Data Collection Post-season

[dbHunterNY]

What form of harvest data collection do you do, if any?  also what do you do with that info?  Many of us vary on this.  Some keep a penned log or journal of each hunt.  Some probably filled out and mailed in the their DEC bowhunter log.  Some might collect info for weight, antler measurements, presence of milk if it's a doe, and other data from deer that they take.  Maybe you extract the jawbone.  Maybe you put it into the computer or maybe you just write it down on paper.  Maybe you just log that it was a heavy drag on such date of harvest into memory.  Maybe you just hang some antlers on a barn board with date, weight, or anything else scratched or burned onto it.

 

Just think it'd be interesting to know what some of us on here are doing for after season harvest records.  As years progressed and especially now, I do more than I care to type here.  There is no wrong answer though and no reason to be little someone's minimum efforts for this.  Some just buy and fill tags while others are more into deer management of some kind.  whether it be antlers or herd quality or whatever.

[growalot]

After season cam inventory....I have been going through the last 5 years...I am very pleased with the out come...though Turkey did go down.every thing else increased.

[Lawdwaz]

I keep a journal for each spring and fall each year since 1992.  I'll fill in turkey misses and kills for myself and (when they participated) my father and other friends and family.  Same for fall small game and big game.  I had much more small game entries a number of years ago when I hunted dove, duck, geese and some pheasants.  Could even be a crow hunt entry among the yellowed pages..............

 

For the past few (?) years I've been selected to participate in the NYS DEC Regular Season survey.  Basically it is just a head count for buck, doe and unknown animals in each area I hunt.  IIRC it does also include bear and moose but I don't bump into many of them............

 

I jotted down my totals from this years survey and I think I have last years somewhere.......I'd be interesting to compare the two!

 

One thing I do know, I only had 36 or 37 hours in the bush in the 2015 Regular Season.  Thin, real thin........(movie reference) 

[dbHunterNY]

After season cam inventory....I have been going through the last 5 years...I am very pleased with the out come...though Turkey did go down.every thing else increased.

 

one property i have went up and the other down for bucks any way.  doe remained close to the same for both compared to last couple years.  over the course of 5 years they're both maybe down just a tad.  we've increased harvest quite a bit for doe since then so it makes sense.

[dbHunterNY]

I keep a journal for each spring and fall each year since 1992.  I'll fill in turkey misses and kills for myself and (when they participated) my father and other friends and family.  Same for fall small game and big game.  I had much more small game entries a number of years ago when I hunted dove, duck, geese and some pheasants.  Could even be a crow hunt entry among the yellowed pages..............

 

For the past few (?) years I've been selected to participate in the NYS DEC Regular Season survey.  Basically it is just a head count for buck, doe and unknown animals in each area I hunt.  IIRC it does also include bear and moose but I don't bump into many of them............

 

I jotted down my totals from this years survey and I think I have last years somewhere.......I'd be interesting to compare the two!

 

One thing I do know, I only had 36 or 37 hours in the bush in the 2015 Regular Season.  Thin, real thin........(movie reference) 

 

I've assumed antlerless included fawns but not sure why they don't keep fawns separate.  especially for the bowhunter log/survey that's early season.

​I was never good at movie references but then again I was born in '83.

[dbHunterNY]

I've been to a camp where everyone hangs there antlers on a wall in a row.  each row represents a year.

​one uncle pulled jaw bones from anyone's better bucks.  didn't know how to read them but knew they were important.  years later and now they're finally getting looked at.

[growalot]

I find it interesting that one small thing done can change the deer movement on a relatively small piece of land..I basically kept a journal of it on this site. It was the year (2014). That I planted less than 3 acres of soybean...and all but killed my hunting.Yet, had the best spring, summer,fall collection of buck pictures. Where in other years I mentioned often, I rarely see bucks before hunting season. Did not plant it in 2015 and will never plant it again.I saw lots of buck in season and took 2 8's...had lots of doe...just night time this year...but that was more weather and natural mast related.

[nyslowhand]

Hunt a single 60ac piece of private property, so I quit doing the DEC's hunting surveys due to supplying them with misleading data. EX; May have reported to the DEC seeing possibly 100+ deer over the 45-50 day bow season, BUT it was basically the same 8-10 deer seen numerous times. Misleading over-population input!???!

 

Trail cam photos/videos provide the inventory info I use to predict the best stand locations or re-locations. Don't chase the buck sightings, rather try to s/u where the does are most likely to frequent or reside. Routine photos of bucks in the summer & early fall timeframe are fun to see them grow bone and super encouraging, but as we all know their pretty unpredictable after the velvet comes off. Mostly use them as motivation for those long sits in the stand...what if!!!!

 

Do keep a personal journal noting times hunted, stand location, sightings noted with their travel direction, specifically what I saw (doe, fawn, yearling, small or BB, etc), unusual behavior and any other applicable notes like weather/wind/etc. Don't find this info particularly useful for the current season, but it has shown historical trends in their feeding travel routes, nocturnal patterns and when & where bucks begin cruising. As much as we'd like to turn deer hunting into a science project, it pretty much comes down to the luck of the draw, being in the right place at the right time!

 

I'm a devote KISS follower, NO not Gene Simmons! Keep it as simple as possible w/o getting overly scientific. I find rack &/or wgt measurements, jaw bone analysis etc just too much useless info for how I hunt or what I expect from the hunting experience.

Edited January 5, 2016 by nyslowhand

[Doc]

For almost 30 years (1982 -2010), I collected the following data and kept it in an Excel spreadsheet:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

LOG NO

DATE

LOCATION NO

NO. SIGHTED

TIME (AM OR PM)

WEATHER

    clear

    cloudy

    rain

    snow

TEMPERATURE

    cold

    cool

    warm

    hot

WIND DIRECTION

WIND VELOCITY

    heavy 

    breezy

    light

    calm

ENTRY DIRECTION

EXIT DIRECTION

HUNTER ACTION

    none

    passed

    shot

RESULTS

    none

    kill

    wound

    miss

    deer spooked

    deer walked on

HUNTING STYLE

    standing

    still hunting

    scouting

    going to stand

    coming from stand

HUNTER NAME

BUCK QTY

DOE QTY

UNIDENT QTY

LOCATION CODE

STAND NUMBER

CLOSEST STAND NUMBER

MODAY (Four digit month/day indicator)

UPHILL OR DOWNHILL

REMARKS

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also had a spread sheet identifying 9 distinct areas of the land that I hunted so that I could get a macro-look at trends. These areas took in both sides of the valley each hill, side-hill, and top and unique areas within each.

 

There was another linked spreadsheet that described and located all of the stands I ever created or used. That was so that I could refer to a number in the main database instead of long descriptions. There were 114 entries for stands. Each stand had a complete description, with preferred (and secondary) wind directions relative to trails and traditional deer entry directions. And there were maintenance data to indicate whether they could be used as-is or needed work or were in fact destroyed or unusable.

 

THE ANALYSIS:

From all this data, I developed macros that would-

-Select and list stands based on forecasted wind directions. That meant that in the morning I could print out a list of stands depending on what the weatherman had to say that morning.

- Analyze the performance of each stand in terms of percentages of times that each stand produced a sighting of bucks, does, and unidentified deer.

- Analyze the performances of each calendar day of the season through a special number that I used for month and day (MODAY). For example November 20th would use a MODAY of 1120. It had to be numerical in order to be mathematically useable. That gave me a graphical look at deer movement and sightings as the season progressed so I could determine if there were trends in deer movements and patterns at different times of the season due to things like weather, leaf-loss, food source maturity, etc.

 

It was a fun project that was quite useful, entertaining and left a complete record of memories and experiences. In 2010 I discontinued it. What I found was that  information that gets too old can lose it's accuracy over time because of land changes. For example, we had a severe ice storm that changed trails and patterns of the deer. Food sources changed due to maturity and new over-story of some of the areas. What was true in 1982 was totally different in 2010. There was a change in land use as the state land that I hunted became interlaced with a maze of very active mountain bike trails that were also taken over by large groups of hikers. Huge areas were basically removed from daytime deer movement. In other words, old data was becoming a pollutant to the data base. Conditions and patterns suggested by activity in the 80's looked absolutely nothing like what was going on in later years and were skewing the analysis. This is an important aspect to remember when using data for analysis purposes.

 

However, the exercise was well worth doing, because every entry is so complete, especially with the remarks column that each hunting and scouting trip brings back those memories even better than a hunting diary. It is a great document that I will always treasure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tacti_Steve]

This is a great topic. I want to be better at this than I am. I hunt so much I don't have the time or attention span to log it all. There are some great apps out there to help with this. I start using them but then lose interest as I find my gut is often the best way. 

 

Huntstand lite and scout are two I like. PocketRanger is another good app. 

[dbHunterNY]

90% of record keeping I do is for QDM.  sets my harvest goals, but only small portion I use actually helps me hunt and harvest deer.  two different approaches with two different goals in mind.  seems people are discussing hunting based goals so we'll go with that: i've hunted same tracts now my whole life.  most if off memory.  do use trail cam pics for both QDM and hunting though.  record keeping really helps to hunt new properties or completely new stand locations.  record weather report wind direction for area, time of day (for thermals), and then actual direction while on stand.  much fewer surprises of a bad wind direction once you're all settled in.  also recording deer sightings and location on property I found helps figure out a doe family group home range or rotational movement patterns.  recording breeding or hot doe actively paired with that can give you good idea of which doe group to ditch or keep an eye on.  had this one old matriarch doe come in heat like clock work year after year for some reason and often used the same area for bedding.  she helped me harvest 3 bucks and they were always #1 or 2 on the list for the farm.

 

I can get a little into the management part if anyone is interested but there are limitations the less you work closely with neighbors or if you're not in a co-op with multiple properties.  this ain't out west not too many have several hundred or more acres.

[moog5050]

I started recording sightings, shot opportunities, wind , time, etc at the beginning of the year.  Quit by November.  Too much work for me and I got lazy.  I can tell you where bucks were shot and the dates/approx. times though.  lol

[dbHunterNY]

I started recording sightings, shot opportunities, wind , time, etc at the beginning of the year.  Quit by November.  Too much work for me and I got lazy.  I can tell you where bucks were shot and the dates/approx. times though.  lol

 

I'm way better with the where than dates or times.  I can narrow it down to the year that's about it.  then again i've got a lot more than just my deer floating through my the mast in my head.  iPhone updated and lost a note pad "note" with info once that killed my ambition that season.  Murphy really likes data collection with technology versus paper.

Edited January 5, 2016 by dbHunterNY

[Doc]

For me it was all part of the hunt for 28 years. I don't believe there was a single hunt of scouting trip that was not included. I didn't stop until it became obvious that you cant analyze data that is 30 years old with data that occurred a few weeks ago. It all worked good for a few years, but when changes on the land started happening, the differences were coming fast and furious and totally ruining my database for overall analysis.

[dbHunterNY]

For me it was all part of the hunt for 28 years. I don't believe there was a single hunt of scouting trip that was not included. I didn't stop until it became obvious that you cant analyze data that is 30 years old with data that occurred a few weeks ago. It all worked good for a few years, but when changes on the land started happening, the differences were coming fast and furious and totally ruining my database for overall analysis.

 

why wouldn't 30 year old data be that irrelevant?  probably could agree it just depends on what data you're collecting and what you're using it for? 30 years ago the weather was still the weather, deer were still deer, and that nearby ag field was probably an ag field. same deer are long gone. genetics might be slightly different. what kind of food and how much for how many deer could've been different.  patterns might be different along with timber maturity and composition. some other stuff could've been different too I'm sure.

[chas0218]

Only deer I have taken off my family property were wall hangers.  I can tell you where each one was shot and found, the time of day, the day of harvest, and what implement.  Unfortunately/fortunately the other properties I hunt there isn't much of a difference of where I sit long as it is within range of 2 major travel corridors. I don't really see a need for a journal on my properties as deer patterns stay constant for the most part. If they do move I move my stand and it will stay there until next year.

[nyslowhand]

Whatever happened to the days when we simply went out into the woods and hoped for the best? How in the world did we ever harvest any deer? Is it - lifestyle changes, time constraints, harvest expectations, technological advances, peer or social media pressure....? At least for me, if I needed to be as scientific a hunter as some of you it'd take all the fun out of deer hunting! BUT, do whatever you need to do to get the expected results from the hunt you want.

[Tacti_Steve]

Those days aren't gone. You can hunt that way if you'd like. We as people invent things to make life easier. Tracking data and doing an analysis is just one of those things. I also have a pistol grip on my shotgun. It allows me to hold it better and get a better more comfortable shot. A traditional stock or a bow for that matter still works. Mines just better/newer.

[Doc]

why wouldn't 30 year old data be that irrelevant?  probably could agree it just depends on what data you're collecting and what you're using it for? 30 years ago the weather was still the weather, deer were still deer, and that nearby ag field was probably an ag field. same deer are long gone. genetics might be slightly different. what kind of food and how much for how many deer could've been different.  patterns might be different along with timber maturity and composition. some other stuff could've been different too I'm sure.

Aside from just recording memories, the data collection and analysis was primarily aimed at establishing local trends, and deer movements and patterns. It is unbelievable just how much a parcel of land can change and how the patterns change along with the habitat. I watched wheat field turn into brush-lots with 4" maples so thick that nothing green ever grew there again. I watched oaks mature to the point of bearing acorns in places where acorns never were. I watched edges of fields move hundreds of yards. I saw state land that was part of my hunting grounds become consumed by new uses of intense mountain bike trails with a web of these trails covering many acres of what used to be prime undisturbed deer grounds now sending the deer into primarily nocturnal movements and constant on guard existence. Large groups of hikers have also taken over this maze of trails. Some of the grounds that comprised some of the records were subdivided into posted properties. On the other side of the coin, areas that used to be ag fields may now be prime brushy bedding areas. Oak stands that were primarily saplings may now be dropping acorns like crazy. A next door neighbor may have a food plot that he put in.

 

All of that along with the changes that you mentioned all impacted the purposes of the log and the analysis that was being performed. So when you are trying to establish trends and patterns by stirring in data of changing places that don't have the slightest similarity to what they used to be, all conclusions are polluted with irrelevant and misleading inputs and outputs.

[Doc]

Whatever happened to the days when we simply went out into the woods and hoped for the best? How in the world did we ever harvest any deer? Is it - lifestyle changes, time constraints, harvest expectations, technological advances, peer or social media pressure....? At least for me, if I needed to be as scientific a hunter as some of you it'd take all the fun out of deer hunting! BUT, do whatever you need to do to get the expected results from the hunt you want.

Those days are still here for most hunters. However, some of us try to take it a bit further in terms of understanding all the confusing things that we see, and try to answer the question "why". I was always curious as to why a deer would show up at one location instead of another. There was always the desire to make some sense of it all. I always knew just enough to recognize that nature does have patterns, but never enough to understand and predict those patterns.

 

And then along came a technology (Maxiplan then Excel) that kind of sparked my interest all by itself. It was a natural outfall that I would try to connect these two interests and make them work together as a hobby, and a learning tool to add to my other interests.

 

And then there is this stage in my life where I can see the end of my participation in hunting, and I find that all the data collection of years past now serve as a memory jogger that brings a lot of those experiences back to life for me. It becomes numerical memoirs. I truly loved every minute of that data collection, and today I love all the memories that those numbers collected and preserved for me.

[genesee_mohican]

I scout year round and take notes on all hunts and keep them in a notebook. I also will write myself an e-mail while on stand of thoughts and ideas about the area I'm hunting. I mainly hunt public land so it's a constant challenge to have good stand locations.

[Nomad]

Many years ago I had a log from Deer and Deerhunting that i recorded info on our kills. That was kinda nice to look back over the years and add up who got the most and where.

After that I tried to write on my desk calander after each hunt, sightings , stands etc. that did not last long though.

Frankly after hunting the same private land for close to 30 years I know where to sit when , where the deer move, what the big bucks check out and so on . I could put anyone here in a stand and you could kill a deer in a day or two in bow if you're not picky .

The farm keeps track of the number killed which is nice but not number of hunters, days hunted etc, this year we're up to 40 ,which is our normal range, after two years in the high 20's. I write date, distance and weapon on skull caps, don't keep track of doe kills or seldom take pics of them , so that info gets lost over time .

[dbHunterNY]

Whatever happened to the days when we simply went out into the woods and hoped for the best? How in the world did we ever harvest any deer? Is it - lifestyle changes, time constraints, harvest expectations, technological advances, peer or social media pressure....? At least for me, if I needed to be as scientific a hunter as some of you it'd take all the fun out of deer hunting! BUT, do whatever you need to do to get the expected results from the hunt you want.

 

we didn't have a lifestyle involved with technology years back and similar means to record it is all.  it's really not as in depth or disconnected from the experience as it seems to be from reading this stuff.  "back in the day" that older hunter that everyone talks about either remembered things and/or kept a journal.  I'd bet most "data" used for hunting is memory based even know.  there's no magic formula that tells you a deer will be where and doing what.  brief and particular record keeping can just place a bunch of small pieces to the overall puzzle.  through the act of record keeping and the repetition the writing usually stops and it's in the file that is your head.  thread has been hunting based but with the growing practices of QDM, much of the record keeping is really just for management.  as Doc eluded to, the deer world/habitat does change in some ways.  although, you have to pick and choose your efforts and info to keep track of. otherwise it'll be easy to get burnt out and cause you to stop record keeping of it all.

[Doc]

Actually, I kept hunting logs long before PCs became a household item. Just a simple notebook, but I never really trusted my memory to handle all the little details of every hunt. But when spreadsheets came along, I discovered the ease with which patterns that were rattling around randomly and unrecognizable in my memory could all of a sudden become organized and stand out and become obvious. All of a sudden, I had something new to apply to my hunting knowledge. Why wouldn't I use it? My problem is that I tried to make it analyze some things that were based on a fluid base.

[gjs4]

Narrowed it down to observations in scouting, hunting and cams.... It carries weight for matched conditions in the future

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk