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Super slow for me as well. My buddy seen alot with his daughter the first day. 1 small buck and ten does. The 2 day he seen ten does a rack buck that got by then shot at another rack buck. I went to help him look and another 8 does ran by and there was a dozen shots as a drive wen t on by us. He had a clean miss but the buck headed into the drive from hell.
 
i whent out this morning hoping at a shot on a small buck i almost got last monday with the muzzleloader only to have a club drive right by me...damn i hate them drives....wonder if the buck is still alive
 
It's. all the corn being dumped in the woods. When deer who are ruminant animals are used to eating twigs, acorns and other browse are all of the sudden fed corn it actually causes them to get sick and even die. Google corn killing deer and you may be surprised at what you read. But then again everyone always looks for the easy and quick way out. Club I belong too in the pines has 9 hunters hunting dark to dark since Monday not one deer has been seen. Could it be the warm weather, bad hunters or is it all the corn that has been dumped in the last couple of weeks. The only ones tagging out down here is Gibersons
 
The pines need habitat improvment and predator reduction. I remember when every field along 539 was planted with a form of rye and the deer were everywhere. Now all you see is brown grass which I'm sure has no nutrition. Also the 6 bucks you can take in a season coupled with the coyotes is taking it's toll.
Some help is coming the division is cutting a week from permit bow and muzzleloader next season. But they also need to cut the 6 day buck limit to one unitl the deer can rebound some.
Someone needs to get all the clubs in the clubs in teh pines to work toghether and do food plots or something to get the herd healthy again.
 
FYI the state plants rye and wheat along the roads. I do however agree with predator issue. I have been hunting in the pines for over 20 years and up until 3 years ago have never heard a coyote. Now I have gotten trail cam photos, have heard them yip and howl and have heard of driving clubs in the area shooing them on drives. For everyone you hear and shoot there is 5 others you don't. Once they take hold its going to be tough to get rid of them. And to top it off they are hunting a deer that has never been hunted by coyotes before. Bad thing for the fawns for sure.
 
Lost your corn story holds water when a seers diet once void of corn increases to 75% plus consumed calories . Even then only a small percentage will become sick & in even more rare cases die. Wild deer browse & consume way to much other food sources to worry about this mostly penned deer fear spread by the anti baiting crowd.
 
Imo its a combination of unlimited antlerless, ehd which hit real bad a few years back and, the explosion in the coyote population.

The pines arent like they used to be. About 10years ago right before I started hunting I remember seeing racks in the feilds by my house and every night in the summer I would have deer in my feild behind my house. Now I cant get one if I planted a clover pasture. My uncle tells me stories of seeing 3-4 racks following a doe out of his stand during 6-day, ect; its just not the same
 
They must adapt quickly though. Ozarks gun club has 30 bucks hanging already. Yesterday they started 40 bucks and killed 19. All but a couple are from Colliers Mills wma. Last year they said they didnt get many bucks going in the mill.
 
The pines need habitat improvment and predator reduction. I remember when every field along 539 was planted with a form of rye and the deer were everywhere
yup use to be nothin to see 30 or 40 deer in a field.
FYI the state plants rye and wheat along the roads.
nope they havent in about 8-10 years. they say no money. never seen them plant wheat. dont think it would grow in sand. winter rye or fall cover crop is what they use to pant.
 
I have seen 2 does in zone 21, Whites Bog, thats it. Guys I hunt with were getting them on their cameras up until last week. We pot hunt, we dont drive.

Personally, I think Monday & Tuesday were way too warm, and yesterday, the swirling winds kept them bedded. I think cold temps and light steady breeze is what the Doctor ordered, and we get that today, with a high in the 40's and a light steady wind of 7 or 8mph...I predict there will be alot more shooting today
 
me help is coming the division is cutting a week from permit bow and muzzleloader next season.

This is not going to help at all. You are correct that a week is being taken from both bow and muzzleloader. But you left out the fact that two days are being added to permit shotgun. So tell me how this is going to help?

Seems to me bow muzzle loader guys are getting the shaft so the driving clubs can get extra two days. This isn't management. It's apeasment. Also the weeks bow and muzzy are losing are holiday weeks. [confusedagain]
 
This is from the proposed changes. Tell me how this is going to help?

Existing Set 0 will have reduced permit bow and
permit muzzleloader seasons and a reduction in bag limit from 2 deer (only 1 antlerless) to 1 deer, either sex.
Existing Sets 1 and 2 go from a one-day to a 3-day shotgun season. All zones with an early fall bow season go
from earn-a-buck to antlerless only.
Justification: Zones 21, 23, 24, 43 and 45 harvests remain significantly below buck goal despite the
formation of Reg Set 0 in 2011 so the permit bow season is reduced by one week at the end, the permit
muzzleloader season is reduced by one week at the end, and the bag limit is reduced to one deer, either-sex.
Permit Shotgun season goes from one-day to three days in those zones with a 1-day season to better distribute
opportunity
http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/pdf/temp/Proposed_Amendments_Stakeholders_Meeting.pdf
 
Agree with bill. They will probably kill as many, if not more deer during those 2 additional permit shotgun days as they do during that week of Bow and ML. This is typical of NJ's 'deer management' strategy; this will not reduce the number killed but only offer incentives to boost shotgun permit sales by adding more days to use the permit.

Shotgun permit sales must be way down in those zones and it's clear they base their policies on revenue generation, not smart resource management, so this is no surprise.

The ironic thing is that bow hunters and most guys ML hunting are doing it from stands, and get a better look at thier target, which may reduce the likelihood of button bucks being shot. Clubs that go out for permit shotgun will shoot whatever brown hair they get moving, and this increases the likelihood of button bucks being shot. If the problem is lower buck harvest than the goal for these zones, as stated in the Justification line, how is implementing a policy that will result in more button bucks being killed going to help achieve the goal of increasing the number of bucks in those zones?
 
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