2008 vs 2009 Deer Season Kills

I only gun hunted one day, killed out pretty quick. Saw deer most every day during bow season, but spent more time in Ky. than the year before. But guys hunting out of our camp seemed to see deer most every sit and saw a lot of bucks. There were several reasons why.

The season started out good the first part of Nov. then we hit a hot spell. Seemed that most of the chasing period was in the first week of Nov.

The 2 weeks before that time span, our farmers were getting out the crops, keeping the fields in motion. The week after the good time and up to the opening day of gun it seemed to slow down a bunch, but still didn't stop. I believe a lot of bucks were locked down the first week of gun, and as is normal, they were mostly nocturnal the second week. We didn't kill bucks everyday, but did see some and killed a few through out the season.

If it's any consolation, the other western border and southern states had the some action, from what I saw. The chase period was early by a few days. The rut peak seemed to be a week before the opener. I don't think there was a lack of deer anywhere that I hunted in Ky., Ill. or Ind.

I didn't see nearly as many deer, but I did lose the main property that I was hunting for the four years previous.

Everyone I know told me that they saw fewer deer last year.

Between the rain and the standing crops I just knew that the kill data would be lower in 2009. When I saw the "record kill" numbers I was shocked.

...and I'll leave it @ that.....

HH,
I went back to my records and found that I saw more deer in 2009 than 2008...here are my numbers:

2008= 29 Bucks, 84 Does= 113 total
2009= 34 Bucks, 110 Does=144 total

I hunted practically every day of both years so I spent lots of time in the woods.

Remember, there was an outbreak of EHD in 2007 in both Indiana & Kentucky. This might be the reason for seeing fewer Deer.

I did kill more last year then in 2008, but i went deerless in 08 so i guess that's not saying a whole lot. It also took me until the last weekend of Muzzy to get my 2 deer. I shot a doe on that Friday night, went back out Saturday night in the snow and was lucky enough to get a nice 9 point buck. Deer sightings overall though for me were WAYYYYYY down. I wouldn't have even gotten the doe if not for a friend of my brothers being nice enough to let me hunt his property that weekend. My property had been dead for weeks until that Saturday night when that Buck stepped out, i about fell over from shock for actually seeing a deer there. It wasn't a matter of me being too picky either, my freezer was empty to the point i actually considered taking a road kill that my father n law hit, i was ready to shoot the first deer to walk by in range. So even though i did take 2 deer, i definitely have seen far less in the last few years.

Don't know.....I do know that I hunt in Gibson Co. and I hunted an island at the west side of Evansville and saw at times great numbers of deer. Even killed my personal best on the island. Depends on when he hunted Gibson, the deer were in the later part of the breeding period when gun season was in. Some were in lock down with does and some were strickly nocturnal by then.

Never have a problem seeing deer down here, saw just as many if not more during the 2009 season, and that was without the benefit of crops being in the field because of the wet spring. I have learned to hunt my area with stealth and minimum disturbance via my routes to and from stand locations.

I thought it kinda unusual last year. I saw very few deer, even does. I was thinking it was mostly due to the fields around my hunting areas were up really late last year. One of my spots had corn in the fields up to Christmas. However, I did see (and miss) the biggest buck of my hunting career last year. Yea I know....boo hoo for me.