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Harvest Numbers Down

Willysman said:
I'm sure you could add quite a bit to the number for deer not being checked out. I think it is happening a lot a lot more than we think.
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I agree with this, but I think that trend has been a slow trend over time, not a sudden change in hunter behavior that would cause a sudden drop in harvest numbers for a single year.
 
We were in one of the pockets that lost 70% of our herd in the 2019 ehd outbreak. Saw a small increase in numbers in 2020, but we have seen a drastically higher number of deer this year. Being we are still recovering, we've only killed one doe on our place. Also shot a buck, but couldn't find him and believe he is dead. Next year should be through the roof on quality and quantity. We intentionally did not shoot deer and let the herd recover. I suspect others are in the same shoes we are in and that may be a contributing factor
 
Safari Hunt said:
It could be that hunters are not checking in their deer. One person mentioned that turkey harvest was down due to the same idea. Online checking is a good/not-so-good idea. Remember the old days when you had to physically check in a deer or turkey????
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I agree! How many hunters (aka poachers) didn't check-in that basket rack buck because they didn't want it going against their yearly quota? There has been an abundance of new poachers ever since they made online check-ins a reality! Sadly there are plenty of new and not so new hunters that are now considered a "poacher" because TWRA has made it to easy for them to not report their kills! Some are probably members of this group! JMHO!
 
Vince said:
I haven't seen many deer this year...last year, I saw five fold numbers in half as many sits as this year.
I still haven't killed one this year. Shot two, one bow and one rifle - and missed both.
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I would assume that the deer in your area contracted COVID and most did survive because they didn't receive their two doses of the vaccine! 😜
 
BSK said:
Just my opinion - after looking at many years of hunter observation data from numerous properties across the Southeast - but I think hunters put too much emphasis on a single year's experience. Having run a lot of photo censuses and seeing how local deer populations DON'T experience major increases or declines year to year (outside of an EHD outbreak), but hunter sightings DO see major year to year increases/declines, far more of what hunters see while hunting is about weather and food sources than about actual deer numbers. What I'm getting at is "what hunters see while hunting" often has very little to do with how many deer are out there. Now at the extremes, you can't see what isn't there, but in the real world I don't see those extremes occurring. I see minor variances in local deer population from year to year, but sometimes massive variances in how many deer hunters see from year to year. It's all about weather and food sources.
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Great point....weather and food sources make much more sense.

In addition to this...I wonder about the age demographic of hunters.. less young hunters entering the ranks....average age of hunters increasing....and in turn more older hunters are more selective now than ever....I know this is true in the small group of friends I hunt with.....not saying age demographics is a huge influencer...but it could be another piece of the puzzle.
 
I think as far as deer being checked in , the ones that didn't check them in before , are most percentage wise the same persons that still don't check them in. The honest guy is still the honest guy no matter the check in procedure . And also if your having a meat processor cut up the deer , then you have to have a authorization # for the licensed processor and for that matter the taxidermist. So IMO , I think the dishonest people, from before online check in , is still some of the percentage of dishonest people that are still not checking them in.
 
My summation of everyone's intel is this. the deer that have survived ehd,coyotes,and farm bureau are staying in the woods eating a bumper crop of acorns. (#2) Less hunters chasing after deer because our yungins are to busy with other things.#(3) the hunter population we do have are old timers who want to sit in a shooting house overlooking a field where there is no acorns, (which is where the deer are). #(4) and lastly if we do luck up and ole split toe steps out to check the weather and takes one through the shoulders, well then the old timer just throws him in the truck and heads to the barn.... cause he dont know how to use that dadgum phone ape, or app, or whatever they call it!! By grab...
 
yall can blame it whatever fits your needs but the truth is depredation permits! if twra keeps letting the insurance companies dictate their management practices it will only continue to decline, thats the reason and the truth! we better wake up and stand up if we want to see it level off in any of our lifetimes!
 
Easy3actual said:
I was looking at the deer harvest numbers for this season. I compared harvest numbers from the Last week of Aug (velvet hunt) to Dec 28 for both 2020 and 2021. There was around a 20-22k difference. This year was lower.

Did did covid in 2020 put that many more hunters in the woods? What do y'all think the reason for it is?
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CWD had a lot of why people did not killing deer
 
TheLBLman said:
Even in good acorn years, they are normally "gone" by mid-December or earlier. There can still be some on the ground, but they "sour" and/or lose their appeal to deer. Turkeys will still eat them.
Red oak acorns will last on the ground & appeal to deer until spring, while white oak acorns rot much sooner, usually be early December.

What's happened this year is highly unusual regarding the acorns.
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Some types of red oak are still dropping in mid December. Found one a couple weeks back that still had acorns up in the tree and some on the ground with signs of deer feeding on them. When I hunted Mississippi in January the nuttall and water oaks were still dropping. Depends on the species and the individual tree.

In the western highland rim where the white oaks had a huge bumper crop there are still acorns everywhere on the ground, but they're either gone bad or germinated.
 
KevinC said:
I agree! How many hunters (aka poachers) didn't check-in that basket rack buck because they didn't want it going against their yearly quota? There has been an abundance of new poachers ever since they made online check-ins a reality! Sadly there are plenty of new and not so new hunters that are now considered a "poacher" because TWRA has made it to easy for them to not report their kills! Some are probably members of this group! JMHO!
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I'm gonna retract this statement! Been thinking about what I posted and came to the conclusion that with the lack of TWRA check-in sites, it has contributed to a lot of hunters not tagging and reporting their kills as well! I personally like the on line process for the convenience it provides us honest and lawful hunters! The ones that are gonna poach will do it either way!
 
catman529 said:
In the western highland rim where the white oaks had a huge bumper crop there are still acorns everywhere on the ground, but they're either gone bad or germinated.
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In the Western Highland Rim, red oaks had a big crop as well. Not as huge as the Whites, but still pretty big. Deer are feeding on them heavily. Seeing a little more use of ag fields and food plots, but deer are still back in the woods chowing down on Red Oak family acorns.
 
kentuckylakebuck1 said:
yall can blame it whatever fits your needs but the truth is depredation permits! if twra keeps letting the insurance companies dictate their management practices it will only continue to decline, thats the reason and the truth! we better wake up and stand up if we want to see it level off in any of our lifetimes!
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Exactly this. It also has a lot to do with the liberal doe limits in unit L. Just because a county goes in unit L doesn't mean it should stay there. Perry County and Hickman County should have been removed in the late summer of 2019. Game wardens were the first to tell me that ehd killed at least 60 % of the herd. I think in some pockets it was worse than that yet they left it in unit L. I am not against killing does but 3 a day legally? Maybe 3 per season would be more than enough. TWRA does a heck of a job building a deer and turkey population but it is obvious they have no clue when it comes to managing either. We as hunters sacrificed in a lot of places. We supported deer hunting when there were no deer to see and still purchased license and equipment. TWRA still doesnt listen to us and when you say they listen to insurance companies more then they do deer hunters you get blasted by twra on here.
 
Personally avoided hunting CWD transportation restriction counties I always hunt and take several deer. I didn't want to have to bone out a deer deep into the woods or even worse bring a turkey fryer out and a pressure washer to clean a bucks skull vs. leaving it for scavengers. No worries eating deer from those counties. I just don't care to deal with the extra responsibilities. I would rather process them at the house.
 
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kentuckylakebuck1 said:
yall can blame it whatever fits your needs but the truth is depredation permits! if twra keeps letting the insurance companies dictate their management practices it will only continue to decline, thats the reason and the truth! we better wake up and stand up if we want to see it level off in any of our lifetimes!
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Sorry but agriculture is pretty important even if that means killing some deer on depredation permits. You're not gonna see depredation permits given out everywhere, and more than half the state isn't even ag land where those permits would be needed.
 

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