Rifle season starts in the morning

[stevej37]

Deer season in Michigan that is. This guy has recorded 40,000 deer in his career.
He lives a short distance from me.

[craigster59]

What spoon will you be toting ?

[stevej37]

^^^ I gave it up years back.
There are too many hunters in the woods for me. Tomorrow I'll hear the first gunshots before the sky is even light.

When I did hunt...I used a .270 Winchester.

[stevej37]

I think a hunter can take up to 10 or 12 deer a season in lower Michigan now.
That's good because they are all over the place.

[id10t]

5 per year here in Florida, with does allowed during archery, one weekend of ML season and two weekends during general gun. Shift thru zones and you could be deer hinting from late August thru part of February

Sadly I had equipment issues interfere with ML season and the stuff really happened to kill rest of season for me, at least for public land deer. And my buddys land where I turkey hunt has been birdless since just after spring season ended - he typically sees 3-4 groups of birds per day but nothing for past months ...

[cabmandone]

With all the dead deer being found in Defiance County OH, due to EHD, I'm writing off this season. I've heard numbers as high as 1500 found. Many of the deer that were daily passers by on my cameras haven't been seen for weeks and the number of pictures of deer in general has fallen way off. I figure I don't need the meat so why further reduce the herd?

BTW I was supposed to be going up to Manistee for "surf and turf" with a friend but I have a nasty cold that I don't want to share with anyone. I found out last year that you can be fishing on the river and shoot a deer from the boat as long as the boat isn't under power (or something like that).

[stevej37]

It's very heavy, still air here this morning...feels like it's going to drizzle any time.
Didn't hear one gunshot yet...which is unusual for here.

I spoke to a neighbor yesterday that is hunting behind my place. He said because of the lower number of hunters in MI, the deer numbers are high and the dnr is bent on getting them thinned out.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by cabmandone

With all the dead deer being found in Defiance County OH, due to EHD, I'm writing off this season. I've heard numbers as high as 1500 found. Many of the deer that were daily passers by on my cameras haven't been seen for weeks and the number of pictures of deer in general has fallen way off. I figure I don't need the meat so why further reduce the herd?

Still plenty of big rats with antlers here in Henry Co just east of Defiance.
Weekly several of the damn critters jump out of the ditches in front of me on my drive to work. I hit one earlier this year with my Cayenne. I wish more people hunted to get rid of more of these varmints.

[unclebilly]

Deer are hard on Cayennes, especially Turbos.

Small deer wrote off my wife’s CTT nearly 2 years ago.

I nearly smoked one in Southern Utah on highway 12 on Monday night in the dark somewhere near Capitol Reef. Would not have been pretty.

[Tim Hancock]

Damn Cayenne hating deer!

[stevej37]

Kent County (which includes Grand Rapids) reported that in the last year, 26% of all reported car accidents included deer.

The insurance companies surely don't like that.

[Jeff Higgins]

I'm envious of you guys. Here in Washington, our rifle deer season is already over, and it only runs 14 days with a limit of one deer (although there are some very limited "late hunt" opportunities, but still only one per year). For mulies it's three point and better, whitetails are any buck, as are blacktails. We do have both muzzle loader and archery seasons, but we must choose one of the three. Up until the mid 1980's, we could hunt all three by using the appropriate weapon. Now we have to choose. Muzzle loader and archery have the same antler restrictions these days, where both used to be any deer.

Hunter numbers are way, way down in light of the short seasons and lack of opportunity. Elk seasons are even shorter, and only allow the taking of spike bulls. Worse, our game department has learned the trick of "checker boarding" the open units, allowing plenty of escape opportunity into neighboring closed units. The word is out - get your elk on opening morning, before hunter pressure has pushed them into a neighboring closed unit.

Even at just one deer and just one elk per, our success rates are the lowest in the country. About 15% on deer and about 8% on elk. Absolutely abysmal. Probably the worst in the country. The general feeling is that our Game Department actively works to keep it this way, with the short, scattered seasons, antler restrictions, and way too early hunts. All of our general seasons are already over, many open in September if not late August. No snow on the ground, no active rutting, and way too hot of weather.

In spite of our Game Department's best efforts at discouraging hunters, our ungulate numbers continue to shrink as well. There are two very well know reasons - "native American" hunters who can set their own seasons and rules (and mostly hunt year-round) and poachers. It's estimated that poachers take almost ten times the legally taken animals, with "native Americans" giving them a run for their money.

So, yeah, hunting sucks in Washington. I gave up long ago and started traveling to hunt. It's a lost cause here.

[stevej37]

We also have these block permits for farmers with lots of damage from deer....

"Block permits are issued to farmers for use by licensed hunters during the season. Archery hunters can fill them in archery season, firearms hunters in firearm season, and so on. Deer Damage Control Permits ("crop damage permits") are issued for use outside of the deer seasons."

Lots of Amish landowners around here and they do the same themselves for the food. The DNR sorta looks the other way for cases like that.

[LWJ]

Higgins. Damn. I HATE poachers. Had a team of silent hounds on the family homestead years back when I had 30 Boy Scouts in a camp out. Still pissed about that.

But I came to comment on all the fat camo bros riding ATV’s last weekend. I was dirt biking and a line of fricken golf carts (not quite, almost) with dudes toting rifles went up the road. Just didn’t fit my image of rugged sportsman.

Rant over.

[greglepore]

We had a crazy good acorn year, so the buck that my SIL got 2 weeks ago (archery) on my back 20 was really heavy. Small tight 10 points, but over 60 lbs of meat. I pretty much grind everything but the backstrap, so it was a long day...

[GH85Carrera]

The deer are thick around here. We need a major culling.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by stevej37

He said because of the lower number of hunters in MI, the deer numbers are high and the dnr is bent on getting them thinned out.

Drove down to S. Indiana a few weeks ago. On the highway saw a country service truck (dually with wide bed) picking up deer.
Must have been a dozen or so in the back. Causes unknown.

[stevej37]

^^^did you see the video on the first post?

[jhynesrockmtn]

I'm not a hunter but my son is. Higgins, maybe you are familiar with this area? He and 3 buddies near Challis Idaho. They were at 9,000 feet. I may go next year just to volunteer to be the camp cook.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

Still plenty of big rats with antlers here in Henry Co just east of Defiance.
Weekly several of the damn critters jump out of the ditches in front of me on my drive to work. I hit one earlier this year with my Cayenne. I wish more people hunted to get rid of more of these varmints.

If you have property, give me a seat and a clear 200 yard lane and I can help with that problem! If you can provide two chairs with two lanes I can double the help with a friend of mine!

It appears, from looking at the Ohio map tracking EHD, that Defiance county is pretty much the epicenter. I don't know if that's because more people are notifying the DNR here or what. I've heard guys around here in Van Wert County talk about finding a few dead deer near the Little Auglaize River (15 has been the highest number I've heard) but nothing like the guy saying he found 39 dead on his hunting property. I haven't been to my woods for a few weeks. I'm planning another walk to see if I find any other dead ones.