Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Do you think the government is killing off the deer

Beat me to it. I was going to say not intentionally but though negligence. The state will only hire biologists that tell them what they want to hear. There isn't a single sportsman on the DFG commission. It was very prominent in the hunting community when he resigned. The biggest bad decision is the way fire is managed. Millions of acres of watershed and habit lost.
Property development bothers me more than anything. We are so stressed for resources but for some reason the state lets housing go on like there's no problem. Another follow the money scenario.

Seems some guys here have their heads buried in the sand. Imagine your financial condition if you managed your dollars like Fish and Game manages tags. An example of what our government did here.

In 1979 we had huge mule deer bucks here in Oregon. We used to go out in the evening and counted on average 100 deer, 40 of which were bucks, and 5-8 would be really big bucks, we're talking 30-36" wide bucks. Fish and Game decided to manage the unit for quantity, not quality, hunter "opportunity", not sound game management. They offered 5000 buck tags in that one unit, every year, over the counter. Then one bad winter wiped out a bunch, and fish and game just kept selling those tags. Within 10 short years the deer were gone, never to return.

Fast forward to today. Bear and hound hunting illegal with dogs. Reintroduce wolves while concealing the real numbers from the public.

Why is it a bunch of guys that can agree the government is trying to consolidate the population in cities, put us in camps, or kill us all with bio=weapons they funded and developed, can't see the logic of reintroducing wolves to decimate game herds?

The better question is, why doesn't that make sense?

I believe this to be true in our little corner of Iowa also. Didn't see near as many deer this fall whilst harvesting, maybe 2?

Seriously doubt the gubment has anything to do with it.

Deer being red blooded conservative types have packed up and moved South to escape the Blue!

Pretty much. lol

EHD killed off 80-90% of the deer in some counties in 2011 statewide average was ~60%. Drought mostly caused it. The gnat that spreads it thrives in mud. Waterholes start drying up which concentrates the deer to the few remaining where the gnats are. By the way it hit here again this last year.

We have record numbers of whitetail here on the Missouri river bottom.

Last fall I was practically begging the local guys to shoot does.


Last 2-3 weeks we had a cold snap and the deer started moving into my parent's yard. Chewed the hell out of everything.

Last week a placed a really nice round bales in an area close to the house in an attempt to keep the deer away.

Hay stack damage like never before and it's only January.

Young deer will feed in broad daylight 20 yards away from my dad when he is loading silage and chopped hay.



These deer are a major problem.

Areas of the state are a lot more heavily urbanized than most. And of course, woods aren’t necessarily good deer habitat anyway.

I hunt both NY and PA every year for 45 yrs . I can tell you in my experience populations in both states are way down. I still managed to harvest a deer every year but it has been my observation during these hunts less deer are seen. Both states have drastically increased harvest opportunities with new and lengthened seasons. Pressure from insurance company lobbyists has put pressure on legislators to push for this. Also predation has taken its share on overall numbers. Hunters also have more tools at their disposal (gps, trail cams, better weapons ect. ) that allows better penetration and increased duration of time hunters spend in woods. Also let’s not forget the reality that state agency’s that manage deer populations also have large expenses that need revenue. More license sales in particular doe permits equal revenue. Heards are not manage for hunters they are foremost manage for Forest Health, heard health ,farmer crop damage, vehicle deer collisions reductions and revenue. Hunter satisfaction does not fit in with these objectives but we are merely a tool to obtain goal objectives. I you think deer density for hunter satisfaction is an objective you would be mistaken.

The best thing hunters can do I these two states is be thoughtful and not over harvest . Just because doe permits are available does not mean you should clear out a heard of deer in any given area. I see it happen all the time over the last 10-20 yrs . A group of guys will over hunt an are till the deer population is null one year come back the next year and complain they see no deer. Deer do not drop from the sky and repopulate overnight. It takes years for a decimated heard to repopulate.

Lots of hunters don’t want to here this. They figure if doe permits are issued than it’s a green light to be a glutton . Do not rely on government agency harvest goals to determine how many deer are acceptable to harvest in your area. If you see deer population dwindling in your area than back off and don’t take multiple deer in a single year. We have to manage the herds in the areas we hunt ourselves.

Lots of good deer habitat in New York. Central NY covered in farmland. Lots of deer in suburban areas too. The heavily forested wilderness areas of the Adirondacks and Catskills will always be low deer density due to being poor habitat. As a percentage of the total land area of the State, the urban areas aren't much. In fact at 8.7%, the percentage of land area that is urbanized in NY is not far from Georgia at 8.3% and is far less than.

NJ 39.4%
Mass. 38.4%
Conn. 37.7%
Del. 20.8%
Md. 20.5%
Fl. 13.7%

And even less than some you might not suspect like.

Pa. 10.5%
NC. 9.5%
Oh. 10.8%

Cept the MN Timber Wolf.

In the early 2000's I started hunting in Perry county Ohio. I don't think I could go out on any day, no matter the weather, and not see deer. Now I've gone entire seasons without seeing any. Believe it or not I have heard coyotes running in the hollow bottoms chasing deer in the middle of the day.

Let me address Kentucky as an example. For the past 20+ years, KY has had a Zone system where the number of deer, specifically antlerless deer are managed. Zone 1, where I am has an unlimited yearly bag limit on doe. The least liberal Zone 4, has a limit on doe and a reduced season.

KYDFWR has stated they want to bring all ZONE 1 counties into line with ZONE 2 counties as far as deer populations are concerned. In fact, they want to manage all zones 1-4 so that they comport with ZONE 2. Right now, ZONE 1 has deer EVERYWHERE. ZONE 2 has a 4 deer limit.

This year's overall harvest was well off record levels. In fact you have to go back about a decade to see them this low. Our ZONE 1 county was similarly affected. My guess is the KYDFWR is starting to put a hurt on ZONE 1. We'll see. However, I think it'll be a while before we see another record season.

100 % agreement. The Deer herd is under enough pressure from predators, automobiles, disease and poaching.

Deer populations seem to go from hard to get a shot to they’re everywhere’s !
I hunt a couple different areas , some will be plentiful a couple years and then boom !
You have to work for them .
20-30 miles one direction or the other and it’ll be the opposite .
Poachers and coyotes are a big factor in some areas , seems in some places poachers are absolutely brazen .
The population of people are eat up with bums that don’t work and they sleep all day and prowl at night on their four wheelers . Fuggers will pop a wheelie and smash a barbed wire fence right to the ground .
One place I had permission to hunt on the idiots drove into my buddies property and when they rounded the corner and realized there was a house there , tried to turn around real quick and got stuck on a stump , then had thd nerve to knock on the door and ask for help .
Law was called and as usual nothing done , they eventually shot a buck I was hunting from the road .
Then a few weeks later driving intoxicated crashed into a girl and fugged her up bad , should have been in jail , shiet wouldn’t have happened.
Kenneth

A co-worker shot a coyote (legal) several years ago that had an ear tag. He called the DNR and reported he had shot it and gave the tag number. The person he spoke to told him the DNR doesn't tag coyotes and gave him a phone number. He called and the person he spoke to was in Texas and live trapped coyotes and sold them to insurance companies. He even gave the company he had sold the coyote to. BTW, it's illegal to bring animals into WV and turn them loose.

Around here is is a multitude of predators including bears,bobcats,wolves ,yotes and f u c k ing poachers.Probably poachers kill more than the other vermin.There are two Wardens for our whole County.All fall you hear single shots just at dusk.

Plenty of hunters here; no need for the govt to get involved.

What insurance company was it? Sounds like a good 60 minutes episode before they went flamer.

.....always believed that was the reason for wolf reintroduction's.
No game, no hunters ? etc.......