Deer numbers

[6.5]

Just curious on others experience and thoughts on deer numbers this year? My personal opinion is that the numbers are down this year and have been declining for sometime now, that includes sightings during scouting, hunting and trail cameras (WMU84) . I know that the mandatory surveys are to tell us this answer but if I hunted 30 times and seen the same 3 deer over and over again 90 deer in 30 hunts wouldn't be a bad season (depending if were talking fun hunts or buck hunts) however, that would produce a high deer count on my survey even though that may not be true? Any input or clarification would be appreciated.

[greatwhite]

My area 65 seems about the same as last year

[redd foxx]

I think the study is all relative. If you reported last year that you saw 20 deer, even though some may have been repeats and only saw 10 this year. It would potentially be an indicator of a dropping population, depending on what everyone else reports.

[Gilroy]

From what I shot and from what I saw on trail camera's the population in my area was good, better than past years.

[tracer]

Based on my trail cam photos, deer numbers are up in my hunting area of 76C. Doe numbers look about the same( does, fawns) but the buck numbers are up. Spikers, 2 1/2 year old's and two mature bucks.

[Bo D]

Judging from what I saw during the 3 weeks I was up at our camp I'd say down, but judging from the amount of chases we had over the two weeks and the number of deer seen and shot by others in our camp I'd have to say up.

And during the muzzle loader, 4 guys hunting they saw deer everyday but because of the number that we got as a camp no one pulled the trigger... They made a call, trophy deer only. On three different days 8 pointers were passed on... so yes the population is healthy....

Let's just hope for an easy winter...

[Big Tuna]

Our area has been noticeably increasing, especially with mature bucks.
We had property and surrounding properties selectively logged 6 to 10 years ago.
New growth does wonders for supporting big game.
This is deep woods in 57.

How old is your forest since last logged to allow for new/young vegetation growth?

[6.5]

I have 30-40 different spots across the WMU and haven’t been able to find many deer at. I did get lucky enough to harvest a mature buck so should not be complaining but I just feel like the numbers are way down in our area. Also discussed with other hunt camp members in the area and no one seemed to be very successful this year they all felt numbers are down. I am however very pleased to hear the problem is either not the case or at least not province wide.

[6.5]

Sorry I didn’t even answer your question One was logged 2 years ago that’s where I was able to harvest the buck so your absolutely correct with the logged areas it will Hopefully continue to improve for a few years yet

[hunter06]

We didn’t do to bad 2 in the first week should have had more but some of the new guys got excited and missed a few and the wind was pretty bad most of the drives. We had 6 guys everyone saw multiple deer. We hunt in 57. Where I live 20 minutes north of the camp I would say numbers aren’t to great but that’s likely because there’s been a pack of wolves around this summer. Five minutes north of me a gang of twelve guys with thousands of acres got no deer, wolf numbers are insane in that area. We got one more doe the last day of bow.