The harvest numbers are pretty sad

[Rastus]

I am sure you tried or considered, but. . . I believe this is a time period when I would be out hunting them, snaring/trapping them, or otherwise taking caring of business.

I hunt them as much as I can. I don't know too many people that do though. They are tough and fur isn't worth anything anymore. Most guys would rather hunt something else in their spare time. The pics I saw were not from my trailcam. Somebody showed them to me.

 

[Blackbeard]

You won't catch me jumping on you about wounded and unrecoverable deer. Over the years I've met many local hunters outside of TOO and gotten to know them. They were horrible shots and wounded deer left and right. A lot of the weekend warrior Bowhunters wound and lose deer. But the same can be said for shotgun only hunters who pick up a gun for one week a year. It goes both ways and adds up to a crap-ton of lost and unchecked deer.

Ditto. Lots of bad shots are taken out there just because they can and don't know any better.

 

[Certified106]

Ditto. Lots of bad shots are taken out there just because they can and don't know any better.

My brother in law is a meat hunter and will shoot anything at any distance and any shot. He hit two different does during gun season found fur and blood and never found either of them so yeah gun hunters can be just as bad.

 

[finelyshedded]

Yeah, I agree regardless of what deer hunting weapon is being used we have a lot of slob hunters out there with very little ethics or morals. I'm sure there are more hunters toting archery gear due to the xbows and more advanced compounds these days giving them all season to chase deer hence I believe there are more wounded and recovered deer from that sector. I also believe though guns do more than their share as well because of the potential of unethical riskier shots they present.

Bottomline, every hunter has or will have something causing an errant less than perfect shot occur and unfortunately lead to a wounded and unrecovered deer. Heck, I've read many stories over the years of perfect shots leading to long track jobs and even a deer piling up across the fence on property the hunter can't get permission to even go recover their deer! With that being said, we all just need to know our limitations and skill level and do our very best to make as ethical shot as possible to ensure the deer expires quickly and is recovered.

 

[Lundy]

I have had a couple of requests for me to e-mail the chart to them because the original posting in this thread is so blurry.

So I need help from someone that understands computors a little better than I do. The file sizes I have this in PDF or Word are too large to post.

Back when I posted this in 2013 (link below) I was able to get it to post clearly in some format just don't seem to be able to make it happen now. Any ideas what this old man is doing wrong?
http://www.theohiooutdoors.com/showthread.php?13992-New-updated-deer-harvest-numbers

Thanks

 

[redeye33]

IMO, coyotes are the main reason for the decline in harvest numbers. The deer are not there in the numbers they used to be. I have also have more and more coyotes sneak to my scent wicks each year. Its not the check in system or dishonest hunters suddenly appearing or the number of does you can take, Think about it, not every hunter buys 6 or tags, in fact I would bet a very small minority do. We need to hunt coyotes in the off season to help control the population.

 

[Bigslam51]

IMO, coyotes are the main reason for the decline in harvest numbers. The deer are not there in the numbers they used to be. I have also have more and more coyotes sneak to my scent wicks each year. Its not the check in system or dishonest hunters suddenly appearing or the number of does you can take, Think about it, not every hunter buys 6 or tags, in fact I would bet a very small minority do. We need to hunt coyotes in the off season to help control the population.

So there's just been a sudden increase in yotes just in the past 4-5 years?

 

[redeye33]

no, there has been a steady increase of coyotes over many years. This is fact. Coyotes are responsible for the majority of fawn fatalities in nature, especially true in Ohio.

 

[redeye33]

 

[Boarhead]

Its a combination of several things and yes i believe coyotes kill a hell of alot more fawns than any of us would want to believe.I work on taking out yotes on our farm every year and would i think eventually the catches would slow down but thats not the case.Their are a shitload of them out there.

 

[Jackalope]

While I agree that coyotes are a factor, they're a factor that should have been factored in when setting the deer harvest regulations so that our deer population wasn't decimated. And whose job is it to factor these things in and set the regs appropriately. Yep. The DNR. So one of two things happened. They were not factored and it was negligence. They were factored and they screwed us on purpose. At the end of the day no matter the factor, reason or cause the DNR is ultimately responsible.

 

[Boarhead]

Absolutely correct Joe .I am sure they dont take yotes into consideration.
Also sure they are happy to see so many yotes out there helping them to control the herd and i am really surprised they dont have a set season on them so we dont thin them out.

 

[yotehunter]

Absolutely correct Joe .I am sure they dont take yotes into consideration.
Also sure they are happy to see so many yotes out there helping them to control the herd and i am really surprised they dont have a set season on them so we dont thin them out.

We will never thin the coyotes out they are to adaptable. The only thing that's going to kill them off now would be disease. We can shoot and trap all we possibly can and more will show up. And sure every little bit of effort helps but they are here to stay I'm afraid.

 

[Jackalope]

We will never thin the coyotes out they are to adaptable. The only thing that's going to kill them off now would be disease. We can shoot and trap all we possibly can and more will show up. And sure every little bit of effort helps but they are here to stay I'm afraid.

Remember a year ago or so dogs were dropping like flies after visiting dog parks in Cincinnati. Some virus they would get at the dog park and die within 72 hours. Vets were puzzled and to my knowledge they never figured it out. Sure would like to weaponize that stuff and release it on the coyotes. Does anyone know of any dog diseases like dog aids etc. Something passed by breeding and can be contracted by pups. That would be a stopper right there.

 

[Boarhead]

I like your thinking Joe.I hate yotes and yotehunter you are right we will never be rid of them.All we can do is try and kill as many as we can in our hunting areas each year to allow a few fawns to survive.

 

[yotehunter]

Remember a year ago or so dogs were dropping like flies after visiting dog parks in Cincinnati. Some virus they would get at the dog park and die within 72 hours. Vets were puzzled and to my knowledge they never figured it out. Sure would like to weaponize that stuff and release it on the coyotes. Does anyone know of any dog diseases like dog aids etc. Something passed by breeding and can be contracted by pups. That would be a stopper right there.

parvo is the only thing other then mange that I know of that puts them down. I would think the distemper like the coon get would thin them out too, but I don't know if they get that or not. But you maybe on too something Joe lol.

 

[Beentown]

Tonk is taking a new tact. Here is a link to an AT thread. In the last page is a response from Tonk to one of the posters.

http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2380860

 

[bowhunter1023]

View attachment 27200View attachment 27201

Do you have a source for this information?

Coyotes are a factor in the decline no doubt. However no one thing is solely to blame. It is a perfect storm of several factors.

 

[brock ratcliff]

Whatever the spin, from either side, I'll be happy when I see a more conservative approach to managing deer. The flip side being I'd rather have too many than not enough, and I know I'm in the minority when viewing the entire population.

The DOW stated they wanted a lower population. They never tried to hide that. Unfortunately, they cut entirely too deep in areas (mine in particular), and the fact they chose to overlook their error for a time...even promoted the continued slaughter where there was nothing left to slaughter, cost them their credibility in my eyes.

I enjoyed reading the link posted by Charles. I like to think they are actually going to make some more conservative moves. It's about time!

 

[Milo]

http://www.deercrash.org/states/ohio.htm

Check this out... The number of deer crashes were dropping a while ago like 2004 ... Interesting trends. Human population expands greatly as well as the deer population yet vehicle accidents involving deer goes down??