First day numbers
- Thread starter Boarhead
- Start date
There aren't less deer tho . Just crappy weather and less people gun hunting .
I spend alot of time working in rural areas and honestly I saw more vehicles parked along roads hunting in early Nov than I did on gun opener
I spend alot of time working in rural areas and honestly I saw more vehicles parked along roads hunting in early Nov than I did on gun opener
- 38,887
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I think he's referring to circa 2008 before the reduction efforts when opening day gun numbers averaged around 34k. The weather was really crappy Monday though so no surprise that it's down from last years 22k.
Copy . If that's where the bar has been set we are never going to approach that number again. . It was a perfect storm of high deer numbers and liberal antlerless tags . . Even if deer numbers would get to the same as that era you won't see those harvest numbers again for gun season.
What are everyone's thoughts on gun numbers now versus 10 or 20 yrs ago . I see a big decline in gun pressure as compared to years ago . Be it smaller properties , leasing , increased archery pressure or whatever there just isn't the gun numbers of years past . And although I don't have the numbers handy I'm pretty sure archery harvest is at a much larger % of the total harvest now as well compared to 10 or 20 years ago .
What are everyone's thoughts on gun numbers now versus 10 or 20 yrs ago . I see a big decline in gun pressure as compared to years ago . Be it smaller properties , leasing , increased archery pressure or whatever there just isn't the gun numbers of years past . And although I don't have the numbers handy I'm pretty sure archery harvest is at a much larger % of the total harvest now as well compared to 10 or 20 years ago .
been a while...I guess it’s time to start the annual bashing. Anyone want to invite mrex or bawana?
lung buster
Senior Member
Not surprised at all with those #'s. Absolutely horrible weather. Nobody hardly even gun hunts in my area anymore. Everybody bow hunts. There is zero pressure this week and we gun hunt just like we bow hunt, only the weapon changes for the week. Part of me misses the old days of gun week but I dont miss the slobs that I used to always have to put up with. Most of the ground around me is leased up and they seem to only bow hunt.
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The trend absolutely shows a steady increase in archery harvests and a decline in gun numbers. One of the main reasons they allowed straight walled rifles was to spur participation rates.
I think we're actually seeIng a slight increase in deer numbers in areas that hunters largely abandoned due to the low numbers. Resident license sales and tag sales have also declined considerably in the last 5 years. One reason for the new lifetime license pitch. Ole Tonkovich was right when he said people will just quit hunting due to their reduction efforts. I like how they threw the lifetime license plug in the article out of place. Lol.
No doubt the amount of gun hunters has gone down alot. I drove past Fernwood State forest yesterday and the places that usually have 5 or 6 trucks parked there had zero. It's been the trend the last few years there.
There's lots of factors too, and you guys mentioned them all. It's a fact though, that here in Jefferson County, the deer herd is down because of the EHD last year. Sightings are down and trail cameras are concurring. We got hit hard.
There's lots of factors too, and you guys mentioned them all. It's a fact though, that here in Jefferson County, the deer herd is down because of the EHD last year. Sightings are down and trail cameras are concurring. We got hit hard.
No shortage of gun hunters around these parts. I took the backroads from the farm to the house when I switched spots on Monday. I saw more trucks from out of state than I did from Ohio. WV hunters FLOCK to Washington County nowadays. Same with New Jersey and Maryland. If I saw one 50+ year old white guy from out of state pulling a trailer with an ATV/UTV loaded with corn Friday-Sunday last week, I saw 20. I would agree less locals are gun hunting now and that's a factor of increased archery hunting and the fact that every last huntable piece of property now has a hunter on. Gone are the days when we used to have hundreds, even thousands of acres to hunt. It's not nearly as much fun to hunt on 80 acres with a group of people versus doing the same on 800.
Oh, and leasing. Many of the best farms in our county are now leased by out of state hunters. I know lots of locals under the age of 40 that can no longer hunt the places they grew up hunting due to leasing.
Driving north on 77 from the Ohio River too the rte 30 exit just below Canton, I saw a couple blaze orange vests within eyesight of both sides of the highway. Stopped in lower Salem to fuel up and 2 trucks were there with a couple hunters with nothing seen and this was around 1:00 Monday afternoon.
Very few gun hunters in my area anymore.
Lucky to hear a few shots off in the distance.
Seems most hunt with archery equiptment anymore.
My buddy that hunts his property in Vinton County jokes that he hears more rifle shots the first 2 weeks of November than the whole week of gun season. Some truth to this though.
Lucky to hear a few shots off in the distance.
Seems most hunt with archery equiptment anymore.
My buddy that hunts his property in Vinton County jokes that he hears more rifle shots the first 2 weeks of November than the whole week of gun season. Some truth to this though.
I only saw a handful of hunters on the first two days. Our group was a lot smaller than usual as well. We saw a decent amount of deer, but the lack of participation and the weather probably reduced sightings some.
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No doubt that Monday of gun season is nothing like it once was. Saturday of gun season seems about the same to me. Amazingly, Sunday is like it ain’t even happening. The entire thing has changed, some think that’s bad but imagine if had changed from what we have now to what we had in the 80s and 90s. Everyone would be crying about the woods being raped. Lol. Deer did not act right for a month after gun season back in the day. I like it the way it is today.
I drove all over nw Ohio on Monday afternoon, clear over to Fulton county and back... I could've counted on one hand how many gun hunters I saw.