keeping records

[74MOPAR]

Thinking of keeping a record or log each year of the season, maybe kill dates, location, weather and other info. Im sure alot of you alredy do this, any tips?

 

[102]

Here are a few of the bits of info I use.
I also add kill tag #, year, number of kill, State, County, date, WMA, and a few more things.
I started in 1981 with my first kill.
I just added my 216th bow and 34th gun kill a few minutes ago.

It has been amazing to see the patterns evolve.

 

[74MOPAR]

Wow, that is detailed and very cool

 

[Shed Hunter]

That's pretty neat 102. I may have to start myself.

 

[Poleaxe]

Theres deer diary programs you can buy for your computer if u dont want to write em down or if u like me have to worry bout your youngling gettin into your papers.

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

i like that

 

[102]

I'll reveal a few stand outs from my data. All data is bow related. Though I rarely gun hunt (average about 1 per year per 31 years) I do bow hunt the entire season, September through January.

Out of almost 220 deer bow kills, the most common date for a kill has been October 20th.
The most common time has been 10 AM.

The average shot distance is 19 yards.

For a big buck kill (mature body/antler), November 18th in South/East Tennessee is the date.

In Southern Illinois that date is November 10th. Without a doubt, according to my, and my friends field notes, November 10th is THE day to see big, mature bucks in daylight on their feet.

In all honesty, I do the biggest bulk of my hunting before December 1st. And several of my gun brethren swear by December 10th for South/East Tennessee when I am not frequenting the woods as much as I am in October and November.

 

[Redfred16]

The group of guys I hunted with in Wisconsin started keeping a detailed log a few years back.

In it you were expected to put what stand you sat in, date/time started and finished, weather conditions, all huntable big game you saw(deer, bears, turkey) and then anything you killed.

It was cool to go back and see how the deer changed travel routes over just 180 acres over the course of a season. IT also helped us plan were to hang each years new stands or if any needed to be moved.

 

[mathews338]

I keep records but not as detailed as 102's.

cool info 102!

 

[huntinkev]

I am going to start one next year. I want to include barametric pressure and wind direction and speed also.

 

[Vermin93]

102 - that is very cool. Thanks for sharing some of your results.

 

[primos32]

Very cool 102

 

[102]

Here is a better view of one of my my data pages.
I left out tag #'s.


#KILL YEAR STATE CNTY WMA WT SEX PTS DATE GUN BOW SHOT RCVY WOUND TIME WTHR KILL TAG #
#184 2008 TN AEDC 55 F 0 9--20 P5 27 60 DBL/LNG 10A CLR/60
#185 2008 TN FRNKLN 80 F 0 10--21 P5 21 250 DBL/LNG 10A CLR/45
#186 2008 TN SEQ 105 F 0 10--30 P5 6 40 DBL/LNG 6PM CLR/55
#187 2008 TN SEQ 135 M 6 10--30 P5 12 80 DBL/LNG 6PM CLR/55
#188 2008 ILL POPE 104 F 0 11--5 P5 11 80 DBL/LNG 5PM CLR/45
#189 2008 ILL POPE 150 M 7 11--6 P5 24 200 DBL/LNG 6PM RN/55
#190 2008 ILL POPE 80 F 0 11--13 P5 12 60 DBL/LNG 6PM CLR/55
#191 2008 TN MONT 75 F 0 11--15 P5 12 200 DBL/LNG 6PM RN/WND
#192 2008 TN MONT 145 M 8 11--16 P5 25 80 DBL/LNG 9AM CLR35
#193 2008 TN FRNKLN 70 F 0 12--08 P5 19 40 DBL/LNG 10AM CLR/35
#194 2008 TN FRNKLN 80 M 6 12--23 270 80 0 DBL/LNG 6PM CLDY/40
#195 2009 ILL POPE 60 M 0 1--7 P5 24 80 DBL/LNG 5PM CLDY/40
#196 2009 TN AEDC 40 F 0 9--19 P5 16 60 DBL/LNG 8AM CLDY/80
#197 2009 TN FRNKLN 40 F 0 9--29 P5 19 70 LNG/HRT 7PM WND/CLR
#198 2009 TN HAM 190 M 15 10--13 P5 16/42 250 LNG/LVR 7PM CLR/70
#199 2009 TN FRNKLN 82 F 0 10--19 P5 15 150 LNG/HRT 9AM CLR/35
#200 2009 ILL POPE 85 F 0 10--26 P5 14 20 HRT 10AM CLDY/50
#201 2009 ILL POPE 80 F 0 11--4 P5 34 30 DBL/LNG 10AM CLR/45
#202 2009 ILL POPE 95 F 0 11--4 P5 13 75 LNG/HRT 10AM CLR/45
#203 2009 ILL POPE 60 M 0 11--11 P5 14 30 LNG/LVR 8AM CLR/35
#204 2009 ILL POPE 105 F 0 11--11 P5 10 40 HRT/LNG 8AM CLR/30

 

[BSK]

Thinking of keeping a record or log each year of the season, maybe kill dates, location, weather and other info. Im sure alot of you alredy do this, any tips?

What information to collect will be heavily influenced by what you want to learn. Are you trying to find patterns in deer observations and/or kills? Are you tracking local herd composition health?

For tracking patterns in deer observations/kills, some important data would be:

For each hunt

Date
Hunter
Hunt location
Time on and off stand (can also be used to calculate total hours hunted)
Total deer seen (if any--and it is critical that information is collected whether deer are seen or not)
Antlered bucks seen (and personally, I like to track the estimated age of each buck seen)
Adult does seen
Fawns seen
Unidentifiable deer seen
High temp for the day
Low temp for the day
cloud conditions during the hunt
type of precipitation during the hunt (if any)
wind direction
wind speed
barometric pressure
barometric trend
moon phase or illumination percentage
moon waxing or waning


For each deer killed

Date
Hunter
Location
Time
Weapon
Shot distance
# of shots taken
Deer sex
Deer age
Deer live or dressed weight (or both, but be consistant)

for bucks
Number of antler points
gross score
Left and right beam length
Left and right basal circumference
Inside/Outside spread

for does
Lactation status

 

[74MOPAR]

Thanks 102 and BSK,that is going to be very helpful, going to go back the last couple years and recall as much as i can. plus in 20 years i can look back at when the gov't let us have guns :grin:

 

[BSK]

Thanks 102 and BSK,that is going to be very helpful, going to go back the last couple years and recall as much as i can. plus in 20 years i can look back at when the gov't let us have guns :grin:

And longevity of data collection is the real key. I remember when I first started collecting all the detailed data I do. At times, I thought, why am I going to the trouble? It will take years before any of this information is useful. But 26 years later, I have some really cool data; everything from tracking hunter observations to herd composition.

Here's a couple of examples:

Buck observation rates by moon phase:

Older age (2 1/2+ year-olds) buck observation rates:

Observed adult sex ratio:

 

[Winchester]

I used to keep detailed records of ever hunting day, and fishing day, regardless of killing or not. I did this for almost 20 yrs before my kids came along and I just dont take the time to do so anymore. Its amazing what I have gleaned from going back and reading the notebooks full of info!

 

[Andy S.]

Older age (2 1/2+ year-olds) buck observation rates:

Any idea as to why you and others have experienced a 33% reduction in November Buck observation rates since 2005/2006? Weather patterns maybe? Reduced herd size, thus fewer out there to see?

 

[BSK]

Any idea as to why you and others have experienced a 33% reduction in November Buck observation rates since 2005/2006? Weather patterns maybe? Reduced herd size, thus fewer out there to see?

Two things have been the driving force in declines in older buck sightings on my place since the peak in 2005-06. First, is a major decline in sanctuary cover. The percentage of our property in high-quality sanctuary covered peaked in 2005-06, and began a sharp decline after that, as the areas of regrowth grew beyond the good cover stage and into the poorer-quality pole-timber stage. I had spent so much time working on other people's properties, I had let me own project lag and hadn't had any timber harvested in a number of years, hence no new cuts to grow into the good cover stage to replace what what being lost through the natural successional regrowth process of a young hardwood saplings. Without top-quality cover, older-age bucks stopped being drawn to our property during the high-pressure MZ and gun seasons. In fact, trail-camera data indicates this lack of older bucks has been a real factor; it isn't just sightings, but the actual population of older bucks declined.

Secondly, just about the same time (starting in 2007) several new family members joined the deer hunting fold and our hunting pressure skyrocketed. In the past, we had been placing less than 200 hours of hunting time into our November hunting, but since 2007, we've been placing 350-400 hunting hours into November hunting. This near doubling of hunting pressure has definitely produced more nocturnal movement by all deer, especially targeted older bucks.

This combination of declining sanctuary cover and increased hunting pressure has really taken a toll on older buck sightings. In an attempt to remedy what can be remedied, we began a major timber-cutting project three summers ago. Over the last three years, we've cut many new patches of timber. However, it is just now starting to grow into the "good cover stage" and we did observed an increase in the number of older bucks using the property this year, as well as an actual increase in older buck population (trail-camera data). Once we get all of these new timber cuts into thick cover (cover habitat will peak during the period of 2014 through 2018), we will have double the amount of the property in sanctuary that we had in 2005-06. It will be interesting to see just how much this greater amount of sanctuary can overcome the doubling of hunting pressure.

All of the above is why I so often say that in hardwood habitat, "Cover is King." Looking at the data statistically, actual year-to-year buck populations show ZERO correlation with the amount of the property in high food production. However, buck populations show a direct correlation to the amount of the property in good-quality cover. Again, it will be very interesting to see if these two factors--cover and buck population--continue to track each other as cover habitat increases rapidly over the next few years, or if the higher hunting pressure, at some point, causes the buck population to "max out" at some given level, despite increases in cover.