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No doubt in my mind the increase in archery hunting has affected the kill more than the harvest numbers show... lots of unrecovered deer.
And the reason for more buck kills for archery is because of less does.
Agreed 100%. Bucks drive to breed makes them travel more, thus making them more susceptible to hunters.
And more bow hunters then ever before. Hell anybody can go kill a160 buck just watch the TV . They tell you how to doit every hr. There is a lot of culprits to the decline in deer numbers. The liberal tags is a big part of it. IMO the check system is a big flawl . More hunters. More seasons and time in the field and last but not least coyotes. But coyotes have been here for decades so I don't figure them as so much as a factor in the decline of deer in the last five years. There are more people hunting,snaring, trapping them then since the fur boom in the seventies. Do the y damage the deer herd? Yes but nothing like the man kind does to the herd. Cut does tag s back and deer will become prevalent again. Till then its a down hill road.
He has posted. I wasn't trying to bust his chops. I think he realized this. Wasn't an attack on him. Lol
As stated earlier another problem is people that kill deer and never find them. I'm not talking about accidentally making a bad shot and not recovering your deer after looking properly. That happens, even if it sucks. I'm talking about the people that consistently take shots that are unethical resulting in a lot of lost deer. I know someone that has hit around 6-8 deer (not sure on the exact number) in the last two season that he never found. He takes bad shots then goes looking for the deer to soon even if he knows it was a bad shot. If he doesn't find the deer on the initial search he usually just forgets about it and shoots another one. That really bothers me. So do hunters that shoot at anything and destroy the local herd in places, aka Amish.
Don't feel bad. It happens. Would never happen if we were sitting around the bonfire drinking beer and swapping deer stories. Lose something in typing at times.I'm here lol. Im just reading and absorbing it all. I not mad at anyone or scared off. I understand what Hickslawn was saying now and feel bad for taking it the wrong way. Like I said just reading what everyone has to say.
You guys do realize this is a much larger issue than just Ohio, don't you?
Thanks for all your input guys. What will it take for the odnr to do something about this problem? Is it even a possibility to limit or completely stop NR hunting?
You are both right. I've spent most of life in northern NH and the deer herd seems to get smaller every year. Yet we are still allowed to buy 3 tags and if you choose you can take 3 bucks with those tags. This is in a state with a yearly kill of only 10-12k and hunter success rate that is not even 20%. Things are very similar in neighboring states too. A friend of mine has a camp in Maine and has been deer hunting there since he was a kid. He says now he feels lucky if he actually sees a deer hunting up there for a few days. I think the Midwest states are in better shape but only becuase of the amount of active farms and good deer genetics. However no matter what state your in the hunting today is not as good as it was 10 years ago.You're spot on Brock. And like you said, more people are taking note, especially the casual hunter. The quicker hunters are all on the same page the quicker things can get turned around because the hunters voice will be heard and not dismissed. We're still a long way from that though.