deer populations

[sarg]

just see what your thoughts are on this,
It seems like every old timer i talk to when i'm out hunting says the deer population is way down, "10 years ago there was deer every way now we hardly see any" i beleave that the deer are just deep in to the sticks with all the traffic on the back roads now,

[OutWest]

It would be helpful to know what species you're wanting to know about.

[sarg]

does it matter? lets say mule deer then,

[hunter1993ap]

i think most people dont have a clue how many deer are around. theres still some big ones out there so i still have a reason to go out! you cant compare watching deer 10,20,30etc years ago, when there were no roads and less people hunting in the good areas, to hunting now.

[dana]

Yes mule deer numbers are down. Cause and effect. And no, it has nothing to do with 2 legged hunters. It has everything to do with a booming wolf population. Are the muley numbers down to a historic low. Nope. Are they low enough to be a conservation concern. Nope. Are they low enough to make hunting a little more difficult then it was 5-10 years ago. You betcha. Are they hiding out in the deep dark timber. You betcha. What were the numbers like 5-10 years ago. Reachin' historic highs in a lot of areas. Above carrying capacity in many areas. Why? Because we had this idea that we could stock-pile them for our own wants and desires. Now where did that get us?

[hunter1993ap]

Yes mule deer numbers are down. Cause and effect. And no, it has nothing to do with 2 legged hunters. It has everything to do with a booming wolf population. Are the muley numbers down to a historic low. Nope. Are they low enough to be a conservation concern. Nope. Are they low enough to make hunting a little more difficult then it was 5-10 years ago. You betcha. Are they hiding out in the deep dark timber. You betcha.
populations might not be hurt by people, but big deer learn to stay away from areas heavily pounded by quads, and other vehicles, or most big smart deer do..

[dana]

When it boils down to it, areas that see a ton of heavy hunting pressure every year just don't have the big buck numbers due to one reason only. The bucks die too young to get big. The odd buck learns to go nocturnal and hit the heavy timber and avoid roads and openings and can get big with age. Hunting a cagey old buck in heavy pressure areas is not an easy task and it can be way easier to win big in Vegas than kill one of these ellusive bucks. If you realistically want to kill a big buck, you need to hunt areas where they can put on some age. This means, if you are seeing a lot of hunters, you probably are hunting the wrong area for big bucks.