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SOS From The ODNR.

It happens all the time, if I see a reason why the posted speed limit is unreasonable(ice, traffic etc) I might be significantly under the posted speed. Same with killing deer, last year I chose not to kill an antlerless deer because the use of Crop Damage permits where I hunt had the doe population in check. This year the population rebounded nicely and I decided to shoot one doe. I did shoot a second doe because she was crippled.
 
Jackalope said:
Nor will most.. But for us to see an increase in VC back to pre 2008 levels we will have to shoot either 0 or 1. The limits are arbitrary.. It matters not if it's a 6 deer county and you only shoot 3 if 3 is still too many.. I have a friend who has property in VC that is loaded with stationary cams and has been for years... This was the 2nd year he has put a 0 doe kill rule on the property.. And it's still not back to pre 2008 levels. This was once a property where for years and years they could kill 15+ does out of the same stand year after year and never be hurt the next season.

A limit of 6 with a population of 24,000 and shooting 3.. Is way different than a limit of 6 with a population of 12,000 and shooting 3..
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What happend in Vinton sucks for sure and it sounds like your friend and some of the guys on your lease are doing the responsible thing. Sometimes getting back on track can be painful, but no one else is going to do it for us.
 
Ohiosam said:
It happens all the time, if I see a reason why the posted speed limit is unreasonable(ice, traffic etc) I might be significantly under the posted speed. Same with killing deer, last year I chose not to kill an antlerless deer because the use of Crop Damage permits where I hunt had the doe population in check. This year the population rebounded nicely and I decided to shoot one doe. I did shoot a second doe because she was crippled.
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Congrats on being one of the few. To expect the majority of the hunters to do that is a pipe dream at best.. I would expect most of us here would be the same as you.. We obviously care and are more informed or we wouldn't be members of online forums... But i bet the vast majority of them know what the odnr limit is, and that's what they think should be their limit..
 
Schu72 said:
What happend in Vinton sucks for sure and it sounds like your friend and some of the guys on your lease are doing the responsible thing. Sometimes getting back on track can be painful, but no one else is going to do it for us.
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That's just the thing.. While we few can make an impact on our parcel, we can not manage the masses.... We have an organization who's sole responsibility it is to do just that.. However they are doing everything in their power reduce reduce reduce and turning a blind eye to the problem as a whole..
 
By my observations though I'm limited to where I hunt anymore, I saw far less deer than I have in a long time, and I actually spent more time hunting this year than any of the past 5 seasons. That being said, the squirrel road kill numbers being down is an absolute joke when pertaining TOO acorns being plentiful. Hell, I've swerved TOO miss just as many of them squirrels this year as any other year. Bringing this into the discussion as Tonk has, make me wonder if he thinks we as hunters are idiots or if he's the IDIOT! DANG! Oh, the squirrel numbers are down, the sheds I've found in the past 5 years have very few if any chew marks on them!LOL
 
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finelyshedded said:
By my observations though I'm limited to where I hunt anymore, I saw far less deer than I have in a long time, and I actually spent more time hunting this year than any of the past 5 seasons. That being said, the squirrel road kill numbers being down is an absolute joke when pertaining TOO acorns being plentiful. Hell, I've swerved TOO miss just as many of them squirrels this year as any other year. Bringing this into the discussion as Tonk has, make me wonder if he thinks we as hunters are idiots or if he's the IDIOT! DANG! Oh, the squirrel numbers are down, the sheds I've found in the past 5 years have very few if any chew marks on them!LOL
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Like any politician he assumes we're idiots... Mushrooms.. Keep us in the dark and feed us bullshit... Not that we do much to help ourselves in this regard.. We do have products like acorn crunchers, deerview mirrors, and an entire isle of some gimmick in a bag.. Maybe as a whole we are as dumb as he thinks.. They sure are getting away with it enough to feel confident in throwing the same old shit out there again...
 
Jackalope said:
How long before rexy shows up and makes his first post since December 25th.. :smiley_depressive:
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He would just say, quaility over quantity.

Of course sooner or later even quaility will suffer in certain areas.

Less deer means less interest, with that tag sales will drop next.
When that happens it will take something different to return control of the resource.
 
i dont know much but i have seen a decline of deer numbers on public land cause now with the bigger limits everyone can balst anything that moves and still have a bunch of tags left

jockey hollow and piedmont area had virtually no deer didnt see anywhere near thenumbers that i have seen the last four years
 
Mountaineer said:
I cant begin to count how many squirrels i ran over because of all the acorns on the roads :smiley_confused_vra
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I want that government Job.. Drive around with a clicker counter and track SVAs (Squirrel Vehicle Accidents)
 
bagdad_bob_large.gif

"I've not heard boo from people, Hunters haven't asked, 'What happened to the deer?' There's not a lot of unhappy hunters out there."
 
Time will tell if Tonk is full of it or not. I know one thing, if he hasn't heard anything from hunters about the overall numbers & sightings of deer being down, then he hasn't been outside of his office, or anywhere online. The forums have had these types of threads going all throughout the season. And that is real time information from actual hunters, spending time in the woods. I'd have to say that the majority of hunter's I've talked to seemed to be seeing less deer this past season. Factor in the harvest figures from the prior two seasons and you have to question whether these types of kills can continue to be achieved.

So then what to do next? If most hunters feel that deer numbers are on the decline, and aren't buying in to the ODNR storyline of weather, acorns, and squirrel babble, then we have to take matters into our own hands and kill deer according to our respective areas. Only kill what you feel your hunting area can provide. If you like seeing high numbers, then only kill one deer, and encourage others in your group or hunting area to do the same. Just because you can kill a certain amount of deer, doesn't mean you should.

In duck hunting it's called voluntary restraint... you try to only shoot the drakes, and let the hens live to lay more eggs. It's still legal to shoot a single hen mallard in your daily bag, and Ohio wants hunters to kill more "antlerless" deer (does), but dead hens can't lay eggs. Just like dead does don't have fawns. Don't read into this thinking I don't kill does because I do, and will continue to do so on the areas that I hunt in which there are enough does to go around. The point is hunters might just have to self-police and use some voluntary restraint if we feel the overall herd numbers are on the decline.
 
Did I read once that Mrex thought the deer kill was down because of acorns? Is there a bunch of hunters in the south east that just stand out in the middle of a field and wait for the deer to come up to them???
 
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