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No Doe shooting for ME…. U guys down?

Sligh1

Sligh1

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Spent the whole summer watching deer #’s & countless days in stand in October. I don’t make deer # judgements in December & January as they are so concentrated. BUT….. my conclusion after summer & fall on several farms in sc part of state.. I need to shoot zero. I’m not hurting for deer but I’m way below carrying capacity & historically low for the last 10-15 years.
IMO- the biggest factors: 1) coyotes is probably #1. The un-noticed “natural” thinner of deer. I get to watch really close being here all the time. Amount of does with no fawns is significant. The population of coyotes in my region is astronomically higher than 10-15 years ago. No doubt in my mind. We kill em year round & will continue but the transients & area they cover insures plenty to fill in.
Deer I find that coyotes hunted down (like, im “quite certain”) is substantial. I’d say this #1 is overlooked & not realized by 95%++ of hunters.

2) other hunters Stacking does up…. Pockets around get hammered. We are the lucky ones with the shed buck season after Jan 10!! Deer clearly disperse some when pockets open up. & general doe harvest taking place. Not a “right or wrong” issue- just “this is what I see or my opinion on what’s happening”.
3) ehd. I haven’t noticed on my place but several miles in all directions, uptick in ehd deaths.
Add all 3 of those together & I personally can easily say “let’s lay off this year”. I’ll adjust in years ahead & have no issue shooting some when it’s needed. Not this year though!!!
What u guys seeing around the state?? General region you’re in & thoughts on your populations?
Good luck rest of season to u all!!!
 
FWIW, as late as early August of this year, we were planning on hitting the does HARD this year. This despite consistent antlerless harvest over the years by us and multiple close neighbors. Then a little thing called EHD showed up in our neighborhood and our "plan" was adjusted to ZERO antlerless harvest. A wild swing to be sure, but all of us in the neighborhood are in full agreement..."not this year", given all of our collective observations.

It seems like the fawns are the most probable survivors, as more than half of my deer sightings are apparent orphan fawns and 1-1/2 year old bucks.
 
I’d say the deer numbers are down overall by 25% ?? Guess

EHD has hit, it’s noticeable. But it’s not like we are not seeing deer. I’d guess I saw 15-20 different bucks in a week of hunting. Doe numbers are down too… I’d maybe take 1 or 2 off the farm total… or potentially eat tags if nothing walks by late season .
 
Just south of 80 in central part of the state. Lot of Ehd but on my property typically have 8 does with fawns. We had about 4 with fawns this year. Small property of 50 acres but plenty of food/cover on it. Actually more than in the past actually.
 
Goal of shooting 100 on one farm. Doubt we get there but shoot as many as possible. It's the most over populated farm I've ever seen. 4 or 5 major foodplots. You can see 40 deer on each on any given night.

My own places... won't shoot any.
 
Havent hidden my feelings/opinions on this subject on this forum over the years. Was literally just doing some quick research this morning on deer vehicle accidents in IL. This is one of the states primary metrics in tracking trends in overall deer populations and I think it’s a pretty solid way of doing it. The DVA’s in Illinois are the lowest they’ve been in 33 years! Literally have to go back to 1990 when there were fewer deer in the state then there is right now. That’s pretty depressing and yet as I’ve ranted on here (and many other places) before, the next article you read or industry spokesperson you see promoting the reduction or elimination of does in order to grow the herd in the majority (not all) of places in the Midwest will be the FIRST. So I love the fact that someone is saying “not this year” instead of the usual “kill more does” narrative that constantly gets pushed. I haven’t killed one since the major ehd outbreak in 12 and won’t until herd levels improve (if they ever do).
 
Not so much EHD, but I'm not shooting any this year. We took 3 last year and the neighbors stacked up their share. Not a huge amount, but my numbers are down from what I had seen in the past. I am beyond the limitless tags/hush program mindset. I can and will still donate some deer from time to time, but don't need to fill the back of my truck with deer piled high. This is specific to my place though in Ringgold. Other pockets in the state I'm sure have high densities. Those can and should be thinned some.
 
I pounded does when the DNR asked to help thin the herd. Had EHD come through and haven’t shot any does for quite some time, no plans in the future unless numbers get way out of control. For my area, that’s a long way off.


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IowaBowHunter1983 said:
Goal of shooting 100 on one farm. Doubt we get there but shoot as many as possible. It's the most over populated farm I've ever seen. 4 or 5 major foodplots. You can see 40 deer on each on any given night.

My own places... won't shoot any.
Click to expand...
That’s amazing. Out of curiosity how big of farm is it? (The one that needs 100 does killed)
Also, how would you describe the quality and quantity of bucks in that farm/area compared to others with lower populations.
 
Rous14 said:
That’s amazing. Out of curiosity how big of farm is it? (The one that needs 100 does killed)
Also, how would you describe the quality and quantity of bucks in that farm/area compared to others with lower populations.
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450ish. Alot of timber, with alot of foodplots. Prolly 30 acres in foodplots.

Quality of bucks is less than farms with lower population IMO.
 
I have a slight overpopulation of does on my farm. I'd say my buck/doe ratio is also out of wack at around 1 to 4. Lots of food plots, bedding, acorns and the does pile in. I would like to shoot 5-10 does and I also have a couple of old cull bucks that I need to remove.
 
tall@wide said:
I have a slight overpopulation of does on my farm. I'd say my buck/doe ratio is also out of wack at around 1 to 4. Lots of food plots, bedding, acorns and the does pile in. I would like to shoot 5-10 does and I also have a couple of old cull bucks that I need to remove.
Click to expand...
We got aggressive last year in taking out a few cull bucks that were old and maybe it’s just coincidence but this fall we seemed to have our best quality of older bucks we’ve had on the farm in the 6 years we’ve had it. Seemed to help
 
Rous14 said:
We got aggressive last year in taking out a few cull bucks that were old and maybe it’s just coincidence but this fall we seemed to have our best quality of older bucks we’ve had on the farm in the 6 years we’ve had it. Seemed to help
Click to expand...
Major major thing IMO. AND...... the #1 thing I see neglected on alot of farms I consult on in terms of actual deer management. Well done.
 
My area is way down. I'd guess 40%. Ringgold County. And like others have said, as recently as mid summer numbers seemed normal. Constantly on the brakes when driving at night, deer everywhere in the evenings, etc. But things have gone downhill through late summer into fall. I've never had so many slow hunts in my life. I think the most deer I saw in a single hunt was 10? Maybe 11? Usually 15-20 is pretty achievable.

4 bucks was the most I saw in a sit. 8-10 is usually more like it during the rut.
I sat all day on November 7th and saw one deer. One deer on November 7th.

It's been rough. Lots of hunts where I find myself just wanting the sun to hurry up and go down so I can head home instead of the the usual edge of your seat excitement of that final hour.

I'm not looking forward to seeing what numbers look like by mid January or next spring for that matter. Gun hunters around here have a "if it's brown, it's down" mentality around here.
 
I'm not sure the deer numbers are down on my farm. Had some good rut hunts this fall, also had a few hunts that were slow. That's normal.
I will say Mature buck numbers seem to be down. As of right now, I can think of 1 buck that i would shoot. Which is pretty low for me. Normally have more targets.
Will see if things change when the gun season rolls around, normally I get a real good inventory of the neighboring sections, because my land and 1 neighbors land is about the only land not pushed in my section.
 
Our group is going buck only first season and another big group considering not going out at all. West Central Iowa, terrible EHD losses found in CRP during pheasant hunts.
 
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