http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100321/FEATURES08/3210302
Published March 21, 2010 in the Rutland Herald
A big bummer of a buck season
The more things change, at least when it comes to deer and deer hunting, the more they remain the same.
Every March, hunters gather at a series of deer meetings sponsored by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.
The annual meetings are held to get public input on the state's deer herd and for wildlife biologists to review biological data gleaned from deer checking stations during the fall deer season.
The annual buck kill during the all-telling Vermont firearms buck season has seen some wild swings over the past decade. In 2000, deer hunters tagged an eye-popping 10,235 antlered deer. Four years later, that figure dropped by almost 50 percent, with a dismal 5,589 bucks taken.
Then came 2005, when the bottom fell out. That year, hunters tagged just 3,944 bucks — the lowest buck kill in 60 years.
Several factors were clearly at work here. Deer populations — perhaps as many as 50 percent of the deer herd perished, according to one Fish & Wildlife biologist — plummeted after a series of deep-snow, deep-cold winters.
On top of that, the Fish & Wildlife Department imposed an "antler restriction" on how legal bucks may be taken, sparing all spiked bucks, with the exception of the two-day youth hunt. That move took a sizeable proportion of bucks — as much as 25 percent of the legal kill — out of the mix.
After several years of shouting and complaining in the years of the mid-2000s, the conversation at deer meetings quieted down a bit, with deer hunter satisfaction on the rise.
That could very well change when the first deer meetings are held on March 23 at Riverside Junior High School in Springfield and at Lake Region Union High School in Orleans.
From 2006 to 2008, deer hunters saw a steady increase in the buck kill during the heavily hunted firearms season.
That changed in 2009, when the buck kill dropped to a dismal 6,016. After shooting 7,295 bucks in 2008, the buck kill dropped by 17-1/2 percent last year.
As a result, a good deal of complaining could be heard, at December basketball games, in coffee shops and at deer club meetings. Hunters complained about seeing fewer deer and even fewer bucks during the 16-day season last November.
Where did the deer go? The answer is, they were there the whole time, and still are.
Anyone who has hunted deer for a good period of time knows how big a role weather plays when it comes to deer behavior.
As much as anyone might like to blame the Fish & Wildlife Department, or its decision to increase the antlerless deer permits around the state, or whatever else you can summon up in your imagination, you might just as well blame the alignment of the planets of our solar system for the lack of deer activity down my way.
The fact is, weather was the big bummer of the buck season.
How warm was it?
The day before the buck season opened, Nov. 15, I scouted along a stretch of woods not far from my home. This was not a primary spot because I would never scout a primary location the day before the season opener. I was just looking for some "new territory" for, say, the second week of the buck season.
When I got to my truck, I removed 11 ticks from my body. That was after less than an hour in the woods. Ticks have become a real problem for this hunter, both during the spring and fall turkey seasons and during the November deer season. (This will be an issue in next week's column.)
The real back-breaker of the rifle season was the opening weekend and this is not news for those thousands of deer hunters who got out on that first Saturday and Sunday.
Down my way, it poured all day during the season opener. The next day was warm, up near the 50s, and the woods were soaked.
I have hunted in three states — New York, Vermont and Maine — over the past decade and the terrain, as well as my deer-hunting tactics, are all very different.
But one factor never changes: When the weather warms up, say 40 degrees or more, the deer movement drops off. When it hits 50, you might as well stay back at camp.
It all comes down to the comfort issue. As Shawn Haskell put it, in an interview last week: With their heavy winter coats, deer are "dressed for 20 degrees. Throw your warmest parker on and run around inside and you're going to be uncomfortable."
I'm told the weather got a bit better for deer hunting in Vermont during the first week, but I wouldn't have any way of knowing that, since I split for Maine early Monday morning.
The second week, however, was far from ideal. I saw few deer — and it wasn't because the deer were not around. I had watched a bunch of deer during the previous winter and they seemed fine when spring came 'round.
So, while there might be some heavy-duty griping, come deer meeting time, it might be a good idea to keep the weather factor in mind.
Nothing that the Fish & Wildlife people can do and nothing that any deer hunter can do will change this one simple fact: When the weather gets warm, the deer hunting really cools down.
A big bummer of a buck season
The more things change, at least when it comes to deer and deer hunting, the more they remain the same.
Every March, hunters gather at a series of deer meetings sponsored by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.
The annual meetings are held to get public input on the state's deer herd and for wildlife biologists to review biological data gleaned from deer checking stations during the fall deer season.
The annual buck kill during the all-telling Vermont firearms buck season has seen some wild swings over the past decade. In 2000, deer hunters tagged an eye-popping 10,235 antlered deer. Four years later, that figure dropped by almost 50 percent, with a dismal 5,589 bucks taken.
Then came 2005, when the bottom fell out. That year, hunters tagged just 3,944 bucks — the lowest buck kill in 60 years.
Several factors were clearly at work here. Deer populations — perhaps as many as 50 percent of the deer herd perished, according to one Fish & Wildlife biologist — plummeted after a series of deep-snow, deep-cold winters.
On top of that, the Fish & Wildlife Department imposed an "antler restriction" on how legal bucks may be taken, sparing all spiked bucks, with the exception of the two-day youth hunt. That move took a sizeable proportion of bucks — as much as 25 percent of the legal kill — out of the mix.
After several years of shouting and complaining in the years of the mid-2000s, the conversation at deer meetings quieted down a bit, with deer hunter satisfaction on the rise.
That could very well change when the first deer meetings are held on March 23 at Riverside Junior High School in Springfield and at Lake Region Union High School in Orleans.
From 2006 to 2008, deer hunters saw a steady increase in the buck kill during the heavily hunted firearms season.
That changed in 2009, when the buck kill dropped to a dismal 6,016. After shooting 7,295 bucks in 2008, the buck kill dropped by 17-1/2 percent last year.
As a result, a good deal of complaining could be heard, at December basketball games, in coffee shops and at deer club meetings. Hunters complained about seeing fewer deer and even fewer bucks during the 16-day season last November.
Where did the deer go? The answer is, they were there the whole time, and still are.
Anyone who has hunted deer for a good period of time knows how big a role weather plays when it comes to deer behavior.
As much as anyone might like to blame the Fish & Wildlife Department, or its decision to increase the antlerless deer permits around the state, or whatever else you can summon up in your imagination, you might just as well blame the alignment of the planets of our solar system for the lack of deer activity down my way.
The fact is, weather was the big bummer of the buck season.
How warm was it?
The day before the buck season opened, Nov. 15, I scouted along a stretch of woods not far from my home. This was not a primary spot because I would never scout a primary location the day before the season opener. I was just looking for some "new territory" for, say, the second week of the buck season.
When I got to my truck, I removed 11 ticks from my body. That was after less than an hour in the woods. Ticks have become a real problem for this hunter, both during the spring and fall turkey seasons and during the November deer season. (This will be an issue in next week's column.)
The real back-breaker of the rifle season was the opening weekend and this is not news for those thousands of deer hunters who got out on that first Saturday and Sunday.
Down my way, it poured all day during the season opener. The next day was warm, up near the 50s, and the woods were soaked.
I have hunted in three states — New York, Vermont and Maine — over the past decade and the terrain, as well as my deer-hunting tactics, are all very different.
But one factor never changes: When the weather warms up, say 40 degrees or more, the deer movement drops off. When it hits 50, you might as well stay back at camp.
It all comes down to the comfort issue. As Shawn Haskell put it, in an interview last week: With their heavy winter coats, deer are "dressed for 20 degrees. Throw your warmest parker on and run around inside and you're going to be uncomfortable."
I'm told the weather got a bit better for deer hunting in Vermont during the first week, but I wouldn't have any way of knowing that, since I split for Maine early Monday morning.
The second week, however, was far from ideal. I saw few deer — and it wasn't because the deer were not around. I had watched a bunch of deer during the previous winter and they seemed fine when spring came 'round.
So, while there might be some heavy-duty griping, come deer meeting time, it might be a good idea to keep the weather factor in mind.
Nothing that the Fish & Wildlife people can do and nothing that any deer hunter can do will change this one simple fact: When the weather gets warm, the deer hunting really cools down.
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