I was fortunate to get two good bucks this year. While am sure that certain areas can have specific population issues dueto disease , severe winters, or poor game management practices, I think hunting pressure and the deers ability to adapt is a factor. The deer are there and probably increasing in population they are evolving and adapting. We hunt a property that 10 yeas ago you could see deer all day. You would now believe that they have disappeared. The Trail Cams and sign indicate that there are probably more good bucks in this area today than ever. They have become mostly nocturnal and the only chance to get a shot is to catch them off guard during the rut or push them. When I first bough my property about 15 years ago I would bow hunt cottontails in my fields and easily limit out within a couple hour of hunting. Today, I might get a shot per week. Go out at night and shine a light on my fields and I'm still loaded with them. They, along with their offspring that have never been hunted, are displaying different behavior and adapted to the environment by going nocturnal. They have also learned to jump the string, something they didn't do in the first few years. This aspect was one of my motivations for taking up LR deer hunting years ago. IMO.
