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According to my journal I hunted 57 days, did 82 sits, spent 222 hours on stand, saw 43 deer from stand and killed two. My average sit time was 2.7 hours, I saw .52 deer per sit, and spent 5.2 hours on stand for every deer seen. And most importantly I thoroughly enjoyed every minute spent hunting this season and cant wait for next season. Scouting for next fall starts yesterday.

1 buck in September

1 doe in October

1 buck in November

I didn't take a pic of my doe because it was a messy kill, the weather was warm and I felt discretion was better in this instance.

I had a another great season. Saw 14 deer and didn't take a shot. A terrible year in CT is subjective and based upon one's previous years experience. Does it mean we don't have any deer? Not at all. All it means is today is not as good as yesterday.

You're still that little kid on the school playground that no wants on their team, so find another site to preach about deer densities, ticks and WB.

Your tongue spews language of exterminators.....you can't squeeze blood out of a rock. Two different animals. Apple and oranges.

You ruined another great post.....again. :(

Bloodtrail, you guys are killing the deer and bragging about it here. I'm just pointing out the obvious and summarizing the data you all provided.

Bob just reported he saw 14 deer while on stand over 32 hours and has been complaining relentlessly how DEEP is ignoring the declining deer population where he hunts. Seriously? Seeing a deer every 2 hours and complaining about it? No wonder DEEP didn't listen to him.

Awesome buck Rob, congrats!!

I could allude to the 80/20 rule; 80% of the deer get harvested by 20% of the hunters; as in almost any field you have a wide range of participants, from novice to average to exceptional. I happen to know several posters here who I would apply the exceptional label to with regard to their hunting acumen.

From this thread the only take-away should be this group weighed in our their experiences while continuing to take note of what the trends are; conservationists, as Bloodtrail pointed out will not express concern only for what impacts them directly but the hunting community as a whole. The false corollary is that the two realities must be mutually exclusive; i.e. BigBuckBob cannot consider his season as "great" and observe a decline in the deer herd. For starters, all hunters do not classify their seasons based on the same metrics.

I've noticed some seem to feel their season is a loss if they don't take ANY deer, regardless of age, sex, whatever. Others over the years seem to feel an unused tag equals an off year. Then there are those (many who have chimed in here) who equate opportunity, particularly opportunity at mature bucks with a good season. It comes down to what the personal motivations are for the hunter involved.

Onto the issue of what constitutes extrapolation or spinning; if a statement is made to the effect that "does that sound like results from a state where deer densities are dangerously low" it certainly infers that because of the success of a small percentage of hunters the low deer numbers argument must therefore be invalid.

Aside from being an excellent example of faulty logic it fails to recognize the reality that the cream of the crop will find ways to succeed and as you progress down the ladder of relative expertise the results will diminish relative to the respective level of the other groups.

Attempting to diminish legitimate concerns of sportsmen by trying to re-frame the issue isn't honest debate and only fuels the degenerative trend in these types of discussions. It's perfectly fine to disagree, it's the disingenuous nature of the expression of that disagreement that fuels the fire.

I've often debated about posting on these types of threads (and hadn't prior to this post) because I observed some instances of a "keeping up with the Jones's mindset" creeping into some posts; some hunters posts seemed to convey a sense of falling short by comparison.

As I've often stated we all have differing reasons for hunting and we all have different yardsticks for how we measure the quality of our experiences. My personal feeling has come to be that I don't ever want my season to be about anything other than my experiences afield. As long as I enjoy every aspect from scouting to hanging stands to hunting and the processing of my own meat I'll be out there in the woods.

I hope everyone finds their definition of success in 2017.

Bob reported he hunted 32 hours and saw 14 deer. I say the he saw a deer nearly every 2 hours. Tell me how that's spin? That's just fact.

I get it. "Spin" is just the presentation of facts you don't want to hear or facts that don't fit you conclusion. Like Putin had Russian intelligence hack the DNC. That's spin, right?

And by the way, that's not me saying the deer herd in the NW corner has a problem, that's the DEEP saying it. You know,..... the fawn mortality study they're conducting because the problem is that severe!! Boy the herd must be in big trouble for the DEEP to admit it and spend money to do the study! Or is that just me whining about the decrease in the herd?

And I know you remember how your good friend Jody at Great Mountain Forest laughed when you said there's a deer problem on the their property, right! When I checked your comments with Jody, he told me there are no deer on the property, don't waste your time asking for a permit. But don't mention those facts, just point out how an experienced, knowledgeable hunter like Griz, who spends lots of time in the woods, was able to harvest his deer.

I said it before on this site, I know how to find deer and I no longer find it a challenge to shoot whatever walks by. I chose to shoot only mature bucks, much harder to find on state land, especially in the NW corner, but I have spots that do hold some. I spend more time scouting than I do hunting. Why? Because I love being in the woods. So a great season for me includes seeing 2 mature bald eagles trying to take fish from the river. And the bobcat that walked right below my treestand and kept stopping to look my way. Or watching the fawns play, then freeze when their mom winded me. I love hearing the owls call to one another just before sunrise. That's a great season to me!

Are there less deer in the NW corner of CT where I do most of my hunting today compared to 20 years ago? The answer is YES! Does that mean I had a bad season? NO! Was the deer harvest down last year? YES! Do I THINK it will be lower again this year? YES! There are my comments simplified so you can understand them.

I can't make it any clearer than that Doc.

I see it's certain areas. So maybe not Ware?

Hunt Dates

Pelham & Prescott: December 1 & 2

Petersham & New Salem: December 8 & 9

At the same time the deer harvest decreased dramatically, dropping from somewhere north of 13,000 in 2012 to around 9,000 last year. There was a good increase in the archery harvest in 2013 but has since dropped back to 2010 levels when we had 10% fewer hunters with the bow.

Not a good picture if you're interested in seeing the herd stabilize, never mind increase. And if you're a state land hunter like myself, think about the fact that 77% of the total harvest was private land all implements! And who manages the deer herd on private land? The landowner, not the state. No permission granted? No deer taken!

Let's see what the 2016 harvest looks like, I'm betting lower than 2015.

Archery permits went up because of the long season and Xbows would be my guess. And since bows seem to be a more acceptable private land option for most landowners, I'll bet that where the new guys ended up, therefore the 10% increase in the take in the past few years.

I think the best we can do is interrupt the data, but there's no way to say definitively if the herd is up or down overall. I still love going out and see more than enough deer to keep me happy, that's what I want from hunting.

You can look at it as "this is ridiculous because you're polling a small number of die-hards", or you can look at it as "this is instructive because you're polling a small number of die-hards".

What it says to me is that the guys who are seriously committed to gaining access to private land and/or who go big on public land are not having any great deal of trouble filling a few tags per year.

I wouldn't use Shawn's data just yet, though, because I think he said (and he is invited to confirm) that he's had something like 120-odd sits this year (as of pre-Christmas) and if that's the case, and he's hunted a lot of private land... Well, you would tend to expect a lot of sightings, wouldn't you?

I haven't been out since Jan '16, when I took a small doe in Ridgefield; saw her and a young buck in approx 6 hours of hunting time (3 trips) while in a productive funnel area on a very large property which (last winter, at least) I'm pretty sure had been baited all season (I'm the only one who had permission to hunt the place, but apparently somebody else had gotten the OK for a few cams and a bait pile. Can't 100% confirm the baiting, but when you see a pickup parked with its tailgate down and a lot of bags of deer chow in the back and deer cart tracks headed into the woods...

But I stayed away from the pile and just hunted the place as I always have. I've hunted there in January and tail-end of December a few other years with no sightings at all, so arguably this was an improvement. Though nothing at all like it was 15 years ago when I was constantly tripping over deer on my way in every time I went.

Just for perspective...

When I hunted northern MN, you either got it done on opening day of rifle or pretty much forget about it. Nobody in our camp was ever picky about what we took, because we took the first legal animal we saw and were happy for the shot. And you were allowed 1/hunter/year, regardless of weapons used or tags purchased.

Personally, I don't expect to have deer within bow range every time I go out, but I do like to be able to get into animals about every day; if I can see them, I'm learning and getting closer. My experience in NW corner was pretty dismal, though; saw two does in 8-10 full days' effort; one was way out there and the other came through at the end of legal hours on a very dark day... Definitely not the part of the state to put your money on after the shotgun opener.