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I hunt state land in the NW corner and for me it appears up. I've seen deer each time out and always more than one. It's been a helluva year for me.

You can look at road kill reports. Road kills are 1/3 what they were...and declining each year...that should tell you that the herd is declining. Those numbers don't lie.

I am really shocked when I hear about guys on here shooting 3,4,5 does or more....and then say the herd is declining. It's up to us to manage and protect our future.

I've posted on a number of occasions over the past few years about the dangers of the management argument for hunting (Sunday or any other day) in that we were painting ourselves into a corner.

Some of the access we've gotten has been via the management route but with that access comes the expectation of significant herd reduction. We all know the best route to that goal is to take as many does as possible. For awhile, especially in Zones 11 and 12 the impact was mitigated by sheer numbers and for a time, the absence of significant 4-legged predation.

Not so any longer; if we don't self-police expect "down years" to become the norm for the majority.

Shoot fewer does, shoot every damn coyote you can and we can still reverse the trend.

That was the first year it happened since regulated hunting. We'll have to see if it happens again this year.

Sorry to offend, but that's my 2 cents

I understand your concern and it is a valid point. That being said, the one variable we can always control is ourselves; I look it at this way-every doe I let walk can potentially produce a couple of new deer. There's always the risk someone, as you say, who shoots anything that moves might take them but I know if I do there's 0% chance of them being bred and growing the herd.

Brad,

No offense should be taken when a point is made respectfully. It's a valid concern; we have to see beyond today and look at how to best maintain the resource. This has to be a "team effort" and the more people who hop on board now the better the prospects in the coming years.

Ultimately, no matter what hunting laws are passed, we need to control ourselves.

Start the campaign, push it on this site. If hunters aren't on this site they'll hear about it from guys that are. If those guys at the DEEP don't wanna change the harvest then we can do it ourselves.

I'm skeptical that it'll work, I don't think guys will do it. But if its gonna be "a thing", then I'm onboard. Count me in.

I haven't seen a coyote all season. I can't remember the last time that has happened. I normally see a bunch and kill at least one.

Also hardly any squirrels around this year. I am usually covered up in them. I am annoyed by that, I planned on hunting them more seriously this year in between deer and pheasants.

Same as Global warming. The temperatures will increase over 100% in the next 7-8 months.

I like your basic approach to the question and no one could argue with your logic:)

I also have not seen one coyote or bobcat this year, but have seen more deer than in previous years. But I did kill one deer, so now there are less, like Crow stated.

the herd is on good shape

My biggest trouble is that I have a hard time getting out before shotgun A shuts everything down, so if I don't get onto some private land, I'm pretty well screwed...

let us know the area you hunt so we can see if there's a pattern. Some are seeing more and some are seeing less.

I agree with all posts, yote and cats down, deer stable to up.

The following has been posted on the CT DEEP Website:

“2014 Deer Harvest Reports: This year, the Wildlife Division is unable to provide a running tally of the Archery and Shotgun/Rifle Deer Harvests like we have in the past. Final harvest results for last year can be found in the 2013 Connecticut Deer Program Summary. Look for the 2014 Connecticut Deer Program Summary in late summer 2015.”

If you call the DEEP this year to inquire about the missing harvest count tally you may be surprised by the answer you get- Late Summer 2015?

It seems self serving for the DEEP to withhold this data. The counting methods utilized by the CT DEEP are under scrutiny. This includes the relativity between trends in harvest counts and population estimates, as they just don’t add up.

For years hunters and municipalities have trusted the population estimates published by the CT DEEP. This blind trust has provided a steady stream of license sales revenues as hunters jockey for spots in Zones 11-12 from surrounding states as well as all over the country. Baiting, unlimited replacement doe tags, Earn-a-Buck programs and an archery season that runs from September through January further sweeten the deal. Articles have even been published in magazines and papers touting claims of explosive population growth. These factors have contributed to the frenzied and on going destruction of the white tailed deer. Hunters are seeing fewer deer and find the DEEP figures increasingly harder to believe.

Sportsmen in Redding CT realized that something had gone terribly wrong. Harvest counts, in Redding, plummeted by approximately 70% over the last four years. Hunters experienced accelerated signs last year with a 37% decline in Redding’s harvest counts from the previous season. This year the numbers are looking to be even lower based on hunter accounts. This severe decline could spell disaster for DEEP’s bottom line as hunter frustration grows. Even organized hunts on open space and watershed properties are coming up empty.

This season Redding is well on it’s way to becoming the bone yard that sportsmen have feared. For years hunters have focused on the harvest of does from targeted areas. This practice became the norm and for some individuals an obsession. Continued over hunting combined with a growing myriad of predatory and environmental threats, the herd ultimately will collapse. Of course the misinformed residents and municipal leaders are thrilled with the devastation of the herd. The hype continues to be fueled by Redding resident and President of Fairfield County Deer Management Alliance, along with ranks of misinformed fear merchants throughout Fairfield County. These individuals would like to see deer extinguished as a means to eliminate Lyme-Disease. What they have not yet come to realize is that deer are not the culprit when it comes to Lyme-Disease. This raises questions about the validity of scientists’ claims about a direct correlation between deer populations and Lyme-Disease incidence rates. The Fairfield County Deer Management Alliance, CT DEEP and the CT Agricultural Experiment Station need to explain Redding’s explosive increase in Lyme-Disease of nearly 65% over four years, and why this spike is despite extremely low deer populations. The question remains as to why these agencies are so adamant in their claims.

One scenario may be that the CT Agricultural Experiment Station has been conducting a study in Redding to prove a theoretical hypothesis. Some scientists believe in a direct correlation between deer populations and Lyme-Disease incidence rates. It has become evident that these scientists will stop at nothing to justify the $900,000.00 CDC Grant funds they are using to prove their claim. Improprieties’ include test area boundaries that have grown by nearly 40% in size over two years. This could also explain the matching mathematical manipulation of the data they utilize to bolster their claims about growing deer population density. The increases in the test areas have also afforded White Buffalo’s sharp shooters the ability to operate over a larger area as it became more difficult to find deer within the original One Square Mile Test areas. In their desperation to achieve kill quotas the shooters have even resorted to illegal operations. Despite eyewitness accounts and Conservation Officer’s reports there have been no arrests. This leaves the sportsmen with questions as to why White Buffalo shooters are being protected by the CT DEEP Wildlife Division. Additionally, this year the study has added field tests of a vaccine aimed at mice that may curb Lyme-Disease in this reservoir/host. If the vaccine works, it is a good bet that CT Agricultural Experiment Station and DEEP will falsely attribute a reduction in Lyme-Disease to lower deer populations as they are forced to acknowledge lower harvest counts and populations.

Data from aerial surveys conducted by the DEEP and the CT Agricultural Experiment Station, appear to have been manipulated for years. This includes data from a joint survey that included the hunter representative from Redding with the DEEP. The surveyed zones were heavily baited and boundaries were shifted and grew well beyond the original test areas by nearly 40%. The first of two DEEP/CT AG survey flights (northwest corner of Redding) showed raw data that corroborated the numbers hunters reported in ground counts of 10 deer over the same area. It is important to note this is a large wooded area, not a higher density residential zone. like many of the areas surveyed by hunters that showed on average 3-4 deer per square mile in a flight earlier the same day. This poses questions about the validity of DEEP and CT Agricultural Experiment Station flights. With the broad range of technology available today why wouldn’t these agency include video documentation of aerial survey? This would certainly provide more believable recording and reporting.

The “wait and see” approach employed by CT DEEP in Redding spotlights their negligence in properly managing wildlife resources. Dismissive arrogance displayed by biologist further widens the riff between sportsmen and the DEEP statewide. This behavior needs to stop!