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Annual DMU Report Card

Well it's that time of year where I ask my fellow Bowsiters to state the DMU you hunt in and give it a letter grade on quantity and quality of the deer population...in your opinion.

I will go first:

9X...D-

Between bow and gun season I hunted a total of 34 days in various locations throughout 9X. Without question...my worst year EVER for seeing deer. I had 21 sits ( either AM or PM)where I did not see a single deer. I have spoken to several other hunters that also have land in 9X and their experience is very similar. I don't know if it's the coyotes or bears killing the fawns but they few and far between. I truly hope DEC addresses this and drastically cuts back on doe tags for 2014.

4O was just a bust this year, did see several doe's with fawns but a big zero on bucks that had 3 or more on one side....

7m, lots of deer on camera before season. After oct 1st turned into a ghosttown. Saw 4 bucks, passed a spike, no other shots. Gun season nothing, jumped a couple a week in and that was it. Plenty of tracks when we had snow, only moving at night. Pretty disapointing.

7J - did not hunt as much as I would have liked; work too far away from home. :(

I would rate it as a B+ in total deer; a D for larger bucks. I passed 6 bucks in 4 straight days of bowhunting and one 6 point with a rifle on opening day. Have not seen anything older then 1.5 years (the opening day 6 may have been 2.5).

Have fingers crossed that I will get out all day Friday and 1/2 day SUnday before I clean my guns...

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9H was decent this season, I would say A- overall. I hunt a lot and saw some real dandy's on their feet but just didn't have the right opportunity to get a good shot on one. I only had a few sits where I saw nothing at all but we also had some very warm and windy weather during the bow season. We have 6 guys that hunt our camp and we all took decent doe during the gun season and a couple of us had luck during with the bow as well. We all passed small bucks so we are hopeful next year will be even better.

8S was lousy. Saw 2 nice bucks during bow, and a guy on the neighbor's property got one opening morning. All I've seen since was two 3 points, and a couple of doe fawns. I'm hoping for something during ML.

4U F- 4T D

7H A

9Y - A

I hunted every day of the bow season and rifle season and now into the bow/muzzleloader season. I am a trail cam nut and hunt four different properties...in 9Y. I set two personal records, I passed on the most bucks of my life...13 and I passed on the biggest buck of my life...a dandy 8. (If he makes it he will be a dandy next season!) hoping for a crack at a couple slammers...I wound up shooting a buck coming into one of my zip-tied scrapes. I played tag with him all bow season. Here is a picture of him at one of my zip-tied scrapes. I attribute 75% of my best year to my zip-tied overhanging branches, bring bucks in at such a high level of time. So my rating of a A for 9Y might be a bit skewed on the high side.

8H...... I will give it a B+ this year, only because I remember the really bad years I have had elsewhere.

So far I've had many opportunities at some bucks, just not the right ones. I know that I have been blessed with permission to hunt a farm that really holds a lot of deer and it has a few good bucks.

One of the other guys that hunts it killed a nice 8 pointer on opening day and has said he has seen two other bucks that were bigger. I have had a nice eight pointer at 22 yards that I would have liked to put an arrow in, but he never gave me the shot. He stayed in the brush and just walked out of my life.

I'm continuing to hunt with my muzzleloader until next Tuesday so I don't think my grade will change.

3A .....D- with the AR in place we are just starting to see some improvement and older bucks. Still no DMPs and rightly so. Forest preserve and DEP lands see forests getting more mature yearly with no improvement in sight.

4S D+ still an insane amount of pressure with the long regular and MZ season. we are seeing minimally impact with AR's... Hopefully we see get some improvement and the continue with the AR program.

Changes that need to be made. 1)Expand AR' state wide. 4pt west of I81, 3 Pt east of I81 2)One buck per hunter per lic year. 3) shorten the firearms season to 8 days, and the mz to four days....we dont have a heard that can sustain a 31 day combine firearm season. 4) DMP's become non nontransferable. and by lottery.

6K.... B+ I saw fewer deer than last year but still had a great year. I passed on a couple of small bucks and tagged my biggest buck to date. This area is holding steady for me.

4F.... B I saw more deer than last year. Passed on a couple small bucks. This area is slightly improving for me.

The hunting pressure seems to be slowly declining in both of these areas, at least where I hunt.

4F- C+

Shot my biggest buck ever this year and as always the early season made it look like a promising year but after the weekend I shot my buck it seemed to go down hill. I saw 4 shooters all year and a few smaller bucks. Not many does and couldn't get a good shot at a doe. Not a ton of deer around...a lot of corn on adjacent properties so I think that was a major factor. And as always gun season was a bust.

7M- B+

Only hunted here a few times on some public ground but I had opportunities to shoot a few does and i saw some chasing by a smaller buck. Only hunted i think 3 pm sits but i saw deer 2 out of the 3.

B+ in 7P good amount of bucks/deer, passed several shots before taking buck on video...Tom

8G very high deer numbers.A for both numbers and size.We shot small bucks but both of us saw mature bruisers. Saw deer almost every time my wife or I went out.

7H: D.

'Mainly because they have been slaughtering deer all summer on nusiance permits in my area.

I hunted 30+ days, most sits were 4 hours morning, and 2-3 hours evening. I rarely saw deer, but managed to connect with a nice buck.

I understand that other areas of 7H were good, though.

4H. Improvement over the last couple years but still could use higher numbers. I'd give it a B. Really depends on the property with the area. If you are near some farms its better. Hunting the state land is poor but better than staying home.

7P,7M and 4F A, Plenty of venison on the hoof, saw a two exceptional deer on area state land. Filled our tags happy happy happy!

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