huntingson

Over the years since you started hunting, how has the hunting changed? Are there more/less animals, bigger/smaller racks, body size, etc?

racewayking

Some areas have no deer left but great McMansions and townhouse developments. I have lost three great spots to urban sprawl. Out of the two I still hunt one has more deer than you can shake a stick at while the other has been affected by the adition of a shotgun season about three years ago, there are now less big deer since every idiot and their momma show up shooting anything they can with their shotguns.

jackflap

I have had the unique opportunity to watch an area go from almost zero deer population to an area that today is like most others in that it now is above ideal carrying capacity. This has occurred over a 23 year period.

How has it changed. 23 years ago, it was a BIG deal if you even saw a deer. Now it is a big deal when you go out for a morning or evening hunt and don't at least see something.

It is Texas and is all private land and back then, you could hunt just about anywhere by just asking.

Then as we got more deer and the word got out, the city folks started coming in and leasing the places that I used to hunt for free. There are deeer blinds all over the countryside and most of it leases for $5-$10/ acre.

Luckily we have land of our own and a fewneighbors that I am still able to hunt.

Is it for better or worse? Like in most things, it depends whether your pitching or cathcing. While some of you complain about the high costs of leasing etc, I see the other side of it where a lot of older landholders have some cash flow that they would not have otherwise. It is called supply and demand.

Germ

Well my best stand I can look right into someone bedroom window[&:]

We have less big bucks do to pressure

JoeRE

I have not seen the deer change much on the properties I hunt but many other things do. On what was my two 'best' properties for big deer - and deer in general - activity is drying up in the last three seasons. The landowners slowly opened thier doors to more and more people to have access (and I know they have every right to, its thier land) but the hunting greatly suffered. Now ATV and horse riding paths crisscross them and deer are few and far between - very little sign, not to mention actually seeing animals. All good things come to an end - so I do my homework and have a couple new potential hotspots lined up this year.

gri22ly

The deer are smaller in bodysize and thepopulation is down about 1/3 of what it was 25 years ago, in the counties I hunt. Biologist said, the reason for smaller deer and reduction in the herdis due to an over population of turkeys.The deer and turkey arecompeting for prime browse, less deer are making it through the winter and does are having less fawns.

TEmbry

Both were getting better and better all the time.

My favorite farm is 20 acres surrounded by a highway on one side and a river/creek on another....It is a thick tangled mess where they bed in the middle, and great funnels on two corners....a Deer Magnet....Over the past 4 years I have seen 4 different bucks that easily top 140-150. Missed one with the muzzleloader and couldnt pull off a shot on another during rifle two years back that was a big NT. I think it was the deer my neighbor killed that went 195 and change.[:@] With neighbors learning of the potential and encroaching in, it is getting worse and worse. One farm is a brown=down philosophy and invites a HUGE group of friends from Alabama for the slaughter, they have really hurt the quality deer here. All the other neighbors are on the same page as me though. This year the farm is completely underwater due to beavers on neighboring property, and deer hunting is out all together.[:-]

We picked up a new farm last year and through scouting found a bachelor group of 4 bucks, all P&Y quality. Never got one in range during season, but my buddy did. He killed one rifle season from 15 yards on the ground chasing a doe not 150 yards from where I was bowhunting. 11 pointer, not sure of score. Once the landowner found out about the potential, my buddys uncle mind you, he proceeded to lease out the hunting rights this year.



So flooded timber and leasing rights cut me out of my prime spots....I feel like a lost dog now, don't know where to go.[]

shed33

since i was a kid.. I would say better for the whitetails thanks to all the logging practices.. out here we have huge clear cuts .. that get burned and replanted.. these plantations make for great feed for the critters.. like a food plot basically... almost every buck i have ever killed I found him feeding in a clearcut during the summerprior to hunting him

elk on the other hand.. have been hit very hard in some areas of Idaho by wolves.. cutting some herds in half or more..

Matt / PA

Absolutely less animals since the start of our concurrent "buck/doe" rifle season (affectionately known as Brown-it's-Down Season)......some bigger bucks and a serious influx of people and housing developments since we are so close to the Maryland border.

Seems like everyone is moving into this area and sucking up every bit of farmland they can find.

Splitear_Leland

The biggest change is in my area is the amount of ground that you cannot hunt. Most of the ground around where I live is being leased. One thing that has done I believe if increased the deer population, which is not what needs to happen.