PDA

View Full Version : 2012 Deer Season in the books



Buckrub
12-18-2012, 11:04 AM
Home from 5 weeks, give or take a day or two at Thanksgiving, from deer camp.

Every year lately I say it, but this is getting insane. I hunted over 43 days, and I saw a total of 19 deer! I used to see that many in a day, sometimes many more than that. In 2010 they were cutting....DURING deer season.........and we cried cause we 'only' killed 28 that whole year. Last year bigger bucks than usual, but only killed 23. Both years we shot about everything we saw. This year? We're at 18........total. Every single day, every hunter would come in from every far flung part of the lease and say "Saw nothing". One guy killed a very nice deer.........huge body for our parts, by far......173 lbs, 8 point. But he musta been lost, because he had brow tines. :)

I gave up and finally shot a small buck......just to ensure my grandson in SC has some red meat (it's the only red meat he can eat).......and last Saturday I went to take down a hanging feeder, and decided to just sit and hunt it till dark. I parked the wheely right next to stand, had no thoughts of seeing a deer. At 4:40 two does come running at me as fast as deer can run. Right at me. Startled me, over my right shoulder. One got in middle of the lane (about 4 feet in the air) and my brain told me it was small and "Mama" was behind........so I concentrated on the back one (heck, I had more time on here, since she was second anyway) and went "BRRAAAAAPPPP" and she hit the brakes, wham. Of course, she stopped behind a red oak tree and I could only see tail and about 2 inches of butt. I still had no positive proof it was a doe (I had 5 doe tags in my pocket), so I just held the scope on her as long as I could and waited. It was 6 minutes.......before she moved a muscle. She finally stuck her nose in front of tree, I could see it was a mature doe......and finally she stepped out to my right slightly, and was broadside, and forty nine nanoseconds after that she was dead. She went into the low-crawling, knee-walking, super fast, 15 yard, death crawl.......and stopped. I could see her. So I concentrated on whatever was pushing her towards me (Buck???) but nothing ever showed. My buddy killed a doe 20 minutes later, so we had two deer to mess with and butcher/grind on Sunday, which wore us out (the grinder is missing one part, I called and yep, it's 'critical'......shipping it today), and Monday we got up and loaded up, closed down camp, and came home.

Kids will be here the week after Christmas, which is our last gun season....so I'm done, unless I lose my boat and have to go cross bow hunting in Jan or Feb..... If so, I still have one buck and two doe, or three doe tags left.

Lots of drama in the camp this year too, but wasn't me. Two guys have a problem that they need to work out. Didn't need that.

Never got to hunt the farm. Lots of reasons, but that won't ever happen again. I'm done having surgeries that keep me from living.....so I'll get the farm ready to hunt in 2013. Seeing nothing there is no worse than seeing nothing in "deer rich south Arkansas".......!!!!!

That's it. Haven't seen the state or county totals but I heard the harvest is actually up some...........statewide. Hard to imagine. Ours left the world. No tracks, not eating foodplots (the most beautiful they've ever been, the most lush), no tracks, no sign, nothing. Just weird. We have coyotes, but they can't eat that many deer. A few pigs (One shot), but they aren't numerous enough to reduce the habitat and deer herd. So we have no clue.

Hope the crappie aren't as scarce.

The End.

Big Muddy
12-18-2012, 11:24 AM
Dang, Bucky, sorry you had such a sucky deer season....didn't realize the Arkie season was so short....you really oughta fix up your farm for hunting....I think you're missing a great opportunity, since your club land sucks so bad....and, you won't hafta deal with the conflicts between those hunters that you mentioned.

We get to hunt thru the end of January....course there's a few days of mzl and bow thrown in there, too.

Buckrub
12-18-2012, 11:38 AM
Not short..... 9 days of M/L hunting in late October...........followed by 36 days of modern gun (more than that if you are in a fancy club 'between the levees' of the MS River)........a week off (this week), then another 6 days of MG and M/L after Christmas. Bow season is contiguous 5 1/2 months long.

I will get the farm ready this year. No chance I won't, if I live.

And the drama wasn't around me, so no big deal. They are my friends, besides.......and I wouldn't run off just cause they are having problems. But I still need a 'refuge' to go hunt for a few days every once in a while, and the farm is it. There are few deer there too, historically.....but a chance for a bigger one is there.

And I got 'away'......didn't mean to sound like I hated it the whole time. It was just NO DEER that bothered me. Our deer are small, but they are traditionally numerous. We're totally lost what is going on there.

Chicken Dinner
12-18-2012, 12:44 PM
Deer or no deer, I'm certainly jealous of how much you get out!

Bwana
12-18-2012, 01:34 PM
You gotta have the patience of Job to sit there for that many days and see so few deer. I can't imagine and hope I never have to.

That being said, I too am jealous of the time you get to spend in the great outdoors. Nothing better for the mind and soul then time spent in the Good Lord's countryside watching the rest of his critters go about their business.

Buckrub
12-18-2012, 01:37 PM
Obviously, and of my cuteness too.

Yeah, it IS a good place to be for a few weeks. Our problems are where to move a stand, if I need to charge the wheely battery, what to have/thaw for supper, which stand to hunt tomorrow........etc. Odd that each of those become so important.......and afterwards, today.........they seem so silly. But they do serve to take our minds off of life's more serious problems, even if only for a little while.

And even if it was more boring hunting than usual, I brought home 2 ice chests crammed full of shrink wrapped burger and steaks...........and my grandson and my mother will have fresh deer meat all year, and we'll have tenderloin for Christmas dinner..........and some left over for jerky or giveaways or chile or tacos or spaghetti.......or whatever. Of that, I am very thankful.

Oh..........the small buck? He surprised me in a clearcut, showed up behind me, and I guess he made me...........first sound I heard was 'tick'........and turned around and this buck was running away from me full blast into the heart of the cutover. I cut loose, and hit him twice. He went down and tried to die and couldn't.........and when he finally stood up wobbly I finished him off. So as far as SHOTS are concerned, I'm 4 for 4 on two deer. So, neener neener, yall.

P.S.
One point you made is odd, too. Other than squirrels and one fox that I slayed medium dead, we saw FEW critters also! That told me something, but I ain't sure what! :smile-new: We used to see everything. Now it's squirrels and crows and not much else. We can't figure it out.

BarryBobPosthole
12-18-2012, 01:42 PM
I think considering where you are that there has to be some kind of serious poaching going on down there when you guys aren't there. I think I'd be doing some detective work to see who's going in there when you ain't. You ought to be covered up with deer.

BKB

Chicken Dinner
12-18-2012, 03:31 PM
I think the lack of critters may be the precursor to the Mayan Apocalypse. Or, not.

Arty
12-18-2012, 08:52 PM
What posthead said. Poaching.
Glad you had fun. One day I will. Hopefully.

quercus alba
12-18-2012, 11:59 PM
I dunno about the poaching bucky, it's bad all over south arkansas. Between the coyotes and the drought, we lost a big part of our fawn crop in 2011. It may take several years to come back from that.

My season, saw 12 deer, killed a buck and a doe. Could have killed at least one more buck and maybe 2 does but I'm thinking long term. 4 deer a year off 80 acres is plenty, I'm hoping the missus or one of the boys might pick up another or two in the late hunt

Chicken Dinner
12-19-2012, 11:21 AM
When I hear drought and no deer, I always think about blue tongue. It can have significant localized impacts.

BarryBobPosthole
12-19-2012, 11:25 AM
This has been going on for at least five years or so, according to Lamentations of Bucky chap 5, all verses. Sounds to me like there's some paper company folks riding around with rifles in the cab year round.

BKB

Buckrub
12-19-2012, 12:12 PM
That's about right.

In the mid 90's, I remember a year with 56 deer on the books. I think there were more than that. Starting in 1998 with the 3 point rule, the numbers have gone down each year. We keep records. In 2010 the Paper company showed up with huge machines on Oct 15 and left on Christmas Day. Obviously impacted our hunting with machine noise, and took out the 'heart' of our timber. Still, we killed 28 deer that year. In 2011 we killed 23 and the quality of bucks went way up, relatively. That alone gave us hope for at least bigger bucks this year. I mean, the whole goal of QDM is reduce the herd size till it matches the habitat, and kill does till the Buck:Doe ratio is more equal. We've done that for years.

Result?

I saw 19 deer this entire year. I saw a THUMPER on opening day of M/L season, too far to shoot or judge, but huge. It is probably the deer Joe killed on Pearl Harbor Day. Although we saw few deer, and killed only 8 bucks, mostly smallish.........Joe did kill the biggest body deer we have EVER killed. It weighed 173 lbs........and was 5 feet from nose to butt (although I don't know how that measures, I've never done that measurement before, just did it on a whim.........this deer had a LONG nose). It was a nice 8 point rack, probably in top 8 of all time at this camp, but not the best. But weight wise, it blew everything out. Most of our bucks are 130 lbs max. I saw two five points, and killed one (My grandson HAS to have deer meat, it's the ONLY red meat he can eat, and I'll poach if necessary to get him at least one each year), and ELEVEN spikes!!!! I saw five doe total ALL YEAR. Two of those were last Saturday, the day before the season closed, and I killed one. Of the doe we killed, almost all were alone...and that has NEVER happened till the last year or two. Not ever! The one I killed was lactating and had a young one with her. First one I've seen in two years. Most are alone.

None of it adds up. We do not even see many critters any more. I saw one raccoon (man was he funny) this entire year. Squirrels are so thick they have invaded our attic!!! Taking the house over!! They already have the woods taken over. We had that loud fox problem early on. But we are not seeing the critters we used to see...........mink, weasels, coons, possums, etc. and we're not seeing the big flocks of turkeys we used to have either.

It's not poaching, and it's not disease. The deer we skin are so fat that it's hard to get it all off just so we can grind the meat.......heck, they are so few they have no competition for food I guess. One thought is that we had a massive Mast crop, and big acorn crops mean fewer deer sightings (they can sleep in their kitchen, don't have to move). But few deer sightings is one thing, and almost no deer TRACKS in lush, beautiful food plots, or around corn feeders, is quite another. We killed one hog, and I got 10 pigs on camera, but we didn't have a huge pig problem either, not like in past....it's never been too bad.

We do have a coyote problem, and I'm sure that's part of it. I'd pay Troy fifty nine cents a pelt and buy his gas to get part way, and buy his bullets, if he'd come spend a month and eradicate these jerks. Course, they'd be right back I guess.

Whatever. I don't know. I go to camp for lots of reasons, and deer is not 100% of it...........I'd take one of these every year and laugh!! Ha. But this guy was lost and we do not see one of these every year total, much less each one of us.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk131/Buck7088/Joe12072012_zps8b286ca0.jpeg

Anyway, the harvest has gone down every single year, verified. My biologist buddy just says "Habitat" and "Cycles" and "Be Patient". I guess he's right. If we saw few deer but that meant we saw the occasional big buck, we'd take it. But it is just more fun when you get to actually see a few of what you are out there to get!!!

Big Muddy
12-20-2012, 01:18 AM
DANG WHAT A SNOUT ON THAT DEER !!!....ya'll shoulda nicknamed that buck, Pinocchio or Jimmy Durante !!! ;)

BarryBobPosthole
12-20-2012, 01:49 AM
I think Methusalah is more accurate.

BKB

Buckrub
12-20-2012, 10:44 AM
Nowhere close to the oldest deer that guy has killed. He killed a.........I guess a "six point" that was about 24" wide one time. As usual, just me and him in camp......I think it was 2006 (?). I drove the 3 miles (property we no longer have) to get it in the dark and when my wheely lights shone on it, I could tell it was the OLDEST deer that has ever lived. I bet that deer was 10 or 11, and his rack was definitely on the way down. Bless his heart, he was out chasing girls, or he'd have died of old age.

I think many, many buck deer suppress the urge to breed during day, or at least do at times, else there'd rarely be big bucks that no one has seen but once in 10 years......and there are several. The guy above was killed 6 minutes before end of shooting hours and light, he just made a mistake and started early that day.