Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Last Day of deer season, and all through the trees...

...not a creature was stirring, not even the bees.

Finished up by getting skunked this year. Saturday was our last day, and in my zone was also doe free-for-all day. I thought sure the .22HP would get a chance to bark, having seen does scampering about previously. I did get a chance though to prove the old advertising claims regarding tiger killing. I got one 350 pounder with two quick shots. Didn't kill it outright though- it ran off a ways and got finished off by a mini-van full of nuns. I would post pics, but it might give the zoo directors a lead on me.

The things one thinks of while staring glassy eyed at the trees...

That's OK Gary; I hear they sell meat in stores now.

Rod

Funny thing is, I have almost eliminated red meat from my diet. The occasional burger or steak is about it. The last deer I shot lasted me a year. Figured to turn one this year into a basket of deer baloney. In the long run after factoring in all the costs of putting my butt into the woods, 50 pounds of exotic German and Italian baloneys would've been a bargain by comparison!

Ended up same here Gary.. Only 2nd season in all the years I have hunted that I didnt bring home some venison.

Had a couple sightings of deer, but no responsible shots were presented.

Time for me to go back to the Squirrel and Rabbit game now!

dave

Worst year for me in 20 years.

Might get some meat late archery.

Maybe not...

Sorry to hear no meat, but you all are hittin' the woods, that's what matters. Especially with the surgery!

This was the worest season I can rember for seeing deer, I went out, 48 times between Bow, Rifle and Muzzleloading, think i saw 22 deer total, I have seen close to that many in one day seasons past, but did take 3. todays the last day of muzzleloader I cut wood instead of going out 41 out but drizzleing now. I realy had to work for the ones I did get. hope th winters mild this year, and better hunting next season.

Yep, no complaints there!

That's why its called hunting and not killing.

its been a long,tough season chasing the ole whitetail. The ranch here has been flooded more than half the season thus far. I've seen one deer big enough to shoot and that was September 28. 19 shootin size 8s or better on camera on 2 different pieces of ground I hunt. Plenty of dinks and slick heads have gotten a pass. I am extremely fortunate to have keys to 2,200 acres in 3 states, just cant get one to walk by. Granted I have bow hunted more than rifle this year.

But, I'm still at it after 3 months. Bow opened September 13th here, gun season closes on Jan 18. Georgia closes Jan 15, will get there a couple more times I hope. Take a duck trip after deer closes, mucho woodies on the river. Will wrap it up Feb 1 or so with a trip to Alabama, rut will be wide open there.Deer season there was extended this year until Feb 10 due to the crazy late rut. Thats 150 days of deer season, if anyone was counting.....

"Not even the bees..." Reminds me of the time we cut a tree behind a house that went down in an ice storm. It was in a swamp and had a big root fan. As soon as we cut through the trunk of the tree, the root fan slapped back into place and hundreds of honey bees came bailing out. It was 17 degrees and when they hit the air they soon went down. I never knew that honey bees move around in the hive all winter. A little woods trivia for you. I lucked out and got a doe the last day I could go out. The weather was really against me this year, and I bet it was bad for other hunters too. One day it was steady rain almost all day. My coat was so saturated that when I reached in a pocket I found out it had about an inch of water in it. Oh well, I had fun. I think?

Almost 50 years of hunting deer and this was the worst season I have seen in Michigan. Weather was not cooperative, last winter was very hard on the deer herd, and still recovering from
Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD)that hit Michigan in 2013.

Have wolves been a factor anywhere?? They're pretty dam thick back home in Minnesota.

The deer seemed to have my number this season, saw plenty but no shots for various reasons.

I saw 18 does on opening day but my area was bucks only. Second day, Tuesday, (the icy forecast one) I hunted a couple of hours and saw a buck or two in some downed tree tops but no shots. Then headed home before it got really bad. The first Saturday, I forgot my license at home and as I drove back to the Game Lands parking area with it, I saw two bucks cross the road from posted ground into more posted ground. I swear they were laughing at me.

Yesterday, I saw no deer, only a couple of turkeys. Today, I looked out the kitchen window about 7:15 AM and there were 2 deer in the pasture, one turned and ran across the front yard, about 25 feet from the front porch. Great hunting, fun memories but tag soup is still on the menu so far.

I've still got the late flintlock season so I'll get out some. The last Saturday is my birthday, maybe one will offer themselves up as a birthday present.

Dale

Sorry to hear of your skunkage! I moved from Ham Lake Minnesota to Corcoran on the weekend. Gave up on the toad I had been chasing and cleaned up my muzzeloader. Where I had moved to they were having a belated Thanksgiving dinner. The men started talking about hunting and about the new 230 acre plot near Big Lake. They also wanted to talk about elk hunting at my home in Idaho. Anyways I got my self invited to hunt and on the last hour of the last day........Boom! The smokepole got meat in the misty rain. I had it perched upside down and the # 11 cap covered with a baclava. A 50 cal 460 grain no excuses in front of 90 grains fffg triple 7 putsa big hole in a whitetail at 85 yards!

Gary, I'm sorry your hunting season wasn't better but glad you were able to get out and enjoy your tiger hunt!

Lee

I feel for ya Gary. I mostly hunted mule deer with my son this season here in Montana. He ended taking a heavy-old 3x4 on the last day. No deer for me. There's been a substantial drop in the number of mule deer bucks in the areas we hunt. Saw a fair number of forkies, three-bys and small 4-pointers but only two mature bucks. One we had a good chance at but passed on him figuring he'd be better next year. The other plain-ass eluded us when we went to put a stalk on him. By the looks of things, I'd say we're missing 2 age classes of bucks, 2009 and 2010. What happened? Take your pick, winter-kill, blue tongue, lions, coyotes or the perfect storm, all of them at once.

I did get to pack my .303 B and .22 HP around in the woods for 15 days. That ain't all bad. I gotta feeling this winter the coyotes are gunna take the brunt of my frustration with the mule deer season.

An odd thing has been happening in the Wildlife Mgmnt Area that I hunt. The deer herd has been declining for years, and then a couple years ago the DNR wised up and took away the shoot anything that moves regs and made it bucks only for the first two weeks, and then does or bucks on the last day. The herd has been slowly coming back up in numbers. Most of the local guys I talk to out there are happy with the regs and swear they self-impose no doe shooting on themselves. (Personally, I was hoping for a little buck on that last day- a doe would've gotten a hall pass.) But, here's the thing- for some reason the parking lot was full of trucks with Pennsylvania tags, and every deer I saw dragged out of there on Saturday- 3 does- were done so by out of state Pennsylvania guys. Does PA not have a doe season of any sort, and these guys had such an overpowering need for venison that they had to come down here and shoot them? I wandered over to make a friendly inquiry and was greeted pretty gruffly so I let it ride. Strange goings on. Maybe they wanted to fill their freezers and conserve their own local deer herd at the same time?

Basically I can't deny a man his right to shoot a legal deer, nor would I dream of it. But, don't people exercise common sense anymore? Is the blood lust so overpowering in some that they willingly ignore obvious signs of low deer populations and wantonly fill their (legal) tags regardless- simply because they're allowed to? Have ethics taken a back seat to the "screw you, I got mine" attitude that pervades so much of the rest of our society? I drove home feeling slightly ill at ease with the implications of that. I don't know.

I guess I spent a lifetime chasing deer, happy to be simply taking part in a wonderful tradition- actually shooting one was almost anticlimactic. I suppose I shouldn't ascribe my ethics to the rest of the hunter population, but I can't help but be saddened a bit by the bloodlust that drives so many. Do some of our brethren feel less of a man if they don't kill at least one deer each year? Perhaps it's the fear of being ostracized by their buddies at the local Brew and Chew? Oh well, there's always fly fishing to look forward to in the Spring.

Wolves are on the rise in Northern WI. If wolves are in your area you have no deer. If you have deer you have no wolves.
Game management in WI has been FUBAR for the last 20 years and deer numbers, as well as hunter numbers bear this out. Both are in serious decline.

I think the wolf situation improved slightly right in my area over the last couple years and I'm grateful for that. You don't have to go far from here however to walk through an awful lot of woods with little or no deer sign. Other loggers have told me as soon as they get any number of deer around their job the wolf tracks show up soon after.

I was very happy to take a nice 3 1/2-4 1/2 year old buck this year. I passed on smaller bucks and saw eighteen deer total for the nine days of gun season. A few were probably the same does and fawns on different days. That was a significant improvement over the last two or three years for me. I think this was the first time I shot a deer here in about five seasons. I have to relish the moment because it's very likely there could be another dry spell ahead. I also carried an old rifle around and it was nice to finally shoot something other than paper with it.