[tmeredith]

Saw on FB where a guy asked the agfc why he wasn't seeing many deer at his land in Cleveland county anymore, and their answer was because the big mast crop this year had the deer all in the woods!:fit: I've heard others use that excuse too. So where does everybody hunt? In the middle of the highway or maybe in their front yards? Where I'm from if there's a whiteoak dropping acorns you can bet somebody is going to be hunting it. I just don't understand that line of thinking! I've always loved to hunt in good acorn years because I see more deer.:shrug:

 

[brushcreek]

I've always loved to hunt in good acorn years because I see more deer.:shrug:

that has not been my experience. usually during good acorn years the deer don't have to move much to find food, which decreases chances of seeing one on its feet.

 

[SwampCat]

Poor, poor, acron year around my hunting grounds in SW AR. But, if you did happen to find a whiteoak dropping acorns this past fall - it was game on. Around my place - deer are now on green fields - no acorns. If you have a green foodplot - you are on deer.

 

[Martin Man1]

In the woods and 23ft up a tree right now

 

[Powerquack2K]

Saw on FB where a guy asked the agfc why he wasn't seeing many deer at his land in Cleveland county anymore, and their answer was because the big mast crop this year had the deer all in the woods!:fit: I've heard others use that excuse too. So where does everybody hunt? In the middle of the highway or maybe in their front yards? Where I'm from if there's a whiteoak dropping acorns you can bet somebody is going to be hunting it. I just don't understand that line of thinking! I've always loved to hunt in good acorn years because I see more deer.:shrug:

I hunted my bowstand in Cleveland Co before the acorns started falling.......didn't see many deer. 5-20 would be a normal morning sit in October.

You can't kill THOUSANDS of does in a county every year and not expect to see the deer population go down....... it is way down in Cleveland Co.

 

[dogbox]

You can't kill THOUSANDS of does in a county every year and not expect to see the deer population go down....... it is way down in Cleveland Co.[/QUOTE]
thats the truth. we use to kill a bunch of deer on our lease this yr we killed 46 on our lease an we have about 80 members u tell me if thats good an this is in grant co

 

[huntbigbucs]

I also hunt Cleveland county and the deer are just not there like they were a few years ago. That goes for seeing in person and on camera. The same goes for neighboring leases.

 

[Powerquack2K]

You can't kill THOUSANDS of does in a county every year and not expect to see the deer population go down....... it is way down in Cleveland Co.

thats the truth. we use to kill a bunch of deer on our lease this yr we killed 46 on our lease an we have about 80 members u tell me if thats good an this is in grant co[/QUOTE]


Just take a drive down the road at night in October....


When deer are really on acorns they'll be in every yard in the south end of Grant Co........ you'll see a fraction of the deer you saw five years ago....

 

[be_z71]

You fellas better tone it down or the AG&FC will add another doe tag to the license and another week of doe only hunting before the traditional modern gun opener next year.

 

[tmeredith]

You fellas better tone it down or the AG&FC will add another doe tag to the license and another week of doe only hunting before the traditional modern gun opener next year.

:fit: I wouldn't doubt that! And then they'd tell us it's because the population is exploding!:fit:

 

[thompson]

I also hunt Cleveland county and the deer are just not there like they were a few years ago. That goes for seeing in person and on camera. The same goes for neighboring leases.

Boys, I live here in Cleveland county. I have friends in several clubs across this area. Where thay came up with the numbers that we are 5th in harvest I can"t find out. We Normally harvest around 45-49 deer a year in our camp. This year we harvested 16. Most of those were doe as well. Not many tracks in the woods. One of the Game and Fish Biologist I spoke with about this said the drought we had may have caused black tongue this year with limited watering holes available. This is possible but we found no dead deer on the lease over the summer. But With coyotes as bad as they are we may not could have. I have noticed for the last 3 years our populations have dropped in this area. When a family of 4 can take 24 deer from the woods a year, how long do you think it will be before this is seen everywhere? I also think it promotes waste by hunters only taking the best meat off that 4-6th deer. JMO

 

[tmeredith]

Boys, One of the Game and Fish Biologist I spoke with about this said the drought we had may have caused black tongue this year with limited watering holes available.

They always have some excuse other than their own mismanagement. It ain't blue tounge, it ain't hogs, it ain't coyotes, it ain't poachers that are causing the deer numbers to decline it's these crazy long gun seasons and high bag limits and it's by design. The agfc wants to push the deer back to the most remote parts of the state so they won't be running around in the highways. They'll keep telling us how the deer population is exploding and their all going to starve to death if we don't kill more. They'll keep telling us they're dieing of blue tounge because they're so overpopulated, They'll keep telling us if we would only kill more does we'll have more and bigger bucks. They may even manipulate the harvest numbers in order to make it look like we're killing more deer than we are. They'll tell us all these things as long as hunters keep believing them, and they need hunters to believe these things so that the hunters will keep thinning the herd for the insurance companies.

 

[jhw]

They always have some excuse other than their own mismanagement. It ain't blue tounge, it ain't hogs, it ain't coyotes, it ain't poachers that are causing the deer numbers to decline it's these crazy long gun seasons and high bag limits and it's by design. The agfc wants to push the deer back to the most remote parts of the state so they won't be running around in the highways. They'll keep telling us how the deer population is exploding and their all going to starve to death if we don't kill more. They'll keep telling us they're dieing of blue tounge because they're so overpopulated, They'll keep telling us if we would only kill more does we'll have more and bigger bucks. They may even manipulate the harvest numbers in order to make it look like we're killing more deer than we are. They'll tell us all these things as long as hunters keep believing them, and they need hunters to believe these things so that the hunters will keep thinning the herd for the insurance companies.

I belive this is already going on. I think that is the reason, that they went to the online checking system. When we had check stations, you could go to the different stations, and find out how many deer had been killed in your county. ( A checks and balance of sorts.) Now there is no way to determine, if the kill figures are correct. When you have 80,000 doe being killed ever year, but the total deer kill never drops, this should be a red flag to hunters.

 

[tmeredith]

I belive this is already going on. I think that is the reason, that they went to the online checking system. When we had check stations, you could go to the different stations, and find out how many deer had been killed in your county. ( A checks and balance of sorts.) Now there is no way to determine, if the kill figures are correct. When you have 80,000 doe being killed ever year, but the total deer kill never drops, this should be a red flag to hunters.

Yep. Also I asked 'em why there were deer still being checked well into May last year and they said it was because the phone checking ststem somehow wasn't getting the recorded messages until then.:head: Looks to me that if something like that could happen it would be easy enough to double check some deer unintentionally as well.

 

[Powerquack2K]

Boys, I live here in Cleveland county. I have friends in several clubs across this area. Where thay came up with the numbers that we are 5th in harvest I can"t find out. We Normally harvest around 45-49 deer a year in our camp. This year we harvested 16. Most of those were doe as well. Not many tracks in the woods. One of the Game and Fish Biologist I spoke with about this said the drought we had may have caused black tongue this year with limited watering holes available. This is possible but we found no dead deer on the lease over the summer. But With coyotes as bad as they are we may not could have. I have noticed for the last 3 years our populations have dropped in this area. When a family of 4 can take 24 deer from the woods a year, how long do you think it will be before this is seen everywhere? I also think it promotes waste by hunters only taking the best meat off that 4-6th deer. JMO

I'd guess my deer sightings were down 95% when hunting in Cleveland Co. Plenty of coons, 'yotes, and kids on ATV's though.

 

[Powerquack2K]

I belive this is already going on. I think that is the reason, that they went to the online checking system. When we had check stations, you could go to the different stations, and find out how many deer had been killed in your county. ( A checks and balance of sorts.) Now there is no way to determine, if the kill figures are correct. When you have 80,000 doe being killed ever year, but the total deer kill never drops, this should be a red flag to hunters.

No way zone 12 kill numbers could be as high as the last two years.

 

[Mountain Oyster]

In south Pike County the past two years I have seen more deer than ever before. Everyone I talk to has said the same thing. Man of the Howard County folks I talk to say the same thing. I guess its normal but I see far more does than bucks. I saw 4 in the field in front of the house a few minutes ago and my wife saw 8 yesterday morning on our place as she was leaving for work. Maybe y'alls deer are moving here. lol.

 

[bigworm]

i'm wondering how many of you guys kill all 6 of the deer you are allowed to kill? it seems like if the general idea of your camp (as a group) is that 6 is too many deer to be taken you would impose camp rules to ensure that your doe population is where it pleases you. i have never seen a game warden force anyone to kill six deer. i believe that less deer equal a healthier herd and better deer. i assume now that the question is: do you want to see lots of little deer, or do you want to see fewer deer with lager racks? i believe that coyotes are a major problem in cleveland county. everywhere i see a set of deer tracks, i also see a set of yote tracks. i'm not saying that the agfc is always right, but i am saying that they aren't always wrong. we as hunters have to do things to help our herd too. KILL ALL THE YOTES, COONS, AND HOGS! maybe a bounty on coons and yotes would be a good way to spend some agfc money. hogs need to be erraticated completely! they are like vacuum cleaners on white oak acorns. coons for the sake of wild turkeys. :idea:

 

[tmeredith]

i'm wondering how many of you guys kill all 6 of the deer you are allowed to kill? it seems like if the general idea of your camp (as a group) is that 6 is too many deer to be taken you would impose camp rules to ensure that your doe population is where it pleases you. i have never seen a game warden force anyone to kill six deer. i believe that less deer equal a healthier herd and better deer. i assume now that the question is: do you want to see lots of little deer, or do you want to see fewer deer with lager racks? i believe that coyotes are a major problem in cleveland county. everywhere i see a set of deer tracks, i also see a set of yote tracks. i'm not saying that the agfc is always right, but i am saying that they aren't always wrong. we as hunters have to do things to help our herd too. KILL ALL THE YOTES, COONS, AND HOGS! maybe a bounty on coons and yotes would be a good way to spend some agfc money. hogs need to be erraticated completely! they are like vacuum cleaners on white oak acorns. coons for the sake of wild turkeys. :idea:

I don't know about everyone else, but I'd like to see alot of deer big and small. The question is, what's alot? If a certain area will support 30 deer per sq. mile why not have 30 deer per sq. mile? Most of NEA has less than 15 deer per sq. mile. Some estimates I've seen suggest a herd density of around 5 deer per sq. mile. The old saying you can't have quality and quantity is not exactly true. It depends on your definition of quantity. You can have good numbers of deer and still have plenty of good bucks too as long as you don't go over your optimal carrying cap.

 

[Powerquack2K]

i'm wondering how many of you guys kill all 6 of the deer you are allowed to kill? it seems like if the general idea of your camp (as a group) is that 6 is too many deer to be taken you would impose camp rules to ensure that your doe population is where it pleases you. i have never seen a game warden force anyone to kill six deer. i believe that less deer equal a healthier herd and better deer. i assume now that the question is: do you want to see lots of little deer, or do you want to see fewer deer with lager racks? i believe that coyotes are a major problem in cleveland county. everywhere i see a set of deer tracks, i also see a set of yote tracks. i'm not saying that the agfc is always right, but i am saying that they aren't always wrong. we as hunters have to do things to help our herd too. KILL ALL THE YOTES, COONS, AND HOGS! maybe a bounty on coons and yotes would be a good way to spend some agfc money. hogs need to be erraticated completely! they are like vacuum cleaners on white oak acorns. coons for the sake of wild turkeys. :idea:

Where I hunt in Cleveland Co. will never have any number of "good" bucks...... way too much hunting pressure and food is everywhere but low quality. It is typical zone 12 deer factory with the neighbors shooting deer off the back porch and a big timberland lease nearby.....

One place we hunt is 340 acres with only two of us hunting there putting very light pressure on the deer. If you hunted really hard you would occasionally see a deer...... that NEVER happens. The deer population is lower than it was after the 2000 ice storm best I can tell..........