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still have average deer numbers?

Numbers were down on most of the farms we shotgun hunted. Bow/muzzy farms I hunt, numbers were so so, saw some deer, a lot of younger does, a bunch of young bucks, only 1-2 young bucks were shot in our "timber", a 10 point 1.5 year old that would of turned out cool in a few years, and a 135" 9 point looked bigger than what he was at 6:30am light. Push a 80 acre section of river bottom, and only kicked up 3 does.. But that 80 acres turns into 2500 acres of river bottom.

Northern Linn County
 
I hunt in page Adams Taylor and Montgomery counties all of which seemed about the same a small cut in mature does and bucks but what seemed to be a larger crew of young deer
 
Average deer numbers? Yeah, for 1988. :mad:

Second year hunting an urban hunt. First year, saw LOTS of deer; I was pumped for the 2013 season. Went from having herds of deer within sight to being lucky to see a deer during a sit. I blame EHD. I won't be participating next season.

Other properties in the area reminded of the late '80's, early '90's. I passed on shooting a doe this year because I felt we needed the "production".

Noticed seeing lots of young, small deer. Very few mature does or bucks.

Cedar/Johnson county.
 
My farm is in Central Wapello County and it is only the 2nd year that I owned it so I don't have much history there. We did see a lot more deer this season then last season, but I think that is due to having food plots this year and not last year so that probably isn't a good gauge to go by. However, I will echo what several other people have said as we saw mostly fawns and yearlings (both does and bucks) and very few mature deer at all.
 
The place I shotgun hunted in Montgomery was down, but that was the only place I saw a mature buck. Saw a few doe but low numbers compared to other years. Place I hunt in Cass County numbers were also down and only saw a couple bucks and they looked young. Biggest group I saw was maybe 12 deer, compared to 50 plus last couple years. Didn't have the tracks either so I know they weren't moving at night or when I wasn't there. Scouted bothe areas earlier in the year and when crops were coming out and the numbers were down.
 
Harrison county got hit pretty hard in Summer 2012, we had a more mild 2013 though. Numbers are still down from the first few years that I hunted the same spot.
 
Someone needs to do a rain dance this year in south eastern IA. If it does not rain we will get the EHD again which may be the knock out punch. We had too much spring rain and then Boom! it just quit raining or at least coming by us. It would be North of us or South of us in Mo.

As for the deer well its down even from the year before as many big bucks went missing. If they were there last year where did they all go this year if nothing changed in the area? I did notice lone fawns and fawn pics on cameras. Only got one pic of a yote all summer on like 10 cameras so the only thing I can point to was EHD.

You leave the best areas like your core alone to protect them and that EHD does way more damage than hunting can do. I hope the DNR takes into account a fairly high EHD kill when they do their numbers of 2013 going forward.

If they dont account for that factor they may do damage to an already bad situation.

I'm sure the farmers are seeing a few more BU an acre on their meters as there are less mouths to feed out there now. someone brought up that Coons do a lot of damage and I have to agree with that. I have packs of them suckers and plan on getting out with my foxpro and callin in a few. For me corn is the hardest and most expensive thing to grow and seems like every thing likes to eat it.

I plan on more Turnips and Milo this year as I need to feed and hold the few deer that are left.
 
I live and hunt in Wapello county. I live in a great deer area, so regulary take rides through the neighborhood. I hunt 7-10 farms in Wapello, Davis, Appanoose and Jefferson counties. All farms have WAY less deer than 2008-11! Only one that has large stream saturated with beavers and plenty of good waters have good deer numbers, interesting on that farm I have not found a singe dead deer. They seem to be migrating to areas with better food more than past years. I feel because of drought the deer are lacking in nutrients more than before.

Also this year I see something Ive never seen in Iowa (only other states) large numbers of fawns with few mature does.. That is usually a result of heavy hunting pressure. Something needs to change. We only saw 5 bucks over 3.5yrs old amazingly we took 3 of those 5!
 
andesman said:
I live and hunt in Wapello county. I live in a great deer area, so regulary take rides through the neighborhood. I hunt 7-10 farms in Wapello, Davis, Appanoose and Jefferson counties. All farms have WAY less deer than 2008-11! Only one that has large stream saturated with beavers and plenty of good waters have good deer numbers, interesting on that farm I have not found a singe dead deer. They seem to be migrating to areas with better food more than past years. I feel because of drought the deer are lacking in nutrients more than before.

Also this year I see something Ive never seen in Iowa (only other states) large numbers of fawns with few mature does.. That is usually a result of heavy hunting pressure. Something needs to change. We only saw 5 bucks over 3.5yrs old amazingly we took 3 of those 5!
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I'll agree with you on the lack of mature doe. Passed on several young doe that had their yearlings with them and wasn't much difference between momma and the yearlings.
 
andesman said:
Also this year I see something Ive never seen in Iowa (only other states) large numbers of fawns with few mature does.. That is usually a result of heavy hunting pressure. Something needs to change.
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I'll add to what I wrote earlier...we too saw the same thing on our place. Even from the start of the bow season we were seeing lone fawns or 5 or 6 antlerless deer in a bunch with maybe only one of them being an adult doe. The big mamas seemed to be more scarce than the big bucks, and there weren't many of those!

While I agree that heavy hunting pressure has been a big factor in the much lower overall numbers, I don't think that can explain how there are fawns, but no matching does in a given fall. I mean if the fawns were present this fall, sans mama, then the doe had to be alive at least through May or June, right? :D

The unbalanced fawn to adult doe ratio seems to indicate to me that adult does died disproportionately throughout the late summer/early fall, leaving many more orphan fawns than what is normal. If the does were alive only long enough in the spring to give birth, then the fawns couldn't survive without mom, etc. This suggests EHD related die off to me...BUT we also never ran across a dead deer on our place all fall. So where are the skeletons? (The answer to that may well still present itself when we start combing the place looking for sheds here soon.) But it is a puzzle to me still at this time.

No doubt though, there were far fewer adult deer in the timber this year, both does and bucks.
 
My observations

Boone county:
I'm seeing about half the deer that I have been used to. All age classes down. To my knowledge, EHD did not hit my area last 2 years.

Story county:
Seeing about 1/3 what I used to. Mature bucks and does are very rare. Also no EHD.

Monroe county: slightly less than normal. Still have mature bucks and does. No EHD last year. Unsure at the moment for this year.
 
I have a pretty small section of public that I'm hunting so my observations are pretty atypical. I had deer around me most of my sits but not large #'s. I would see 1-5 deer per sit. I average 2-3 deer in shooting range per season so I need to make the most of my opportunities. I'd say the peak of my best hunting on public land was probably 2003-2005. I'm in Johnson County
 
Doe and mature buck numbers seemed below average in Floyd County. On the bright side, there seemed to be a lot of 1-1/2 & 2-1/2 year-old bucks.

-Longspurs-
 
The lack of skeletons is a big mystery for all reporting low numbers of mature deer... I too believe that EHD is the biggest culprit of the reduction in numbers...where are the carcasses is the question.
 
dedgeez said:
Very low mature buck #'s up here. Very few "big" deer killed this year in comparison. Very few sightings of good bucks in all my scouting and hunting.

Overall #'s are quite a bit down compared to the last 5 years.

Fayette, Winneshiek, Clayton, Allamakee
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I'd say the same, I'm in north Fayette southern Winnesheik.

I sat pry 45 times between Bow and late muzz., and had one chance at a mature buck(that I biffed on).
 
Chickasaw is down with not many mature but young bucks there are.

Winneshiek is avg/good, again matures are down but not as bad.

Neither are close to yrs past
 
Story county: Deer sightings down to less than half what was here 5-6 years ago. Mature deer pretty rare. Yearling (1 1/2 yo) bucks & does make up much of what I saw. I know there was significant EHD loss in 2012, not sure about 2013.
 
westpointhunter said:
The lack of skeletons is a big mystery for all reporting low numbers of mature deer... I too believe that EHD is the biggest culprit of the reduction in numbers...where are the carcasses is the question.
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Spring shed hunting in 2013 and I found lots of bone piles scattered around.

Found one dead at the start of bow season 2013 that I'm pretty sure was EHD.

I'll find (out) more in a month or so when I start shed hunting.
 
Western Davis Co. still has good numbers but seems to be down, probably entirely from EHD and not hunting pressure. Seen some nice mature bucks and an explosion of young bucks. Mature doe sightings were way down though. I took one doe this year but next year I may pass on does entirely depending on what I see preseason.
 
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