Zone 424 Hunters

[grizzald]

Just wondering if anybody in this zone had as poor as hunt to start out the firearms season on saturday as we did. Saw one deer all day and we've got excellent hunting land, hills, river bottom, etc. Talked to 4 other hunting party's that hunt around where we do and they did not see any deer either, one group saw more coyotes than deer. We're all starting to get pretty concerned around here as far as the deer numbers go...

[carpshooterdeluxe]

we hunt north and south of hwy 12 give or take 8 miles, from the pomme de terre to the danvers slough, and i would have to agree that there are less deer than say 4 years ago. one thing that i feel was a factor for us this year was the properties we hunt were no where near any water source this year with the dry conditions. also; the bucks seemed to be pretty much done cruising for does, as the larger bucks we saw were only with one doe. our party of 16 tagged 5 bucks and three does; 6 of which we got saturday. today i drove from near fairfield church to danvers after sitting this morning and didnt see another hunter or a vehicle for that matter the 8 miles or so of gravel i took. the deer are out there, maybe in lower numbers but i think with the increasing popularity of archery and muzzleloading, there just isnt any big influx of large hunting parties moving the deer. 3 of our five bucks were taken posting right in the middle of mile sections that contained nothing but tilled fields and fence rows.