Deer population up or down in your area?

suburbanfarmer · December 17, 2022

6 hours ago, First-light said:

I'm seeing that in my leased property 8S. So many Doe around and no body hunting towards late season.

Its funny you say that, where I have access I cant find a deer ..doe or buck in 8t. Ofcourse I can only hunt weekends so that makes it difficult to find them

genesee_mohican · December 17, 2022

In my area of 8M Livingston county I'd say deer numbers are about the same. Mature buck numbers are way down and I'd take a guess that with no acorns at all last year due to the gipsy moths defoliating everything, the bucks didn't put on the fat they normally would. This made it harder for them to make it through the winter and fend off the packs of coyotes that roam the area.

With my trail cams are all set to 30 second video and they shows an uptick of coyotes chasing adult deer. We had a good month of deep snow last winter, which could have made it more difficult for a rut tired buck to escape the packs of coyotes.

On the upside, through out the season I also saw a big drop in the number of hunters in the main area I hunt. I figured there had to be a couple of 3 /12 or older bucks around, so when I did have a chance at a few 2 1/2 year old bucks in late bow season, I decided to pass thinking they'd have a decent chance at making it another year. ( I look at the trail cam picks now and wonder what I was thinking, lol ). I'll have cameras out all winter to help keep an eye on things, along with scouting with snow on the ground and then shed hunting. Hoping for a mild winter which helps the herd.

New York Hillbilly · December 17, 2022

Where I am in 7M, the numbers at least on my property, are way down. My trail cameras are always loaded with coyote pictures, and even a couple bobcat pics. I'm absolutely thick with coyotes here. I now have the name of young guy they say is really geared up and into killing them, so I will be giving him the green light to kill everyone he can as soon as deer season closes.

Yesterday's snowfall was wet, heavy and deep. It is over my knees. So the snow really restricted the movement of what deer are around. But up to this point, there was enough light snow on the ground to tell the tale of what's out there.

Every year for as long as I have owned my place, the fields are predictably entirely covered in tracts all over the place, not just trails, but where they chase each other all night, and where they have been feeding. This year there has been none of that. It's like a ghost town compared to other years. Last year I saw bucks I think almost every time out. This year just one on opening day, with the exception of the small one being chased by dogs during bow season.

Edited December 17, 2022 by New York Hillbilly

Hock3y24 · December 17, 2022

7s/7p, doe numbers are through the roof where i hunt, coyote slightly down, bobcats everywhere now. Id bet my doe ratio is 3 or 4 to 1 buck.

wolc123 · December 17, 2022

Deer Numbers are up in both spots where I hunt (wmu 9F and 6C). Antlered to antlerless ratio is down a bit at home in 9F, but I am still seeing 2 antlered for every antlerless deer, including my Thanksgiving morning surprise, which turned out to be a small “just barely dmp-legal” spike buck.

Most other years, I had seen an average of 4 antlered deer per every antlerless one here after October 1, as a direct result of local farmers hitting the antlerless ones so hard with their nussance tags, prior to that. I’ve only seen one good shooter buck at home after October 1, too far for me to shoot at. Lots of 1.5 year olds.

While the buck/doe ratio is down to half of what it usually is at home this year, it was up by a factor of 4, along with overall deer numbers, up north at my spot in WMU 6C. I actually saw as many antlered deer as I did antlerless, over early ML week and Thanksgiving weekend of gun up there this year, where it had been averaging about 1:4 the last 10 years. Unfortunately, all but one of those bucks were 1.5 year olds.

I think that there were two reasons for more deer sightings up there this year. First, I took out the old, very dominant doe, last year during the early ML week. She never tolerated many other deer in “her” spot. Many others have moved in to fill the void that she left.

Second, I brought a spare 3-point hitch lawn mower up there for my father in law in the spring. He has been using that to keep some meadows and roadsides mowed all summer. That has provided some rich green forage for the local deer herd. Pine needles and leaves go only so far, while green grass draws them in from miles around.