..Ohio"s Deer..

Sure, I'd be glad to.

1. Over bagging
2. Land access
3. The new call in system
4. Little law enforcement
5. Insurance companies
6. Liberal nuisance tags

Just to name a few. I keep hearing optimum deer herd size. But for who? Certainly not for hunters. When hunters quit buying deer tags to hunt deer that are not there, They'll take notice!

 

Michigan DNR next door to Ohio, has already posted that they suspect the herd to be down up to 20% in some areas, I feel they are being conservative, it is a lot larger percentage than they are saying.

 

Michigan's herd is really low where I hunt in the Coldwater area. Never had a shot and passed on all does and wouldn't shoot a buck 6 points or smaller. EHD went through that area of the state last year. Hopefully they'll build back up in the next couple years. We have a huge farm around us on three sides and they have the if its brown its down mentality. Tuff on the deer for sure. Well time will tell.

 

I'm from Michigan too (Washtenaw, Jackson Co. area). We got hit hard by EHD last year in my area. The DNR has also been issuing nearly unlimited antlerless permits here for years as well. I'm not sure what the "official" deer kill is in my area, but so far this year, my deer taxidermy take is way down. I mainly hunting in the U.P. though and the kill was down about 33% up there this year, as of Dec. 1.

 

It not like hunting in the 80-90's anymore, most of the prime hunting land is all leased. The saying around here pretty much is " if you dont own it ,you cant hunt it".

 

never seen a deer Monday DNR messing up bad imo going to try tomorrow

 

Sound`s just like Iowa!!!!

 

All we need to do is shoot more does. lol

It is going to be a thin year for all, seems everyone is down 30-60% over previous years intake.

 

Who's ever idea this new call in system was needs to have their head examined. Who knows how many deer are being taken that are not even checked in. Ya I realize that there are those that are not going to check their deer in anyways but to me this just makes it easier for those that are on the edge of right or wrong especially those that process their own deer.

 

You definitely have a point on that, a lot of my clients have complained about the potential increased poaching. In all reality, those that have poached in the past will always poach. Those of that respect the laws will abide for the most part. The system needs reworked and I was already told that it will be changing for next season already so we will see. As far as one of the farms a regularly hunt, it was crawling with deer this season, more so than ever before. It had a bad bout with EHD here about 5-6 years ago, and it has seemed to improve the area. The quality of animals has increased with virtually no help from us.

 

where i hunt here in mi it wasn't the lack of seeing deer this year people were not seeing any bucks. were i hunt we seen 30 to 40 deer every day during rifle season just no bucks our intake this year so far down 50% from last year not sure what we are going to do to make it till next year 70% of our work is whitetail

 

Our season was down also,50 inches of snow last april and a large wolf population. I took in one third of my normal take on deer.

 

If I'm not mistaken if you look back on the total number of deer killed in Ohio in the past few seasons since this new call in check system went into effect, every year has decreased. Is this due to low deer herd numbers or to people not checking deer in? In either case I think this issue needs to be looked into. Also with all these doe tags you can get now I'd like to know what percentage are button bucks. I realize does need to be taken to help the herd but I'm sure people would be surprised at how many of these "does " are really button bucks. Just my thoughts.

 

It has been a great year for us for deer numbers ! The only "slow" time was from the middle to end of shotgun season and I believe this was because the hunters were just not out there. I know our local game warden even said that the hunters were just not out during shotgun season.
Our bow season hunters saw a lot of deer. Heck the one week we had 5 hunters in camp, the total number of bucks seen from the stands was 96 in five days !!
But I do think it varies from area to area on the deer herd and some areas are down from we read. But luckily are area is doing great.

 

I am from n.ky and hunt both Ky and IN areas where I hunt haven t noticed much difference. Although I didn't see any booners in my areas I hunt that have been around last yr or two.... They may have died to EHD or harvested , poached, etc. but I am not going to complain bout EHD that's Gods creation .....maybe his way of deer management. I agree with everyone else on call in system. Wish Ky would change . Bad business all the way around local gas stations in IN have great business during shotgun . Guys tag their deer buy a monster energy drink and slice of three day old pizza lol

 

All the taxi's i flesh for all say their off 50-60 mounts from last year. Looks like a make it or break it year for alot of them.