# SLOW start to gun season for me



## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Monday only 6 deer at 12:15, 5 does and a basket rack 6

Tuesday no deer until 4:53 then had the largest 4 point I have ever seen at 60 yds. 5:01 I had the messed up rack buck in the same spot as the 4 point.

My buddy hunting with me has seen 6-8 bucks both days and many does, just not the buck he wants yet.

I am hunting in an area that I know will not produce high deer sighting numbers but it is where think I will see the one I will shoot.

On a very positive note I stayed dry both days in the box

This is the messed up right side buck that I saw last night


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## ying6 (Apr 21, 2004)

That buck is a shooter for me... even with the "messed up right side".


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## CHOPIQ (Apr 6, 2004)

Kim, at least you stayed dry. I was hunting around Nelsonville area. Monday I passed on 4 small bucks and only saw one doe far off. I was hoping to get a doe Monday and wait for a bigger buck on Tuesday. No shots on Monday. Woke up Tuesday morning and it was raining like a firehose. Waited until around 8 for it to slow down enough to get to my ladder stand. Wasn't to bad with my umbrella. Hunted around 8 hours and only saw one doe far off. Again no shots. Guess this year wasn't meant to be. I am done for this year due to work but might be able to get out the Sunday of next shotgun season. Good luck Kim. Keep posting pictures.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

ying6 said:


> That buck is a shooter for me... even with the "messed up right side".


He gets a pass from me this year. I'm looking for his daddy. If not I'll shoot his sister at the end of MZ season

No deer sighted today yet, another slow day so far


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## ironman172 (Apr 12, 2009)

Nice !! for me brown is down this week, as long as it doesn't have horns 



Lundy said:


> He gets a pass from me this year. I'm looking for his daddy. If not I'll shoot his sister at the end of MZ season
> 
> No deer sighted today yet, another slow day so far


I did this last year and got me skunked


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## MuskieManOhio (Jun 29, 2008)

Heck you guys think you got it bad ive seen one deer all week and it was a tail running away from me so I dont wanna hear it lol!


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## River Anglin (Feb 18, 2008)

MuskieManOhio said:


> Heck you guys think you got it bad ive seen one deer all week and it was a tail running away from me so I dont wanna hear it lol!


Same here. One doe bolting past on the wrong side of the property line. Now with the river flooding, my spot is mostly under water.


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## FISNFOOL (May 12, 2009)

Slow start for you, I messed up and 3 months ago scheduled medical tests on Monday and Tuesday.


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## turkeyt (Apr 13, 2006)

I saw no deer Mon. and no deer Tues. and i saw 4 Wed. The conditions have not been favorable and the wind was howling today. Deer 1 hunters 0. My bow season was bust too. I could have shot a couple scrubs but was looking for some of the bucks i know that were there. With the full moon and warm temps i saw no bucks after 11/4 except 2 that crossed the road in front of my truck. I have hunted this area for 8 years and always have bucks cruising the area. They must have went in lockdown for good from the 6th through the 16th. Anyone else have the same conditions in there area???


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Only one deer on Wednesday, a spike at 3:50

My buddy had six bucks around him at 5:00. None that he wanted....YET! He has seen a bunch of deer everyday, just goes to show that that one area can be hot and another area a short distance away, on the same farm, can be very slow


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Things did not improve much for me through the rest of the week.

6 does and a small buck on Thursday evening

5 does on Friday all day

5 does and two small bucks on Saturday

4 does and a small buck on Sunday morning.

Josh finally got to lay eyes on the buck he has been hunting for the last 3 years. He had him at 90 yds for over 20 minutes but elected to not shoot him because,( as we knew from trail cams) his right side is just a stub of antler this year. The other side is is still what caused us to name him the wide 8. 

Very few shots in our area. This really surprised me on saturday, I was expecting a lot more.

I saw less deer the entire week than I normally see the first day alone. Not really sure what to attribute that to yet.

I did see 5 coyotes together on Saturday morning but the never came close enough for a shot.


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## AverageJoe82 (Nov 7, 2011)

I hear you. The disappointment reaches far and wide. I was south of Woodsfield for 4 days. There was a monster 10 in my woods that was at least a 150 score and weighed at minimum 200 pounds. Saw him come out of thicket around 8:15. He just needed to come forward 5 yards and he was mine. All of the sudden I hear what I thought were 2 people talking but shrugged it off, focusing on the buck(would of been my first buck). Sure enough, the buck looked up at the road, looked down then up at the road again and hauled a** back where he came. Look up and there are 2 members of the orange army walking up the road. I actually took a 80 yd shot on him the day before but it was a prayer shot that didn't obviously make it. Saw them but it all ended in disappointment anyway! At least I know I have 2 more days in 2 weeks to get him!


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Lundy said:


> I saw less deer the entire week than I normally see the first day alone. Not really sure what to attribute that to yet.


I am in the same boat as you. I hunted all day Monday, evening on Thursday, half of Saturday, most of Sunday and saw a total of 4 deer all of which were on Monday. The last couple of years the numbers in my area have been lower but this was the worst. We hunted youth season as well and only saw one doe. We saw a few more on bowhunt trips but still not much. There was some shooting in the area but very few hunters within immediate area. I am just curious as to what the area was like that your buddy was hunting. Just would like to hear what may be drawing them to that area. Perhaps it could be a clue to what is going on in my area as well.

I have come to the conclusion that until I get solid evidence that the numbers are indeed still good on my property I will choose to go elsewhere to harvest does and fill the freezer. The last 2-3 years have seemed to be a real decline to the numbers in my area. I believe there are a couple of somewhat nearby farms with a ton of kill tags. I am wondering if they may have an effect on my place.


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## Lewis (Apr 5, 2004)

I will share some of my observations from here in Guernsey county.
I am fortunate enough to live way back in the middle of a large tract of woods that is family owned.
I have a group of 9 mature does that show up in my back yard sometimes several times a day wanting to be fed. I cannot hand feed them, but I can walk right among them and scatter corn.
Out of these 9 mature does there are only 3 fawns that have accompanied them all summer and fall.
The coyotes moved into this area a couple years ago and I attribute the lack of fawns to coyote predation.
We actually found 2 freshly killed fawn carcasses this summer that had been ravaged.
Many summer evenings we heard the sounds of the coyote pack howling.
I think this winter I will target some coyotes.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Lewis said:


> I will share some of my observations from here in Guernsey county.
> I am fortunate enough to live way back in the middle of a large tract of woods that is family owned.
> I have a group of 9 mature does that show up in my back yard sometimes several times a day wanting to be fed. I cannot hand feed them, but I can walk right among them and scatter corn.
> Out of these 9 mature does there are only 3 fawns that have accompanied them all summer and fall.
> ...


Your coyote theory is one that I have been giving a lot of thought to here as well. I have not really seen many young deer lately either but had not given it much thought until recently since I had been thinking more about deer in general. I know there are more yotes in our area in recent years. We have already been planning on targeting them this winter as well. Your account of seeing a large group of deer with very few fawns really suggests more of a situation where the fawns are being preyed upon as opposed to the general thought of hunter harvests.


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## Hetfieldinn (May 17, 2004)

I saw a bunch of small, yearling deer this year. Our group also shot two coyotes. They started a coyote pool on Sunday night. I didn't get into it because I don't shoot coyotes. On Tuesday, during the first drive, I saw movement out of my left eye. It was a coyote trotting from left to right of me. It ran about ten yards in front of me, and I yelled to the guy to my right that he had a coyote coming his way. It quartered away from us, and he rolled it with one shot, and got the $75 in the pool. It was a large male. On Friday, another guy in the group shot a beautiful, blonde colored female. 

We averaged between 10-14 hunters throughout the week. I personally saw a decent amount of deer, including two gorgeous bucks. I shot a nice seven point that had a nice four on one side, and a mofungoed 3 on the other. It had a very large body. We ended with eleven deer on the pole; two bucks, and nine does.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

I still saw most of the does with yearlings, many had two some just one. What I saw was less mature does.

The coyote population has exploded in this area. I really don't have a good opinion yet on how much predation on deer they really do. I do know that deer avoid and run from them without hesitation. Deer don't run from the cows or squirrels, turkeys, etc so they must think of them as a serious threat. Many years ago I used to think it was pretty cool to be able to see a coyote occasionally while down there hunting, it was fairly rare. Now they are there in very large numbers and often running in groups of 3 or more. I saw the 5 together on Saturday morning. There is no natural predation of coyotes and their populations seem to be getting too high. I plan on changing my let them walk attitude and will now be shooting them at every opportunity in the future.

Brian,

My buddy is hunting one of my blinds that is a very isolated corner of the property that receives no hunting pressure on adjoining properties. It also has around 50 acres of thick area that serves as a bedding area along with some good grass and clover field and they just always seem to pile in there in the late fall and winter. By Jan that area is always full of deer. The high buck numbers staying there right now is directly related to the high number of does. All of the young bucks are still excited about the rut. I did see one hot doe this past week, my buddy witnessed two, or maybe the same one twice. This area has always been conducive to high deer numbers for the last 25 years. That's why I built the blind there.


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## Snook (Aug 19, 2008)

We hunt in Coshocton (Warsaw). This was probably the worst year I have seen in some time. Out of a party of 9 we shot two does although we all could have shot deer. The herd seems to be down where were at as nobody has seen the numbers of years past. Did see three differnt bucks Sat. with one real dandy I could have shot but buck tag is already filled. Wanted to shoot a doe but when I saw em"(not many) just didn't feel the urgency to pull the trigger. Using a custom made muzzleloader and waiting for a 250+ yd shot.(this gun shoots sub 1in groups out to 400yds!) Did watch my buddy Jimmy shoot a doe about 125yds with his Encore MZL out of my stand. Sure the rain didn't help but I still think the numbers are down. Did miss a coyote on the run at about 175yds(hit just behind him) I hate those yote's and I too believe they are fawn killing machines.


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## Snook (Aug 19, 2008)

Lundy said:


> Things did not improve much for me through the rest of the week.
> 
> Very few shots in our area. This really surprised me on saturday, I was expecting a lot more.
> 
> ...


Lundy...you hunting Pa or Oh? County?


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Athens, Ohio


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## crittergitter (Jun 9, 2005)

Lundy said:


> Things did not improve much for me through the rest of the week.
> 
> 6 does and a small buck on Thursday evening
> 
> ...


On a wild hunch, you could speculate that there are indeed less deer. I know, it's crazy talk. It's just what I have been experiencing in my area for about 4 years now.


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