Article: Deer Vehicle accidents the past 8 years.. Shocking

The deer hunting around my areas are turning to shit......going to hell in a handbasket as I say this....and I know there isn't a damn thing I can do about it. Every swinging dick that never hunted before has turned into fucking Daniel Boone in the last 2-3 years since a few nice bucks have been taken in past years. This past Saturday there were a group of 13 guys driving every piece of woods available, and shooting anything that moved.....and the worst part is most of them fucks don't even eat deer meat!

I have came to the realization that I have to adapt to this and expand my hunting range if my expectations are to live up to reality.

This should be no different for anybody else.

You guys think I have prime fucking ground......well I will tell you that's bullshit. We only have about 10% of the woods up here compared to everywhere else. A buck has less than 1% chance to make it beyond 3 years old.

Gern186 said:

The deer hunting around my areas are turning to shit......going to hell in a handbasket as I say this....and I know there isn't a damn thing I can do about it. Every swinging dick that never hunted before has turned into fucking Daniel Boone in the last 2-3 years since a few nice bucks have been taken in past years. This past Saturday there were a group of 13 guys driving every piece of woods available, and shooting anything that moved.....and the worst part is most of them fucks don't even eat deer meat!

I have came to the realization that I have to adapt to this and expand my hunting range if my expectations are to live up to reality.

This should be no different for anybody else.

You guys think I have prime fucking ground......well I will tell you that's bullshit. We only have about 10% of the woods up here compared to everywhere else. A buck has less than 1% chance to make it beyond 3 years old.

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This is exactly the point... I used to think and tell folks it was possible to kill a 140" deer in any woodlot in Ohio. I said that, and firmly believed that because it was true. There were deer in every piece of cover available. In 94, I hunted with my FIL at the border of Highland and Fayette county. It was the first and only time I have hunted in an extremely well organized and executed drive hunt. The guys doing thinking on those hunts were the farmers that owned the land. They knew precisely where the deer would be, and where they would go. It was impressive. There were 14 of us. In two days we killed 28 deer, there was a two tag limit that season. Each patch of cover had deer in it. It isn't my idea of hunting, but it was a fun way to kill critters, and that is all it was - murder, but fun.

On opening day this year I ran into two of the old farmers at the little store where everyone would gather at lunch time. They were the only two hunting. The rest of the group didn't even hunt this year----because there are no deer. Does that mean they are less than dedicated? Maybe so, they are gun hunters and don't invest the time most of us here do. Do they know something Tonk doesn't? You bet your tail they do.

The point being up until the late 80's, everyone hunted the hills of SE Ohio because that's where the deer were. Since that time, people have become accustomed to having deer throughout the state in good, huntable numbers. Now it seems we are going to have to all adapt back to what it was in the early years and flood the woods of the (WN) and hunt with Coon and Mrex.

Personally, I preferred having a good population right out my back door.

How would you describe your place before 2-3 years ago? Prime? Or just better than it is now?[/QUOTE]

We have never had "prime" hunting here. What we did have was a few sections of creek ground that got somewhat limited hunting pressure. Sure there were the usual gun hunters, but there was a 3 mile stretch of creek that didn't get pounded super hard. That is where a few bucks were allowed to escape and survive. I killed about 5 real nice bucks in a row from 2006 to 2010 with a BOW, and you know how word travels........next thing you know guys are coming out of the woodwork. Guys that never hunted a day in their life started hunting, their kids started hunting, guys started coming in from out of state and far away hunting in the area......that's the way it has worked around here. And now with all the pressure and the guys just shooting random deer, people shooting them from vehicles and everything else it has gotten to the point where the expectations are very low to see a good buck.....and the doe population has dropped BIG TIME as a result also. I blame some of the local guys for this decimation......not the ODNR.

Gern186 said:

How would you describe your place before 2-3 years ago? Prime? Or just better than it is now?

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We have never had "prime" hunting here. What we did have was a few sections of creek ground that got somewhat limited hunting pressure. Sure there were the usual gun hunters, but there was a 3 mile stretch of creek that didn't get pounded super hard. That is where a few bucks were allowed to escape and survive. I killed about 5 real nice bucks in a row from 2006 to 2010 with a BOW, and you know how word travels........next thing you know guys are coming out of the woodwork. Guys that never hunted a day in their life started hunting, their kids started hunting, guys started coming in from out of state and far away hunting in the area......that's the way it has worked around here. And now with all the pressure and the guys just shooting random deer, people shooting them from vehicles and everything else it has gotten to the point where the expectations are very low to see a good buck.....and the doe population has dropped BIG TIME as a result also. I blame some of the local guys for this decimation......not the ODNR.[/QUOTE]
that has happened a lot of places....ODNR allowed the decimation of the herd not the hunters.

ODOW encouraged decimation! "We still have work to do"

Milo said:

We have never had "prime" hunting here. What we did have was a few sections of creek ground that got somewhat limited hunting pressure. Sure there were the usual gun hunters, but there was a 3 mile stretch of creek that didn't get pounded super hard. That is where a few bucks were allowed to escape and survive. I killed about 5 real nice bucks in a row from 2006 to 2010 with a BOW, and you know how word travels........next thing you know guys are coming out of the woodwork. Guys that never hunted a day in their life started hunting, their kids started hunting, guys started coming in from out of state and far away hunting in the area......that's the way it has worked around here. And now with all the pressure and the guys just shooting random deer, people shooting them from vehicles and everything else it has gotten to the point where the expectations are very low to see a good buck.....and the doe population has dropped BIG TIME as a result also. I blame some of the local guys for this decimation......not the ODNR.

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that has happened a lot of places....ODNR allowed the decimation of the herd not the hunters.[/QUOTE]

The odnr can't control how many guys go into a certain area and hunt.....if 10 guys all hunt the same block of land and all kill 2 deer each then it is legal. The hunters themselves have to take account the amount of deer killed in a certain area. If I know a few deer have already been killed out of a particular spot, then I will not go there and take more out if I feel it has been harvested enough already....unless there is a good buck in the area. I am speaking mainly of doe harvesting. There has to be some self governing for it all to work out.....and most guys don't have the ability to self govern.

Jackalope said:

You can't blame them. For the most part they're simply doing what the odnr allows them to. Now take the bonus tags back, remove bonus gun, basically go back to the old regs and you'll likely see a turn around of sorts. Thats if its not too late and it needs to go lower to make the pupation come back vs hold steady. Some of the slobs will stay home, some will pick up a crossbow, and some will be the same. But the difference is they can't blow the place up with a fist full of tags that are way over what should be allowed for the area.

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Yeah, I agree, but we are only allowed to kill 2 deer with a firearm in this county......the other 2 have to be with a bow. Most guys aren't going to kill the max limit. But, if you get a shit load of guys together and they each kill 1 apiece, then you have complete decimation of the herd.

Chad, didn't your county just go to the "4" tag zone last year?

Gern186 said:

that has happened a lot of places....ODNR allowed the decimation of the herd not the hunters.

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The odnr can't control how many guys go into a certain area and hunt.....if 10 guys all hunt the same block of land and all kill 2 deer each then it is legal. The hunters themselves have to take account the amount of deer killed in a certain area. If I know a few deer have already been killed out of a particular spot, then I will not go there and take more out if I feel it has been harvested enough already....unless there is a good buck in the area. I am speaking mainly of doe harvesting. There has to be some self governing for it all to work out.....and most guys don't have the ability to self govern.[/QUOTE]
I agree gern thats why you should be conservative with bag limits and harvests allowed...see were on teh same page but if a hunter kills and eats 3 deer why is he the Evil bastard? he is being told the rainbow is a bright and strong as ever....

Not only that, Milo, he has been brainwashed into thinking killing every doe he sees makes the bucks "bigger and healthier". That portion of qdm is bull in Ohio. There isn't a deer in this state that has ever starved to death unless it couldn't chew.

brock ratcliff said:

Chad, didn't your county just go to the "4" tag zone last year?

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Yeah, 2 years ago....2 of the 4 have to be killed with archery equipment though. I never killed a deer in the county this year...first time ever, somewhat because of fear of what is already starting to happen. There are certain areas with a decent population of deer in this county. I'm not trying to say they are going extinct. The areas that I have hunted in the past have gotten 3x the amount of hunting pressure in the last 3 years and it is having negative consequences. If I wanted to go out and kill 4 does I am positive I could make it happen in a season, no doubt.

Several of us have went to the DNR open houses and voiced our concerns over the liberal bag limits set. I am planning on going again this year to make my voice heard....what else can an individual do?

brock ratcliff said:

Not only that, Milo, he has been brainwashed into thinking killing every doe he sees makes the bucks "bigger and healthier". That portion of qdm is bull in Ohio. There isn't a deer in this state that has ever starved to death unless it couldn't chew.

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You surely aren't speaking of me are you? I am against the slaughtering of does. Take one or 2 out of an area and that's it. What I'm saying is that not only are the does getting shot out of control in this area, so are the little bucks and button bucks.....no self regulation.

Gern , self regulation is IMPOSSIBLE at best.. deer don't stay on 1 property with 1 person hunting that property. Take a herd of say 8 does that travel 4 different hunted properties..if each guy takes one out of that herd that's a 50 % reduction immediately. And they are being "self regulated" by only killing one deer...they they take 2 that herd is gone...but yet they think they are doing the right thing...Your wanting a very micromanagement that's great in concept but reality says its impossible.

Milo said:

Gern , self regulation is IMPOSSIBLE at best.. deer don't stay on 1 property with 1 person hunting that property. Take a herd of say 8 does that travel 4 different hunted properties..if each guy takes one out of that herd that's a 50 % reduction immediately. And they are being "self regulated" by only killing one deer...they they take 2 that herd is gone...but yet they think they are doing the right thing...Your wanting a very micromanagement that's great in concept but reality says its impossible.

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I agree. The thing about it is I know all of these guys and they just don't fucking get it. One of the guys is the main farmer for a lot of the ground and he wants them all shot dead because they eat his crops. The other guys just have to kill for the thrill of it......even if the limit was one deer apiece they would continue to shoot the shit out of them IMO. That's where I am trying to say there is no self regulation.

No, the "he" was a reference to hunters in general as Milo had referenced.

Fayette went to the "4" tag deal the first year it was implemented, zone B they called it. Like most counties that went to it, the harvest nearly doubled the first couple of years. However, like your area, there is very little cover per acre, and it cannot sustain those harves totals. This is why there are few deer there now. I cried to Tonk about it, and so did others. Last year, the early harvest report was so dismal he decided to move it back to Zone A...thankfully! I don't know how much help that will be, but it is a step in the right direction. Areas with large agricultural fields and little woodlots cannot support high deer bag limits, they are too easy to over-shoot with guns...as I stated in a previous post, knowledgeable people can hammer them by driving them from cover.

Anyway, I hope this is eventually recognized by the DOW and is taken into account in the future when setting bag limits in this type of area. I don't hold much hope for that right now as seemingly they still think we have an over-abundance of deer, even where we do not.

it wont matter what the bag limits are, areas are overpopulated for reasons not related to hunting but rather the lack there of. its like taking tylenol for a headache when the real problem is a brain tumor.