Phillip Thurmond
Senior Member
I have been reading post where some people are saying we have to many does while others are saying the DNR does not know what there talking about ,we don't have enough! 10 years ago I saw lots more deer, well what is the real answer? I think I know but I want to find out what you think.
To answer this question I have to look back at 30 plus years I have been deer hunting. When I first started hunting I went the first two seasons before I ever saw a deer in the woods. I mean I really did not see one for two years! That was in the 70's. Now the closer we got to the 80's deer were becoming more abundant and I saw lots and lots. Then sometime during the late 80's early 90's our property and other property arround us started going through changes that I think affected our deer population. Our property like most of you was owned by paper companys. They came in and cut the trees. Now at first that was no problem in fact our population increased. However, as time went on and the planted pines grew and shaded out the undergrouth and as the timber company's came over the property and sprayed all the oak trees and killed them the population started to be reduced. I beleive it was not because of hunting pressure but because of lack of food. I think the deer just moved on. Now the reason I believe this is today i'm in a club where it is private owned and we have over 600 acres of food plots. We have all kinds of habitat for the deer and we have more than we could ever shoot. Its nothing to go out and see 25 in one afternoon or morning. The other day I saw 17 in the afternoon and 12 of them were bucks. My thoughts are if you have food then you have lots of deer. If you have pine trees and small food plots that are the norm for timber co land then you might not have all that many deer and think the deer are overhunted.
Well these are my thoughts what are yours? Could it be that deer don't eat pine trees and have gone to other places to find food? Now I know what you are thinking "We plant food plots and we feed the deer in the winter" However, how much does that really help? How much does a deer need to survive? how much food does your little half acre produce and how many deer will it really support? The answer is not very many! I think the problem is not with over shooting the deer I think the answer is we don't have the food anymore to feed the deer. What are your thoughts?
To answer this question I have to look back at 30 plus years I have been deer hunting. When I first started hunting I went the first two seasons before I ever saw a deer in the woods. I mean I really did not see one for two years! That was in the 70's. Now the closer we got to the 80's deer were becoming more abundant and I saw lots and lots. Then sometime during the late 80's early 90's our property and other property arround us started going through changes that I think affected our deer population. Our property like most of you was owned by paper companys. They came in and cut the trees. Now at first that was no problem in fact our population increased. However, as time went on and the planted pines grew and shaded out the undergrouth and as the timber company's came over the property and sprayed all the oak trees and killed them the population started to be reduced. I beleive it was not because of hunting pressure but because of lack of food. I think the deer just moved on. Now the reason I believe this is today i'm in a club where it is private owned and we have over 600 acres of food plots. We have all kinds of habitat for the deer and we have more than we could ever shoot. Its nothing to go out and see 25 in one afternoon or morning. The other day I saw 17 in the afternoon and 12 of them were bucks. My thoughts are if you have food then you have lots of deer. If you have pine trees and small food plots that are the norm for timber co land then you might not have all that many deer and think the deer are overhunted.
Well these are my thoughts what are yours? Could it be that deer don't eat pine trees and have gone to other places to find food? Now I know what you are thinking "We plant food plots and we feed the deer in the winter" However, how much does that really help? How much does a deer need to survive? how much food does your little half acre produce and how many deer will it really support? The answer is not very many! I think the problem is not with over shooting the deer I think the answer is we don't have the food anymore to feed the deer. What are your thoughts?