Gundeck

A bit off the subject, but on the way to work the other day, I passed a field where I routinely see turkeys. I had to stop to count Monday. There were 46 turkeys in the field. I started back down the road and in the very next field there were at least 25 (I didn't stop this time) more turkeys. Just crazy!

MC Bowhunter

Deer harvest is way down in Oklahoma as well. I bet I didn't see 30 deer all season. In years past you could see that in one weekend.
Kinda scary!

Darrall

tourangeaud

Here are some stats from our neighbors to the west.

Preliminary data collected from game checking stations across the state indicate deer hunters in West Virginia harvested 66,570 bucks during the two-week buck season, which ran from Nov. 19 through Dec. 1, according to Frank Jezioro, director of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.

The 2007 buck harvest was slightly higher than the 2006 harvest of 66,115. The top 10 counties for buck harvest were as follows: Preston (2,323), Hampshire (2,231), Greenbrier (2,215), Hardy (2,104), Mason (2,083), Jackson (2,070), Braxton (1,986), Randolph (1,960), Monroe (1,952), and Roane (1,903).

Twenty-nine counties reported an increase in the buck harvest over 2006 while 22 reported a decrease. The decline in several counties may be related to an outbreak of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD-Serotype II virus) that occurred in several northern and western counties during the months of September and October.

tourangeaud

The trend is showing an increase

Virginia Deer Kill, 1947 to 2006

Talondale

Also remember how many guys were complaining about the high heat in the early part of the season. That could explain a decline in bow kill numbers, too hot to hunt. Do you have a breakdown of the number of hunters who hunted Quantico this year? We've had cases of EHD in VA. I haven't seen any evidence locally. I did see a lot more ticks on deer late into the season this year, not EHD related but interesting. Could be reaction to hunting pressure, deer moving into neighboring suburban areas where foliage is watered and therefore more succulent, any number of reasons.

huntinboy1122

I have seen much less deer this year than past with more effort put into hunting

virginiashadow

tourangeud..."Time to get off the base and hunt some other ground. Maybe, they don't like all the guns. LOL"

I don't have anywhere else to hunt.

I have probably hunted 25 sits this year and have seen less than 25 deer. My buddy who is a fantastic hunter tells me the same thing in the amount of deer he has seen. He has hunted a good amount as well. I just hope that we are thinning the herd and that things will pick up again.

Talondale...Not sure about the number of hunters using Quantico this year...my feeling is that the numbers are DOWN. That is just by what I have seen day in and day out. That may factor into it.

kry226

Its been like this all over the country. Deer sightings down. Deer harvests down. EHD doesn't explain everything. Best advice I've heard is to NOT use this year's data to make any deer management decisions. This has been a year like non-other.

I have been hunting since Sept 8 at Fort Gordon in GA, and have seen 3 deer all season, all young bucks. NO DOES! That freakin' blows my mind.

tourangeaud

Is the base strictly bow only? Do they observe the same regs as the county or do they have their own regs concerning what you can harvest? I hope thing pick up for everybody during these last couple of weeks. I'll be in the woodsas much as possible, begining this coming Saturday. I'm on vacation till next year.

virginiashadow

"Do they observe the same regs as the county or do they have their own regs concerning what you can harvest?"

They have their own regs. They have bowhunting only for the first 6 weeks. There is no muzzleloader season. Gun season season starts in mid November with only a limited number of doe days. Prince William County, and Fauquier County have season long doe days, but the base is federal so it has only a few doe days leading into the last two weeks of the season, and at that time the season opens to buck/doe days for the last two weeks.