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

This is my 50 th year hunting.here in Georgia for deer .I am hearing way less shots probably a 1/10 as many all season and not seeing.many deer .In.There mountains here there are few I'd any deer on.public land .I.usually hunt middle Georgia and it's getting.old seeing no.deer .I would hate to.be taking.a kid hunting.It's boring not like it use to be .I.would see 30 deer a day in the 1980-2000 then out wonderful fg wiped out the does and the coyotes finished them off .Our four month.deer season with 12 limit is a joke !

The 2015 and 2016 seasons here in north-central LA were terrible regarding seeing deer. The weather and the acorn crop made it really tough after mid-November. This year has been better, not great, but better.....

You like periods don't you? We have not been seeing a lot of deer where we hunt in NC. 2 years ago on our lease I would see 10 to 12 deer a day. Last year the sightings were down also. This year I saw 1 deer in 4 days. It does get boring looking at trees.

In Chase County, KS at the ranch I normally hunt, the deer numbers seemed significantly down.

Didn't hear near as much shooting during the recently concluded firearms season here in Indiana as I have in previous years. That said my BIL and his son were able to tag a doe each during the archery and firearms season.

I've been hunting NW GA since mid-October and have been watching a lot of deer. Acorns were heavy so they weren't moving a lot but no problem seeing deer if I focused on the acorns. Took a 9 point a few weeks ago. Seeing deer most every time, waiting on the right ones....numbers seem about the same as the past several years.

Way more this year, so much so that we were done in 2 weekends !

4 deer In the freezer.

Way more, on our place in NW La. We had a severe coyote problem. So bad, that in the fall of 2014, we didn't see a single young deer. That's when I got after the varmints. 2015, we saw young deer, 2016 more young deer and yearlings, this year, its like old times again.

About average here in SWVA.

I'm with JPro, 15 & 16 sucked nuts, this has been a pretty good year so far. Still have another month of hunting.

A lot more. I think I know why, too. We've been steadily building the herd since about 2013 after poaching had pretty well decimated everything on the ridge. The poachers were chased out about then and things have slowly rebounded. However, this summer was wild and the early fall was incredible.

One of my neighbors kept a monstrous corn pile in the back corner of his property. He sold out in the spring, so all the deer had to scatter to find food. Many came over to my place.

About average. I saw 25+- deer during our rifle season including 3 bucks. Bear were everywhere.

Decidedly less here in Michigan. The DNR (Department of No Results) is exceeding liberal with seasons and doe permits, and then issued the edict to kill everything some years ago when a deer or two was found with TB. Now it's a deer or two with CWD, and again the edict is kill everything. It's very sad.

Bear numbers however, are higher than I ever remember as a kid. I can't go out a quarter mile without running into fresh bear sign.

Here in Northern California for the early season I am fortunate to be invited to hunt a private ranch. The hunting has always been exceptional except for this year. Deer numbers were way down for a number of reasons but one f the main ones is you can no longer hunt bears with hounds. This has had horrible results on the Deer numbers as the Bear population has almost tripled in CA. Along with everybody thinking coyotes would make great pets and the excitement of Wolves showing up Deer numbers have dropped drastically. Of course, the California game commission is rules by anti hunters for the most part and the Fish and Wildlife Dept. wants to do the politically correct game management it no wonder. Did I also mention the cost of Hunting and Fishing licenses which are the highest in the country.

Bears ,coyotes and red wolves have wiped out the deer where I use to hunt in the North Georgia mountains .I.guess I.got spoiled in the 80s and 90 it was awesome .You saw a deer every time you.went and it sounded like a war shooting.wise .I.have hunted a ton this season and only.heard 25 shots in two months .I hardly see any road kill any.more and never jump.a deer going.to the stand .I.use to see up.to 500 in a year on our farm in a year .Eight years ago I only saw one buck that really was terrible .I.put.out cameras but they show hardly.any deer are coming..I am not seeing does with.babies at all .I quit shooting does on my.farm eight years ago..I don't.like what's going.on.here .We rode the roads where you.would see hundreds at night many times nothing.There are little areas around towns where people feed them but they are few bad far between .In 1993 my dad and I.were leaving goose hunting.and counted a herd on a pasture on.national forest that had 250 deer last time we saw that ever !

Tough winter for us in 16/17 preceded by about 4 dry years in a row. Numbers are down locally (SE Oregon).

Bears ,coyotes and red wolves have wiped out the deer where I use to hunt in the North Georgia mountains .I.guess I.got spoiled in the 80s and 90 it was awesome .You saw a deer every time you.went and it sounded like a war shooting.wise .I.have hunted a ton this season and only.heard 25 shots in two months .I hardly see any road kill any.more and never jump.a deer going.to the stand .I.use to see up.to 500 in a year on our farm in a year .Eight years ago I only saw one buck that really was terrible .I.put.out cameras but they show hardly.any deer are coming..I am not seeing does with.babies at all .I quit shooting does on my.farm eight years ago..I don't.like what's going.on.here .We rode the roads where you.would see hundreds at night many times nothing.There are little areas around towns where people feed them but they are few bad far between .In 1993 my dad and I.were leaving goose hunting.and counted a herd on a pasture on.national forest that had 250 deer last time we saw that ever !

Overall where we lease hunt, less. Which is GREAT. There used to be so many they were all runt looking tiny antlers and so on. I"d much rather see a few deer per hunt but those be healthy and quality type deer.

At home many more overall. Because they were shot out and we got antler restrictions around 2004. Those were the best things that ever happened here. Went from seeing a deer now and then, to seeing deer almost every day throughout the year.

As to seasonal, well that varies. THis year less early on but starting to see more again now. But they NEED good crop/mast/browse seasons so that folks don't see them, don't shoot them and some survive a few extra years.

My high school bud, just shot one thats almost 160 incehs. In a place where I used to remember him shooting a 10 inch wide 8 point and being happy...

Shooting wise the days of mass slaughter shoot anything you see opening day are long over shots are much more scattered throughout the season. And thats good for the herd too I think.

Lots of deer in Nebraska season, both bucks and does. Lots of does in the Iowa season, but of course, the rut is over

Plenty in north central part of Nebraska, not so much in east central part of state, at least where I hunt. I have heard some areas were good around here and some not so good.