Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Are you seeing more or less deer this year ?

I saw less too.

-Jake

I have had by far the least buck sightings in My hunting travels this year that i have ever had, the only bright spot has been my local hunting is actually the best its ever been but that really aint sayin much as i do live in Virginia one of the worst managed states for quality bucks....Hb

Blue tongue smoked them in 2015 around here.
Saw about 1/3 of normal this year and last.
I saw a few "decent" ones I could have harvested....
Harvested a cat instead.
Will try for a few coyotes soon to try and help even more.

It's been really tough on our North Central La properties for several years now. We went from seeing many deer on every hunt to going on several hunts in a row without seeing a single deer. I hunted our family place approx. 20 days this season and only saw a few deer total with one decent buck seen running across a small highline near a rd. On my lease in that same area it's been even worse as I haven't killed a deer on that lease in several years. Almost ready to throw in the towel on the lease, but I stay in for turkey. Here at my house in the NW portion of the state it's been totally different as I've seen deer on nearly every hunt, sometimes as many as 9-10 at a time. I've seen a handful of bucks there as well. That definitely makes it more interesting and my kids enjoy seeing them when they go. I have one more family farm to hunt that should be rutting in the next few weeks over in the NE corner of LA in the MS River delta. Looking fwd to the delta rut to hopefully get out of the slump for the other areas.

I keep hearing the acorn crop is the issue, but I'm not believing it any more as I hunt mostly acorns lol. Lots of cams on trails and plots tell the tale. We're just in a slump, but I keep the faith as I remember when I was a kid it was a treat to just see a deer once in a while. It's definitely not that bad again yet.

This is the worst year I've ever had hunting in TN. We got smashed with EHD and sightings were way down. I've seen a total of 17 deer this season in East TN on good property. Of the 17 only 4 were bucks, 2 buttons, a small spike and a small 5pt.

around here deer #s are down, bow season was good , but few does seen and very few fawns this fall! I belive that the bears are realy getting the Fawns, we have alot of bears here and very few are taken! due to needing points to draw a tag! when you start, you get 1 point per year, needing 13-14 points to draw!

seeing a few too many bucks in my yard this winter............

this morning........another pine tree beat to hell...........

they must have heard I put one of their buddies in the freezer...........

About the same in Burnet, a little more in Woodville.

I've hunted every weekend since youth day I can count the number of does I've seen since on two hands but I've seen bucks every time I've been in the woods counting spikes and scrubby stuff and haven't seen a yearling in two years turkeys the same way

Last season wasn’t as good as years past or this year around my stomping grounds. This year was great. I hunted all but 1 day of our 16 day rifle season and hunted the first 4 days of muzzleloader before I left to go hunt CO. I saw deer every time I went out, the least amount I saw in a day was 3 and on 2 occasions I saw 34. Saw 9 decent to really good bucks on opening day and 8 the second day.

We have two places that we generally hunt that have pretty much opposite habitats that are 14 miles apart. The east place is tall grass pasture with a wheat field between two creeks with oaks, walnuts, pecans, and other trees. The west place is rolling limestone foothills covered in buffalo grass and wild plum thickets. As a kid we’d always see piles of deer on the east place but rarely a decent buck, lots of basket racks and always several bucks that only grew one normal antler with the other usually being a gnarled stub. The west place always had low numbers of deer but when you’d see a buck, odds are that he would be a nice one. Nowadays we still have the poor antler characteristics on the east place but gone are the days of seeing 30-40 deer a day out there. The west place on the other hand has experienced a boom in deer numbers unlike we’ve ever seen, it’s pretty cool to be able to glass from a high spot and see deer out on every ridge top. Of course seeing 4-6 bucks in a day that would make 130” or better is pretty cool too.

More in SW Missouri. We think the Blood Moon goofed us up last year.

Less deer sightings and shooting in my area along the VA/NC border. Opening day of rifle season was the quietest opening day I can remember. On a positive note, buddy killed a decent 8 point this morning about 30 seconds behind a doe.

9 days out in central NY and I saw the same amount of deer this year as I did in 2015 and 2016. Zippo.
2014 was the last time I "saw" deer and even that was a fleeting glance.
I had a cam out from May 1 to November 26th and I saw what looked to be the same 3, maybe 4 deer all year and none too frequently.

I saw roughly the same number of mule deer as I usually do-in both Wyoming and Montana. Lots and lots and lots of does and fawns, despite a horrific winter.

I did see less bucks this year; I suspect due to winter kill being that the heavy snows hit just after the rut and didn't quit until May. Since the bucks were already in poor condition due to the rut, I guess they really got hit hard by the cold and snow loads. The WYGFD preached all spring and summer that the fawn recruitment was terrible and doe populations were severely down-but most all the does I saw (and I saw plenty this fall) had healthy looking twins and quite often triplets in the Wyoming Range and Gros Ventre Mountains in Wyoming and the Bitterroot Mountains in Montana. I've seen plenty of deer in Idaho this year thus far too while bird hunting.

Like normal, what the Game Departments say is usually the exact opposite of what I see.

I've seen more deer but fewer bucks.

In the 1980-2000 every doe you saw had at least two babies alot with three and some had four.Now I am.lucky to see one fawn with a doe .The crp program.with every one planting pine trees that have matured with little food value in the woods .The hurricanes knocked off the acorns early this year too .I am going to try food plots again and see if it helps .Hopefully timber goes up.enough.so we can select cut our pines too !

This year is about right/normal for me since 2012.

Last year 2016-17 I saw less deer and hunted hard to kill a few. The deer were NOCTURNAL last year more than
normal for what ever reason.

I missed 2 weeks due to sickness & weather THIS yr and still have seen plenty deer. Our Doe/Fawn numbers seem normal and bucks are moving
either w/Does or looking for them.

This year has been much easier ONLY because of them being nocturnal last year.

Jerry

I know a couple of guys that got nice bucks in PENN this year, but they told me they had do a lot of walking into deep woods. Hardly any hunters either, the orange army isnt what it used to be in PENN.

Less in North Missouri
More in Oklahoma

Saw very few deer this year, in NW Pa. We have a 3 up antler restriction, so a buck essentially has to be an 8 point. I saw no shooters.