My dad shot a doe this year and is glad to have some venison in the freezer. Called him Christmas Day and he had two nice turkeys feeding at his bird feeder. Really miss the farm at times like these.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/134360593.html (http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/134360593.html)
Not a deer hunter, but from what I understand IL harvest is low as well. Blame it on the weather here, zero ground snow this year, hardly any freezing temps. Heck my personal waterfowl harvest was down about 80% this season.
Quote from: DBrooke on December 27, 2011, 10:12:23 AM
Not a deer hunter, but from what I understand IL harvest is low as well. Blame it on the weather here, zero ground snow this year, hardly any freezing temps. Heck my personal waterfowl harvest was down about 80% this season.
I find those to be questionable reasons for a lack of harvest. Here in Tennessee, we rarely have snow or freezing temps and I've done well this year. Just this afternoon, I shot my third deer of the season and have a nice fat doe to skin, cut and wrap tomorrow.
I used to live in northern Wisconsin and I'd hear the same excuses for not shooting any deer. Yet, until we had wolves move into the area, my best friend and I always had venison in the freezer. No, you can't see the deer as well without snow, but it just means you have to hunt smarter...
Steve
Spent the last few days talking with my Dad who says MN DNR claim hunters are taking 1/3 the dear and now that cougars have moved in they are talking 2/3rds of the dear these are DNR estimates.
Having large predators in the area really changes the deer herd! In 2008, the last year I hunted Wisconsin, in the same area that I usually saw 10 - 15 deer a day, I saw ONE doe for the entire nine day rifle season. However, in that same time period, I heard wolves howling 4 different days, and one morning, I saw a pack of five come trotting past my blind.
There are a lot of city people that love the idea of wolves roaming the woods of the U.S. again. But while I won't say these people are WRONG, they're not right either. Wolves kill a LOT of deer/elk every year, I read where a pack of five is pulling down a deer every other day or an elk every third day. That's a lot of animals getting killed throughout the year.
I say let there be wolves, but let there be a wolf hunt too. I know in Wisconsin, they've spread to every county in the state, even Milwaukee county, which is a major metro area. If there needs to be a deer season to control the deer numbers, then by the same token, there needs to be a wolf hunt to control the wolf numbers...
AND, if there's enough cougars in an area to decimate a deer herd, then a season needs to be opened up for them too!
Steve
Agree 100%