After

[Lundy]

So after 7 days of dark to dark hunting for 3 of us on the property I have comments.

I saw less total deer in 7 days than I normally see on the first day of gun season alone.

It is not that they were not moving, they are not there.

I really wish that drives with more than 4-5 participants would be made illegal. There are two large groups, 25+ in the immediate area that I hunt. I grow weary of the constant law violations that I witness every year

 

[Jackalope]

Huh. Sounds like more disappearing deer. Maybe it's weather, crop rotation, or lack of squirrels crossing the road. Sucks man. Welcome to the ever growing club.

 

[huntn2]

Not a good report. It will be interesting to see the state harvest numbers today.

 

[Fullbore]

IMO , the numbers just aren't there! ODNR don't have a clue as TOO how many deer are in this State! Here in south east Ohio anyway, our numbers have been dwindling the last 5 or so years. Since the blue tongue in 07' and coyote population increase it's been apparent! IMO?

 

[Lundy]

I have hunted this same 600+ acres in Athens for over 20 years. I have a pretty good handle on the deer and movements. Add to that these huge drives on the adjoining properties where I would in years past have 20-40 deer per drive running across the property on these drives and this week I saw a grand total of 4 come across for all of the drives combined. Also the shots for these drives have been dimenishing the last few years. There are not as many for them to kill but they keep killing what they have available to them.

By the way I think these drives have more adverse effect on the immediate deer population in one week than the coyotes do in a year. Together they can put a serious hurting on the population.

We have taken only one doe in the last 3 years and only 3 in the last 5. Does are off limits this year for us. I am making my daughter-in-law and the guy that hunts with me shoot a buck, any buck, button, small, medium, I don't care. What a change from all of the previous years where the bucks were non targets unless of a certain size.

Maybe this reduction is just in my immediate area, maybe 5 miles down the road is normal, but I don't think so.

 

[Huckleberry Finn]

I'm sorry that you have such a bias against and bad impression of deer drives.

Constant law violations? The only unlawful thing we saw on Saturday was the a neighbor sitting on his tailgate, drinking beer, and fired at a deer with our 3 orange vests clearly behind it. Yes, the neighbor...that was sitting.

Serious hurting on the population? I'd we probably saw over 30 deer and took 2. I saw 7 and didn't take one. No to mention the fawn and turkey killing varmints we killed.

No, the disappearing deer problem isn't the drivers.

 

[Milo]

I'm lucky i have an urban spot thats for darn sure...

 

[cotty16]

Monday (all day sit) saw 11 doe

Tuesday (evening) zero

Wed (evening) zero

Thu (eveing) 3 doe

Friday (evening) 1 small buck

Saturday (all day) 5 doe

Sunday (went for a walk) zero deer

I used to see tons of deer during gun week. I mean, constant action. It was so bad that my oldest son (12), who hunts his ass off, hung it up after Saturday morning. He said, "why sit when I don't see anything?" Can't say I blame him.

 

[Schu72]

My gun season was pathetic, but I didn't put much effort into it either. I only managed 15 hours of seat time and was coughing off and on for a good portion of that. I did not lay eyes on a single deer. That may be the first time in almost 25 years I did not see a deer while gun hunting opening day.

 

[Lundy]

I was not born with a bias for deer drives I have developed on over the all of these years of watching first hand these drives on the adjoining properties.

I won't even get into the trespassing because that is not exclusive to these drives.

I will however get into the party hunting, of the standers shooting as many deer as possible. That alone violates a minimum of 3 laws and it could be 4 depending on if any of the shot deer are bucks.

Secondly I will get into the wounded deer I see most years, many of which I have had to have the landowner dispatch.

For anyone to believe that drives can not decimate a deer herd has little first hand experience and knowledge of what happens with the big drives in my area and I'm sure many other areas. I know as a fact of over 30 deer tagged on one drive 4 years ago by this group. I would like nothing more than to see a limit put on the number of participants permitted by law.

 

[Milo]

I was not born with a bias for deer drives I have developed on over the all of these years of watching first hand these drives on the adjoining properties.

I won't even get into the tresspassing because that is not exclusvive to these drives.

I will however get into the party hunting, of the standers shooting as many deer as possible. That alone violates a minimum of 3 laws and it could be 4 depending on if any of the shot deer are bucks.

Secondly I will get into the wounded deer I see most years, many of which I have had to have the landowner dispatch.

For anyone to believe that drives can not decimate a deer herd has little first hand experience and knowledge of what happens with the big drives in my area and I'm sure many other areas. I know as a fact of over 30 deer tagged on one drive 4 years ago by this group. I would like nothing more than to see a limit put on the number of participants permitted by law.

this is how they decimated the deer heard in the 70's wasn't it ? when they had to close the seasons do to killing too many in gun?

 

[cotty16]

Pathetic is a great term to sum it all up. As I think more about it, I saw one buck. ONE BUCK???? That is crazy!!! Talk about trying a man's patience.
I should also add that my son, who was sitting with my dad, only saw 4 doe all week. They were on Monday and Thursday. 2 each day. That makes it tough to keep a kid interested in hunting.

 

[Kaiser878]

I was not born with a bias for deer drives I have developed on over the all of these years of watching first hand these drives on the adjoining properties.

I won't even get into the trespassing because that is not exclusive to these drives.

I will however get into the party hunting, of the standers shooting as many deer as possible. That alone violates a minimum of 3 laws and it could be 4 depending on if any of the shot deer are bucks.

Secondly I will get into the wounded deer I see most years, many of which I have had to have the landowner dispatch.

For anyone to believe that drives can not decimate a deer herd has little first hand experience and knowledge of what happens with the big drives in my area and I'm sure many other areas. I know as a fact of over 30 deer tagged on one drive 4 years ago by this group. I would like nothing more than to see a limit put on the number of participants permitted by law.

Thats what I was trying to explain, when I was told I Was an elitist. Im not sure how everyone else drives deer, but from what your explaining pretty much sums up how deer are driven in my area. 15-20 guys combing and area. Deer dont escape.. THere is no where for them to go. ANy direction they run there is a stander... I have seen drives where 15 deer have been shot...THere was one last year in my area where they killed like 5 or 6 really good bucks and like 8 does...THese arent rinky dink drives with escape routes...THese are drives meant for 100% success that do not fail!

 

[Huckleberry Finn]

Putting one methodology over another is foolish...(trust me, I've been there) I can guarandamntee that more deer are wounded during archery season than gun season - surely that must be worst for the herd - but I don't see any motions to get rid of bow hunting?!? ...oh yea, trust me...I've been there before.

The deer herd numbers is more of a complex issue and will never be solved by hunters pissing on other hunters because they don't like what they do.

 

[Lundy]

The deer herd numbers is more of a complex issue and will never be solved by hunters pissing on other hunters because they don't like what they do.

I will always piss on hunters that violate the law, no exceptions

 

[Ohiosam]

I think I saw a few more then last year but less then 4-5 years ago. I only saw 2 bucks, a fork horn and a spike.

I hunt with what I call a small group, IIRC 2 days with 8 guys, 4 days with 5-6 guys. Ended the week with only 3(2 bbs and a doe), would have expected 8-12 with 1-2 good bucks and we saw no good bucks. In over 30 years that is the least we ever got in gun week, even going back when you could only kill bucks after the first day. We regularly moved deer but it wasn't easy to get them. Seemed like a higher then normal percentage of the deer that moved were young. They seemed to be sitting tight, I don't think they liked moving with the dry leaves. Maybe the mature deer refused to move, who knows. Dry leaves made it hard for us to move quietly too.

However there was tons of sign, if anything I saw more sign this year. Still optimistic about the extra weekend and muzzleloader. Some winter weather would help too.

 

[bthompson1004]

Same conditions up here in NWohio....dry crunchy leaves where we hunted, was glad we got some rain on saturday night, made sunday mornings walk in a little quieter...I'm hoping we get to hunt this property for many years to come so that I can get a better handle on the population....but this weekend we saw a good number of deer, prbly because my stepson has ants in his pants....didn't like the fact that we bumped so many deer, but was glad to see the numbers we did see...especially the number of decent NWohio bucks.

 

[brock ratcliff]

Lundy, I value your opinion on this. You've been in the game a long time and know what you are used to seeing, and what you are now seeing. I strongly encourage you to voice your opinion to Tonk. Call him. Leave a voice mail, he'll call you back. You might want to mention that Joe or I told you to call... I'm sure he is getting a lot of calls this week and he is screening calls. A few years back when I started calling him about our declining herd in my area, he was only hearing what a great job the DOW was doing...now he is getting a few calls in the other direction. He needs to hear it from hunters, he wants to hear it. We are the best source of information for him!

He reduced bag limits in Fayette Co. two years ago due to complaints with dropping numbers to prove the point. I started snaring yotes in the early spring in hopes of helping our fawns a bit. Those two factors together seems to have made a huge difference on the properties I hunt. I saw more deer this year than I have seen in a decade! I really wish we wouldn't have knocked them down as low as we did, but at least they are rebounding now, at least on the very small area I can control somewhat. I don't think for a minute you will convince him that the herd is in trouble in Athens Co. I drove around with Mrex a few days before the bow opener and we saw deer all over the place. Maybe not what it once was, but there are still a LOT of deer in the area, especially compared to other areas. Still, if Tonk is hearing low sighting reports from the area, maybe it will at least be on his radar.

 

[Milo]

750,000:smiley_depressive:

 

[hickslawns]

Come hunt NW Ohio. You will feel great about the deer population in SE Ohio. Sorry to step on toes, but it is what it is.

That said, we are seeing a reduction as well. Deer are spotty. There are properties which have abundant deer. Other properties they are near non-existent. What I have noticed in the last 5 years: Drives are not taking place like they once did. We are seeing more hunters. I was hearing more shots. Trespassing is worse than ever. Of the shots I heard, I can tell you these guys were not connecting. I personally watched one guy take shots. Never touched a deer. I watched him from a distance and on more than one sit he emptied but never connected. If he connected, he sure didn't recover. Same goes for several other properties my buddies and I hunt. They would hear shots. I would take a drive. Not seeing deer being recovered. This leads back to the trespassing issues and "slob hunter" issues. Many of our problems are not a result of guys trying to do things right. Much like Lundy is referring to, I am frustrated with what I witnessed last week. I emptied between $100-150 diesel road scouting last week. I know of one deer killed. The guys I talked to are all complaining of not seeing deer. Next year I will reconsider the does. I will still take 2 deer if possible, but I don't see myself taking any more unless I feel they are there for my area.