Well, Eric, I am no expert, but my observations tell me that both deer and hunter numbers are down. Now, don't get me wrong as we still see plenty of deer, and it is going to take a few more years of heavy harvest before they get down to a one deer system again. High winds and rain on opening weekend also kept down the hunter numbers and kept the deer on edge. Not to say it too loud, but I see people in the deer woods making basic mistakes that my 11 year old grandson would not make, but I am not going to tell them how to hunt.
So, did you fill out?

Three deer for five of us Vint.

I still have a lot of venison in the freezer, and the freezer is packed, and i do mean packed with ducks and geese, so I didn't deer hunt as hard as normal.
Also, I enjoy waterfowl hunting much more than deer hunting, and the birds were flying great this year.

Eric

My boy and I filled our tags on opening day and I am looking forward to late season! I still have a duck call in the gun case and warerfowl loads for ducks and geese in the ammo vault, so I understand your thing for waterfowl. Been a long time since I chewed on a good mallard or any other duck!! Lost my lab a few years ago, and never replaced him. Used to hunt everything and loved it all!!!!!

Last one for the wife for '08...

Right on Joe Congrats to your wife.
Joe

No venison here. Between work schedule and the associated fatigue I never even went out. Gotta find a better job!! I do hope to try some varmint hunting after the holidays.

Update on Minnesota's dear season.

The DNR on questions regarding a low deer harvest, said that it is because of the liberal doe permits and bonus tags issued over the past years.

HOWEVER the DNR said that this is just what they wanted. Thin the herd.
"Rest assured hunters" our glorious boys in uniform said, we will be right on top next year building up the herd again, with tighter limits.

I emailed the DNR headquarters thanking them for their help in there being about 1/10th the deer in my woods that was present the past 10 years.

What a bunch of idiots, and this is what Degrees get us??

Eric

Too many Bambi-ites in the DNR and they know not what they do!!!!!

Too many idiots in the DNR and they have their heads up their asses.

Like my Dad used to say Vint--"I calls em, as I sees em"

Eric

That is ok by me!!!! I am pretty much the same way.

My brother lives in Wilson County, Texas and they have a pretty good system for managing deer. When they realized that the herd was dwindling from over-hunting, they decided to implement a few common sense restrictions. Currently, in this county, you are allowed to hunt does, on a ranch by ranch basis. In other words, they do a deer census of all areas of the county by air to determine if you have a sustainable number of does. If you don’t, you do not get ranch permits for does. Issuing the permits to the hunters and all record keeping, concerning doe harvesting is done by the ranchers, to be turned in to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Doe harvest from each ranch is determined by deer population and without a special doe permit, you don't hunt does. To build the buck population up (because they were over hunted), they allow you to shoot only one whitetail buck with a minimum of a 13 or 14 inch inside spread (I'm not sure how they got that number) and an older spike. They've had this program in effect for 3 or 4 years and are now enjoying decent hunting. The population is coming back and the bucks are getting bigger.

Cary

Didn't totally chase the horns this year, but after working the hills and headed back to the truck, he was standing about 100ft below my truck - after last year, I couldn't pass him up - he needed a ride into town anyway - besides, I had about 80ft of rope in the truck, so not much of a drag and we were back at the house by 9am opening morning. Pic's are kind of fuzzy as I took them with my phone.

Our place is in the BWCA, and my family has pretty much had the woods behind the house to ourselves for the past forty years or so.

It has been buck only until around five years ago, and then, the doe tags were few and far between.
With us guys killing the bucks as they grew, the herd was way out of wack, with does running all over the place, chased by a few four point bucks.

I figured that we had to thin some of the does, and over the past few years, the herd got a much better buck to doe ratio.

THEN-the DNR opened the woods up for does and bucks the last few years, and everybody came out of the woodwork to hit the woods that we hunt.

Shot the crap out of the does, so bad, that when I walked from my stand on my last day hunting, there was only one fresh track there.

We hunt in VERY thick timber, and blowdowns, and nobody wants to hunt in our area when they have to shoot bucks. It just takes too good of a hunter to station up in the right spots.

But when it was opened up wholesale for shooting does, that is when the orange flood hit the woods.

I think that we will be all alone for the coming years, sense the DNR "thinned" our herd down to just a couple of youngsters in our area, "just like they planned"

Many years ago, in the '60's, Minnesota's Deer Season was always buck or doe, with a nine day season.
I sure was a lot of fun.
Everybody would take vacation for that week, and along with our own group, we would hunt with all sorts of friends who would join forces to make drives etc.

What the geniuses in the DNR failed to take into account the past few seasons, was that they still kept the 16 day season instead of shortening it to the old nine days.

I still can't believe that this many grown ups can have their heads so far up their rear ends, and still keep their jobs.

Eric

onthelasgallinas, just read your 25-06 incident, was there any oil or grease on the round or in the chamber or bore? Just a guess but I have seen it before. oil in your eye kinda feels like that. AND IT WOULD SPIKE PRESSURE. happened a few years ago but I still remember. Caveman say, Fire....HOT

I doubled this year on whitetail, with a bolt action. makes me think I still got it. not many places to brag about that so I thought I'd do it here.