Deer herd

[swampy]

How many of you guys have noticed the deer that have been out lately??

I,ve been pleasently surprised by the #,s out and about around here(NY) since it,s been considered quite low lately.

Looks like theres gonna be a few for this season after all.

[Cato]

Down here in the deep south, you don't see them out in the fields as much once it warms up. And not nearly as many sightings in suburbs. But they are there.

But the truth is our deer herd is almost out of control. We see more and more deer inside the city limits. I live in a small town of about 25,000, but we are a sub of Jackson, which has more like 450,000. During the winter we see them all over the place. I once saw a doe downtown in the middle of the parking lot of the bowling alley at 11:00 AM on Saturday.

I live in a neighborhood of 2 1/2 acre lots. I've come home and had several in my front yard.

For a bowhunter, its great. But you do worry about disease, and what could happen to the herd if it got one of those things like blue tongue.

In the meantime, I just keep shooting and planning for next year.

[Bill Tait]

Two of my friends counted 27 in a field along interstate 94 a few miles south of the Milwaukee city limits last Saturday.

[Papabull]

Our problem is much different than that of upstate New York where the herd numbers have been fairly low for the habitat.

Here, the deer are exceeding the habitat's carrying capacity. I see an average of 2 new road kills a day on the way to work each morning. It used to bother me how many deer were 'wasted' from being taken out by a mercedes instead of a bow or shotgun. I've become used to it, though.

The problem here is that there's a lot of private property, very little state property, very few hunters and plenty of animal rights activists. We get 4 tags (2 bucks, 2 anterless) with our $25.00 hunting license. And if you shoot does on private property in the two most overrun counties, you can get unlimited replacement tags. You could literally shoot as many a day as can, every day for the whole hunting season.

[Boho]

I hunt at Rocky Springs MS. I'm sure you yanks have heard of it. :) There are lots more deer than people down there. A few guys have been down turkey hunting and scouting but they can't see any turkey tracks for all the deer tracks everywhere. Now if we could just get rid of the dog running and do some serious hunting, we can kill some deer. :highfive:

[SubconsciousShooter]

It used to bother me how many deer were 'wasted' from being taken out by a mercedes instead of a bow or shotgun


...yeah, isn`t it a shame. It certainly is more sporting to take them out with a perfectly placed arrow.

But, my Dad mowed down a huge adult doe once and it was the best tasting venison we ever had. Nothing like tenderizing them on the spot!

[1bjd]

As some of you know my home state is under attack! If you read any of the posts on the LW state of pa site we are killing all the deer. Since we started an antler restriction 4points on one side in my area there are many more doe tags.
Deer managment is now the hot topic and everyone has an opinion based on what they see or in most cases do not see.
In most cases these are gun hunters who are dependant on others to chase deer past their stand site. Thats the way they have hunted for all their hunting lives and they know no other way. If no one moves deer they see few. Hunters here are getting older and there are few to take their place.
So not many hunters stalking or chasing deer.
For my experience the antler restriction is working. This past season saw 4 adult 2-3 yr old class bucks. Was never able to but an arrow in one but never in the past even seen more than one adult buck.
Over the winter I have seen a lot of sign and the road I drive every day to work is still littered with road killed deer.
My take is hunters are getting lazy. I still remember in my youth we had to drive to the mountains to hunt deer. We had none on the farm,now we are overrun sometimes seeing herds of 20 or more. :2cents: John

[swampy]

we have had a problem with so many doe permits and landowner permits that it went from what PB is saying to most guys not seeing much all across the state.

I,m fortunate enough that the swamp I hunt holds deer and there,s always some big ones because it,s so hard to hunt.I didn,t see any big ones myself last yr but did see sign and a friend hunting with me in there saw several of the big boys.We even moved a couple shooters on the last day of shotgun last yr so there,ll be big ones in there again just like always.

What makes it so hard to hunt is the wind BLOWS from every dirrection pretty much most of the time.All a big boy really has to do is stay still till the wind tells him what he needs to know from any given position.But hey they all do stupid things sometimes esspecially when they start thinkin with the wrong head

[jgbennett6]

This was taken in my back yard this weekend around 12:00pmhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/jgbennett6/DSCN0184.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/jgbennett6/ddb1a8e2.jpg