Early Velvet season this year?

[JCDEERMAN]

I want to hunt that's why im upset. I live to bow hunt. Im not in a CWD zone but i have hordes of thermal hunters out here terrorizing our community and i have to fight them at night. I don't have any spare time to hunt. Which is what i want to do. TWRA has a wait until they shoot strategy when it comes to thermal road hunting. It's so ineffective that has to be intentional. They all use the thermals to look for the game warden's vehicles and then they tell all their poacher buddies and post it on facebook. That's why the crowds are so large. They then harass the game wardens and myself because they want to road hunt the property in the area. I want to hunt. I just can't when there is a crime wave every night during deer season.

Any update to how your screening is coming along?

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I agree that the response to CWD is most likely worse than the disease itself.
I've hunted Wyoming multiple times and Colorado, in CWD areas, and not once did I hear a local mention CWD?

Same here. Bow hunted in NW CO for over 10 years. Saw more / shot at / had close encounters with more elk and mule deer than anyone I've ever met. Also never heard any locals ever mention it. Actually, I didn't even look at a CWD map of CO until we started talking about it here in TN. And when I looked, the area in CO we were hunting was the darkest of red there was. We would have never guessed that.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I went the first year we had the velvet hunt here. Killed one within 20 minutes on stand. Haven't put much effort in since. Usually I'm on the tractor that weekend.

 

[Clay Criner]

Related to this, people, especially non-hunters, in West TN CWD counties, had a sudden refusal to eat venison. When masses of people suddenly refuse to eat it, masses of hunters stop shooting as many female deer, many of which were given to non-hunting friends and venison food banks.

Do we still have a "Hunters for the Hungry" program in the CWD counties?

The processor in Medon still accepts deer for Hunters for the Hungry. Not sure about other locations.

 

[DoubleRidge]

the bottom line is, everything that you have learned about deer management is now gone, gone, gone! It's hard to accept, but we must move on. You can't save the mature bucks because those are the bucks carrying CWD and the state wants them gone. You worry about decimating the deer population but that's the new goal.

If EVERY land owner/manager takes the States recommended approach and just hammers the herd....and kills a bunch of deer....to prevent CWD from killing a bunch of deer.....then I agree that deer management practices, as we know them, will be much less effective.....hard to manage something thats been slaughtered and reduced to low populations.

But hopfully TN land owners/managers can learn from other managers in others states and see that the "killing as many as possible" approach doesnt stop CWD.....so we live with it...manage for a healthy herd....and if a 3½ or 4½ year old becomes the new goal...vs a 5½ or 6½ then so be it.....we cant stop CWD....but we can choose not to slaughter the herd.

 

[Planking]

Any update to how your screening is coming along?

Its six feet in alot of places already. There is a swampy area where they park in the street and shoot straight at my 84 year old widow neighbor and another spot on a red clay knob that will be a problem area for sure but its going to be great for sections of it. I will post some pics when i fertilize this week.

 

[Boll Weevil]

The "kill'em all" management philosophy has most certainly not caught on in my area or hunting/property management circles. People quit shooting when they/family/friends have enough meat. In fact harvest numbers in Hardeman county at least, have gone down.

I've said it before and will say it again, CWD just ain't the end of the world. Its simply not a valid reason to throw management out the window.

 

[fairchaser]

If EVERY land owner/manager takes the States recommended approach and just hammers the herd....and kills a bunch of deer....to prevent CWD from killing a bunch of deer.....then I agree that deer management practices, as we know them, will be much less effective.....hard to manage something thats been slaughtered and reduced to low populations.

But hopfully TN land owners/managers can learn from other managers in others states and see that the "killing as many as possible" approach doesnt stop CWD.....so we live with it...manage for a healthy herd....and if a 3½ or 4½ year old becomes the new goal...vs a 5½ or 6½ then so be it.....we cant stop CWD....but we can choose not to slaughter the herd.

I agree that we all have the choice to kill or not especially on our own land or lease. Ames made the decision to go along with the state strategy and abandon its QDM program. With that said, we are killing fewer deer than before in spite of the more liberal policy. Amazingly, the result seems to be more 3.5 year old bucks in the population to hunt. Go figure!

 

[Andy S.]

I am far more worried about gun hunters during the velvet hunt than bow hunters, for the very reasons you stated.

I was too until I looked at the data. The highest kill counties (20+ bucks over 3 days) are outside of Unit CWD, thus no firearm. In fact, last year, all but two counties that killed 20+ velvet bucks was outside Unit CWD. Crossbows have changed the game in a lot of those counties. 2023 velvet hunt top kill counties below. 25% of all August velvet bucks killed last year were killed in the 9 counties shown below, with 7 of the 9 being outside Unit CWD.

2023 Velvet Hunt	854 (total bucks killed Statewide)
McNairy (Unit CWD)	30
Sumner	28
Hamilton	27
Sullivan	24
Wilson	24
Lincoln	22
Madison (Unit CWD)	22
Hawkins	21
Rutherford	20

 

[Andy S.]

Do we still have a "Hunters for the Hungry" program in the CWD counties?

Yes

 

[Andy S.]

The "kill'em all" management philosophy has most certainly not caught on in my area or hunting/property management circles. People quit shooting when they/family/friends have enough meat. In fact harvest numbers in Hardeman county at least, have gone down.

I've said it before and will say it again, CWD just ain't the end of the world. Its simply not a valid reason to throw management out the window.

This is it in a nutshell. What TWRA or any other game agency "promotes", and what the hunters "actually do", are two totally different things. From my limited perspective, I still feel as if I have the same opportunity to kill a solid mature buck every few years, just as I did before CWD was detected and more liberal regulations put in place. With that said, I have repositioned the majority of my deer hunting towards the fringes of Unit CWD, and not the epicenter in SE Fayette/SW Hardeman, where I mainly focused on in 2018 when it was detected. I have done this in an attempt to kill deer that are not positive "e.g. CWD not detected", so I will feel better about feeding them to family and donating to friends and family who do not hunt.

 

[Buzzard Breath]

I was too until I looked at the data. The highest kill counties (20+ bucks over 3 days) are outside of Unit CWD, thus no firearm. In fact, last year, all but two counties that killed 20+ velvet bucks was outside Unit CWD. Crossbows have changed the game in a lot of those counties. 2023 velvet hunt top kill counties below. 25% of all August velvet bucks killed last year were killed in the 9 counties shown below, with 7 of them being outside Unit CWD.

2023 Velvet Hunt	854 (total bucks killed Statewide)
McNairy (Unit CWD)	30
Sumner	28
Hamilton	27
Sullivan	24
Wilson	24
Lincoln	22
Madison	22
Hawkins	21
Rutherford	20

Thanks for putting that info together. I'm really surprised that there aren't more CWD units in there because several WMA's are included in the August hunt and anyone willing to travel could hunt it.

 

[Andy S.]

I'm really surprised that there aren't more CWD units in there because several WMA's are included in the August hunt and anyone willing to travel could hunt it.

Correct. Another testament that "opportunity" does not guarantee "participation" in Unit CWD. Just as others have stated in this thread. IMO, heat and humidity are real distractors for deer hunting. SW TN in August is usually miserable, especially in the afternoon and early evening.

 

[Ski]

I enjoy the velvet hunt, although I've only been successful once. While it does potentially give me opportunity to kill a buck that wouldn't be around to hunt in the fall due to seasonal shifting, I do not find killing a mature buck any easier. I find nothing easy about the velvet hunt. It's just different. Of all the people talking about how easy it is, I have to wonder how many of them have done it and have pictures of big velvet racks to show off???

 

[Buzzard Breath]

I enjoy the velvet hunt, although I've only been successful once. While it does potentially give me opportunity to kill a buck that wouldn't be around to hunt in the fall due to seasonal shifting, I do not find killing a mature buck any easier. I find nothing easy about the velvet hunt. It's just different. Of all the people talking about how easy it is, I have to wonder how many of them have done it and have pictures of big velvet racks to show off???

I know exactly what you mean. From a distance, it looks like bucks are in the same part of a field every night. But when you're out there, they can come out anywhere along the field edge. And it's always just out of range. Or, the wind is all wrong so you just sit back and glass them all evening while plotting the move for the next night. Only to have them come out somewhere else.

I've not killed one during the hunt, yet. I could have the very first night of the first year they had it if I was hunting with my compound. But I've been enjoying hunting it with my recurve and I didn't even take my bow off the hanger.

There is corn on the farm this year, so hopefully we have a windy day and I get to do some stalking. The younger me never had the patience for it. The older me looks forward to it

 

[Ski]

I know exactly what you mean. From a distance, it looks like bucks are in the same part of a field every night. But when you're out there, they can come out anywhere along the field edge. And it's always just out of range. Or, the wind is all wrong so you just sit back and glass them all evening while plotting the move for the next night. Only to have them come out somewhere else.

I've not killed one during the hunt, yet. I could have the very first night of the first year they had it if I was hunting with my compound. But I've been enjoying hunting it with my recurve and I didn't even take my bow off the hanger.

There is corn on the farm this year, so hopefully we have a windy day and I get to do some stalking. The younger me never had the patience for it. The older me looks forward to it

Yessir it has proven to be much more of a challenge than I initially anticipated. Like everyone else I thought it would be easy to pattern one and just wait for him to do what he does every other day. Problem is that it doesn't work! It's like the old adage, "to hear God laugh tell him your plans." Everybody knows exactly how easy it is .... until they try it.

 

[DeerMan66]

I have seen just the opposite. The hunting is still very good in areas where CWD has been around the longest (Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Wisconsin, Illinois).

I agree. I have been hunting in Colorado for years. They hardly even talk about cwd there any more. Also, you don't have to test game for cwd after it is havested in Colorado.

 

[megalomaniac]

Wonder what impact taking these velvet bucks out of the breeding cycle will do to the quality of the future buck's genetic makeup ?

Zero

 

[megalomaniac]

guys, the velvet hunt is the greatest thing since sliced bread IF you have the habitat and are responsible for feeding deer for 2/3 of the year.

Prehunt scouting is a BLAST! I was up there July 5 thru 9, found 3 bachelor groups (17 bucks total), 2 of which I would shoot on the hunt if antler development continues as it should over next 6 weeks (one is already 110in with 20inside and 20in beams... and a LOT of growing to do). Hung cameras on their fence crossings, already getting pics of them. I'll hunt them again just like every other velvet hunt in the past... spot and stalk from the ground with a crossbow. So far I'm 0 for 4, but having the time of my life (I'm not shooting for just any mature buck... gotta be 140in or better and mature for me to fling an arrow). Had so many close encounters with unpressured bucks (that didn't meet my standards) I've become addicted... to the preseason scouting, the hunt itself, and how close you can get to old deer that haven't been hunted in 7 months.

Removing 700 bucks annually statewide has zero impact on the herd. And its wonderful having a chance at a buck using your place in Aug that will be 5 miles away during the rut mid Nov.

Im sure there are some that just sit on cornpiles... but those are the same ones doing it in Nov.

 

[megalomaniac]

I wonder how many died from an arrow wound and were never counted. Beanfield shots can get kind of long

Way less numbers wise than in the 6 weeks of regular bow season. Percentage wise, prob the same lost in the velvet hunt vs reg bow season (a lot)