Winter die off

I have been curious, now that the season has started; what happened with the deer die off? Did they make it through all right?

In the north west they lost almost the entire fawn population (some areas they said as much as 90%). They also said a significant number of yearling also died. This was from Steamboat west and 1/2 way between Rifle and Meeker North to the Colorado Boarder with the outside edges of the areas being better off then the middle of this area. Adult deer had only slightly higher than "normal" die off. Not sure I believe that as much. The truth is a little south in the Colorado River Valley we had a good year for fawns and are seeing twins and triples still with doe a little further north it is patchy. some areas seem to have good fawn numbers, other areas it seems like 1 fawn per 50 doe....

Supposedly the bucks did just fine as the CPW decided to increase Buck Tags through out the region? If this goes the path that they took after 07/08 they will kill almost all the decent bucks this year, next year people will get pissed then in 2 years they will cut the tag numbers way back again.

I just got back from my annual MLdeer hunt North of Craig. The rancher called me before season and told me that this was going to be a rough year as they had a bad winter kill last winter. He was right! I did not see any bucks in the 2 1/2 to 4 1/2 year old age class. ( i normally would see 20-25)
I saw 97 deer on opening evening at the only pond for miles...8 were yearling rag horns. I did see a total of 10 big bucks Thurday & Friday before season opened which were really good but were MISSING when the season opened. I got several on my game cameras @ 1-4 AM all had gone nocturnal. It was nearly a full moon. I had the ranch to myself but could not find them. One was a monster 2X2 and one was a giant 5X5. I saw many does with twins and some triplets and overall a lot of deer but winter kill did wipe out a couple of year age class. I came home with out shooting a deer but had a blast. I could have shot 15 or so spikes and small 2X2s but I close to let them grow......until next year.