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

[Catscratch]

I read that yesterday while hunting

Idk, everyone has a different reason why trophy buck hunting has declined. While I commend Iowa for keeping out crossbows and other means for making hunting easier...perhaps it just comes down to how EHD has wreaked havoc on their herd.
Guys like Bowmar are shooting multiple 200" deer a year and not harvesting any does, the herd will balance itself eventually.

Many here talk about hunting a "mature" deer, myself included. How many are actually taking the shot on a 125" 5 or 6 year old 8 pointer over the 140 or 150" 3 year old? I know what my land co-owner buddy did last year...he's not alone.

I've never claimed to hunt mature deer. I go strictly off of antlers, either big enough or not. I am not good at judging age if it's not a deer I know. After 3.5yrs it's a guess for me.

Now here's the rub for me. A lot of deer (that I get to know for 4-6 years) never break 150. I've really no interest in shooting them unless it's for management to create space. The last 2 deer I've arrowed were in the 170's and 190's. They could have been young with a ton of potential. I'll never know. I vastly enjoyed shooting them and would have zero regret (even if someone told me they were only 3.5).

 

[Wind Gypsy]

@SwampCat - do you provide supplemental feed on your ground? I cant recall.

 

[sandbur]

The Glory Days of Deer Hunting can have different meaning based on location. I have spent three days camping and looking over the area I grew up in northern Minnesota. A stretch of road where we used to see 100 deer in an evening, I now usually see 7.

Discussions about antler score mean nothing up here. Most hunters will be lucky to see a legal target.

Parts of the UP look the same to me.

Consider yourself lucky if you have a choice on bucks to kill.

 

[SwampCat]

I definitely agree that you can grow bigger deer in Iowa by doing nothing than Arkansas by managing intensely, but it’s all relative. Quality to me is defined by a top representation of a specific area. If a top end buck is 140 then that is the realistic top end. But quality is quality and if an area isn’t reaching its potential but at one point it was, you can argue the quality is down regardless of score relative to another area

Edit- after reading that, it was a lot of Kamala word salad but you get the point.

Yes - I get the point and I agree. We have a wall full of 130 to 150” deer and a couple bigger. A 140” deer is a rare deer here. Me and a big land owner neighbors compare buck pictures and one year we counted what we considered to be 12 mature bucks and had one bigger than 140 - and he was a 4.5 year old ten pt and he was a nine point and scored less the next year. We took a wild educated guess and determined one out of twenty mature bucks will break 150. We are ecstatic with a 140” deer. But even at that, we will pass a 140” deer if we think there is future upside to doing that. Typically, this year being different because ithe swarm of grand daughters, most of our buck harvest is made up of 6.5 yr old 120” deer

 

[SwampCat]

@SwampCat - do you provide supplemental feed on your ground? I cant recall.

Yes - about four months out of the year - but only about two months of that when the antlers are still actively growing. I do it as much for the does as the bucks. Late summer is our stress period. I realize if I supplememted from march through july, it would be much more beneficial - but I couldnt afford that and cant get to over half the property. It does make a difference weight wise. Until we started supplemental feeding, We never killed a buck bigger than 183 lbs. Since then, we have killed several over 200 lbs

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

While I definitely think your situation is relevant and valid, I think there is uniqueness to your part of the world. I think deer hunting there is obviously a lot different than what could be considered the big buck belt of the Midwest. I’m pretty sure that’s not even debatable. Deer in the Midwest lack the ability to hide like they do in the south. @BuckSutherland commented in the live from the stand thread about his amazement of bucks just being in the open. And he’s right. Cutting my teeth on deer hunting in Georgia, hunting in the wide open was the acme of foolishness. Unless you had some 5000 acre quail plantation deer weren’t just walking out into fields or food plots. In the Midwest, they literally cannot avoid open spaces or they would never be able to move. So all that said when you make the ability to hunt these deer even easier that’s when the destruction of the upper age class becomes real. And it’s everything I’ve pointed out a couple years ago…cell cams, bait, xbows, modern muzzle loaders, 500 yard rifles, insulated box blinds, etc. Those technologies and methods really shine in the Midwest. I’m not sure they have the same impact in the deep south.
I’m not here saying that hunting in the Midwest sucks, but I am saying the days of good properties producing truly outstanding representation of the species is getting harder and harder. I had a 213 shot off my place in 2011. Absolutely zero chance that happens nowadays.

 

[SwampCat]

While I definitely think your situation is relevant and valid, I think there is uniqueness to your part of the world. I think deer hunting there is obviously a lot different than what could be considered the big buck belt of the Midwest. I’m pretty sure that’s not even debatable. Deer in the Midwest lack the ability to hide like they do in the south. @BuckSutherland commented in the live from the stand thread about his amazement of bucks just being in the open. And he’s right. Cutting my teeth on deer hunting in Georgia, hunting in the wide open was the acme of foolishness. Unless you had some 5000 acre quail plantation deer weren’t just walking out into fields or food plots. In the Midwest, they literally cannot avoid open spaces or they would never be able to move. So all that said when you make the ability to hunt these deer even easier that’s when the destruction of the upper age class becomes real. And it’s everything I’ve pointed out a couple years ago…cell cams, bait, xbows, modern muzzle loaders, 500 yard rifles, insulated box blinds, etc. Those technologies and methods really shine in the Midwest. I’m not sure they have the same impact in the deep south.
I’m not here saying that hunting in the Midwest sucks, but I am saying the days of good properties producing truly outstanding representation of the species is getting harder and harder. I had a 213 shot off my place in 2011. Absolutely zero chance that happens nowadays.

Yes - 100%. We have cover. Our problem, is getting them out of cover - that s why deer dogs are legal. Food plots are number one key management tool here - get them out of cover. In one way, it is unfortunate, with all our cover and number of mature bucks we have, they dont grow antlers like they do in ky or ia. On the other hand, maybe we are lucky with lower land prices and fewer non resident - except for duck hunters. I do believe the length of gun seasons exert enough pressure on them to keep a lot of the bucks nocturnal. There will often be a buck that goes all year without a daytime picture - including a feed pile in Aug.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Yes - 100%. We have cover. Our problem, is getting them out of cover - that s why deer dogs are legal. Food plots are number one key management tool here - get them out of cover. In one way, it is unfortunate, with all our cover and number of mature bucks we have, they dont grow antlers like they do in ky or ia. On the other hand, maybe we are lucky with lower land prices and fewer non resident - except for duck hunters. I do believe the length of gun seasons exert enough pressure on them to keep a lot of the bucks nocturnal. There will often be a buck that goes all year without a daytime picture - including a feed pile in Aug.

And around here after 2 months of season, a muzzleloader season, an early adult (youth) rifle season, they still can’t help themselves

 

[SwampCat]

View attachment 84746
And around here after 2 months of season, a muzzleloader season, an early adult (youth) rifle season, they still can’t help themselves

Maybe a group of us AR hunters need to come up there and smarten them up. I live on my place, am out almost everyday, have hunted more than normal this year, and have not seen any one of six mature bucks - even just riding sxs or on tractor.

Of course, after ten years of living here, my hogs went 99.5% nocturnal. 30 miles away, on our duck lease - hogs act like they did here 15 years ago. I have 14 adjacent property owners - and they are not all legal either. Our critters run scared

 

[BenA]

View attachment 84746
And around here after 2 months of season, a muzzleloader season, an early adult (youth) rifle season, they still can’t help themselves

Deer behavior like that in some areas still baffles me. I remember the first time we pulled up to our property in Kentucky to hunt and 3 deer crossed the road right next to us, visible from 2 houses, during daylight. My family were in shock at that. That just didn't happen where we were from. When I would sit overlooking a 240 acre soybean field surrounded on all sides by lots of timber in Louisiana, I was lucky to see more than one or two deer, much less a mature buck, even though they were there.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Deer behavior like that in some areas still baffles me. I remember the first time we pulled up to our property in Kentucky to hunt and 3 deer crossed the road right next to us, visible from 2 houses, during daylight. My family were in shock at that. That just didn't happen where we were from. When I would sit overlooking a 240 acre soybean field surrounded on all sides by lots of timber in Louisiana, I was lucky to see more than one or two deer, much less a mature buck, even though they were there.

Same! When I saw my first buck walk into a field during rifle season I was baffled, and honestly disheartened. They just didn’t do that in my mind. But once you start looking at aerials it’s evident they have no choice. From you, west there’s just isn’t enough big blocks of timber to keep them hidden. Last Wednesday I sat on my porch and watched my biggest deer eating in a bean field an hour before dark.

 

[SwampCat]

View attachment 84746
And around here after 2 months of season, a muzzleloader season, an early adult (youth) rifle season, they still can’t help themselves

I have 14 adjacent landowners and half of them have a feeder/feed location within 200 yards of my property. That deer would have been dead long ago around my place

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I have 14 adjacent landowners and half of them have a feeder/feed location within 200 yards of my property. That deer would have been dead long ago around my place

He won’t make it through rifle season here either

 

[b116757]

The wide spread use and availability of subsonic ammo, suppressors, night vision and thermal cameras has I’m certain had an affect on trophy deer numbers as has game cameras.

 

[PatinPA]

100%. At least in the south, in large part, we have mature bucks not because of game and fish regulations, but because of private land owner management. I will give credit to g&f, at the insistence of hunters, the 3 pt reg made a lot of hunters understand that passing a buck was not the end of the world.

That's made a huge difference in PA too. We have the dirt to grow giants just also a lot of hunters that want to shoot a buck and pass a doe.

 

[omicron1792]

You have to be in the right area of Louisiana to see that type of hunting though. The inventory of properties in LA that offer great hunting on smaller tracts is extremely low compared to some other states. Even overall in LA, the caliber of bucks available is not comparable to some of the Midwestern states. Just compare a general FB group for whitetail hunting in LA to a FB group of whitetail hunting in Kentucky. The overall caliber and numbers of good bucks is staggering. You're not going to buy a 40 acre block in Livingston parish and manage for trophy whitetails.

You’re also not gonna buy a 40acre tract in Iowa and manage for trophy whitetails either.

 

[BenA]

You’re also not gonna buy a 40acre tract in Iowa and manage for trophy whitetails either.

True. Fixed it. Should have said hunted.

 

[Double Creek]

I’m sure EHD plays a role but I think the biggest factor is that a lot of very serious hunters from all over the country have been gobbling up land throughout Midwest, which results in a substantial increase in pressure on mature bucks. Not to mention with crazy land prices, farms and being chopped up left and right.

 

[swat1018]

You have to be in the right area of Louisiana to see that type of hunting though. The inventory of properties in LA that offer great hunting on smaller tracts is extremely low compared to some other states. Even overall in LA, the caliber of bucks available is not comparable to some of the Midwestern states. Just compare a general FB group for whitetail hunting in LA to a FB group of whitetail hunting in Kentucky. The overall caliber and numbers of good bucks is staggering. You're not going to buy a 40 acre block in Livingston parish and manage for trophy whitetails.

You're not going to buy a 40 anywhere and manage trophy whitetail.

 

[BenA]

You're not going to buy a 40 anywhere and manage trophy whitetail.

I know. Fixed it. Should have said to hunt for.