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Maine has deer

Went this week to work up in Northern Maine by New Brunswick Canada and started seeing signs everywhere saying high deer concentration area. I was like really in Northern 1 dpsm Maine? We pull off an exit and damned if their werent deer in yards and walking on an icy river. Tracks everywhere. And this was at 11:30 noon time! I asked a guy at a gas station up there and he said yeah we have alot of deer up here. Huh I will be damned who would have thought!

Farm country up there, Brad? Or just potatoes?

My buddy has a camp in Oxbow. They get deer every year. Pictures of 10-20 of them in his yard at a time!

Hmmm... Maybe the Mainers are propagating a myth to keep we southerners out of their territory come deer season :)

That said, I know a lot of guys do great island hoping to shoot deer up there during archery every year. It seems that along the coast - where there are lots of people - there are a good number or even a lot of deer... but head up towards Rangely and the numbers are much lower - supposedly. :)

Deer in Maine yard up unlike "most" places in MA because of the winter. Go up there in the fall and you will get a different impression of the deer herd haha. In the winter there are areas where you wont find a track for months, then other areas that literally hold hundreds of deer. They can really take over some towns. But come the spring, they disperse into the millions of acres of forest up there.

Bigwoods is right. Go to Wilson's Mills near the NH Maine border. Literally hundreds of deer. Deer signs are red and labeled "high strike area". Quite different come hunting season

Tekoa

I thought the same thing about the yards but the guys I talked to there said they see alot during hunting season. Joe, a ton of potato farms!

Spike, I will say, the deer population in Maine has really increased the past 3 years or so. Me and Wachusett hunt there at least 7-10 full days per year (along with a few other guys) and every single person in camp sees about twice as many deer now as we did 4-5 years ago. Talk to anyone that lives there and they will complain about the lack of doe tags given out and the 1 buck tag but i'll tell ya, its been working. I am really impressed with how the herd has been progressing the past few years in Maine. Granted my hunting skills are much better now but still, when I started going there it would be a good year to see a couple deer over the course of the week. Now I am regularly seeing 20+ deer per week and that includes seeing 2 mature bucks (3.5+) per year for the past 3 years. Don't bother asking me why they aren't all dead hahah

Bigwoods has a great point there. My gut is still that near the coast is entirely different than inland 50-100 miles - sort of like inside 495 vs west of 190/395... Different beasts entirely here.

But, I know a spot in Z6 that always has deer yards in tough winters and several years ago there were 70+ deer hanging there (in part because a home owner fed them all winter). I literally had to be every deer in that area of Z5 and 6 for miles! Amazing.

Bigwoods are you hunting northern or southern?

Bigwoods is spot on. They yard up and there also people that feed them so seeing groups of 20 is not uncommon

Spike, I would say its western central. Its basically between the Lewiston/Auburn area and the Farmington area. About 45 mins northwest of Augusta.

Tekoa, I have seen some deer yards in your area of Mass with some incredible deer yards. I bet you know exactly where they are too. These 2 in particular just blew my mind when I found them. More so on heavy snow years. But that area is a lot more like Maine than it is the eastern half of Mass.

They certainly have defined winter range. One thing for sure is it isn't behind my house. But like clockwork they move back in late March. Tekoa

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