Here's What I Know.......

[CritterGitterToo]

I have had my best deer hunting over the years on public land.
I have harvested 3 mature bucks in 19 years, and they all came from public land in central Ohio.
I know the public land of Delaware, Marion and Morrow counties very well.
I know there aren't nearly as many deer as there was a few short years ago.
I know the hunting pressure out there this year has never been higher, but this was the first year I can remember that no out-of-state hunters showed up.
I know that Delaware State Park is bow hunting only, and it used to have hundreds of deer. Not anymore.
I know that Delaware State Park used to have a full-time ranger on site all year round. Not anymore.
I know that on Saturday of Muzzy season there was some asshat in there gun hunting (and I think he may have been using a shotgun).
I know I have been skunked on 20 hunts out there this year.
I know I am fed up with that place, and if I never hunt there again that would be just fine.
I know I do not have the resources to lease hunting land.
I know this may have been my last year deer hunting in Ohio, and I am sorely bitter about it.

I know deer hunting in Ohio was incredibly fun in the nineties and now it's just a big pain in the ass.

 

[brock ratcliff]

You realize of course that some folks will call you a whiner for saying these things... until the deer in their neighborhood are gone!

 

[Gordo]

Sucks to hear

 

[Jackalope]

You're crazy.
That's not what's happening..
It was the weather..
Bad acorn crop
Didn't adapt due to crop rotation..
You're just holding out for bigger deer.
It's the economy..
I just saw the most deer ever in a million years this year..
Back in the 50's you'd be lucky to see a deer and it was in the paper if someone found a track so quit pissing about today
They told you they were reducing them.. Not sure why you;re surprised..

and on and on and on..

Welcome to the club buddy..

 

[CritterGitterToo]

Ok, I can admit when I am being a bit dramatic. In all honesty, it was probably not my last hunting season. However, if I don't find some place that actually has a huntable population of deer within a reasonable drive from my home and doesn't have asshats crawling all over it, I won't buy a license or tag next year. I can't continue to support an agency that seems to be catering to a group other than outdoorsmen/outdoorswomen.

 

[Ricer2231]

Ok, I can admit when I am being a bit dramatic. In all honesty, it was probably not my last hunting season. However, if I don't find some place that actually has a huntable population of deer within a reasonable drive from my home and doesn't have asshats crawling all over it, I won't buy a license or tag next year. I can't continue to support an agency that seems to be catering to a group other than outdoorsmen/outdoorswomen.

I didn't see anywhere where you admitted being dramatic, you are already way past that. And you know what, all I can do is wish you good luck finding your own little honey hole because you are in the same boat that a lot of other people have been in for the last five to ten years, including myself. They, honey holes, are getting more and more scarce, due to leasing, idiot hunters twisting their ankle and sewing the farmer, and just the fact that farmers don't want asshats, as you call them, trashing up their property. I go to the local farmers and volunteer my labor just to get the opportunity to hunt on their property, which I might get to do after two or three years of helping them out and them getting to know me. Don't buy a tag, sounds to me like that will accomplish just what you are after, one less asshat in the woods. Suck it up and quit your whining.

 

[xbowguy]

If you don't like what you're getting, change what you're doing. Find another place to hunt. Public land is not for me, but I have been in your shoes..... Now I work my ass off for permission to hunt. And I get to hunt knowing I earned it. You'd be surprised to know what help will gain you access if you just try. I bush-hog all the edges of one property (120 acres) just for the right to travel across his land on foot or 4-wheeler. Good Luck...Hope you find a place.

 

[Archertl]

Crittergetter found us. Yep people will say your crazy until it happens to their area.

 

[Ricer2231]

Crittergetter found us. Yep people will say your crazy until it happens to their area.

With all due respect, if people think what CG2 is saying is crazy then they have their head farther in the sand than he does. All I am saying is wake up and smell the coffee, this has been going on for quite some time, it didn't just start yesterday. It does no good to sniffle around about it, you just got to get out there and try to dig up some hunting ground that everybody and their brother haven't tramped down to the bare dirt already. It's not easy, believe me, I know. But throwing a tantrum and threatening not to buy a tag and saying this may be your last year hunting in Ohio won't get you a place to hang a stand or set up a blind.

 

[Milo]

With all due respect, if people think what CG2 is saying is crazy then they have their head farther in the sand than he does. All I am saying is wake up and smell the coffee, this has been going on for quite some time, it didn't just start yesterday. It does no good to sniffle around about it, you just got to get out there and try to dig up some hunting ground that everybody and their brother haven't tramped down to the bare dirt already. It's not easy, believe me, I know. But throwing a tantrum and threatening not to buy a tag and saying this may be your last year hunting in Ohio won't get you a place to hang a stand or set up a blind.

I will speak for CG2 here and say if it were that simple it would have been done already. There is not that much ground here say like centeal eastern countues have. There is no where near that much woods either.

 

[Ricer2231]

I will speak for CG2 here and say if it were that simple it would have been done already. There is not that much ground here say like centeal eastern countues have. There is no where near that much woods either.

All I am saying is I know how hard I have had to work to get property to hunt on and I didn't get it by throwing a tantrum and threatening not to ever hunt here again. I understand what is being said but it's an issue that, I would bet, the overwhelming majority of us have all dealt with.

 

[brock ratcliff]

Losing a little hunting ground is not the issue he's addressing. It's more the fact the areas he once enjoyed hunting are now void of deer. And what is frustrating is when your area gets wiped out, no one seems to care or notice... until it happens where they hunt. Some people take the DoW's BS estimate as gospel. Some of us know better. Not the exact number, but the fact they don't even show a decline in the herd estimate.

If all the areas you once hunted, and saw deer, were vacant now, how would you feel. Would it help to have people telling you to just go look across the fence?

 

[Jackalope]

All I am saying is I know how hard I have had to work to get property to hunt on and I didn't get it by throwing a tantrum and threatening not to ever hunt here again. I understand what is being said but it's an issue that, I would bet, the overwhelming majority of us have all dealt with.

He's not talking about losing land buddy. He's talking about the deer vanishing due to the DNRs slaughter program. I mean " heard reduction efforts". It takes longer to show up in some areas than it does others. If you have not seen a noticeable impact in your area then count your blessings but just know your time is coming to. And I say that because I have seen person after person over the past four years talk about how people are crazy and they have plenty of deer. Then two years later they're fighting mad wondering what happened to their deer population.

 

[CritterGitterToo]

Milo and Brock are dead on. I have had access to some really good private ground here and there. I was granted access to 45 acres mostly wooded in Delaware County for one season. I saw a lot of deer in there. Also, if you have ever driven south on I-71 and saw the pond in the open field with L shaped woods to the west then you know the place. At dusk that field held a hundred deer or more. These days you don't ever see deer in that same field. I had access to 60 acres off St Rt 315 that backs up to a Nature Preserve. A buddy let me hunt there with him for a couple seasons, but then he moved away. I have had access to a couple properties in Crawford county. One is just east of Riley Reservoir. There was a LOT of deer in there when I first started hunting it. Now, it holds a couple deer at best. Last year and this year I hunted a farm up north of New Washington. I saw 24 deer on that farm last year. I saw none this year. Opening day of gun, I watched a party of 8 drive every property adjacent to us in every direction, and didn't see a single deer. Nothing! You can't say they went nocturnal. The reality is simple. If I want to find good deer hunting, I am going to have to drive an hour or more east or south. I have hunted hard all year. I have 125 hours logged in the stand this year. I also have logged another 30-35 acres of scouting. I know not to trounce all over the place or go storming through a bedding thicket. I have been doing this for 19 years. I didn't miss the acorn mast production. It's not because of crop rotation. It is certainly not for lack of effort (even though I have questioned my sanity many times this season after getting skunked for deer sightings on 20 trips afield).

It doesn't help to complain on a hunting forum. However, when others share in my frustration and can relate, then I feel I am part of the hunting community. To me, that is a big part of what a hunting forum is about. I know many of the members here feel the same way.

 

[Ricer2231]

Well I would like to offer my apologies then because I misunderstood your point you were making.
The issue of finding property to hunt is really a sore subject with me. I have had numerous occasions where I was screwed over.
I put in two summers of helping a farmer put in his first and second cutting of hay, well over 10,000 square bales each year, just to have the farmer turn around and lease the hunting rights.
I built enough line fence, woven wire with barb wire top and bottom to encompass 80 acres, just to have the farmer tell me his son in law decided he was going to take up bow hunting.
And those are just a couple of the more recent examples. So I hope you can understand where I was coming from.
So again I apologize for jumping you about what I thought was a " not able to get hunting land" complaint.

 

[Milo]

A forum is only as good as the perspectives that its members share..nothing more don. I guess what i can add for those not seeing what other members are experiencing is this little title......"coming soon"

 

[Fullbore]

FUGG! That's a real ASS reamer Ricer. Nice farmers right there! Lol.

 

[xbowguy]

Hope I did not offend anyone. I took it as CG2 was frustrated and just venting. I meant to be encouraging to your frustration.

 

[Jackalope]

FUGG! That's a real ASS reamer Ricer. Nice farmers right there! Lol.

I had a landowner kick a guy off a property only allowing me and another guy to hunt. The other guy was hunting the stands of the guy that got kicked off. 9 months later the guy who got kicked off came back to get his stands and doesn't even bother asking. the guy that was hunting them thought they were stolen and tells the landowner. I get kicked off because the cops told her she should not allow hunting as it lets people you don't know on your property. She let the other guy stay because he was a family friend. I hadn't even been there to hunt yet that year. I knew who did it because he lived on the property behind hers and was sneaking across the line to hunt anyway. After I left a bunch of stuff came up missing from her barns. She called and asked if I knew who did it because I said I had a good idea who it was when she kicked me off. I told her it wasn't my problem. Last storm we had she lost a big tree in the front yard. It was there for like 6 months. I stopped to chat as she was outside one day. She mentioned the tree to me. I said. Yeah. That stinks. If I was still hunting here I might remove it. She asked if I wanted permission again. I just said. Nah. Then got in the truck and left.

 

[Ricer2231]

A forum is only as good as the perspectives that its members share..nothing more don. I guess what i can add for those not seeing what other members are experiencing is this little title......"coming soon"

I guess it's just not a perspective I can share just yet,thankfully. But I would venture to say when your "coming soon" thread hits my neighborhood I will have more understanding of what you are talking about and I TOO will be more than just a little heated.