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

Jpe...the other dude carried a spear while scouting. That ol bag did you a favor! :)

I have what I believe to be the best habitat in the worst kill county in the state to hunt. The last five-six years, were absolutely horrible. This year, I saw deer, and lots of them. However, I still don't see deer in the surrounding area. I drive 20 minutes to get to the property through great habitat that has few to no deer. It's sad because I know what it USED to be like. Things sure have changed.
 
last night i sat on the edge of a standing bean field, thats right...STANDING BEANS! This spot should be a friggin magnet for every deer in the county. I saw one deer the whole afternoon.... one.
I havent been hunting as long as some of you, but even I know there is something wrong with that.
On the flip side, I hunted Delaware for the first time this season, and saw more deer there than what i expected. Not a lot, but more than what i had been seeing on the 2 farms i hunt.
 
I know the same thing many of you know. I use to go deer hunting and enjoy seeing deer. Now I get up in the morning knowing with almost certaintly I will not see any deer. I hear some people talk about seeing 3, 5, 10 or more deer while out hunting. All I can say is DO NOT take it for granted. I once thought that the division would be responsible and I would not have to worry about never seeing any deer, but that day has came and went. I was fortunate enough to kill a buck early in the season, and traveled 100 miles east to kill a doe as I refuse to kill one in my own county. Come gun season I was focused on getting a new hunter a deer. Since then between the two gun seasons and the weekend of muzzy season we have hunted an entire week, and the only deer we saw was one buck at 9 am on opening monday of gun season. We are hunting the same area where I use to enjoy seeing a reasonable amount of deer in the past. She has since informed me has no more desire to hunt, as she is sick of sitting all those hours and never seeing a deer. I had to beg her to try "one more time" this past sunday of muzzy season. It breaks my heart that she feels this way, but I completely understand. If I wasn't already an established hunter, I would probably quit myself. This has definitely became personal to me. About the only people here killing any deer are the drivers because 90 percent of the properties have been already hunted to extinction before gun season even rolls around and no sane deer will move naturally during daylight. The other 10 percent of the properties still have a decent deer population, but are off limits to hunters. All I can say is we as Ohio hunters need to put our money where are mouth is and start standing up to this crap. If all we can do is whine on the internet, why even bother? If it is as bad as we say it is, it will be standing room only come the odnr open house this march. See you there.
 
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Here's what I know:

I hunted in a finger separating a picked cornfield with lots of corn on the ground and a standing cornfield the past two afternoons(2.5 hours each) and could see well in all directions and got skunked both evenings. I was actually hunting for a yote and wanted just to observe what deer made it in my area. Lol

With all that food on the ground I was a bit taken back...
 
I feel like I am spoiled because of the fact that during bow season when I was setting dawn to dark I saw an average of 8-10 each set. I guess from what I am reading my area is one of those chosen few areas that just hasn't seen the affects of DNRs "management" program yet.
 
Gordo said:
I don't know if I'm spoiled or stupid.
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Neither. It just has not happened to you yet. I think all were saying is be cognesant if what your doing and pay closer attention to your local herd before your tighten your string...if you want to see more deer...well it takes more deer to do that so it may be prudent to back off every couple years. The days of trusting the DNR are over for me. They have not shown any interest in helping nor caring about hunters.
 
Yep the Ohio DNR has no interest in managing Ohio's wildlife for hunters anymore. If we all stopped buying license and tags for a year we could bankrupt them.
 
Milo said:
Neither. It just has not happened to you yet. I think all were saying is be cognesant if what your doing and pay closer attention to your local herd before your tighten your string...if you want to see more deer...well it takes more deer to do that so it may be prudent to back off every couple years. The days of trusting the DNR are over for me. They have not shown any interest in helping nor caring about hunters.
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Exactly.

TOO many hunters don't realize it.
 
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