Easy winter...deer are healthy!

[Edcyclopedia]

Definitely made some slow KS hunting in 2012. 2015 really has recovered where we are seeing the older age class deer again.

2012 was probably 5-times better than NH!

[ Post made via Android ]

[Bigb]

Central Illinois was very light. Heck, the most snow we had was during shotgun season in November. Only a few days where the weather got really cold and we have some pretty good cedar cover and south facing slopes that help. With EHD for two years straight a couple years ago, right now I'm not worried as much about antler size as I am fawn crops. A couple good fawning years will really help. Seems like antlers always grow well no matter what as long as they are eating good April to August.

One of my favorite shows is "Bowhunt or Die" on the Roku box. You can see the struggle they had couple years back ...basically EHD hurt there deer population big time. Show is filmed a lot in Illinois. Couple of the guys on there had dead head after dead head of beauty bucks that died. Real shame for sure. Definitely made some slow KS hunting in 2012. 2015 really has recovered where we are seeing the older age class deer again.

One of my favorite shows as well! I watch it when I'm on the treadmill at the Gym. I know of three spots in Illinois where they hunt, one is outside Chicago by about an hour, One in Northwest Illinois (Jo Daviess County) but I think they lost that one. It was something like 1000 acre lease but they killed some BIG deer off there. There is one by where i hunt is Central Illinois in the same county and they got hit pretty hard by EHD. We were pretty lucky (knock on wood) and we didnt find any deer or see any evidence of it. I think, and I emphasize think, is because we have two springs on our property that supply creeks that run through the entire property. These creeks are all gravel as well so I hope the midges can't come out of them. These creeks never went dry throughout both droughts and they run about 3/4 of a mile through the property I hunt.

One thing I learned is EHD can wipe out a deer herd in one spot and 5 miles away it won't effect it at all. We've had good doe numbers the last few years and i've held off shooting them hoping they would migrate to other areas. Now, we are getting pretty high doe numbers and it might be time to take a couple out. My non-hunting friends are now obsessed with deer sticks so one of these does might just be made exclusively for that!

[mainebowhunter]

Central Illinois was very light. Heck, the most snow we had was during shotgun season in November. Only a few days where the weather got really cold and we have some pretty good cedar cover and south facing slopes that help. With EHD for two years straight a couple years ago, right now I'm not worried as much about antler size as I am fawn crops. A couple good fawning years will really help. Seems like antlers always grow well no matter what as long as they are eating good April to August.

One of my favorite shows is "Bowhunt or Die" on the Roku box. You can see the struggle they had couple years back ...basically EHD hurt there deer population big time. Show is filmed a lot in Illinois. Couple of the guys on there had dead head after dead head of beauty bucks that died. Real shame for sure. Definitely made some slow KS hunting in 2012. 2015 really has recovered where we are seeing the older age class deer again.

One of my favorite shows as well! I watch it when I'm on the treadmill at the Gym. I know of three spots in Illinois where they hunt, one is outside Chicago by about an hour, One in Northwest Illinois (Jo Daviess County) but I think they lost that one. It was something like 1000 acre lease but they killed some BIG deer off there. There is one by where i hunt is Central Illinois in the same county and they got hit pretty hard by EHD. We were pretty lucky (knock on wood) and we didnt find any deer or see any evidence of it. I think, and I emphasize think, is because we have two springs on our property that supply creeks that run through the entire property. These creeks are all gravel as well so I hope the midges can't come out of them. These creeks never went dry throughout both droughts and they run about 3/4 of a mile through the property I hunt.

[glow=red]One thing I learned is EHD can wipe out a deer herd in one spot and 5 miles away it won't effect it at all.[/glow] We've had good doe numbers the last few years and i've held off shooting them hoping they would migrate to other areas. Now, we are getting pretty high doe numbers and it might be time to take a couple out. My non-hunting friends are now obsessed with deer sticks so one of these does might just be made exclusively for that!

100% correct. 2013 I killed a great buck on public land in Nebraska. Another guy with a lease not 5 miles from there hardly saw a mature buck in weeks of rifle hunting. The difference was a big body of river that constantly ran through this property. I would guess, EHD did not hit it as hard. Soii was also very sandy...not real mucky. Its also interesting because some guys think its an excuse...because 5 miles down the road, they are not seeing it or finding any deer dead.

[gjs4]

now lets just hope for a drier spring and maybe turkey numbers can bounce back some as well

[wickedbruiser]

Yes! The deer here in MA had it made. No frozen over deep snow for the yotes to take advantage of like the previous year. Hoping to get some good fawn #s this spring/summer.

[ Post made via Android ]

[bowhunter15]

Same here in Northern MN, a much needed mild winter. I'm further north than any of the Maine or UP guys so it's been about 8 years of low deer numbers and any signs of recovery have been met with harsh winters and deep snow during that time. Hope this winter was the one to give the population a kick start, still need one or two more winters like this so they can really bounce back.

We counted 120 deer on the short drive from Birchdale to Baudette last night. I'm not sure how many deer that area usually has, but I thought it seemed high. Deer in almost every field.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Hawthorne]

Seen a bunch of deer over the weekend. One mature buck. Looked like he had 2 velvet pop cans on top of his head. Big bodied. Lots of deer tracks everywhere. The deer look very healthy in southern mi.

[ Post made via Android ]

[headgear]

I hunt a fair bit further east, all bigwoods and no agg like they have around Baudette. Numbers have been climbing but the winters from 2011-2013 took their toll. Almost seeing an echo of very few mature bucks around that would have been born during those years. It just takes time, had slow years from 2007 to 2009 and things were just starting to take off again before those winters. Sometimes you just need the stars to align to get some mature animals to hunt. I've had a few cracks an nice bucks the last few years but hardly see any two year olds any more, hoping the worst of it is behind us.

[mainebowhunter]

Seen a bunch of deer over the weekend. One mature buck. Looked like he had 2 velvet pop cans on top of his head. Big bodied. Lots of deer tracks everywhere. The deer look very healthy in southern mi.

[ Post made via Android ]

I have been looking for the same thing. Trying to identify any of the deer from last year. So far, even with binos, no bumps yet.

[mainebowhunter]

Checking in on Maine's deer herd after mild winter
V. Paul Reynolds, Outdoors in Maine

Maine’s hard-pressed deer population, which was subjected to two consecutively brutal winters, got a break with this past winter with relatively moderate temperatures and scant snow cover. As Maine’s state deer biologist Kyle Ravana often points out, the state of Maine’s deer herd is tied irrevocably to the Winter Severity Index ( WSI).

When all is said and done, WSI is the single most significant driver of whitetail survival in this state. Ravana says: “The final WSI has not yet been run, but preliminarily, we’re looking at a winter that may be tied for the most mild winter, at least for deer, going back to 1975.

"The estimated over-winter mortality this year is expected to be a little over five percent; this is about six percent below the long-term average for the state (averages a little over 11 percent). This was an easy winter for deer and provided them a good respite following the last couple winters. To add strength to this, we trapped 149 deer this winter in central Maine and most were in good condition.There were definitely some that were thin, but by far I would say most deer over-wintered well.

“We expect productivity to be up as a result of the mild winter, and early green up. As such, so too should the harvest numbers next season. This will likely be reflected in our permit allocations.”

North woods trophy buck hunter Hal Blood, who follows deer issues closely, is optimistic for next fall’s deer harvest. Hal writes: “All the deer were in great shape right down to the smallest fawns. Hunters should see plenty of deer this season if they get out in the woods. The odds of seeing a buck should also be high as there were a lot fewer tagged last season.”

Hal also notes that, because of the open winter, deer tended not to yard up. Therefore they were able to get up on the ridges early in April for much-needed for aging opportunities.

How was last fall’s deer harvest. Ravana has some answers: “Overall 20,325 deer were registered during 2015, representing a decrease of 9.6 percent from the 2014 deer harvest. IFW biologists predicted a harvest of around 19,300 deer, which was slightly lower (-5 percent) than the actual harvest. Breaking down the 2015 harvest, 16,576 deer were tagged during the General Firearms season. This was a 10 percent decrease in deer harvest by firearm hunters in 2014. A total of 1,451 deer were harvested during the Expanded Archery season.

"This equates to an 8% decrease in the Expanded Archery harvest from 2013. In contrast, during the Regular Archery season 26 percent more deer were harvested than in 2014. Maine’s youth harvested 826 deer, which was two percent above 2014 harvest on Youth Day. Last, but not least, Maine’s muzzle-loader seasons hunters tagged 746 deer, a decline of 30 percent.

“This year’s buck harvest of 15,344 animals represents a decrease of four percent from last year, but is slightly higher than the projected harvest of 14,500 bucks. Southern Maine is well known for being a highly productive region for the state, in terms of its deer population.

"As such, it goes in hand that the top five buck producing Wildlife Management Districts (WMDs) are also located in the Southern tier of the state. The WMDs with the highest buck harvest were, in order from greatest buck harvest to least, per square mile of land, are 24, 21, 29, 22, and 23. Despite this, northern Maine’s adult bucks are, on the average, slightly larger expressing an average weight of 180.3 pounds In comparison their more densely populated cousins in the south average approximately 156 pounds.

"One of the driving forces of Maine’s deer population is winter weather. The 2014-15 proved to be severe in nature which often results in a decline in the deer population. To offset potential over-winter losses, MDIF&W reduced Any-deer permit (ADP) allocations by approximately 23 percent (28,770) from 2014’s total allocation of 37,185 permits. The overall goal of the 2015 ADP allocation was to limit the doe harvest to 3,274 adult does. Overall, Maine hunters harvested 5,418 antlerless deer (i.e., adult does and fawns) of which 3,615 were adult does.”

[JoeRE]

Maine, reading those numbers reminds me I am incredibly lucky to live in the Midwest. 20,000 deer taken in the whole state. Holly buckets.

Around here....man am I optimistic about antler growth and fawn survival with the early spring we have had....baring a major drought or something like that (is getting a little dry) 2016 is going to be a year of giants. I just have to find them because many of the ones I was after I found dead

[mainebowhunter]

Maine, reading those numbers reminds me I am incredibly lucky to live in the Midwest. 20,000 deer taken in the whole state. Holly buckets.

Around here....man am I optimistic about antler growth and fawn survival with the early spring we have had....baring a major drought or something like that (is getting a little dry) 2016 is going to be a year of giants. I just have to find them because many of the ones I was after I found dead

Yeah. Its a tough to state to hunt for sure. Guys here think this is normal. Sitting for days and not seeing a deer. That is normal. It is what it is. The bright side, there is little to no hunting pressure. Wore my boots out this spring just trying to find enough to hunt next season. You archery guys in the midwest get to learn so much more about big buck behaviour than guys here in the northeast. We just don't have enough big bucks to have that many encounters with them. Its why I cannot wait to head for the midwest every season.

Winter kill dead? Or hunting season kill dead?

[JoeRE]

Winter kill dead? Or hunting season kill dead?

I couldn't tell for sure on most, but time of death suspiciously lined up with early to mid December, meaning Iowa's gun seasons. That is typical, deer drives are a great way to loose a lot of deer if hunters don't know what they are doing, or just don't care. One clearly died earlier in the fall as the bones were pretty much free of tissue, another I did find what looked like a slug hole in the hide around the stomach. Given the mild winter decomposition was a little faster that usual but a poorly placed shotgun slug combined with a lazy hunter unwilling to follow the trail is the culprit many times.

I am up to 12 total dead bucks...half of them 2 year olds or older. That is more than twice as many as usual, and I am covering about the same amount of ground as average.

I also found a total of 3 broadhead tipped arrows and 1 crossbow bolt all of them fired into animals as there was traces of hair or tissue on them still and they were all bent or broken...weird because before that in my entire life I only ever found one arrow in the woods. Strange spring.

[mainebowhunter]

Winter kill dead? Or hunting season kill dead?

I couldn't tell for sure on most, but time of death suspiciously lined up with early to mid December, meaning Iowa's gun seasons. That is typical, deer drives are a great way to loose a lot of deer if hunters don't know what they are doing, or just don't care. One clearly died earlier in the fall as the bones were pretty much free of tissue, another I did find what looked like a slug hole in the hide around the stomach. Given the mild winter decomposition was a little faster that usual but a poorly placed shotgun slug combined with a lazy hunter unwilling to follow the trail is the culprit many times.

I am up to 12 total dead bucks...half of them 2 year olds or older. That is more than twice as many as usual, and I am covering about the same amount of ground as average.

I also found a total of 3 broadhead tipped arrows and 1 crossbow bolt all of them fired into animals as there was traces of hair or tissue on them still and they were all bent or broken...weird because before that in my entire life I only ever found one arrow in the woods. Strange spring.

That is a strange spring. Coyotes make fast work of the deer around here. Only thing usually left is hair. Found a 2yr old in February. Nothing is left but couple bones and hair.

[JoeRE]

Winter kill dead? Or hunting season kill dead?

I couldn't tell for sure on most, but time of death suspiciously lined up with early to mid December, meaning Iowa's gun seasons. That is typical, deer drives are a great way to loose a lot of deer if hunters don't know what they are doing, or just don't care. One clearly died earlier in the fall as the bones were pretty much free of tissue, another I did find what looked like a slug hole in the hide around the stomach. Given the mild winter decomposition was a little faster that usual but a poorly placed shotgun slug combined with a lazy hunter unwilling to follow the trail is the culprit many times.

I am up to 12 total dead bucks...half of them 2 year olds or older. That is more than twice as many as usual, and I am covering about the same amount of ground as average.

I also found a total of 3 broadhead tipped arrows and 1 crossbow bolt all of them fired into animals as there was traces of hair or tissue on them still and they were all bent or broken...weird because before that in my entire life I only ever found one arrow in the woods. Strange spring.

That is a strange spring. Coyotes make fast work of the deer around here. Only thing usually left is hair. Found a 2yr old in February. Nothing is left but couple bones and hair.

Yea we have a lot of coyotes too but more dead deer than they can eat. I shot or trapped 3 behind my house this winter and yesterday while turkey hunting on public land had one stalk up on me thinking he was getting turkey dinner. Instead he got 2 oz of #5s All the deer I found were partially eaten but they don't do much more than eat the easy to reach stuff, skeleton is usually intact.