Story of my deer hunting life...last 5 years anyway...

[4wanderingeyes]

I bought my land back in 2001, to this day I have only taken 3 bucks off of it, and about a doe a year on average. This year my son and I decided we wanted to fill our tags, and we did. The neighbor, which bow hunts, rifle hunts, and muzzle loader hunts, taking several deer a year, along with his kids, gave me grief this year that we filled our tags. Yet in the past 15 years, I know he has taken 3 times the deer I have. But because we took ours in 3 days during the rifle season, I am evil, and he is bad mouthing me to the neighbors. He told me that deer numbers are down, and we shouldnt have filled our tags. Thats funny, in the 3 days we hunted, we saw 50 plus deer on my 25 acres. Maybe he should be focused on improving his land more, rather then bitching about what was on my pole.

On camera there was one mature buck, but it was taken opening morning, so we decided rather then waiting for something to show up, that wasnt in the area, we may as well fill our tags, and have decent table fare for once.

The day we packed up and left, I had 7 deer in my food plot as we were packing up, and getting pictures regularly from my cameras.

I am not a horn hunter, but I do limit my harvests to adult deer, and not yearlings. Will we fill our tags next year? I doubt it, but maybe. Will I hold out all year for a big buck, nope. Although I will watch for them if they are on camera. For us, we have seen more deer this year then several years combined, so on my land deer numbers were really high. And according to my cameras, they are still rather high.

 

[chummer]

Luckily in my area there is no doe season or there would probably be no deer. My neighbors have about 20 guys that hunt and they have access to thousands of acres of land. About 6 years ago most of them stopped shooting yearlings and the effect on the bucks was dramatic. Suddenly there were many 2.5yo's which was great, they are a tropphy for this area. unfortunately we had had back to back winters with almost 100% fawn kill and many adults killed. Last winter was very mild and the rebound was slight but noticeable. My point is if enough guys lay off you can make a difference, but if the majority of the neighborhood is not on board you may as well not give a second thought to shooting a yearling buck. They do taste the best!

 

[JFK52]

My hunting land was only 2 miles from a registration station in Portage county several years ago. The lady at the station was taking Kodiak instant pictures of the bucks brought in to be registered. On opening gun weekend I looked at the picture board. Of the about 80+ bucks on the board there were only 5 that were aged 2 1/2 years or older. So I would say the percentage of 1 1/2 year old bucks taken as part of the total buck harvest was about 90-95% that opening weekend. Draw your own conclusions.

 

[Tap]

Yep - I won't be-little a guy who wants to shoot a deer. In some areas, a basket rack is a trophy, and there's no shame in that.
What I never can understand is the thought process of guys who shoot any & all deer ....... and then complain about not seeing any/many deer following that season. A few years ago, we had guys in my camp who shot 5 or 6 deer ( with all legal tags - Dmap included ) and were yapping about the lack of deer " we " see around here anymore !!! ( For those of you with huge deer numbers, - in Pa., shooting 5 or 6 deer is like drilling a big hole in your boat & wondering why it's sinking. ) And they wanted to keep hunting !!!!!!! :eek: o_O How many deer can one family of 3 eat in a year ??? That's just greed.

I'll relate one more such story from Pa. I had an uncle and 2 cousins that hunted with a farm family in northern Pa. for deer. That farm and 2 other neighboring farms would work together to get deer moving by driving deer from one farm to the next. The one year, they shot 12 bucks off the first drive, and 5 more later in the day. The first day. I don't remember how many bucks they shot the rest of the season. Then in doe season, ( which was a separate season back then ), they pounded the does for the 2-day season that year. They shot a load of does - don't remember the number. - - - The next year, they were shocked that they saw only a few deer, hardly any tracks. After that disastrous season, they decided to NOT shoot does for 3 years to get the herd back up. All 3 farms made that choice. And after those 3 years of laying off the does, the herd still wasn't back to where it had been, although it HAD improved. *** That pretty much illustrates the situation. You hammer - you suffer.

As Dsinwi said earlier, " a little restraint wouldn't hurt ". If anyone's numbers are low, wouldn't it make sense to let a doe ( 3 deer in spring ) walk ? Again........ it's a choice.

I'll make a comparison to the way it is in our corner of Pa. We have a ton of does (actually too many does), a fair amount of legal and sub-legal yearling bucks, and a low percentage of bucks 4.5 years and older.
What bothers me the most around here is there could be a scrawny yearling buck standing beside 2 dozen does, and a guy (who may have killed dozens of similarly sized bucks in his life) will still drop the hammer on that little buck. 2 days later, that "rack" that he was so "proud" of, is sitting in a box in the corner of the garbage with a dozen others just like it. That same guy will say that antlers don't matter to him but he'll shoot the first legal buck every time. If antlers don't matter, then why not shoot one of the plentiful does? The answer: Antlers DO matter to the guy. In fact he is desperate to have a "rack" to brag about regardless of it's size. But as soon as the bragging period is over, those horns end up collecting dust.
I wish there was a better alternative to antler restrictions...I'm not sure what the solution is to encourage a more balanced age class of the bucks. AR's are far from perfect, but before we had them, it was rare to see a surviving buck after gun season and finding shed antlers was even more rare.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

100% agree, Tap. ^^^^ Except we don't have the overload of does. For me - I'd rather pass a smaller buck and wait another year to have a chance at a larger buck I'd want to hang on the wall. I've taken my share of baskets when I was younger. I guess that's why it's easier to pass them now.

I remember the days of 3" spikes were legal and how a rack of 10 to 12" wide was a trophy in Pa. AR's definitely helped put some age on bucks, but it would be cool to see some voluntary restraint beyond the AR's. I think most guys - if you asked them - would rather take a 120" to 140" buck than a 6 or 8 pt. with a 9 or 10" spread. ( I'm referring to Pa. situation, and include myself in that assessment ). I realize other states have different deer situations, and therefore, varying expectations. I choose not to shoot the smaller bucks anymore. I don't need to shoot a deer to prove my " manhood " or woodsmanship. I get more of a thrill trying to get more big bucks by doing habitat work and passing smaller ones - in the hope of seeing more big ones next year. A 125" or larger buck will turn my adrenaline pump on to " flood " as opposed to a yearling basket. JMO.

Still too many " if it's brown, it's down " types here in Pa. And those guys always complain about low deer numbers. o_O :confused: