2008= Worst year ever

[Ugnasty77]

Well guys, i live and hunt in wisconsin, and up here isnt much better. It looked to be a good season, the first 4 times i went bow hunting, i saw deer each time, not a lot 2-3 but its always nice to see em. Ater that it began to thin out.
 
But from what ive head up here is that no one is really seeing deer here either. This gun season i hunted 2 days in the northern part of the state, saw 4 does, but couldnt get a shot. My uncle must have had a horseshoe up his rear end cause he filled his doe tag, then 2 hrs later filled his buck tag (spike). but when we came home to the southeastern corner of the state we hardly saw any deer. Lot of sign, but not many sightings. I hunted Wednesday thru sunday and saw one deer and took a 200 yard shot on her, but missed.
 
I really hope its just a cycle that they are going thru. They are trying to kill the deer population off up here because suppositly there is 1.5 million deer, but no one is seeing deer like they used to. And with CWD up here too, there is going to be a lot of antlerless deer hunts, and extened bow season to try to get rid of that and thin the herd.

[Squirrelhawker]

ORIGINAL: beagleman23

In New York and Pennslyvania we are paying for years of over harvest with doe permits.  I stopped hunting PA for lack of deer sightings.

 
As with all things in nature, I don't think it is ever just one thing that can account for either lack of deer or abundance. To blame low numbers on over harvest is a risky statement. Present company excepted, (perhaps) we're not that efficient a species. So many variables. Always changing habitat. Sometimes shrinking habitats. Weather. Disease. Shifting agricultural practices. This and more can all figure in to what we see or do not see.

[ranwin33]

Any year I can spend time in the deer woods is a good year.
 
Our deer sightings have been down a bit this year, but anything compared to last year would most likely be a bad year.  We still see more deer than we did a few years back, now that we've had some time managing our property.  We have three food plots that are fairly productive for us.  One we put in just this year and it has been a magnet. 

The hunting club to our south also reports a lot of deer sightings, but they like us are not seeing the bigger deer that we have in the past.  Some small shooters, but nothing with a lot of antler, not like we saw earlier in the summer.

But I still have hope that something big is waiting for my arrow to find it before mid-January rolls up on us.

My boss hunts down near Gasconade county, said they saw a lot of does but no bucks except spikes.

[whubbard]

What part of the state is Gasconade county?  I have to mirror some earlier posts.  While many things could have effected you not seeing deer there are still some that you cant control.  Has someone planted food plots close to your hunting land.  Do you have plots in?  Deer will go to where the food is.  The best tasting food.  Regardless of how many acorns are on the ground, how big your food plots are, if there is food elsewhere that's better than what you are offering forget about it.  That's not saying that you won't see deer, but probably not the ones a neighboring farm is pulling in.  I've learned this lesson the hardway over the last five years, and am just now starting to understand.  Regardless, my food plots will be better than they have ever been this year.  Just a thought.

[ranwin33]

Gasconade is kind of in the middle and east part of the state.  They don't manage their land for deer, plus they have a lot of pressure. 
 
In Harrison County we saw plenty of deer, not the big bucks like last year, but still some that were shooters.

[Everyday Hunter]

ORIGINAL: dtrain56

Forest County where we hunted after spending $80,000 for a place as a group of non-residents the population declined dramatically.

I also hunt in Forest County - deer population is much better now than in 2006 and i have gotten a 'good" buck each of the past 3 seasons and my dad got a nice eight pointer in 2007, that is four quality bucks since the APR's...

also everyone just wanted to see a lot of deer...i would rather see quality deer, before APR's and an increase of doe harvests you might see a buck but was not more than a spike...

In most states does harvest limits are a lot more liberal than PA, yet hunters seem to be satisfied...don't get why PA thinks that the longtime miss managment of the deer herd is OK....

I don't hunt in Forest County, PA, but I live near there in Warren County. A friend of mine hunts Forest County, and here's the buck he got in 2005:



I took this photo right after we picked it up at the taxidermist. The buck scored 189+ B&C.

I don't mean to discredit what anyone says by posting this  photo, but my friend lived near Pittsburgh at the time. He's very selective about the bucks he shoots, and continued to hunt Forest County even after AR was implemented. This class of buck is NOT common there, but he passed up lots of legal bucks during the three years he hunted this buck exclusively.

No doubt ab out it, hunting in PA is more difficult than it used to be, but can be very rewarding.

Steve

[twotone3]

For starters why are people talking about PA in the Missouri forum?  Now on with it.  I hunt on the Gasconade and Osage County borders near the mid part of both.  Besides the doe and fork I found laying on my property(both with bullet holes how I hate my neighbors, who I will get caught for poaching one of these years) I only saw a couple non-shooter bucks in the couple weeks I spent out in the woods.  We did get a couple pictures of does at night on the trail cams over our mineral licks while we were out there but nothing was moving during the day.  I talked with a few people in the area and the only ones seeing anything were the people right next to the Gasconade River.  All I can say is it was the worst hunting season ever as far as seeing anything.  I do however just enjoy being in the woods so I still had a good time.

[Everyday Hunter]

ORIGINAL: twotone3

For starters why are people talking about PA in the Missouri forum?  Now on with it. 

Oops! Sorry 'bout that. I got here directly from the front page of D&DH, and when I saw the references to a county near me in PA I didn't realize it was the Missouri forum.

Steve

[twotone3]

[quote] Sorry 'bout that. I got here directly from the front page of D&DH, and when I saw the references to a county near me in PA I didn't realize it was the Missouri forum.

Steve

Not that it matters I was just wondering.  It is always nice to hear what everyone has to say wether they are near by or far away.

[Thayer]

I think an earlier poster nailed it..moon phase, timing of the season, along with pressure could have caused similar results..

Need to keep good records to go back and fix the problems...

It is not the deer...in most cases.