Thought about a question hunting the other day for some of you guys that were bowhunting before bowhunting really was so main stream.
How have yall seen the deer population grow or shrink from the times when yall started??
Jason
I've been bowhunting in Wisconsin for about 50 years. Deer populations are higher now than when I started.
I've been bowhunting central Nebraska for 45 years. I think the overall impression is that the whitetail populations have increased. There are however areas in the state where guys are saying the numbers are down. While I haven't hunted western Nebraska much in recent years the reports are that mule deer populations are definetly down.
Where I hunt, the population is higher BECAUSE I started trad hunting. :archer: Lin
QuoteOriginally posted by Lin Rhea:
Where I hunt, the population is higher BECAUSE I started trad hunting. :archer: Lin
:laughing: :laughing:
I've been hunting here in W.Va. for 50 years and it has absolutely grown by leaps and bounds. There were only a few deer in my county now it is 1 of the best in state.
One word.........."Exploded"
When I started in PA in the 60s, you had to travel to the mountains to find deer. Within 10 years, deer had expanded their territory to the farm lands. Now they are everywhere!
The locals here in southern NY tell me the same thing. The suburban areas are now inundated with them.
:archer:
I would have to think our deer numbers are down over all here in MO. But our MDC loves money and selling an unlimted amount of out of state tags so they claim the herd is to large! This is BS according to anyone that I've talk to this year, there all seeing less deer. But I'm sure if I had been hunting in the 50's or 60's the deer herd has blown up by leaps and bounds! I'm betting it was frusterating to hunt all season and only see a few deer! We sure don't want things to go back like that! Sorry about the rant.
When I started in the early 1960's I was lucky to see 5 deer from a stand the whole season so there are definitely more now.
I agree with RLA. Where I live here in Kansas our deer numbers are down a lot from there peak.
On the other hand in central New York, the herd is no where near what it used to be. In the late 60's, 70's and early 80's I saw deer all the time on every outing. Now sightings are down and in some cases non existent. The Northern Zone has always been tough but it has gotten worse in the last few years. I average seeing 3 deer a year, yes 3. This year I did see 15. Only because I bow hunted more than I ever have. 15 deer seen and not one shot was offered. There are parts of the state that are good, I just don't live or hunt there.
When I was a kid in school the bus driver would stop the bus and all of us would go to the windows when there was a deer. The bus driver wouldn't get the kids to school if they did that now days. Even with the new PA regs. we still have it great when it comes to the number of deer out there.
Whitetail deer in the east have skyrocketed, while mule deer numbers have dropped.Here in southern california 40 years ago I could count40 deer in one morning hunt. Now one three day period I saw one deer. Very poor game management here I think they are trying to kill off the few that are left.
I agree with RLA in all aspects of his post.
We are blessed to have the Conservation department that we have but that doesn't mean they do everything perfectly.
In fact when choices are made for the pointed purposes of just filling the coiffures it generally bods negative for the average hunter/bowhunter.
This is just my opinion and worth every penny paid for it.
God bless,Mudd
I don't know if I qualify "before mainstream" but....
When I started hunting deer with a bow in 1970 the deer herd was estimated at 45,000 animals. These days Indiana's herd is estimated at more than ten times that number. I knew about 4 other bowhunters, all but one older than me. Among the 5 of us, only two had killed a deer in 9 years of bowhunting. I killed the first live deer I ever saw that 1st year with a 15-yard shot from a Ben Pearson Cougar.
The County I live in now, in KY didn't even allow deer hunting until 1967.
I believe the answers reflect where you live. I grew up in West Tennessee and began bow hunting in the 60's. Today, whitetail numbers in the South and East are far greater than 50 years ago.
However, here in the West in many areas, both Mule deer and Whitetails are either decreasing or just holding their own. I think it is safe to say their numbers in Washington are certainly not "exploding".
we always look for simple answers to complex problems... it's human nature.
Where I hunt, we have had a really high deer count per square mile- for decades.
It's thick (no, not two mountain mahogany bushes on a hillside) like you western guys call thick- I'm talking J-U-N-G-L-E thick.
We also have a high hog and turkey population.
In recent years, though, the deer population has seemingly peaked and valleyed a lot- up and down- and we are starting to believe that its at least partially related to a coyote invasion.
Why wouldn't they? We've got plenty of their three favorite candy foods- baby deer, baby pigs, and baby turkeys galore!
But I think its more than that.
We've had really severe winters comparatively speaking, in the last few years, we have had two severe multiyear droughts over the last ten years, and there's more issues than that too.
I agree with RonW. The population in parts of CNY seem lower than in the 70's, 80's and early 90's. I spend more time in the woods and see less deer. I attribute it to an excess number of doe tags given out over the last couple decades. NY now gets $10 per doe tag (unless you have a lifetime license), so they will keep handing them out.
RonP
Yup, Ray, the coyotes up here likely have contributed to our local decline, too. I'm curious, what is a severe winter Georgia? We got 120" of snow in less than three days a few years back. That's 10 feet. I thought that was leaning toward severe. We usually total about 250 to 275" up here in the snow belt!
I gave up fluid dispensing contests four years ago....
I'm a "graduate" (retiree) of four state fish and wildlife agencies, including 3.5 years with the MDC. I assure you, selling more deer permits has ZERO to do with deer management decisions in your state or any state in which I've worked. I can' speak for the west because I know NR fees are a very important part of the funding base in those states. I know one pretty far west state that had to reduce its NR fees one year in an emergency action because the NR hunters were revolting. In the east nonresidents are barely even a blip -- fees are generally set to be "in-line" with neighboring states to keep the RESIDENTS happy. Most states don't want to have the lowest or the highest fees. I've been involved in these kinds of decisions on many occassions over the years.
Too many people forget we agency folks, at least those of my generation, which includes those who still run most of these agencies, were (are) among the most avid hunters in the state. We were lead to the profession of wildlife management because of our passion for hunting.
That said, sometimes management decisions are made to reduce or mainatain a lower wildlife population based upon social carrying capacities rather than biological... in other words what the auto insurance folks and farmers will tolerate. This is why I boycotted deer hunting in Kansas the last year I worked in that state (1992).
P.S. If your state agency isn't replacing its retiring hunter/biologists with experienced hunter/biologists you should be afraid and you should vigorously complain! It matters! I hired quite a few folks during my career, I wouldn't even hire a nature center worker that didn't hunt. If during an interview in my office a candidate for clerk, computer dude, biologist, janitor, etc. made a bad face at my "trophies", the interview was abbreviated and they were still job hunting. Biologists who don't hunt make for very poor regulation writers because, while they may understand what stink comes from which gland, too many of the nonhunter bios know much about how we hunters tick, what's important to us, what makes sense, ethical, is practical, etc. Yes, I'm a wildlife biologist (and forester)-- Purdue 1977, but I was a hunter first and remain one after a wonderful and fulfilling 30.5-year career in state wildlife management.
And just in case you think I might have been a "rogue biologist" and poorly regarded by my agency employers...I was MDC's employee of the year in 1994 , 1984 Biologist of the Year for Indiana, and Wildlife Officer of the year in 85. I wouldn't want you to be feeling sorry for me thinking this bowhunter/biologist had been unappreciated!
To this day I have never seen the amount of deer I did as a teenager in the 60s in western Wyoming. There were more deer and fewer hunters. It was a great time to hunt.
Yeah, what Lin said... :help:
I have seen plenty this year, just gotta work out some faults in MY approach...I think the 'hunter' numbers are down a bit though.
We have too many variables here in western WA to say one way or the other. One cougar can eat a lot of deer in a year plus a bad winter takes a high number also. Seems after a mild winter the numbers are up from 2 bad winters...PR
I will only disagree with you on one thing Bowwild, the deer don't know where the MO. IA. border is and if your planing on hunting in that area on the MO. side. You can go in Walmart and purchase a resident or none resident tag over the counter and it's good in any unit in the state. I have to be drawn on the IA. side. Unlikly to happen in the first few tries! Then I must pick a unit to hunt that I will be limited to hunt in, not the whole state and I haven't even brought up the jump in price between these two neighboring states! So it's an easy decision for the out of state hunter to make. Mo. Makes there money on a lot of lower priced unlimited tags, IA. Makes there's on a controled amount of high priced limited access tags! Who's deer herd suffers more?
Sorry this was a double post.
More deer here in LA. Not so much density of population, but they have definitely expanded their range.
It's also a non resident draw tag in KS. On our west border.
So I guess what I'm saying in short is less out of state tags and higher prices on them. I would also like to see the end of unlimited $7.00 doe tags! Jmwo
We're still waiting for Ron L. to tell us what he remembers it was like before bowhunting was popular.
Back when the atl-atl was the hunting weapon of choice. :biglaugh:
I hear you RLA. It would be tough living on a border where one is draw and the other isn't. I've been turning down a hunt in Iowa since 2003 -- I just don't want to give up days in KY and IN to go somewhere else.
Iowa and MO deer range are vastly different on a statewide basis. And the reputations for big antlers (older deer) is also quite different although MO is a good deer hunting state. Because, at least after the crops are in, IA has much less escape cover it would be more possible to over-harvest deer in Iowa than Missouri. Not as extreme but that's why AZ is draw for almost everything -- habitat is so sparse in some areas overkill could easily occur if permits weren't controlled.
Of all states, money isn't the issue in MO, AR, VA, FL, or Washington -- the biggest budgets (and funding sources) of almost all the states. Missouri is one of only 15 states that hasn't seen a decline in hunter numbers over the past 10 years as well (KY is also among the 15 + states too).
QuoteWe're still waiting for Ron L. to tell us what he remembers it was like before bowhunting was popular.
Back when the atl-atl was the hunting weapon of choice. :biglaugh:
I'm not quite THAT old... :D I started deer hunting in 1950 when I was 14 tears old. We had a good number of deer in the northern half of the state but not many in the southern farm land part of the state. I lived on a farm in southern Michigan in the mid 1940's and I remember when the local milkman (the guy that picked up the fresh milk from the farmers) said he saw some white tail deer. A lot of people didn't believe him because there had NEVER been any deer in southern Michigan for many many years.
It's just the opposite now with an abundance of deer in the southern farm land and very few in the northern forest areas of the state.
In 1954 my uncle took me to an area in northern Mich. between East Jordan and Mancelona , called The Jordan River State Forest. As we drove down a logging trail in mid afternoon there were white tails waving at us from everywhere. I started bow hunting that area but being a novice bow hunter it took me 7 years to take a deer with my bow. Baiting was something you only did when fishing...tree stands weren't even thought of yet, plus it was illegal to hunt from trees back then. We relied only on spot and stalk or Natural ground blinds close to deer runways.
Here I am with my brand new 52# Bear Kodiak.
(http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/First_year_bowhunting.jpg)
My bow camp in the Jordan Valley State Forest in the 1950's
(http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/deer%20camp%201959.jpg)
My first deer with a bow in 1961. In those days only 1 in 20 bow hunters were successful and if you got a deer with a bow you very well may get your picture in the paper.
(http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/First-bow-deer1.jpg)
During the 60's if you wanted to be a successful bow hunter you headed for the north country where all the deer were. I remember one year in the mid 60's I hunted for 9 days straight near my home in southern Mich and never saw a single deer. On the 10th day I had 4 does come by my blind and I shot one of the does.
During the 70's the southern herd started to take off and we're now to the point that we have too many deer. Farmers complained of crop damage, the insurance companys complained of too many car deer accidents. Consequently the DNR stepped up the doe hunting. Today we have an early gun season in September for anterless deer, then the youth season, then bow season starts in Oct and runs through until the regular gun season on Nov 15th, then muzzleloading season and another doe season that runs until the 1st of the year. There is no limit on the number of anterless permits you can buy over the counter...up to FIVE per day.
At the rate that the does are being killed off it won't be long before there won't be any more deer. I know that's what the Farm Bureau and insurance companys want.
Flash back to the early 50's when people applied for a doe permit just to burn it so it wouldn't get used. And in northern Michigan if you stopped at a gas station with a doe on your fender you may not get served. My how attitudes have changed in the last 60 years.
Shrink due to loss of habitat and additional doe tags issued. Seems the Automobile Insurance companies lobbied real hard to reduce herds which reduces car/deer collisions on the road.
Back in the late 60's through the 70's, it wasn't uncommon to see 15-25 deer a day with some nice rack bucks running with these deer. Huge apple orchards that were surrounded by plenty of hardwoods had unbelievable hunting. Now...many of those orchards are housing developments.
The good ol days are no longer the same.
I did not start this to be beating up on wildlife managers or a woe is me I aint seeing any deer thread just a fun historical type thread. Just thought it was a good perspective of times when alot of us weren't even around yet. Really cool accounts by all.
It does interest me that some of the points made I think have been the bane of what I believe is happening here in eastern NC - too many does getting blasted. People have always ran dogs for deer here but in the last few yrs they said "OK doe season is yr round kill what you can"
I admit I was happy when they opened up the doe season - thought YAY! WRONG - in two yrs I know we are seeing the results of just anything brown being killed. Used to be dog hunters had to ID their target as a buck as there were only a couple weeks of does season. Now if its brown, not wearing a collar, not wearing orange, and aint barking, start blasting.
Our bear numbers are through the roof I think sign this yr has been amazing. Still have not seen one while sitting in stand during bear season, but the sign has been all over and it must have been a poor mast crop yr as they did not go deep into the swamps when the dogs hit the woods as per their usual mode of operation. They stayed up around the fields this yr.
Yeah I did one time get to take a Western man out hunting here - he liked to have died! As Ray said his thought of thick and what is really thick were two different things. He was happy to get back to Wyoming.
Any more stories?
J
Here in Texas, I would say population is about the same. I do think the game laws are much improved now as compared to the late 1960's throught the 70's. There were counties were shooting does were not alowed, but shooting spikes was encouraged even nubbin bucks. I have seen times when you could see 30 to 40 does aday and not see a buck for weeks on end. One thing for sure, the deer are worth alot more now than then. During the 70's you could hunt some ranches in the hill country for $10 a day. I didn't think I would be able to ever go again when they went to $50 for a 3 day hunt. RW
In NY, if you live in a apart of the state that is now abandoned farm land, you bemoan the fact that you no longer see pheasants, but deer are everywhere. If you live in the big woods of the Adirondacks, you look at the pictures on the camp walls, and say 'jeez, our grandparents sure shot some nice bucks up here'.
Things change, but at least with our declining state economy, we'll be hunting moose in the whole state in no time :-)
R.W. Mackey,
My Uncles all had a lease around DelRio TX - south. We had 55 acres in Coma TX before my Mom and Dad moved to coastal NC. Think the hunting is so privatized in TX. Never talk to none of my folks down there. Really not sure how good or bad the hunting was as I never had the chance, too young before the move. I know they all had nice bucks on the wall?
J
QuoteOriginally posted by guspup:
In NY, if you live in a apart of the state that is now abandoned farm land, you bemoan the fact that you no longer see pheasants, but deer are everywhere. Things change, but at least with our declining state economy, we'll be hunting moose in the whole state in no time :-)
People keep exodusing from the utility rates and recession stuck cities we will be. Nearest city has more vacant buildings than used.
Sadly, we had one moose (a cow) about 15 years ago that was passing through and we were keeping tabs on her. Some jerk shot her in the backside three times with a pistol and she expired. Good news is his buddy turned him in and he got slammed.
I was keeping an eye on a pheasant cock and hen at the Otseningo rest area on I81 just north of Binghamtona few years back; like 12 years back (commute - not hunting them). Those were the last pheasants I've seen in this area.
They seem to have vanished along with hedgerows. No farms have hedgerows hereabouts any more.
I think the DEC is doing a good job. Though the deer populations are somewhat cyclic. I recall winters in the mid 80's and early 90's that decimated the population. I found five deer carcasses in a group within a 20' circle at Upper Lisle Gamelands in, I think, '91 or '92 after a hard winter.
In western Oklahoma where I do most of my deer hunting, the deer populations were almost non-existent 40 years ago. Now there are many deer and too many does. I sure don't mind thinning the doe population though.
I'm glad Ron LaClair finally came through with his stories. I learn something every time I talk to him or read what he writes. Thanks Ron.
Allan
I killed my first deer at age 15 in KY and have been hooked every since. Twenty three years later the deer population has exploded and I love it. Every year brings different challenges for bowhunters but there are plenty of deer. It has been extremely enjoyable watching the herd grow in the areas I hunt >>---->
The deer population in Pa. had done a complete turn around. It used to be the mountains were full of deer and were scarce every where else. Now it is just the opposite, the mountains have no deer and the populated counties have the deer problem. I see more deer in town when I hunt than I do in the country.
I see more deer now than ever.
I started deer hunting here in MN in 1972. In 1971 our season was closed due to lack of deer. I remember that first year of firearms hunting our party of six hunters saw one deer in four days of hunting. Since that time our herd has grown by leaps and bounds to the point where in the mid 2000's we were literally covered up with deer. Today in my permit area I can take 1 buck and up to 4 does. 1/2 mile south of me in a different permit area I can take an unlimited number of does. I see deer almost every day that I hunt. Our annual harvest is about 200,000 animals. The real beauty of MN as a place to hunt is that we have approximately 10 million acres of land open to public hunting.
It is amazing to realize the differences in situations from state to state, even within a region and in some cases the state itself. Boy, if I had known in the 1970's (Indiana) you didn't have to be satisifed with one bow-range opportunity per year, if you were lucky, I would have loved to have gone to Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, etc. I hadn't even seen a deer track until about 8 hours before I saw that first deer on opening evening! Shoot, I remember around year 2 or 3 of my deer-hunting "career" I saw a grove of "rubbed" up trees and got excited! Then I realized I was standing in a utility right-of-way and utility worker trucks had driven over these trees and skinned them all up! I would have been setting up to hunt a Dodge Ram (before Dodge rams I think) instead of a Hoosier buck!
In many parts of white-tail range we waited way too long to begin undoing the bias against killing does. Sure, when you are building the herd they should be protected. But when the herd reached a point where its growth should be slowed we couldn't reverse the anti-doe-killing attitudes. I fear this is what lead to some of the bad blood between other interests and the hue and cry for herd reduction. Now, it appears we're going to far the other way (but not in my area) in some places.
Now, in my state I hope we don't do the same thing with elk. We shouldn't protect the 10,000-animal herd so much that it earns a bad reputation with other citizens to the point where "kill em all" becomes the motto of the day.
Certain wildlife diseases such as CWD and TB have scared the bejeebers out of deer managers. A huge tourism economy (resident, nonresident, and family NR visiting residents) is supported by an abundant deer herd. One thing is certain, a deer herd that is too large (whatever that is) can see what normally might have been restricted movement of the disease become rapid and widespread from animal to animal.
Ohio Populations have grown. The Central WV deer herd has dramatically shrunk due to disease the past 10 years.
I live in central Ohio and have hunted deer and small game in this area from the time I could carry my own weight and keep up with my stepfather. Mind you that I'm only 36 and and I have no where near that years under my belt as some here do. I can attest that our deer population has increased in the few years I have been at it. I have not put so much time into deer hunting in my recent years but more towards small game. I love the fun of the hunt when it come to small game. Around here most of the small game has all but disappeared.I think this is due to the fact that there is more predators out there for small game versus large game.
In the three adjoining cities where I live have adopted urban hunting only for bowhunters. I think this is great and an easy solution to the issue of posies being eaten and deer being stuck by vehicles. The hoops you have to go through just to be able to hunt in an urban area is crazy. Some of the requirements that need to be met restrict so many that the area you could hunt are limited to a hand full of select areas. It is hard to find good areas to hunt that aren't already flooded be the run of the mill weekend hunters that are out there and or only permit freinds and family.
In my oppinion these ares need to be doe only forcing the population to decline or move else where to take away that over population. sorry for the rambling. Just get typing and cant't stop.
There wasn't even a deer season in Ohio when I was in high school in the 60's...Doc
ronp,
I was speaking specifically about SC, since that's wehre most of my hunting takes place nowadays.
The severe winter I'm talking about is really unrelated to snow since we rarely get that, although we had a really unbelievable 5 or 6 inch snow event last March 25th!
What I'm talking about is this-
Historically, our winter is about 4 weeks long- and we'd have maybe 5 days of sub 32 degree weather that would be a single day, then followed by three to four days or more of over 50 degree weather, and very little rain. So we tend to have an 11 month growing season, so food is almost always available to deer.
Our deer are much smaller in stature,80-90 lb live weight does are the norm, they have shorter hair, and are unused to living in a place that now has a 2 month or longer winter where temps are staying sub 20 degrees for several days in a row- having 5-6 inches of snow at the end of March, and two ten inch rains within a 10 day period in 2009,with very low but not freezing temperatures. We have also, with teh exception of those two enormous rain events, been plagued by multi-year severe, record breaking droughts during the last 10 years.
We don't have agriculture....so our critters depend on wild browse and grasses in those lean months with a sprinkling of corn from feeders.
2009 we lost our entire turkey hatch due to floods of record proportions ...I don't know how much impact its really having on deer- the two multi-year droughts and all the rest, I'm just speculating, but I would say two months of almost nothing to eat alone during the time the does are carrying those fawns would tend to impact fawn production where in the absence of such tribulations in the past would have favored fawn production more?
In Georgia, where I live, I know the deer herd is down - I was a member of the GA Dept of Natural Resources Whitetail Deer Management Committee that developed a 10 year plan for herd management.
They aggressively addressed the reduction in the herd they wanted to see- our auto insurers and farmers lobbies were adamant they wanted to see the numbers reduced- 12 tags a year and lengthened seasons-( the addition of crossbows to bow season-done prior to the committee formation) are all evidence of their aggressive approach to herd reduction.
If you kill more deer, and with 10 doe tags per hunter plus cull permits etc I think that would tend to work in that direction, you're going to see less deer.
On the other hand, with the addition of QDMA style selective buck harvest in many counties, and also that being implemented on many WMA's and private property as well, the 125-170 class of buck deer have virtually exploded with more and better deer being taken year after year.
when I started hunting in NH 15 years ago..in the area I hunt and and live has the highest amount of deer in the state..I was seeing about 15 to 20 deer a DAY and filling ALL my tags..even with the extra doe tag..I was filling that as well..then about 8years ago..I started seeing a decline in sightings even road kill and then all a sudden..you was lucky even to see 10 deers a season...now Im lucky if I see 1 deer a season..this is just not a coincindence..alot of my buddys say the same thing..1 of my friends hunt 90% of the season and very knoweledgeable and hasnt even seen a deer in 2 years..not even seing deer in the summer time and barely seen any roadkill but the state says the population is stable and getting better..alot of people over the years that I talked to wish that our deer population is more like our neighboring state of MASS..alot of guys I know dont even look forward to hunt NH...but deer are being killed in our state but has low success rate compared to other New England states and anywhere else..when I first started hunting in Ga as a kid..it was awesome..I was seeing deer everywhere and filling my tags..population was at that time was 750k+ then increase to 1 million + before I moved to Germany and unable to hunt for 9 years..havent kept up in Ga. population since then so I dont know..went to hunt a couple years in NY a few years ago with a friend who I lost touch with and that was AMAZING..we drive around at night and see 100s of deers and during all parts of the day see tons of deers and turkeys everywhere..people yards on the roads..just everywhere and keep seeing deer during hunting time..just amazing..probaly help where my friends family lived and the country side..it was in the cooperstown area..most awesome place I ever seen ...so what Im gathering in recent post..every place is regional..either hit or miss..1 person in one state is having the time of his life but another person in the same state is struggling...hopefully when Im able to hunt again next year (recovering from work injuries) I can see a deer and hopefully kill it because now I definitly need it for food more so than other years
QuoteOriginally posted by Lin Rhea:
Where I hunt, the population is higher BECAUSE I started trad hunting. :archer: Lin
:laughing:
Since 1958, deer, bear, turkey populations have increased expeditiously. Of course I am sure it depends on the area one hunts. Food sourse, diseases, etc. over the years.
Been bowhunting 53 years deer numbers are a lot greater than back than.
In the 60's, my mom would drive me out to a patch of woods,drop me off and then she and/or my dad would pick me up after dark. I was too young to drive, but old enough to deer hunt with a bow.
It was exciting when I just got within 50 yards of a deer. I loved being in the woods. Still do.
Yes, I see a lot more deer now. Although this year was down some in numbers.
gary
I moved to Southern Illinois in 1968 for school so I guess I have been here for the better part of the re development of the Illinois deer herd.
Old timers here said it was an unusual sighting to even see a deer track in the late 40's and early 50's here in southern Illinois and its some pretty wild country. Food and cover resources have changed dramatically over the course of time as well. I can tell you without a thought that the deer herd has grown in an almost exponential curve. However, currently, we seem to have either leveled off or droped a bit. Illinois manages its herd on a numbers base... Most deer for the most people.. (read some of that as $$$$$)
The first year I bowhunted here (1968) I saw about 30 deer. Killed a great buck but saw very few hunters. Thats all changed now including tag costs and bag limits.
The reintroduction repopulation was dramatic to say the least.
One more comment.. Bowwild has hit the nail on the head with everything he has written here. I did not go into Gov employment. My choice. But I have to loudly second his comment regarding biologists being hunters. You need to watch yer butts on this one.... I mean it!!!! Seems to me that the majority of biologists today are non hunters and this ain't gonna work. Not to mention the Gun and Badge CPO's we are producing.
Do not get me on this soap box... I fear Bowwild and I would rant for months on this stuff....