Season Summaries

[TenPoint]

Sweet Jesus....I saw exactly ONE deer in our two and half month long deer season. That's 6 weeks of bow, a 2 week shotgun season, and then another 3 weeks of muzzle loader. No idea how many hours i Invested...but I'd estimate around 50 or 60 hours afield in one way or another.

My absolute worst deer season since I began hunting in 1986. Just abysmally low deer numbers right now in NW Mass.

edit....just remembered I spooked 2 does while tracking one day. Make that 3 THREE total.

I don't know how you guys do it. I go crazy if I don't see a deer every sit. I had 2 sits w/o seeing deer this past year. Last year I had over 10. The previous 3 years I averaged 2. Kudos to you for keeping at it. I'd do something else if it was that bad.

 

[omicron1792]

The highlight of the season was being with my 15yo daughter when she dropped her first bow deer. 30yrd broadside. She tracked and field dressed all herself. Proud dad memory.

Property Summary:

* 4 doe and 1 buck shot on our property
* Avg doe field dressed weight was 107lb (compared to 83lb last year)
* The buck we shot was a 3.5yo bully 8pt that weighed 187 field dressed and scored 122”
* Had 3 mature deer to chase throughout the season, but only one encounter.
* Habitat improvements seem to be working. Need to keep refining the mature buck hunting strategy.
* Was able to get teeth from a neighbor to send in with my buck to get them aged.
* Observed 79 bucks and 154 does&fawns from the stand in 92 sits (all hunters). — close to a 1:2 buck to doe ratio sightings.
* 42 stands/blinds on the property and 11 stands were not used this season.

Personal Hunting Summary:

This is the first year that we kept a log of our hunts in a Google form/spreadsheet:
* Had 61 sits and saw:
* 42 - 1.5-2.5yo bucks
* 19 - 3.5-4.5yo bucks
* 1 - 5.5+ yo buck
* 102 does & fawns
* Averaged seeing 2.5 deer per sit.
* Disappointed that I only had 1 encounter with any of our 3 mature deer. Granted, Oct/Nov, I was hunting the largest, but most nocturnal of the deer — daylighting less than 20% since September. But it shows I have some learning gaps to fill in my pursuit of mature bucks.


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Those are awesome stats. Congrats.

I love to be in the woods. It’s my place. That said I bet if you cut your number if hunts in half you would see more mature bucks. They are so sensitive to pressure and If they pattern you in a stand once they aren’t coming back. Might want to hang a stand or two and literally hunt them one time each on perfect condition days to maximize that big buck.

If like me you just love being out there and seeing deer then proceed!

 

[omicron1792]

This was my first year using the log provided by the NDA and MDC. Old school, but it worked.

View attachment 61476

Hope you popped those “coyotes in field.” Haha

 

[356]

Hope you popped those “coyotes in field.” Haha

Not those, but I am preparing to put out the trap line for them soon.

 

[omicron1792]

Not those, but I am preparing to put out the trap line for them soon.

I like hunting them with thermals. But my buddies that are seriously trying to get them trap.

Thermal hunting is fun. Night coyote and pig season now is all the time not deer season. So cool hunting all year round. The fact it’s a night means it’s cooler to hunt too….i despise hunting in the heat.

I have a couple of bobcats I want to try and get after the season.

 

[PatinPA]

Mine is pretty skewed. I typically don't see many deer in early archery season. Then towards the rut, I'll see 5 to 10 a sit. Rifle season I'll typically see 10-20 on an all day sit. I've seen as few as 3 in a day and as many as 30 though. Typically 80-90% doe. On average for the year I'd say at least 1 per hour but I couldn't tell you for sure. Couldn't tell you how many were doubles though.

 

[Telemark]

This was my first year using the log provided by the NDA and MDC. Old school, but it worked.

View attachment 61476

You have a Vandalia out there, too? I'm from the one in Ohio.

 

[jsasker007]

Didn't see the option I need. DIDN'T SEE SHIT

 

[omicron1792]

Didn't see the option I need. DIDN'T SEE SHIT

Sorry my man. Been there before and it sucks.

 

[jsasker007]

Sorry my man. Been there before and it sucks.

Can only go up from here. Hopefully. Now I have deer eating my lawn grass in the middle of the night. BASTARDS

 

[omicron1792]

Can only go up from here. Hopefully. Now I have deer eating my lawn grass in the middle of the night. BASTARDS

They taunt you at times. I’m having a good season but hadn’t killed a buck in 4 years coming in.

 

[cbw]

This was my first year using the log provided by the NDA and MDC. Old school, but it worked.

View attachment 61476

Nice! Here was my form: https://docs.google.com/forms/u/1/d/1X-uRntLc-CGqmSAWj20QhAd9rR1HSUs5e-bCuJaSpSY/viewform

You guys are welcome to copy and use, if helpful.


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[cbw]

Those are awesome stats. Congrats.

I love to be in the woods. It’s my place. That said I bet if you cut your number if hunts in half you would see more mature bucks. They are so sensitive to pressure and If they pattern you in a stand once they aren’t coming back. Might want to hang a stand or two and literally hunt them one time each on perfect condition days to maximize that big buck.

If like me you just love being out there and seeing deer then proceed!

Going point. I have a couple of permission farms that I may consider doing more next year. That said, also, want to do more/better bing/observation sits.


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[356]

Nice! Here was my form: https://docs.google.com/forms/u/1/d/1X-uRntLc-CGqmSAWj20QhAd9rR1HSUs5e-bCuJaSpSY/viewform

You guys are welcome to copy and use, if helpful.


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Great form! What does the end of year printout look like?

One condition for folks hunting our property is to provide observation information each sit. This is usually verbal, but if I am not around, it is by text. While I originally included weather information in the comments, I realized it might be easier to go back and plug in the weather using historical data.

One thing I know is that the “Deer Observed” per hour was LOWER than it could have been, as several times the camera data showed deer in “observation range” that were not seen. That might be due to electronic distractions in the stand, napping or simply not observing the movement. The only other seasoned hunter on our property is a son-in-law, and his schedule did not allow him to hunt her this year. I still can’t complain about the season results.

 

[cbw]

Great form! What does the end of year printout look like?

One condition for folks hunting our property is to provide observation information each sit. This is usually verbal, but if I am not around, it is by text. While I originally included weather information in the comments, I realized it might be easier to go back and plug in the weather using historical data..

Currently, it is just a spreadsheet with some charts and queries showing things like:
* # sits pers stand
* # sits and sightings per hunter
* buck to doe ratio observed
* list of stands that weren’t used
Etc.

I thought about the weather info, but I have a script that automatically pulls in the historical weather data on my target buck tracking sheet, that I plan to incorporate into this sheet.


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