Deer densities observations

It's definitely patchy but its the decreasing numbers over the last few years that people are concerned about. Three years ago I would see deer nearly every time out on the property I hunt, now I'm lucky to see one. I've been hunting there's five years now and the property itself hasn't changed, the number of deer have.

I cannot speak for the deer numbers in the southern part of the state, but I hunt in Huron County and the numbers are definately down. I hunt 3 large farms and used to be able to see 15-20 deer a night out feeding during bow season; now I am lucky to see 5-6. I think there are a couple of reasons for the decline. First of all, like many others have said, the increase in the number of tags has taken a toll. I am also wondering how many more deer are being poached/never tagged with this new check system?

I hunt 2 propertys 2 miles apart. The farm where we killed all but 1 of our deer this year has a healthy population. But not many hunters in that area. There are as many or more deer then there was 5 years ago.
On the other property, Where there are more people hunting the area, The deer numbers are down by at least 50%

I also think people are full of shit more often than not. So when I hear of people seeing 30-40 deer a sit, my bullshit detector goes off. Those days are long gone for the vast majority of this state IMO. I judge a successful season for me by the number of deer seen per hour on stand. I expect to see 1 deer per hour sat and have come to that ratio after a number of years keeping track of that data. I have no idea how that would translate to a deer density number for my area, but it is a number that defines a solid year on stand for me. The best sit I had this year was 7 deer. Other than that hunt and one other, I didn't see more than 3 on a hunt all year. I remember hunts where I would sit on 10 acres in January and have 14 does in a single file line come through. Now, I'm lucky to see 5-6 in a group come late season. Numbers are down and inherently, so are densities...

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To me, that shit is amazing. Around here seeing 1 or 2 per sit is good. any more than that and you feel like you went to deer hunters heaven.
The does in this area have been absolutely crushed. We have seen more bucks than does in the last couple years. the problem with that is after the first week or so of breeding, all the does are bred and the bucks move on looking for more.

Well this a very interesting topic. I have heard both sides and reasons for the low deer numbers. I myself have noticed the drop in numbers. However, my brother and I have tried to work on managing our own deer herd with the help of adjoining landowners. For the past 5 or so years we and our neighbors have been shooting some does and passing on bucks 2.5-3.5 years of age and younger. Trying to grow mature bucks and hoping that the more mature and dominate bucks are doing the breeding. I have noticed that our population has definitely declined, but the herd is still healthy and strong. Sure, I don't see as many on stand, but I see more horns than I ever had. After all that's what I would rather see anyway!

I can remember seeing nothing but does being chased by nothing but scrubs and undesirables. Now that our buck and doe ratios are better, we are at least seeing better bucks, and more of them. As far as hearing shot gun reports during gun season. I can say that our group didn't fire a round at a deer until Thursday afternoon. We had deer up on every drive, but like many of you, they were holding out for a 140" or better. That's how you manage your hunting land. Sure we have no control what other hunters shoot when the deer we see go on their property, but it helps the deer mature. I do believe that the herd is smaller in Ohio, but I feel that it's much healthier TOO!

I'll also add though bro, I also don't think anyone laid eyes on a solid 140" deer all week. Which really sucks! We saw some good up and comers but I do believe our shooter buck numbers could be better. I know several of our group have caught some really nice deer on camera but after our discovery of how exaggerated a bucks rack can be recently on these cameras I actually wonder just HOW many "140+" deer we DO have in our hunting areas.

Now back on topic of deer densities though, I have noticed a huge difference in deer sightings over the course of the last 4-5 years. Especially at night during my travels when deer typically move the most. Even on my 3.5 hour long trip to and from your place to my place here near Cincy its a rarity to even see a deer these days, and that's going back the last couple years!

When it comes to my sightings while hunting I've seen a decline in both areas I've hunted in the SE and the one in the SW. The SW area hasn't dropped as low as the SE areas but still noticeable though. What worries me most is the two areas I hunt with Ron in the SE. In one of these areas there is a group of deer gun hunters that number up into the twenties. A few of these guys work at a dairy farm just down the road that used kill permits quite liberally over the last 20 years or so. Back in the 80's and 90's this group would kill around 30+ deer during the week long gun season every year and take several slobs each year as well. Over the course of the past 2 decades the kill permits still got filled(over 30+/year) but their kills during the week long gun season seemed to go down drastically. The last several years we both hear very little shooting from their relatively large hunting party as they drive all week long. I've heard total deer harvests from this group is nothing like it use to be! Huh, I wonder why? I asked our county WO this past deer gun how many kill permits were issued this year out that way and he said, NONE!!! Maybe we are at rock bottom out there?!? Don't know but other than opening day this season the sounds of shots being fired were very few and far between all week long.

One more thing, IMO some areas have yet to bounce back from the EHD outbreak about 5 years ago TOO and our yote population is still thriving which hurts as well. Just sayin'.

I'm done. Lol

Both properties we hunt are about 20 miles from each other. Our property is 78 acres with approximately 45% thickets and grownup fields,45% clear mature woods and 10% fields. The fields sit right next to a desolate road that gets road hunted pretty hard day and night so we're abit apprehensive on making them TOO much of a draw. We planted the biggest field(4ac)with Imperial clover a few years ago and it still looks real good. The 1.5-2 acre field we had in turnips which the deer tore up and some chickory and other mixes but Ron could tell you more specifically what they were. We also tried feeders but being over run with coon it only took one fill up of corn and 1362 pics of the furry fat bastards and 2 pics of does for us to stop that waste of time and money. Lol

As for does killed off our property, last year 2-3, this year 1. We average prolly between 1-2 every year over the past 20 years or so.

There is no standing corn adjoining our property but there is some about 1/2-3/4 of a mile away. These fields were all picked before gun season so the deer weren't hiding in there.

Our other property we hunt is a substantially larger area surrounded by lots of picked corn this year and hunted by us and 11 other guys. We have a couple very small plots with no feeders but monitor the movements very well with TC's. Just going by sightings and camera images alone at either of the two places I can say with out a doubt....our deer densities are much lower. Maybe healthier like Ron said, but definitely lower.

Yeah, I remember hunting our land back in the 80's and 90's and seeing many more deer than when we do now. I'm hoping the kill permits vanish for at least a few more years but I'm not holding my breath. Lol

at1010 said:

Im more in cattle country so Im not sure how much permits are given out there.

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We are TOO! We have many small and large cattle farms interspersed around both areas. As far as corn deprevation of critters, NO one will convince me that COON is NOT the main culprit.