Deer hut ??

OLDHORNHUNTER

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LAST EDITED ON Nov-09-17 AT 12:34PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Nov-09-17 AT 12:29?PM (MST)

LAST EDITED ON Nov-09-17 AT 12:28?PM (MST)

So I have been wondering how the overall hunt has been for everyone. I see & hear different posts about NO animals & then another person will chirp in with same unit Lots of animals seen !! I am curious how the BIG picture looks now that most general hunts are done . Fish & NO Game has posted varying results & comments on their site. So here is my recap, I have hunted unit 31 for elk & sometimes for deer for over 30 years . This elk season I saw 2 bucks & aprox 30 does & fawns combined in 31 . I opted to hunt unit 18 for deer , I did not feel anyone should be hunting any of the units or areas that were Devastated from last years winter . I also noticed very few animals in rigs coming or going on the highways as well. The Idaho site on MM has been Pathetic this year for animals posted lets hear some input ...
 
I primarily hunted 32 and 32A. Unit 32 was pretty barren. I know other folks that tagged out, but overall it was my experience that the numbers were down. I spent a lot of time in between Emmett and Indian Valley last winter and seen the winterkill firsthand. My in laws always have 7-10 different bucks and countless does hanging around their property. This year, there was a doe and 3 fawns. Folks can say that the deer are still there, you just weren't hunting hard enough. I can say I seen the winterkill and the deer population is hurting.
 
I saw the same winter kill scenario this past spring in 32 did a drive one day counted 38 dead deer from the road !! I have talked to quite a few hunters that have said the same thing . We used to see a ton of deer out of Weiser doing evening drives have every year for 20 plus this year we saw no more than 20 all does & fawns !! A buddy of mine hunts 31 Private property the land owner told them NO deer hunting was allowed this year due to lack of animals !!
 
I did not buy a deer tag for myself this year but my 14 year old had one so I went with him about 4 different times and total we saw around 20 deer. I'm pretty sure some were the same ones. Only 1 two point buck we saw which he passed on. Although one of my nephews shot a 4 point and another a 3 point on the same place but they reported the numbers as way down to. Lots and lots of elk though. We saw lots of deer skeletons. This is on the north side of Weiser. In the past it was normal to see 3 to 12 bucks a day so 1 buck out of 4 days hunting is not normal. My nephew knows a person who picked up over 20 (I think he said 27) deadhead skulls out of one draw somewhere along the snake. Don't know if it was unit 31 or 22 but that's a lot of skulls! Said there were some real dandies in the bunch to.
 
I hunted 39 for deer and elk. I saw more deer and elk this year than I did in the last few year. Numbers of both are still at high levels. If I hadn't seen the dead fawns myself in the spring, I wouldn't believe it happened. We saw several forkies so some fawns must have survived. All the does had fawns following them. If you're going to have a die off, it helps if it happens when population levels are high. Hunter numbers were at record levels.

I hunted a youth cow hunt in 32a for one of my kids. Again, good elk numbers. We saw a few deer but not enough to comment on population levels.
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-13-17 AT 04:00PM (MST)[p]>My in laws
>always have 7-10 different bucks
>and countless does hanging around
>their property. This year, there
>was a doe and 3
>fawns. Folks can say that
>the deer are still there,
>you just weren't hunting hard
>enough. I can say I
>seen the winterkill and the
>deer population is hurting.

People always use that example, they always have some family member with some piece of property yada, yada, yada... Since there were no animals on their family's property this year then the deer are extinct...

The numbers probably are down, but again, your family members property is NOT a good indicator for a regions herd health. You immediately lose all credibility when you refer to "your family's property" online. There are many factors as to why there weren't as many deer on your family's inhabited land.
 
>I hunted 39 for deer and
>elk. I saw more
>deer and elk this year
>than I did in the
>last few year. Numbers
>of both are still at
>high levels. If I
>hadn't seen the dead fawns
>myself in the spring, I
>wouldn't believe it happened.
>We saw several forkies so
>some fawns must have survived.
> All the does had
>fawns following them. If
>you're going to have a
>die off, it helps if
>it happens when population levels
>are high. Hunter numbers
>were at record levels.
>
>I hunted a youth cow hunt
>in 32a for one of
>my kids. Again, good
>elk numbers. We saw
>a few deer but not
>enough to comment on population
>levels.

+1

I was very impressed with overall deer numbers and especially the number of fawns still around. I saw lots of young bucks during the general hunts and they looked healthy. I only saw 2 sad looking deer all fall.

Elk are doing very well, great numbers and were still in the hay days of elk hunting.

I do think that Fish and Game were correct with their winterkill reports in the Weiser River zone. It coincided well with snotel data from the weather stations in 31, 32A and 32.

Per my buddies that have all of their teeth, who hunt the Weiser area, and that I trust, the deer numbers were down in that region this year.
 
Why are deer dying there so easily. I hunted there last year in oct and saw deer, but way away from roads. Very skiddy...even for does. I got a 3 pt. The deer in general, seemed smaller compared to deer i have seen in other places.
My question is, why do deer struggle so bad there, where i have seen them do ok in what i would consider more brutal, higher country.
 
They died easily because they were up to their chest in snow for months. They couldn't walk through it, they had to jump through it to get around , draining what little energy they had left . One rancher down the road pushed the dead deer into a pile near his feed lot , the pile was nearly the size of my house.

F&G decided to start feeding them a few weeks after most of them died . Most of the deer that survived long enough to be fed died within 100 yards of the feed sites due to being too far gone prior to feeding.
 

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