Numbers.. Ohio's 2011-12 White-tailed Deer Season -8%

[Curran]

All 3 counties I hunt are down

Delaware – 1,943 (2,121) down 178 deer or 8%
Guernsey – 6,430 (6,989) down 559 deer or 8%
Noble – 3,936 (4,222) down 286 deer or 7%

 

[Jackalope]

I see plenty of southern Ohio counties that have a big decrease in the deer kill, Vinton is one of the few that increased. Oh, and I said every county has "guys" that cheat the system. There are plenty of them here in the flatlands let me assure you of that. How easy do you think it is to shoot one with a rifle around here?

Very easy I'm sure.. Anyone can crack off a round anywhere... But Lets go anywhere in your county and cook off 3-4 rifle rounds at 2am and sit there for a bit.. How long before the blue lights show up from a farmhouse that calls the law? Next weekend lets go to VC and do it.. Better bring plenty of beer and ammo, maybe something to cook for breakfast too.. Like I said.. We're only talking about 100 deer here.. They're still down 20% compared to the 09-10 season. We're talking one county here. Bottom line this year is 76% of Ohio saw a 11% decline on top of the overall 8% decline from last season

 

[xbowguy]

You are so right Joe....But it's not just Vinton. I keep my ears open and MANY MANY people are taking them any way they can and just calling them in. I've said it before, I've lived in this house for almost 25 years and NEVER heard a shot at night until this year. I heard 3 from one house, now how many did I not hear? Won't be long and we'll be in the bottom 10 States instead of the top 10.

 

[bowhunter1023]

My eyes were really opened to the poaching in this county these last few months. It seems omnipresent at times. This is strictly my opinion, so no one have a heart attack on me. But I believe we saw just how bad this new tagging system is going to be for our herd. It is another negative in the entire equation IMO. It has never been easier to illegally harvest deer, then make them legal the next day. We can do that 6 times. Then our wives can do it 6 times. Then the kids. Hell, you don't even need the deer with you to tag them in under landowner tags when you go to the check station! Come the fugg on!!!

 

[JD Boyd]

Thanks to less hunters and more land being leased up the counties I hunt had decreases too!!!

 

[Gern186]

From what we've already talked about here there could be many reasons for the decline in harvests, but as a whole and after looking at the entire state it is quite obvious there are less deer to be had statewide. Now is the time to start thinking about going to the upcoming open houses.

 

[Jackalope]

From what we've already talked about here there could be many reasons for the decline in harvests, but as a whole and after looking at the entire state it is quite obvious there are less deer to be had statewide. Now is the time to start thinking about going to the upcoming open houses.

A little late brother. It'll be 5 years before we see numbers like we did even two seasons ago. And that's if you can get them to do an abrupt about face. The goal has been or is about reached. Now it's simply a matter of maintaining those numbers. Something a bag limit reduction if fully capable of doing, the leas deer you have the less you need to kill to maintain that population. Would have been nice if people listened 3-4 years ago when the first counties started seeing declines in population despite record harvests. Not when it's 76% of the state. But oh we'll. I don't know how to fix it. And I don't have the answers to turn it around. I do think it's a little late though. I don't think it would matter at this point if you got rid of bonus gun and antlerless tags, I think that would just maintain the lower population. Idk. They reduced it, they can figure out how to grow it. My battle cry has only been "we're shooting too many" At this point I'll just settle for a "oops, we screwed up"..

 

[hickslawns]

Despite my 3 Allen county deer, we were still down. Oops. I shot too many Joe. lmao

In all fairness, the property I shot mine has a resident herd of 20-30 deer. We took 4 does, 1 buck, and 1 buck was taken on a neighboring property. Outside of this, I only saw deer on ONE sit on the other 3 properties I hunt. On those properties, I will NOT take a doe next year. Those will be buck only properties. Outside of my main property, which is truly an anomaly around here, I am not seeing the deer of past years. Were it not for nearly 20acres of food plots, it is hard saying what that property would have been like.

 

[mrex]

My eyes were really opened to the poaching in this county these last few months. It seems omnipresent at times. This is strictly my opinion, so no one have a heart attack on me. But I believe we saw just how bad this new tagging system is going to be for our herd. It is another negative in the entire equation IMO. It has never been easier to illegally harvest deer, then make them legal the next day. We can do that 6 times. Then our wives can do it 6 times. Then the kids. Hell, you don't even need the deer with you to tag them in under landowner tags when you go to the check station! Come the fugg on!!!

I understand your thinking that the new tagging system makes it easier for a person on "the fence" to teeter towards the outlaw side because it's easier to check one in, however, if you flip the coin over, there's probably just as many people who used to say F'it on Sunday night, (or any night), when all the check stations were closed that will now check one in because they can. Personally, I think the upside far outweighs the down. I don't see the number of poachers increasing dramatically but I do see a dramatic increase in the accuracy of the data set of what is being killed.

 

[mrex]

A little late brother. It'll be 5 years before we see numbers like we did even two seasons ago. And that's if you can get them to do an abrupt about face. The goal has been or is about reached. Now it's simply a matter of maintaining those numbers. Something a bag limit reduction if fully capable of doing, the leas deer you have the less you need to kill to maintain that population. Would have been nice if people listened 3-4 years ago when the first counties started seeing declines in population despite record harvests. Not when it's 76% of the state. But oh we'll. I don't know how to fix it. And I don't have the answers to turn it around. I do think it's a little late though. I don't think it would matter at this point if you got rid of bonus gun and antlerless tags, I think that would just maintain the lower population. Idk. They reduced it, they can figure out how to grow it. My battle cry has only been "we're shooting too many" At this point I'll just settle for a "oops, we screwed up"..

If 76% of the counties were off by one deer each, you could make the same claim...have you ever considered running for political office?

 

[Huckleberry Finn]

Someone pass the popcorn, Rexy just showed up.

 

[ohio mossy oak]

Someone pass the popcorn, Rexy just showed up.

Thats spooky...You read my mind

 

[j.scott]

Hey,I just heard the state of ohio is canceling 2012-2013 deer season.Ya,there's suddenly a shortage of deer in the state!! rotflmao

 

[Beentown]

I smell lackey (sniff, sniff)

lmao

 

[hickslawns]

Someone pass the popcorn, Rexy just showed up.

C'mon Huck. Play nice. Mike is one of the few with insider information and the tenacity to mix it up with Joe/Jesse. There are a few others that might call them out, cough Jd cough Gern cough, but Mrex is a wealth of insight on the lowdown. I for one, appreciate seeing him on this thread. Plus, it always gets a little entertaining when they go round. lmao

 

[Kaiser878]

C'mon Huck. Play nice. Mike is one of the few with insider information and the tenacity to mix it up with Joe/Jesse. There are a few others that might call them out, cough Jd cough Gern cough, but Mrex is a wealth of insight on the lowdown. I for one, appreciate seeing him on this thread. Plus, it always gets a little entertaining when they go round. lmao

ummm HMMMMHHHHMMMMMM

 

[huntn2]

Season total came in higher than I anticipated. The missing weeks (everything outside the gun seasons and first 6 weeks of archery) have been 15% of the harvest over the past 3-4 years. Therefore I was expecting to see about 211k. This year those weeks had about 18% of the kills driving the total higher than I forecasted.

69 of 88 being down with an average decrease of 11% is still alarming. Only 2 counties had a growth that matched the avg decrease and those were urban counties (Cuyahoga and Summit).

I hope to see changes to mitigate and reverse this trend. Maybe I am being selfish in thinking the herd in general has been thinned too much...

If the goal is 400-500k at the start of the season then we very well may be there. By the way, that is what, about 1 deer per hunter?

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

 

[Jackalope]

I don't need to say a thing. The numbers and logic speak for themselves. The truth is blatantly obvious. 76% of the state saw an 11% average reduction on top of an overall 8% reduction last season.

 

[brock ratcliff]

If 76% of the counties were off by one deer each, you could make the same claim...have you ever considered running for political office?

You are almost the world's greatest "Devil's Advocate", especially when you know your opponent is correct. I notice Athen's numbers are good - as you said- and I will be down shortly after Halloween. I'd like the hot tub set to 102 please.

 

[RedCloud]

Come on fellas...we are only off 20,300+- deer from last year for crying out loud. lmao

Well, that's 20k less from the last season and 20k less for this season...I bet we go up next year. Any takers ? lmao