How's everyones hunting season going?

d_hoffman

So far I've only gotten out for about 4 hours and haven't seen anything. got 2 more chances left. Going hog hunting friday, hope I have better luck with them.

hunterjoe21

Pumpkinslinger wrote:

I'm beginning to wonder why I bought a license this year... Anybody know how to find a job that allows you to do things other than work and sleep?

Mike,

I use a week's vacation for our gun season every year. Otherwise, I'd have only the last 2 days to hunt. It helps that we don't have kids and my wife hunts with me.

Ron Spomer wrote:

I know exactly how you feel. I bought a whitetail license for our 3 week season and had 2 days to fill my tag. The last 2, that's it! I went out the 2 days but all I found was does and small bucks that I thought were best left to grow up. I never did see a decent buck in the 2 days hunting. No Venison in this house this winter.

Oh and here we are not able to hunt Sundays for big game either.

Not legal to shoot does up there Ron??

The ODNR is actually encouraging us to kill MORE does. They now claim that the deer herd is suffering due to over-population.

hunterjoe21

d_hoffman wrote:

So far I've only gotten out for about 4 hours and haven't seen anything. got 2 more chances left. Going hog hunting friday, hope I have better luck with them.

Mr. Hoffman

You got a huntable hog population down there?

We've been lookin for a place to snuff a couple porkers, but I'm not gonna pay the fees they're askin' down along the river.

1895ss

hunterjoe21 wrote:

Ron Spomer wrote:

I know exactly how you feel. I bought a whitetail license for our 3 week season and had 2 days to fill my tag. The last 2, that's it! I went out the 2 days but all I found was does and small bucks that I thought were best left to grow up. I never did see a decent buck in the 2 days hunting. No Venison in this house this winter.

Oh and here we are not able to hunt Sundays for big game either.

Not legal to shoot does up there Ron??

The ODNR is actually encouraging us to kill MORE does. They now claim that the deer herd is suffering due to over-population.

Ron .....??? Not likely hahahahaha Very Happy

Yes it is legal to shoot does but I don't like to. Especially since they have nearly wiped out deer of any species in some hunting areas because of CWD.

By the way.. how ya doing Hunterjoe??

moose2

Been a good hunting season here. Got a couple of nice deer, quite a few pheasants, more sharptails than usual, and a few huns. Late fall was excellent for big canadas and snows. Very Happy

hunterjoe21

We're ALL good Ron, Thanks fer askin...
And you and yours??

Our abundance of deer leaves us in a precarious situation. The FTH's see it as a good thing. We've restored the "Mother Earth" to her "natural" state (of course they don't understand basic concepts such as carrying capacity or herd densities). I've been on a "crusade" this year, to get as many hunters to harvest as many deer as possible. It's been a fun fight so far...

We're hoping to fight off CWD here. I've worked with the local DNR folks asking that residents refrain from using feeders and any other means that might concentrate deer unnecessarily. It's a tough argument to make, especially considering that some of these folks have been "feeding" deer for generations. Old Habits truly are hard to break...

hunterjoe21

moose2 wrote:

Been a good hunting season here. Got a couple of nice deer, quite a few pheasants, more sharptails than usual, and a few huns. Late fall was excellent for big canadas and snows. Very Happy

Moose2

How's the ringnecked population?

I had heard that the bird #'s were down. We had planned to make a "bird pilgrimage" this year, but cancelled it when gas was over $4.00 and shells were close to $30.00 per box...

d_hoffman

Hey Joe, I've heard that somewhere in the Tar Hollow hunting area there is at least 2800 hogs. It wouldn't supprise me any if Zaleski hunting area was home to a few as well esspecially down along the Racoon creek area. I've also heard that there are hogs in Pike county.

moose2

hunterjoe21 wrote:

moose2 wrote:

Been a good hunting season here. Got a couple of nice deer, quite a few pheasants, more sharptails than usual, and a few huns. Late fall was excellent for big canadas and snows. Very Happy

Moose2

How's the ringnecked population?

I had heard that the bird #'s were down. We had planned to make a "bird pilgrimage" this year, but cancelled it when gas was over $4.00 and shells were close to $30.00 per box...

What you heard about the pheasant population is correct, at least in the area I live. Birds were down I would say 60-70% from other years. Some spots did not have a hatch at all this year. And it does not look real good for next year either. Have been in a 6 year drought. About half of the CRP was cut last year. Basically in never grew back this year, and the other 50% was cut this year. Right now there is not much cover for birds except in farm yards, and with the subzero weather and snow we are having already, the remaining birds are going to have a hard time surviving. We did get quite a few birds, but only because we live here and hunted alot. Its going to be a bummer if we don't have any birds next year.

Pumpkinslinger

Hunterjoe, I usually do the same thing but the company screwed with my schedule this year and I had to burn 58 hours of vacation instead of 37.5 to get a week off as I had planned. We are so short of techs that it is possible they could ask me to work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. By the way, I've already told them "H#*% NO!!"

ElyBoy

We have so many ducks and geese in the freezer, that I haven't hunted as hard for deer.

This year in Minnesota, the deer season was pretty much of a bust all over the state.

There was supposed to be record deer numbers, but all of us hunters, wonder where the DNR was looking at.

Eric

vint2

I will tell you about our deer season later as I still have 3 tags to fill, but I have not heard of any record numbers being harvested so far!! I think the number of hunters is dropping all over and that makes a big difference.

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5944

Went hunting Saturday, only thing to be seen was fresh coyote tracks everywhere. At -16C/3F my water in my hydration bladder in vest was still liquid which was great BUT the mouth piece for my hydration bladder froze shut though.

Sorry guys have been out of a working computer since Sunday as I lent my brother my desktop (his broke) but back online now!

Dimitri

vint2

Good to see you back,Mitri!!! Smile

As a follow up to my last post, we have a total kill of 106,072 white tailed deer in the state of Iowa as of this date. Still have late bp and anterless seasons to go!!

ElyBoy

I know of one group that did fairly well in Minnesota.
I'm sure that there is more, but all that I am hearing among friends and others, is that this year really stunk.

On our good stands, the last day that we hunted, I only saw one set of fresh tracks.
We went three deer for five of us, but that is all of the deer that any of us saw--three--

This was supposed to be a banner year here, and there are ideas floating all over the place on what went wrong.
The deer numbers just aren't what they were the past ten years.
Something happened, and I'm sure that our glorious DNR will spin some answers on were the deer herd went.
I expect that the DNR will say that we had a record harvest, just to cover their rear ends.

Any ideas your way Vint??

Eric