-walled cartridge rifle: 56,437 (26%)
3. Shotgun: 36,398 (17%)
4. Vertical Bow: 28,041 (13%)
5. Muzzleloader: 17,854 (9%)
6. Handgun: 546 (1%)

 

[bwoods11]

Baker … how high does the fence have to be ? What’s a typical cost ?

Not that I can afford it, but just curious if I did one spot ! 50 yds would save many bucks!

 

[T-Max]

I’ve thought about that myself. A bottleneck between a cliff and a creek. If I could cut that off, I could cut off 2 fence hugging tree stands and save many, many bucks.


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