Davies, it was a welcome experience to see so many deer. there were more deer and big bucks in the mountians than any place i'd ever been. any area, any state. man, i shot a buncha big ol' bucks up there. took me awhile to figure out how to hunt the timber for them, but once i did, i had some fun. when the elk population exploded along towards the mid, the deer population really suffered at the same time. i still think the elk herd increase had some to do with the deer demise but after awhile it was real apparant that unchecked bow hunting with guys riding around in the back of trucks with compound bows, wounding every young buck too dumb to get off the road was having a really adverse affect. game wardens hated to even see me because i'd give em heck about it. all they ever wanted to say was that the buck/doe ratio was ok. buck/doe ratio doesn't matter when there ain't any bucks or does. anyway, when they went to a draw for u1 archery i thought that at least we'd see if i was right. the population shot straight up. i'm sure thinning and some other factors help, but nothing helps like letting bucks grow up a few years. can't imagine what kinda reasoning went into this decision. when i realized what was happening to the deer herd was when a buncha guys i knew had a big camp set up, over a dozen of em and many of whom were cops too, and everyone in the camp wounded at least one buck. one tag got used. one guy told me what a great hunt it was and how they had stuck over 20 bucks, like it was a good thing. not everyone has that kinda attitude, but a lot of young bucks were getting gutshot and dieing. heck, that time of year a superficial wound can be fatal because of the flies. anyway, it was great to see the deer. big herds everywhere. hope like heck it continues, but i'm pretty skeptical.
Guys riding around in the back of trucks shooting deer close to the road aren't hunting, they are poaching and there is a very distinct difference between their attitude about flinging a wild shot off and a true hunter. Whatever the weapon, a slob is a slob.
