Right you are man, I have a buddy that has filled every tag for the last few years, as well as his buck tag before gun season the last 4 or 5, that didn't even sling an arrow this year. That's with dang near 250 hours on stand.
Right you are man, I have a buddy that has filled every tag for the last few years, as well as his buck tag before gun season the last 4 or 5, that didn't even sling an arrow this year. That's with dang near 250 hours on stand.
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Too bad it doesn't make sense to the man who originally said it. Before I started looking at the numbers I knew it wouldn't make sense. To date nothing he said has.. Be it deer vehicle numbers, weather numbers, population numbers, etc.. Seems like everything sounds good on paper, but the numbers never back it up.. But I'll finish out the counties and see if we can;t make some heads or tails of it.
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More I think about it I don't know anyone personally (out of 20+) that harvested more than 2 this year.
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If you combined every woodlot in the whole county it would be half the size of Akron... Damn Acorns!
Actually Joe there are many more guys up here that kill more than 2 deer in a season.....way more than you could count on 2 hands.
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I don't have the stats on me But I believe even Mrex himself said that less than 2% of all hunters kill 3 or more deer. 2% of 500,000. That would be 10,000 hunters. if every hunting license sold was to a deer hunter..... Spread that across 88 counties and if everything was equal that would be 113 in Hardin county.. But we know that's not the case because hunter density is probably far higher in other counties in Southern ohio... Sooooooo. say it's 50% of that to be realistic... 56.5
You'll prevent 56.5 hunters from killing deer number 3 and even less maybe 10 hunters from killing number 4.... So in reality you saved at best 66 deer out of 1,145. And that's the giving you almost every benefit of the doubt.. I bet it is much much lower than that.. It might be more than I could count on 2 hands.. And I'll give ya two feet.. But I wouldn't go any higher than that...
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Are you saying guys don't kill more than 2 deer because they choose not too, or that they don't have the skill and/or resources to get it done, or a combination of both? There is a difference.
Do you guys actually think it would be that hard to kill more than 2 deer in a season? Seriously?
Do you guys actually think it would be that hard to kill more than 2 deer in a season? Seriously?
It's definitely not because they choose not to, the guys I run with would whack both early does, their buck, and another doe in late season if they had the opportunity. Two guys I know had opportunities to fill all their tags and said they have seen just as many deer than they have in the past. The majority though said their spots were dried up and didn't have much luck and they seen a lot less deer. Most of them at least harvested one though.
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Yes. I can tell you I used to be a pretty effecient killer. If I hunt the same properties I used to, I am lucky to see a deer, let alone get a good shot opportunity. I shot two this year. The doe I killed had two lil ones with her (in Ross Co., a 6 deer county). Counting them, and the buck I shot, I had four deer offer quality bow shots. I used to have that many in a day. Opportunity shrinks with the population. I know it may be hard to imagine, but it is the truth. BTW, I hunt 5 or 6 days a week. In this area, it is a whole different ball game than it was a few years back. Farms I used to go to when I wanted to kill a doe are now seemingly vacant...One of them is where I took Joe and crew on drives last year. The habitat is still there, I have years of experience on it. The only thing missing is deer.
Ok, the same can be said for areas where I hunt. But, if I go to another area just 5 or 10 miles down the road, my opportunities just to kill "a" deer increase. Are you hunting the same area over and over or are you spreading yourself out to increase your opportunities?
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Obviously we're going to have hot an cold areas based on hunter access. One of the drastic being urban vs rural.. just as this happens on that scale it happens in micro scale in rural areas... In areas where permission is difficult this can range to just a mile where there are deer here but not there.. A many properties in this few square miles allow hunting. But a few square miles away they don't... Usually this concentrates many hunters onto the properties allowing permission unless the landowner only allows x amount of people.. Hopefully that number is below the sustainable kill limit...... In areas where hunting is prolific like vinton etc this may be the whole county where hunting is allowed.. All the neighbors hunt for miles and miles and allow family and friends and strangers and Non residents... . So you might have to go 20 miles before seeing deer... Prime example.. Vinton in most areas is devoid of what i would consider a huntable population.. Start driving towards chilicothee where more city type people live and permission gets harder in Ross county and you'll see more deer. As a result there are areas of ross with deer. Are they killable? Not imo, the owners don;t allow hunting.. Those deer are basically worthless to hunters.. In the areas where deer are valuable to hunters ie where they can hunt, they have drastically gone downhill.
Now one could say... Well just get permission on a killer semi urban property... Or a property that doesn;t have hunters for miles and you'll be ok... We'll I might personally... But there is vast areas of ohio suffering...
Kaiser thinks guys are moving in on him because he shoots big bucks... I think differently. Hunters are always looking for better areas.. The areas they hunt may be devoid of deer now, or have gone down hill.. They drive around and see his deer in fields. Wow, there is a bunch of deer over here.. As a result they try to gather permission there. And if need be they lease it... It's the only logical flow of things..
That's another topic... As things get harder, and deer more scarce.. Guys are going to start whipping out checkbooks to get in areas where there are huntable deer.. IMO leasing is going to explode in Ohio over the next 5 years..
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Mountaineer
Banned
Schu72
Well-Known Member
From my standpoint its mostly by choice. We eat about 2 deer a year...as the boys get older this will likely go up. If I know someone who really would like some venison I will shoot more. But two is really all we "need". I think over the last decade I'm averaging about 2.1-2.2 deer per year. Most years I could have killed more, but there was no reason to. Next year I'll have two kids afield, if they are successful I may start shooting just one per year. I am fortunate that I have 2 very good spots to hunt, it hasn't always been that way and may not be in the future. My not harvesting a doe in Belmont county this year was directly related to my lack of sightings on other properties. I'm preserving my honey hole.
Huckleberry Finn
Senior Member
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I think we'd all be a lot better off if people had this mentality. There'd be more honey holes too...
oakswamper
Member
lucas county has 14.88% forest, now you have me interested in finding out how much of that is owned by the metro parks and Oak Openings that isn't open to hunting...