How Many Hunters

[Davo]

Just curious about other states.  In WI we seem to have developed a mentality that we need to shoot the hell out of the deer herd.  We have 900,000 hunters  352,000 gun and 99000 bow hunters. In 2008 99,000 deer were harvested with bow, 642,400 with gun with a ratio of 2-2.5 times as many does as bucks shot and an age class average of about 1.8 yrs.  So we have big bucks but most shot are young and lots of does are shot. This ranked 11th highest in harvest numbers since 1991 for gun but 4th since 1966 for bow. I believe this year will be a drop in numbers.  If my numbers are off someone let me know.   What is going on in your state.   Post edited I dinked the numbers up so correction below as well sorry guys.

[John3]

Appx 110,000 Archery tags sold in Missouri last season including non-resident tags.  44,434 deer were killed by archers.

238,819 deer killed by gun hunters including muzzleloaders.

Total of 283,253 whitetails killed 2008 seasons which I think was down a bit from the record harvest.  For some reason I can't find the record deer kill numbers online at the moment.

We still have too many deer. I just went through the National Bowhunter Education class as was told the MO deer population was appx. 1.8 million deer. Three years ago I myself asked our Missouri state deer biologist (Lonnie Hansen) and was told our population of deer was just over 1 million animals.

Antlerless archery tags are only $7.00 per tag and unlimited in quantity.  I am making an effort this year to specifically hunt and get does killed.  If I get so many bowkilled that I can't give any more meat to friends that have asked for it I will donate whole deer to the Share the Harvest program...

Good hunting to all. MO bowseason opens in the morning.

John III

[FOXXNTROUT]

Here is the VT data

  http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/library/reports_and_documents/Hunting_and_trapping/Harvest_reports/2008_White-tailed_Deer_Harvest_Report.pdf

Hunting conditions in 2008 were pretty good overall. Apples were abundant and
had deer spread around, and those apples helped their body condition. Hard mast
was also present in many places with oak and beech trees. Weather was seasonable
during archery season, and where hunting over apple trees was not predictable,
many bowhunters found success near cultivated food-plots. Opening weekend of
rifl e season was stormy, but the rut had begun and bucks were
moving. Rifl e hunters found good success early in the season.
The weather turned colder as the fi rst week of rifl e season
progressed, and the woods became crunchy, making it diffi cult
to still-hunt effectively – but that’s hunting. By Thanksgiving,
most of the state had tracking snow that persisted and was
frequently refreshed through the nine-day December hunt
ending on the 14th.
Overall, Vermont’s deer hunters again enjoyed greater success
during 2008 (Figure 1). Hunters continued to report increased
sightings of antlered bucks as well as rut sign. The total deer
harvest increased 17%, from 14,516 in 2007 to 17,046 in 2008.
The antlered buck harvest increased 7%, from 8,955 in 2007
to 9,539 in 2008. The adult doe harvest increased 35% from
4,484 in 2007 to 6,073 in 2008. This increased doe harvest was
a deliberate management action and is explained below. The
buck:doe harvest ratio decreased somewhat from 2:1 in past
years to 1.6:1 in 2008. The male:female fawn ratio remained
near 1:1, though again slightly favoring females, with 667
antlerless bucks (488 in 2007) and 712 fawn does (544 in 2007)
harvested in 2008 (Table 1).

[Orion]

David:  Your numbers are off a bit.  I'm working from memory now so I might be off a little, but I believe the total kill, gun and bow, was around 450,000 in 2008.  Gun hunters have never killed 500,000 deer in a season in Wisconsin.  Need to put those numbers in context as well.  Going into the season most years, Wisconsin has a deer population in excess of 1.5-1.7 million.

It's true that most of the deer shot are 1 1/2 year olds or younger, but there are lots of older, bigger deer shot.  The problem is access and baiting.  A lot of folks practice Quality Deer Management, shooting only mature bucks of a certain size and letting the smaller deer go, on locked up private land, of course.  I don't particularly like this practice.  IMO, it dumbs down the deer, basically domesticating them, as well as the hunters who no longer have to actually find and hunt a big deer.

Baiting on both private and public land concentrates the deer during seasons, tends to turn them nocturnal, definitely decreases and almost stops their normal movement and creates all sorts of hunter conflicts.  These are some of the reasons that hunters don't see a lot of deer even in areas where the deer populations are fairly high.

[George D. Stout]

Always good to know the real numbers.

[Davo]

Orion you are so right.  I missread and added up even worse.  Had the bow numbers right but the gun was 352,000 with 248,000 being antlerless.  What prompted my post was an earn a buck posting .  I love shooting does but earn bucks seem to bring about more nubby bucks being shot just so guys can get a validated buck tag.  WI ditched that this year. I think any deer is challenge, and a wise doe is no pushover and she is rarely alone.  Good luck this year.  

[frassettor]

Davo ...Pm sent

[Bigriver]

Davo, your hunter numbers are off by a bit too. We have 650,000 gun hunters & at least 250,000 archery hunters.