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Ohio deer population

Just ran into the guy who cuts up my deer, he said it's slow this year.... He said the same thing last year as well.... Game warden was there a couple times this week.... He said the same thing.... Tom basically told him well if you didn't let everyone shoot so many deer we wouldn't be down this much....
 
"J" said:
Just ran into the guy who cuts up my deer, he said it's slow this year.... He said the same thing last year as well.... Game warden was there a couple times this week.... He said the same thing.... Tom basically told him well if you didn't let everyone shoot so many deer we wouldn't be down this much....
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Talked to our local processor today when I picked up my deer. He said he has took in 50 some deer so far this gun season and last year got that many on the first day. This was about an hour after dark and I asked if he had anyone call to say they were bringing one. He said no.
 
Talked to our local WO yesterday on the phone. Said it was surprisingly quiet for the first couple days of gun season. Wednesday kept him a little busy. I brought up the dropping herd. His reply is what I would consider "fair." He said "We are not in the hey day we were 5-10yrs ago. We are still much better off than we were 25yrs ago or more. We were spoiled 5yrs ago and took it for granted." I would say I agree yet disagree with him. It is accurate. Not sure hunters today are spoiled. I thought it was a fair statement though. I still find part of the problem to be access. There ARE properties with plenty of deer. Those without deer are very pressured because there is such limited ground available. Deer know where to go to stay safe. Hard to legislate this UNLESS we are talking about non-hunting cities or parks where they hire sharp shooters.
 
I disagree with his assessment. 20 years ago, the area I live and hunt in was a bow hunter's paradise, gun hunting too. I didn't live here 25 years ago, but the hunting around my old homeplace was far better than it is today. The devil is in perception. High kills equate to high populations in most folks' mind. Fact is, we did not kill as many in total 25 years ago, however, we left more standing at the end of the season...so each year, there were plenty of deer left to hunt the next year. Breeding stock, it's important.
 
I have hunted the same large piece of property in Athens for over 25 years. The population today is maybe 1/3 of what it was in it's heyday and 1/2 of what it was just 4-5 years ago.

Deer population is very localized. What I am seeing in one part of Athens County may not be reflected in other parts.

The single largest influence on the deer population in this immediate area is and has been the large organized deer drives, not NR hunters, although NR's are part of the drive group every year. This is the same family and group that has been doing this for years. 25+ guys that drive everyday from daylight to dark. It was not uncommon for their group to kill over 200 deer during the week on the adjoining properties. The last few years they have been stuggeling. One drive I watched them do this week produced 2 deer and a total of 5 shots for 25+ hunters. I used to see 30 deer come across our property on that drive and hear 50 shots. I watched one guy kill 6 does on one drive years ago. He would have killed more but he missed some he shot at.

The DNR didn't kill the deer in a localized area to reduce the population, hunters did.

I still have deer to hunt and have two isolated areas on the farm that have filled up with deer this week, but not even close to what it used to be.

Did I mention that I really don't like drives.
 
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Lundy said:
The DNR didn't kill the deer in a localized area to reduce the population, hunters did.
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True. However it's the DOWs job to understand that and manage accordingly. Things like this should have been accounted for and considered by the DOW. If something illegal is happening that's why we employ wildlife officers. No matter how the pie is sliced it's either mismanagement or blatant negligence on behalf of the DNR. Hunters are going to do what they do. Kill animals. We've proven that as a whole we can't manage a statewide resource ourselves. That's why we have a DNR and trusted them to do what's right by us. In return they used us as a tool agains our own interest to make corporations happy and profitable. Hunters may have been the nails in the coffin, but it was the DOW swinging the hammer, and it's they who are ultimately responsible.
 
Jackalope,

I agree, I talk to hunters in this area often that complain about deer populations but continue to kill their legal limit every year.

It is a all about me mentality, they want OTHERS to reduce their harvests but can always rationalize the numbers they kill every year.

One area of our farm has 25-30 does and 5 different bucks crammed into about 40 acres right now that is isolated from the surrounding farms with hunting. They started showing up mid day on Tuesday. My buddy watched deer all day long yesterday, the cameras are taking a few hundred pics a day. If the "hunters" around us could get in on this area they would clean it out pretty quickly.

We kill 2-3 deer a year, every year, on over 800 acres and the population continues to plummet. They get blown up hard when they cross the fences.
 
Lets also not forget the wonderful early muzzy season that is doe only. Even though it's been 2 years I saw a drastic decline in my public hunting area(Strouds). I bow hunted 12 straight days and saw a total of 3 does, many more bucks. My hunting party has ruled out does until we see the numbers return.
 
These deer have been walking around in front of my buddy all day long for the last two days

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I just went for a drive this morning after dropping the boy off at school. As this week has gone on I have seen more deer in the subdivisions at the edge of town. All the aimless wondering the gun hunters do out at my property pushes the deer right into town where they spend the rest of the winter being fed from feeders, mineral blocks and bird feeders. I'm sure there are other things for them to eat in there as well so they have no reason to leave the safety of that subdivision.

Monday -0
Tuesday -0
Wednesday -3
Thursday -5
Friday -9

These are just the deer I have seen at the edge of a large city lot grass field. I haven't even started to go into the subdivision and really look to see how many deer have been in there this week but I can only imagine. I have suspected this trend the last 5 years I have been back on this property but with more time available this year I have seen it happen first hand.
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The area around us in Meigs County has had a huge population decline in recent years. Used to see 20+ deer every night in the fields behind the house and we are now lucky to see 3-4. I remember seeing and or passing on 30 deer opening day of gun season growing up and between dad and I the last 3 years I bet we have seen a total of 7 deer on an opening day. The neighbor down the road barely gets pictures of them in his food plots. It concerns me big time. We have always hunted responsibly and never taken more than 3 deer between us in a year but other around us not so much. One adjoining neighbor and his two sons harvested over 8 deer last year of which almost all were does. I asked what in the world you do with 8 deer and he was just giving them away as he said he just like killing them......... That right there is what is wrong......how do people no understand conservation?

I killed my buck in October and and haven't even picked a gun up to go out. Hoping a few survive cause I think it's only going to get worse in the next few years as people like my neighbor are still going to kill everything they see one way or another.
 
** Report is for the first 67 days of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 Deer Season.

|- Archery Season Comparison -| |------------- All Seasons Comparison ----------------|
Antlered Antlerless Antlered Antlerless State Totals
Carroll 491 567 15.48% 738 518 -29.81% 897 889 -0.89% 1,663 1,217 -26.82% 2,560 2,106 -17.73%
Year 13 14 13 14 13 14 13 14 13 14

These numbers say a lot about what my cameras and hunting observations have told me. The number of bucks taken by archery hunters grew by 15.48% year over year and the does taken dropped by 29.81%. Even the gun hunters faired quite well on buck numbers, but again the does were way down. In a nutshell IMO opinion the only way to change things is to STOP killing does. Without does we have no fawns and without fawns we have no deer.

The DNR makes the rules, but we as hunters have the power to rectify the situation if we really want to. Just because the state allows you X amount of deer doesn't mean you must kill X amount of deer. We as a whole can whine and cry all we want about the DNR's management practices, but the end result of our herds existence depends on our actions.

I think it is time that we call it as it is. Hunters are slaughtering the herd not the DNR.
 
Yes everyone has different thoughts and observations but no one knows an accurate number of how many deer or what sex are being killed due to the disaster Telecheck system. You can see from the number of turkey kills has dropped drastically so you know people are too lazy to call in. Time to go back to state issued license tags, then metal tags after check station. Raise the non residents license fees to pay for the return to the previous system that was closer to true numbers.
Game wardens hanging out at butcher shops everyday this week is certainly no deterent to poached deer.
 
Hortontoter said:
** Report is for the first 67 days of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 Deer Season.

|- Archery Season Comparison -| |------------- All Seasons Comparison ----------------|
Antlered Antlerless Antlered Antlerless State Totals
Carroll 491 567 15.48% 738 518 -29.81% 897 889 -0.89% 1,663 1,217 -26.82% 2,560 2,106 -17.73%
Year 13 14 13 14 13 14 13 14 13 14

These numbers say a lot about what my cameras and hunting observations have told me. The number of bucks taken by archery hunters grew by 15.48% year over year and the does taken dropped by 29.81%. Even the gun hunters faired quite well on buck numbers, but again the does were way down. In a nutshell IMO opinion the only way to change things is to STOP killing does. Without does we have no fawns and without fawns we have no deer.

The DNR makes the rules, but we as hunters have the power to rectify the situation if we really want to. Just because the state allows you X amount of deer doesn't mean you must kill X amount of deer. We as a whole can whine and cry all we want about the DNR's management practices, but the end result of our herds existence depends on our actions.

I think it is time that we call it as it is. Hunters are slaughtering the herd not the DNR.
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I agree to a point however, it is the DNR/DOW that is the managing body here. If they had our (the hunters) best interest in mind wouldn't you think they would also see the same numbers as you have and adjusted the allowed harvest numbers? Like Joe said, we have an agency to manage us. So why are they still allowing hunters to over harvest? Hunters can't agree on what weapon should or shouldn't be allowed to hunt with for crying out loud. You have guys saying you shouldn't shoot anything other then trad gear, gun,compound,crossbow or whatever the fad is at the time. There is noway in hell your going to get 500k+ hunters in this state plus however many hunters in other states to agree to shoot less doe unless the agency puts it in writing and MANAGE the hunters and MANAGE the resource. That is the entire reason we have the DNR and DOW isn't it? If hunters could MANAGE what they hunt and how much they take then there would be NO reason to have the agencies. Right?

Hunters are a TOOL used to fix a problem and the DNR/DOW are the people using the tool. Misuse the tool and things can go bad and get ugly real quick. Like Tonk told about 20 of us a couple years ago, A majority of HUNTERS are mindless, stupid, and uneducated people and do what they are told and they can't think for themselves.
 
Hortontoter said:
RedCloud that is liking saying that the Dept of Highways posts the legal speed limit and we all obey it. You know and I know we pull the trigger or release the arrow not the DNR. There are to many ways around the hunting laws for the DNR to be effective IMO.
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Totally agree!! I know people who shoot nice bucks and then a week later their wife shoots an awesome buck as they wink at you........ Know what I mean :smiley_depressive:
Makes me furious but how do you prove it?
 
Hortontoter said:
Abnd like Lundy stated "I saw a guy shoot 6 does on one drive". No way was that legal and if I had seen it happen you can bet there would have been a confrontation. We have to do our part to turn these people in.
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I have witnessed that more than once just never 6 before, but multiple kills from one stander on a drive are commonplace everyday occurrences.

I have called the GW many times, including that time but don't know if anything was ever done, probably not considering they continue their ways even today.

I am NOT going to confront 25 country yahoo's:D with guns. I already have bullet holes through all of my hunting blinds.
 
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