Tennessee Deer Talk: BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters

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#1712838 - 01/07/10 12:51 PM

BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters

4onaside
12 Point

Registered: 02/07/06
Posts: 5053
Loc: Jackson,Tn

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Anybody think that the overall population on your place in Western Middle Tennessee or East West Tennessee(all in the general vicinity of the river) was down in 2009? My son killed a 2&1/2 and a 3&1/2 buck this season on us, but we haven't seen the numbers, particulary does, that we have in recent years. In fact he(I haven't seen much of anything!) has seen just about as many bucks as does. We have found a skull or two, and I now wonder if the EHD outbreak of a couple of years ago,has affected us more than I originally thought.

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#1712852 - 01/07/10 01:02 PM

Re: BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters [Re: 4onaside]

WestTn Huntin'man
16 Point

Registered: 11/19/06
Posts: 10962
Loc: Benton Co.

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I think we are still bounceing back from Drought,EHD,and mast crop failure.I hunt 2 different sides of the county. It seems to me the south side of Benton may have been hit harder than the North ??Real hard to tell for sure soo many deer are being shot in the summer by farmers with and without the depredation permits.

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#1712918 - 01/07/10 01:32 PM

Re: BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters [Re: WestTn Huntin'man]

8 POINTS OR BETTER
10 Point

Registered: 08/15/07
Posts: 3869
Loc: Hardin, Co.

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I'd say your numbers are about 2/3's to 1/2 of what they where pre EHD. But I will say this EHD helped more than it hurt. Pre EHD we could not control the doe population.

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#1713054 - 01/07/10 02:08 PM

Re: BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters [Re: WestTn Huntin'man]

4onaside
12 Point

Registered: 02/07/06
Posts: 5053
Loc: Jackson,Tn

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Originally Posted By: WestTn Huntin'man

I'm two miles South of the Benton County line as the crow flies, so the extreme south of your county is obviously the same territory as our Decatur county area.

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#1713087 - 01/07/10 02:27 PM

Re: BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters [Re: 8 POINTS OR BETTER]

DWM
8 Point

Registered: 12/08/06
Posts: 1766
Loc: TN

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I would say it is a combination of many things. I don't know your area so can not speak specifically about it. I believe EHD did hurt pretty bad (some areas more than others) and the drought from years past along with the bad freeze in the spring a couple years back did hurt mast crop limiting their food. With the high death rate of deer in some areas, the harvest numbers still stayed fairly good because the search for food brought them out in the open.

Now with that being said, this year the numbers could very well have recovered more than you think. The abundant food source this year has meant that the deer can stay where they are more protected from hunters. Therefore the sighting may very well be down but it does not necessarily mean the herd is not recovering. Next year may shine more light on the subject so we will have to wait and see what happens. This is all just my opinion based on my observations.

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#1713266 - 01/07/10 05:21 PM

Re: BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters [Re: DWM]

Football Hunter
18 Point

Registered: 10/22/07
Posts: 24708
Loc: Wilson Co/Perry Co

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I was covered in deer in Perry county

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#1713400 - 01/07/10 06:15 PM

Re: BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters [Re: Football Hunter]

BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical

Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59670
Loc: Nashville, TN

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Some areas appear to be more affected than others. I seem to see the biggest reductions where deer spend a lot of time in bottomlands during the summer (perhaps more susceptible in low areas with a lot of standing stagnant water).

Although my personal property is primarily uplands, and we lost few deer to EHD (around 15% of our summer population), during the hunting season we rely heavily on drawing deer up out of nearby agricultural bottomlands. The deer in those areas seemed to be hit the hardest.

Here's the number of unique bucks we've photographed on my place from August through January each year. We topped out in 2006 at scary-high numbers. We then took a big tumble after the EHD outbreak and have stayed fairly constant since then. However, notice how our summer resident population continued to climb right through the EHD outbreak into '08. I'm still trying to figure out the funky results from '09 with our resident bucks. I tend to believe this was some strange anomaly due to the super wet and cool summer conditions, as many people reported having trouble getting bucks on cam in the summer of '09:

What had me most worried was the low fawn recruitment we observed in '07 and '08. I believe that was due to the severe late-summer droughts we experienced those years. Luckily, observed fawn recruitment appears to have bounced back this year. But those two years in a row of poor fawn recruitment will probably slow our recovery from EHD by a couple of years, if we ever completely recover (and I kind of hope we don't--deer densities were too high in some locations, mine included).

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#1713472 - 01/07/10 06:53 PM

Re: BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters [Re: BSK]

BigGameGuy
TWRA Biologist
12 Point

Registered: 05/14/04
Posts: 6359
Loc: Nashville

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Remember this...

It was in the Hunting Guide for the past two years advising hunters of the EHD losses of 2007. Not only was it pretty accurate but it goes to show the usefulness of our check-in system and data collection efforts.

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#1713507 - 01/07/10 07:09 PM

Re: BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters [Re: BigGameGuy]

gator-n-buck
16 Point

Registered: 10/22/08
Posts: 14956
Loc: Knox, TN / Palatka, FL

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Originally Posted By: BigGameGuy

Remember this...

Thanks BGG, thats some good stuff and thanks for the INFO..

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#1713840 - 01/07/10 10:14 PM

Re: BSK and other (west)Tennessee river hunters [Re: gator-n-buck]

4onaside
12 Point

Registered: 02/07/06
Posts: 5053
Loc: Jackson,Tn

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Thanks guys, and thanks BGG for the chart. I suppose that I have seen it before, but needed a reminder of the fact that my place is smack dab in the middle of the "red zone".

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