A beautiful morning to deer hunt but as the hours ticked by my tolerance for looking at a lifeless woods was at zero. Before going completely bonkers I gathered my gear came home. I don't know if going out this afternoon will be more of the same or not. I couldn't imagine trying to keep a kid interested in this game when the opposition doesn't show. Time to rethink all of this stuff.
I had enough
X7_
121 - 131 of 131 Posts
Joined
·
1,418 Posts
Yea Gomez we are all little girls crying because of emotions! Not the fact that we are actually in the field making observations over years and years(do you know what in the field is?) because it seems as though you spend all your time in front of a screen copying, pasting, highlighting, bolding and working on your layouts of your posts to fire back at people that are presenting you with facts from in field observation. While you search for graphs and charts created by incompetent government officials! Do you even hunt?
Joined
·
6,749 Posts
^Hit em Nasty you are not allowed to comment on this post. You kill way too many big deer[hihi]
Joined
·
15,837 Posts
This thread has turned into a serious inquiry of our deer herd. Another morning in the deerless woods for me. I don't know what the answers are and don't profess to be an expert in any of this. Numbers, charts, graphs, statistics, and all of the data you can find from the past does nothing to what is happening in the here and now. Sure, you can maybe figure out the math to maybe come up with an answer to why the situation is what it is. However, there are far too many hunters reporting the same observations in the areas they hunt. Not everyone has the good fortune of hunting big tracts of private land where the deer numbers are not impacted as hard.
I'm looking forward to seeing and completing the survey being put together by the United Bowhunters of New Jersey. I hope everyone takes the time to do the same and to give an honest assessment to what your deer hunting experience is and/or has become. I have been hunting since 1967 and saw the good times as well as the bad, but in honest opinion I have never watched such a barren deer hunting landscape. It is time to put the brakes to the mismanagement of the herd in this state. They need to stop "estimating" and take it from those who see it happening first hand. Not from charts, graphs, statistics, and all of the data you can find from the past. Its about the here and now and for tomorrow.
I'm looking forward to seeing and completing the survey being put together by the United Bowhunters of New Jersey. I hope everyone takes the time to do the same and to give an honest assessment to what your deer hunting experience is and/or has become. I have been hunting since 1967 and saw the good times as well as the bad, but in honest opinion I have never watched such a barren deer hunting landscape. It is time to put the brakes to the mismanagement of the herd in this state. They need to stop "estimating" and take it from those who see it happening first hand. Not from charts, graphs, statistics, and all of the data you can find from the past. Its about the here and now and for tomorrow.
Hunting since 1984. Hunted more this year than any year prior and have seen fewer deer this year than ever before. Not just in my spots,but in fields that can't be hunted where I would see 20-30 deer before dark,I now see 3-4. The system is designed to REDUCE the herd. No one should be surprised at fewer deer. I haven't spoken to one guy who hasn't said they have seen fewer deer. Charts don't account for roadkill,bad winters,unrecovered killed deer,depredation permits,etc. How many guys kill deer year round on their property and don't report anything unless its a big Buck they want to show everyone? One doe per season and antler restrictions would help,but we are forgetting that the states goal is to reduce the herd. That's why the charts will continue to show little or no impact on the population. No hunters,no revenue,population goes back up. Let's hope for a mild winter,and maybe some restraint by hunters who truly love the sport and it maybe we get a bounce back year next year
Joined
·
3,274 Posts
Always something to blame lately... blame the bait... blame the crossbow and blame a camera? Geez! Remember before bait... I was just looking at my old tags, remember those? All of those pre-bait dates they used to have on them... we never had problems back in the day, before baiting was legal... even with bows that only shot 220 FPS! lol
Joined
·
1,593 Posts
Few thoughts ...
#1. Unfortunately, I think a lot of what Jakesbeard stated (#103) may be prophetic.
#2. The OP comment on a bad day in the woods triggered a valuable discussion.
#3. If I were a farmer and one deer ate one apple tree sapling, or the 7lbs of crop a night ... I’d want it dead. No different than I’d want a thief who’s coming in and stealing my apple saplings or crops stopped.
#4. F&W liberal regulations is NOT the direct cause of the precipitous drop in deer numbers seen this year. The reason I say that is "We saw two to three times as many deer last year." Nothing F&W did, or did not do, caused that major change. It certainly appears to me "something else,” other than hunting, is the major factor. Hunting pressure has been pretty predictably steady over the last few years. If it was EHD, I’d think we’d have had more reports of carcasses being found. Might have to look at coyote, eagle & bear depredation of fawns closer?
#5. Recently, a group of wildlife biologists and their assistant I know, scoured approximately 2-3 square miles of habitat and found a 50% to 66% reduction in deer sightings from the last three years.
#6. Gomez hit the mark on at least part of his Donald Trump assessment, a large part of his advocates/followers are “lost faith & trust” voters. And why not with the quality of the politicians we’ve had inflicted upon us for decades now? The thing that bothers me about the Gomezs’ out there is: how he brands any follower of Trump as “dumb.” It’s a condition I have witnessed time and again. If you say anything remotely positive about Trump; they label you as stupid, dumb, inferior intellectually. You're accosted with extremely rude and normally socially unacceptable reactions. Typical liberal elitism, but with accelerated anger. Evidently Trump, or what Trump’s groundswell represents, scares these people.
#7. I’m voting for Trump. I’m stunned at how many white, middle class people I know ... are voting for Trump. Obama Backlash? PC backlash? I don’t know. I do know, people “have had enough,” and are looking for somebody who doesn’t talk out of both sides of his face. They’re angry and disgusted.
#1. Unfortunately, I think a lot of what Jakesbeard stated (#103) may be prophetic.
#2. The OP comment on a bad day in the woods triggered a valuable discussion.
#3. If I were a farmer and one deer ate one apple tree sapling, or the 7lbs of crop a night ... I’d want it dead. No different than I’d want a thief who’s coming in and stealing my apple saplings or crops stopped.
#4. F&W liberal regulations is NOT the direct cause of the precipitous drop in deer numbers seen this year. The reason I say that is "We saw two to three times as many deer last year." Nothing F&W did, or did not do, caused that major change. It certainly appears to me "something else,” other than hunting, is the major factor. Hunting pressure has been pretty predictably steady over the last few years. If it was EHD, I’d think we’d have had more reports of carcasses being found. Might have to look at coyote, eagle & bear depredation of fawns closer?
#5. Recently, a group of wildlife biologists and their assistant I know, scoured approximately 2-3 square miles of habitat and found a 50% to 66% reduction in deer sightings from the last three years.
#6. Gomez hit the mark on at least part of his Donald Trump assessment, a large part of his advocates/followers are “lost faith & trust” voters. And why not with the quality of the politicians we’ve had inflicted upon us for decades now? The thing that bothers me about the Gomezs’ out there is: how he brands any follower of Trump as “dumb.” It’s a condition I have witnessed time and again. If you say anything remotely positive about Trump; they label you as stupid, dumb, inferior intellectually. You're accosted with extremely rude and normally socially unacceptable reactions. Typical liberal elitism, but with accelerated anger. Evidently Trump, or what Trump’s groundswell represents, scares these people.
#7. I’m voting for Trump. I’m stunned at how many white, middle class people I know ... are voting for Trump. Obama Backlash? PC backlash? I don’t know. I do know, people “have had enough,” and are looking for somebody who doesn’t talk out of both sides of his face. They’re angry and disgusted.
Joined
·
698 Posts
I think that the deer herd population is naturally cyclical. I live, work and hunt in zone 50.
When I started working for the company I currently work for in Red Bank 3 years ago, which is miles away from any where you could hunt we would have deer in my parking lot and patch of woods between my office building and the next almost daily. It wasn't unusual to see 10 or so at almost anytime of day. As a matter of fact in 2012 two weeks after I started there there was an absolute stud 5 point one antler mounting a doe 15 feet from our back door. I saw less in each year since and this year I probably haven't seen deer n our complex more than 15 times all year.
My conclusion is that there is something naturally going on because there is no hunting what so ever anywhere close.
When I started working for the company I currently work for in Red Bank 3 years ago, which is miles away from any where you could hunt we would have deer in my parking lot and patch of woods between my office building and the next almost daily. It wasn't unusual to see 10 or so at almost anytime of day. As a matter of fact in 2012 two weeks after I started there there was an absolute stud 5 point one antler mounting a doe 15 feet from our back door. I saw less in each year since and this year I probably haven't seen deer n our complex more than 15 times all year.
My conclusion is that there is something naturally going on because there is no hunting what so ever anywhere close.
Joined
·
5,389 Posts
And 47 degrees[down]
121 - 131 of 131 Posts
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
