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Post by henson59 on Nov 29, 2013 15:21:58 GMT -5
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Post by kevin1 on Nov 29, 2013 15:31:55 GMT -5
Between the gawdawful weather and high tag prices I can't honestly claim to be surprised.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2013 15:44:10 GMT -5
weather wasnt bad opening weekend. full moon and bucks being on lockdown with does had alot more to do with it than he weather.
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Post by HuntMeister on Nov 29, 2013 16:05:17 GMT -5
East central IL where I hunt the herd is WAAAY down. All the locals are saying EHD last year and this year. Just a couple of years ago you could take maybe a 5 mile drive around the farm and see 1-2 dozen deer in the fields after dark. This year we felt lucky to see a couple on the same drive.
I felt like the weather was good and I have never bought into the "lockdown", just my opinion.
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Post by henson59 on Nov 29, 2013 16:31:43 GMT -5
Well Friday in Southern IL wasn't to bad but Saturday was super windy and that hurt us. Even with perfect weather the numbers would still have been really low. The Illinois deer herd is not in "great" shape right now. The Bow numbers are also down about 4500 deer from this time last year.
Hopefully the DNR will consider lowering the number of tags given next year for both in state and out of state hunters along with closing the antlerless late season in more counties. But that being said I doubt IL will do much because deer hunting is big business and with the cost of tags these days and the condition of the states budget I am sure they will put some kind of spin on this and if anything try to sell more tags next year.
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Post by dbd870 on Nov 29, 2013 19:24:50 GMT -5
Ran in to my processor at dinner; he said his numbers are down
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2013 20:15:22 GMT -5
not sure about illinois but i know ky had a documented record harvest last year indiana was said to be a record harvest and i think illinois was too, like i said not sure. that being said numbers will more than likely be down from last year and thats what people are going by this year. illinois 1st gun season was on the tail end of a full moon. indiana opening week was on a full moon and kys 2nd week of gun was on the full moon. lots of rutting activity was happening at night during that time and during the middle of the day when most hunters are not in their stands. a few of our guys hunted all day and seen most of their activity during the hours of 11 to 3. the lock down phase also seemed to peak during this time. fawns paired up with no mature does with them and young bucks looking. the lock down does happen and when it does it is usually very slow time for activity. lots of factors play into lower harvest numbers or higher harvest numbers. i predict, baring any odd or bad weather that the 2nd gun season will dramatically increase and catch back up to more normal numbers. and by the numbers that illinois harvest every year what they are down is really not that many for the state as a whole.
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Post by HuntMeister on Nov 29, 2013 20:32:34 GMT -5
These IL kill numbers were posted on another site and I am assuming they are correct but I have not verified...
04/05: 190,456
05/06: 201,209
06/07: 196,241
07/08: 199,611
08/09: 188,901
09/10: 189,634
10/11: 182,270
11/12: 181,451
12/13: 180,811
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Post by boonechaser on Dec 1, 2013 20:30:20 GMT -5
Not to far off according to those number's.
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Post by HuntMeister on Dec 2, 2013 7:35:15 GMT -5
The first firearm season kill numbers are especially telling IMO. Just 55,708 killed compared to 72,111 in 2012. That is nearly a 23% reduction in kills. Sure seems to support mine and many others observations that the herd is much smaller than years past.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2013 11:12:28 GMT -5
not every year is going to be a record breaking harvest folks. some years will be up some down. when the opening week of firearms season is at the tail end of the full moon then sightings will be down because the deer are moving at night and the middle of the day. the week i hunted was during the full moon and i didnt see much. however a guy hunted the same spot saturday and seen 24 different deer, several chasing bucks. like i stated earlier, weather permitting the numbers should take a jump on the 2nd season which opens thursday. plus people can kill 2 bucks this coming weekend if they have a firearms tag and a muzzleloader tag because the 2 seasons overlap.
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Post by henson59 on Dec 2, 2013 11:43:37 GMT -5
According to the IL DNR harvest reports for the firearm season. First season accounts for roughly 70% of the total number and second season about 30%. If you look at this years first season numbers IL is on pace to take a total of about 80,000 deer for the Firearm season.
Totals for the last five firearm seasons are as follows-
2008- 106,018
2009- 99,755
2010- 98,944
2011- 97,820
2012- 99,541
Record is 2005- 123,792
That puts them down about 19,000 from last year and down 43,000 from 8 years ago when they set their record.
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Post by deadeer on Dec 2, 2013 13:04:47 GMT -5
Funny how guys that killed deer already or have had good luck in their area (small number), don't feel there is a problem, but the rest who are seeing little, know there is a problem!
Jay
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Post by Woody Williams on Dec 2, 2013 13:28:17 GMT -5
Funny how guys that killed deer already or have had good luck in their area (small number), don't feel there is a problem, but the rest who are seeing little, know there is a problem! Jay Lots of truth there.. I am hearing lots of reports of less deer in multiple areas around the state |
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Post by swilk on Dec 2, 2013 14:19:36 GMT -5
Funny how guys that killed deer already or have had good luck in their area (small number), don't feel there is a problem, but the rest who are seeing little, know there is a problem! Jay Lots of truth there.. I am hearing lots of reports of less deer in multiple areas around the state Same here. The last few years have been a mixed bag .... some guys saying less. Some guys saying more. Some guys saying same. This year it seems that the overwhelming feedback is less deer. |
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Post by bigbuckd on Dec 2, 2013 15:38:01 GMT -5
The DNR has been very liberal with their permitted county deer harvest limits. We are seeing the perfect storm of multiple factors come to fruition. The factors, IMO, are liberal county limits ie 8 deer in some counties, EHD, lack of control of coyote population, low out-of-state tag cost in combination with high national whitetail rankings, new and more efficient hunters, and finally poachers. While some of these factors have existed in the past I do not believe that they have existed in correlation with one another to the extent that they have this year. The combination of EHD with the other factors has limited the opportunities. I would project the numbers to be similar to IL percentage decrease and look for the DNR to adjust county numbers accordingly next year. Less deer equals a tougher challenge for hunters and will in the long run m,ost likley diminish the number of hunters involved in the sport.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2013 15:45:41 GMT -5
lots of folks complaining about numbers being down in ky too. oddly enough ky is around 2000 shy of breaking the record harvest which, wait for, was set last year when everybody said the same thing then. if deer numbers are down then how can this be?
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Post by henson59 on Dec 2, 2013 15:53:58 GMT -5
lots of folks complaining about numbers being down in ky too. oddly enough ky is around 2000 shy of breaking the record harvest which, wait for, was set last year when everybody said the same thing then. if deer numbers are down then how can this be? I don't know about KY but the numbers in IL don't lie. The real question now is will Illinois DNR actually take steps to help build these low numbers or will they say this is still a good healthy large herd? We all know the state is bassakwards and poorly managed by the peoples republic of Chicago. I guess we will have to wait and see |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2013 17:08:46 GMT -5
I would be just as happy if they went to a one doe per county limit, because I never kill more than that. I don't need it, especially if I kill a buck. That said, how many hunters are approaching the 8 doe bag limit? My guess is almost zero. Therefore, how are liberal bag limits hurting the deer numbers? Deer numbers may in fact be down, I don't know, but I guess it has a lot more to do with other factors besides bag limits. I don't know anyone who kills more than 3 or 4 does and I know very few who kill that many.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2013 19:38:02 GMT -5
the herd is as healthy now as it has been. dont believe me go back before i was born (34 years) and tell me what the herd numbers were then. just because certain people arent seeing deer they want drastic changes in the deer herd management tactics. happens every year in every state. try this when all else fails. stop hunting the same ole spots and looking at the 1 trail cam you have out and go scout and actually see where the seer are at.. the deer are there you just have to find them. believe it or not, deer pattern you MORE than you have ever thought about patterning them.
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