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new regs for deer season.

antiqucycle

Junior Member
506
36
East Ohio
The DOW will never understand how many deer are out there as long a the poachers delight in the Dial A Check.

Its just big joke when they do not count road kills.

The Dow still sends game wardens out at the crack of dawn listening and recording turkey gobbles? Let them count carcasses on the freeways.
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
Supporting Member
6,551
66
SW Ohio
Even with the tomato analogy making sense, I don't fully agree. Hunters are seeing it. Local hunters talk. Seeing a reduction in tag numbers or reduced priced tags will make hunters seeing low deer numbers think twice. It won't help a ton but will slowly turn around. Much like "you've gotta shoot does" took a bit to sink in, the "gotta back off the does" will take a bit to sink in. It will catch on though. Just might see another 5-10yrs to rebound much. Just my opinion. I could be wrong.

I think the average hunter don't give a hoot and only want dead brown on the ground. A select few like on this forum and some others care about what's going on. The meat hunter will just hunt harder and longer until the last deer is gone. IMHO
 

dante322

*Supporting Member*
5,506
157
Crawford county
I was out today getting permission slips. Even the landowners are noticing there aren't as many deer. Almost every hunter I spoke with or hunted with last year said the same thing, "there aren't as mAny deer". If everybody is seeing the same thing, having less tags to work with, and taking the emphasis off of killing does has to have an impact. Might not be huge at first, but it's bound to happen.
 

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
260
I was out today getting permission slips. Even the landowners are noticing there aren't as many deer. Almost every hunter I spoke with or hunted with last year said the same thing, "there aren't as mAny deer". If everybody is seeing the same thing, having less tags to work with, and taking the emphasis off of killing does has to have an impact. Might not be huge at first, but it's bound to happen.

Everyone wants the last crab legs at the buffet. Nobody ever says "there's not much left so I'm taking 1 and leaving some for others." That's not how the human species works. It's the same with hunting. If allowed we would kill the deer population into extinction just as we already did once before.
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
It would be interesting to know how many of the folks on this forum who continually complain about declining deer numbers and poor management strategies have killed their one antlered deer and refrained from killing even one antlerless deer in each of the last 5 seasons. show of hands?

this "problem" should be blamed as much on hunters themselves and commercial influence as much as any state wildlife agency.
 
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teenbowhunter

Junior Member
1,059
72
Delaware County
I see your point but there's a big difference between deer and crab legs. It's just as easy to eat the last crab leg as the first one but the same cannot be said for deer. As there are less deer, it will require more hours spent hunting to kill a deer, and the less determined hunters will give up or hunt less out of boredom from lack of deer sightings. As the deer population decreases the more determined hunters are left, who also tend to be the hunters that understand we should not continue to shoot every doe we see. That said I'm a teenager and I don't have a lot of experience to back up what I'm saying but I do know that predator-prey relationships tend to follow a cyclic pattern in regard to population and I believe that deer-hunter relationships are similar. The population may continue to decline for some years but it will eventually begin to rebound. The ODNR should be trying to keep the population at a stable level (higher than it is in many areas) and most of us do agree that they're doing a pretty shitty job at that seeing the drastic fluctuations in harvest numbers in past years.
 

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
260
It would be interesting to know how many of the folks on this forum who continually complain about declining deer numbers and poor management strategies have killed their one antlered deer and refrained from killing even one antlerless deer in each of the last 5 seasons. show of hands?

this "problem" should be blamed as much on hunters themselves and commercial influence as much as any state wildlife agency.

Raises hand. The only Antlerless I've killed over the last 4 seasons was in Athens county where Tonkovich and Rex assured us that the 82nd airborne themselves couldn't impact the deer numbers. But just to be on the safe side, 3 out of the 4 were button bucks. ;)
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Hand raised with caveat. I stopped shooting does on my main farms in 2011. The does I've shot since then have been at my house. No one hunts around where I live and we have a solid population. Just this week I went for a 3 mile ride around the block and saw 20 antlerless deer. As long as I continue to see similar numbers, I'll fill my freezer off my 2.34 acres.
 

reo

Junior Member
484
68
N.E. Ohio
Here we go LOL. They haven't figured anything out. Smoke and mirrors.

100% AGREE! You can still take just as many (damn near) it just costs a few dollars more. And they took a doe only muzzy season and replaced it with a shoot anything bonus gun season.
 
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reo

Junior Member
484
68
N.E. Ohio
Pretty much my thoughts as well. We are not being encouraged to shoot does any more. They don't care if we do, but it isn't a priority any more.

I'm not sure what any body's idea of the perfect set of regs would be, but you have to admit, this is an improvement over the last few years. The dnr isn't interested in rebounding the herd, but it looks like they might be taking steps to level it off and maintain what we have now.

2 deer only one of which can be a buck. Worked pretty good in the past......
 

reo

Junior Member
484
68
N.E. Ohio
Even with the tomato analogy making sense, I don't fully agree. Hunters are seeing it. Local hunters talk. Seeing a reduction in tag numbers or reduced priced tags will make hunters seeing low deer numbers think twice. It won't help a ton but will slowly turn around. Much like "you've gotta shoot does" took a bit to sink in, the "gotta back off the does" will take a bit to sink in. It will catch on though. Just might see another 5-10yrs to rebound much. Just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Yes, hunters are seeing this and talking. Unfortunately many, many will think "if it is legal then it must be OK", and take whatever they can within the law. I disagree with the "you've gotta shoot does" took a bit to sink in, thought. The harvest numbers show that all it took was loosening the regs and the harvest went through the roof. Until opportunity is reduced and bag limits actually "limit" a hunter the herd will not grow. Maybe maintain (the stated goal of the DNR now) but the herd will not grow.
 
To be honest coming in with a fresh set of eyes this reminds me of Pennsylvania but only a few years behind.

Between the introduction of coyotes to PA and the QDMA (Quality Deer Management) Philosophy which was breed of the Deer Management practices as seen on the glorious television about herd management and the importance of controlling the Doe population PA single handled sought the decimation of Deer herds as a whole throughout the 2000's.

They took the Propaganda of these big name TV shows and applied antler restrictions along with very liberal increases in Doe Licenses sales/seasons fooling people into thinking they DNR could practice deer management of the whole state. The reality is what they did allow yearlings to have another year to grow into decent bucks which blinded the fact that people were slaughtering the deer herd during the (2) week doe season where every guy in the woods had 3+ tags. Fast forward 10 years and PA has very meek herds and now the DNR is trying to cut back Doe Seasons/License sales saying that they acknowledge the herd reduction. This tactic will never work because the herds are so small that unless Doe season was banned for the same time frame the populations will just remain constant where they are which in the back of my mind is what they want.

Now to relate that to Ohio it seems that in the same fashion the state is very liberal on the quantity/time that does can be hunted. The practice of trying to perform "Herd Management" does not work from a State level structure and I think that can be proven through statistical evidence of significant herd decrease in the past decade.

On a personal note I would rather see herds of 50+ deer with small buck then 10 deer with (2) 150 inch buck
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
On a personal note I would rather see herds of 50+ deer with small buck then 10 deer with (2) 150 inch buck

Not me. I rarely see groups of 10 deer. Didn't see them much even before the decimation. I would be happy with seeing 10 deer with 1-2 shooters. lol

The masses want to see 50-100 deer with 10 of them in the 150's. lmao
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,856
260
SW Ohio
My hand is raised, I've killed two doe in the last 10 years. One behind my FIL's house here in the SW about 6-8 years ago when we had as many as 13 does hanging around and another on our farm in the SE in 2011 or 2012, can't remember exactly. I've eaten doe tags the last 2-3 years when I could have shot one but because I haven't seen many I chose not too. What sucks is the other hunter hunting the other part of the farm here in the SW has killed 4-6 does each of the last 2 years between him and his GF that it takes away from what I sacrifice! That's what Joe is kinda eluding to! Unless everyone is on the same page it'll never work! The DOW needs to limit doe tags to just one or none in deer decimated areas(counties) for a year or so forcing those who take more than they really need to help the population bounce back. Some hunters need to have some rules to keep them from killing TOO many, it's just the way it is!
 
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huntn2

Senior Member
6,090
157
Hudson, OH
My hands up. Between lack of opportunity and choice, I have harvested 2 doe over the past 7 seasons with the last being in 2013 in an urban area.
 

Mike

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
15,840
223
Up Nort
I've taken at least one doe and sometimes two since 2010. I harvest from different properties in different counties. The only thing I've really complained about is the liberal distribution of nuisance tags.
 
It would be interesting to know how many of the folks on this forum who continually complain about declining deer numbers and poor management strategies have killed their one antlered deer and refrained from killing even one antlerless deer in each of the last 5 seasons. show of hands?

this "problem" should be blamed as much on hunters themselves and commercial influence as much as any state wildlife agency.

I will raise my hand for me, my dad, wife, both kids and my buddy that hunt our property there in Ohio. It's been our rule for more than 5 seasons, more like 8 since we saw there was a problem.

This problem should be blamed on hunters at least those who have not paid attention to what is/is not out there. But it's way more than that when some sheep look to the DNR to tell them how many they can take......so it must be "OK" to fill every tag they are sold.
 

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
I like deer meat. And the rest of my family likes deer meat. As a result I try to shoot as many antlerless deer as I can, but I don't usually hunt deer as much as I used to. No shortage of deer up here or on the other properties I hunt.
 

dante322

*Supporting Member*
5,506
157
Crawford county
My hand is raised. I typically shoot 1 antlerless for.the freezer and then do my best to fill my buck tag. If that one antlerless happens to be a button, even better. I have been hunting for 6 seasons now and have taken a total of 3 does and 3 buttons. I like the idea of 2 deer, 1 buck, 1 antlerless. It'll never happen. the dnr would not srep on that many toes, and as long as the telecheck system is in place it couldn't be enforced anyway.

That being said, the only point I was trying to make was that the regs are getting better, compared to the all out war on does the last 5 years.