Our deer are at around 10% of where they were when the "count" said 12-13K Yet we are at 16-18K and climbing, increasing over all herd numbers way over objective on B/D ratios. Those pro's at the DOW are masters of finding animals to count, the more we shoot the more we get, I think they should quit counting them and just machine gun them from the helicopter, in just a year or two we would be so swamped with animals we could eliminate the draw and give out bonus tags, we could call them "class B"...
Who would have thought that unlimited OTC tags with modern equipment was unsustainable, except as a business model.
Same happened in Pa with unlimited Doe tags, but the hunters kept pounding them. Then there were few and then most quit hunting with any enthusiasm. It essentially killed the Deer hunting tradition in Pa. Most hunt a couple days of the season and not all that enthusiastically. Bow and crossbow hunters get to a month of prime time while the rifle guys suck hind tit.
However, after about 10 years with the rifle hunting participation dwindling, the Doe numbers have picked up in a lot of areas. Posted land has become more and more of a problem with each year. Now they are throwing out the CWD scare and want to kill large numbers with night time snipers in certain areas. Something odd has been going on for years and I’m no longer sure of who is on whose side.
Odd that you are now seeing the same.
