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still have average deer numbers?

muddy

muddy

Well-Known Member
Do any of you still have average, or above average deer numbers? I'm just curious. If you could provide a vague location (county) that'd be a nice change.

I'll start.

Though I had fewer buck sightings I still saw decent doe numbers in northern Johnson co
 
Average numbers where our farm is at, Didn't get hit by ehd hardy at all, found one doe that's it. Had some great encounters and the family and I put some nice deer on ground, great season!!! :D Northern Clarke County.
 
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Way below average in Madison near bevington/Patterson. Above average in ringgold county near arispe
 
Deer numbers way down in my area(western Crawford county). Still big tracts with decent deer numbers but all the small tracts have been cleared for farming. The deer have to hide somewhere. This was the first time in my short 18 years of hunting that we never killed a single deer off of our 3 home farms and they are the only ones in the area with trees left. My county only allows 300 doe tags so can't blame that. We did have big loss due to ehd but mainly loss of habitat. I can't even describe the amount of timber that has been pushed the last 4 or 5 years and it's still happening. Can't blame the farmer for wanting to make more money but I just don't see it ending. People say when the grain markets drop it will slow down but I'm afraid it's far to late. Mature timbers take many years to grow and one week to demolish. Sad really just knowing that your kids won't be able to experience the great hunting we once had. I will be spending more time on the water this November than in a treestand.
 
Polk/Warren-both down, some spots still seemed to have good numbers, but overall it has dropped noticeably each season.
 
Hamilton-Webster counties - my sightings we down modestly overall (does and bucks) from last season but noticeably lower than 2+ yrs ago. Definitely down related to older age class bucks.
 
Every farm I personally hunt has less deer on it now than any year in the past 6 years, every one. Some of these farms still have what I'd consider good numbers as they were pretty high at one time. Others have very very very poor numbers. I'm talking less than 10 deer per square mile in some areas (current numbers after harvest)

Mature bucks, down in most areas, but definitely down in areas hit by EHD

I roam quite a bit and I'd consider myself to be pretty well-informed on these counties in particular:

Madison
Union
Dallas
Clarke
Monroe
Marion
Keokuk
Van Buren
Iowa
Warren
Guthrie
 
Deer numbers are down a little here in Monona cty, but the older age class of does and bucks is down the most, from the 2012 EHD.
 
I do almost all of my hunting on my farm in NE Davis County. The numbers on our farm this past hunting season were peculiar. We had more than normal deer early in October, but things faded throughout the season by mid-November it was pretty obvious things were definitely down. I suspect that the very low deer numbers in semi-nearby areas drew deer off of our place throughout the season.

Mature buck sightings were definitely way off throughout this season on our place. We passed many small bucks and several mediums, but only really had one close encounter with a biggie all bow season and he was smart, or lucky, enough to stay behind some branches. So we didn't even shoot at a buck this year. If you would have told me that was possible a couple of years ago I would have thought you were crazy.

But even more dramatic was what we saw on our travels to and from our farm. To get to my farm it involves a drive through southern Johnson County, and segments of Washington, Jefferson, a little slice of Van Buren and then Davis. Just a few years ago we would see many, often dozens, of deer on the drive to and fro. This past year...many round trips were made where either NO or very, very few deer were seen.

This drop was so dramatic that I almost couldn't believe it. It was common to have to stop or slow way down for deer two or three times per trip. This year we didn't even see two or three deer per trip.
 
Harrison county, Hills area, mature bucks are way down as are does. Put in about 20 hunts saw only about 10 does total, Hit hard by EHD. Saw more small 1 1/2 year old bucks though. This is the first year in 25 years that I only shot one doe and prolly shouldn't have shot her. Ate my Late Muzzle tag. It did no taste good but did not want to shoot a doe. All we can do is manage our heard as if we own it. Which we sort of do. Lets stop the doe Harvest and things should come back. Hopefully!!!
 
Saw about 18 deer in 3 wks of Nov, out every day in the stand. Place? SE-Wapello Co. SE-IA. Believe it or not that was pretty good. Years past like 2009 and 2010, more like 10 deer. Early 2000's was much more, like 5 or 6 deer a day.
 
Page county numbers are down. Mature does way down. Usually during shotgun season we encounter groups of 6+ medium size bucks (120"-140") but never saw them. Reports from southern Page along the state line, numbers down 75% over the last two years. EHD struck two years straight very hard.
 
Very low mature buck #'s up here. Very few "big" deer killed this year in comparison. Very few sightings of good bucks in all my scouting and hunting.

Overall #'s are quite a bit down compared to the last 5 years.

Fayette, Winneshiek, Clayton, Allamakee
 
Just a few years ago we would see many, often dozens, of deer on the drive to and fro. This past year...many round trips were made where either NO or very, very few deer were seen.
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This is probably what most amazes me....traveling around the state, most my travel is in eastern Iowa, places I used to see 10-20 deer every evening just a few years ago...I now see zero.

Des Moines County- numbers seen hunting are 25-30% what they were a few years back, and no mature deer. Trail cams in good spots have days with zero pictures....sometime multiple days. EHD and too many tags/seasons.
 
dedgeez said:
Very low mature buck #'s up here. Very few "big" deer killed this year in comparison. Very few sightings of good bucks in all my scouting and hunting.

Overall #'s are quite a bit down compared to the last 5 years.

Fayette, Winneshiek, Clayton, Allamakee
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Ditto. I'm still seeing decent numbers in spots but overall down 50% from 5-8 years ago. Some spots worse some better. Allamakee
 
On our farms in Iowa county we had lower numbers from last year. But one thing I did notice was more young bucks than I'd expected but very few mature bucks. There seemed to be a fair amount of fawns for the amount of does. In the last couple weeks though I've started spotting dead deer out in the fields on our farm. Most appear to be fawns.
 
I've only lived in Guthrie for ~15 months but am definitely seeing fewer deer to and from work than I was just 12 months ago.
 
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