Deer Season Update (Falmouth: insurance, buy, elementary school)

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by chaosX5

Very nice I have no hunters in my family, but some of my boys are achin' to try...........

How many pounds of venison will you be able to get off of a deer that size? I'm guessing that the weight (115-120 lbs.) is full weight before you gut it? ( I really don't know the lingo )

here is a link- scroll down the page- a good estimate/breakdown of what a deer will yield for meat (and definitions of the lingo)

congrats to the successful hunters !!!



Estimate Deer Weight

[Maine Writer]

DH took the last two Thursday/Fridays off and we hunted five of the six days. There's more sign this past week than we'd seen previously. I'm going tomorrow by myself for the day. A friend watched two bull moose fighting last week in one of the fields I'm going to sit in tomorrow. It would be nice if one of them wandered through.

A friend saw a dog chase a deer across the ice on a stream yesterday. It was too far away to see if it was a buck or doe without binocs. He called the warden, who happened to be a couple of miles away, and they looked for it for a few hours. They didn't find the deer or the dog.

It would be nice to have a few inches of snow tonight.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

DH took the last two Thursday/Fridays off and we hunted five of the six days. There's more sign this past week than we'd seen previously. I'm going tomorrow by myself for the day. A friend watched two bull moose fighting last week in one of the fields I'm going to sit in tomorrow. It would be nice if one of them wandered through.

A friend saw a dog chase a deer across the ice on a stream yesterday. It was too far away to see if it was a buck or doe without binocs. He called the warden, who happened to be a couple of miles away, and they looked for it for a few hours. They didn't find the deer or the dog.

It would be nice to have a few inches of snow tonight.

Come to my house. I 'll get up at 5:00, cook you a nice breakfast of bacon or sausage, eggs, home fries, toast, with any kind of coffee you might like (Keurig machine and tons of k-cups!). When you're full I could send you in to one of our "deer parks" and if you don't see one during the day I'll be surprised! We won't shoot it for you but you will see a deer!

[Maine Writer]

I might have to take you up on that. My plans for tomorrow changed with the words "winter weather advisory." I haven't driven my vehicle on snow yet. I'm thinking I don't want to start out on freezing rain.

[Maine Writer]

Winter weather advisory be damned, I kept the truck and went. I was ready to follow tracks in the snow. It would have been great if I'd been looking for turkey, red squirrel or rabbit. I saw those tracks. The only deer tracks I saw were 10' behind my truck which was parked a half mile from the stand. I swear they must point and laugh at me.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

Winter weather advisory be damned, I kept the truck and went. I was ready to follow tracks in the snow. It would have been great if I'd been looking for turkey, red squirrel or rabbit. I saw those tracks. The only deer tracks I saw were 10' behind my truck which was parked a half mile from the stand. I swear they must point and laugh at me.

I was told many years ago that if deer see you walk by they will try to cross your path when you're out of sight to try and smell what you were from your tracks or scent trail. My friend's uncle shot many many deer by turning around on his own path now and then. He often told us to "double back" now and then if you think deer are close by. Obviously you have to be in the woods for it to work. Not much sense in doing it in the middle of a field! I don't know how many times I have walked a tote road and seen a deer track in one of my footprints on the way out!

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by Maineah

I was told many years ago that if deer see you walk by they will try to cross your path when you're out of sight to try and smell what you were from your tracks or scent trail. My friend's uncle shot many many deer by turning around on his own path now and then. He often told us to "double back" now and then if you think deer are close by. Obviously you have to be in the woods for it to work. Not much sense in doing it in the middle of a field! I don't know how many times I have walked a tote road and seen a deer track in one of my footprints on the way out!

You'd be surprised, even in a field if there's something to provide cover. I did that on Saturday in a corn field with some marsh surrounding it and some dead corn still left standing, and got a doe within 10 feet of me that I surprised in where there was corn and marsh plants concealing it. The wind was just right for it. Unfortunately, I could only shoot a buck...

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by Maineah

I don't know how far south you are but this area is crawling with deer. Freeport, Yarmouth, Brunswick, Falmouth, Durham, Pownal, Cumberland there are LOTS of deer around here.
I spend a week in Northern Maine (Allagash area) every October bird hunting and have not seen a deer up there in five years. Moose all over the place but no deer. The people that run the sporting camps have had lots of cancellations due to lack of deer up north. In contrast to that scenario I can show you numerous deer around here any night of the week. I passed up six little ones before shooting that nice doe last week. There were two big does and a 6 point buck on my lawn last night!
We stopped deer hunting in the Greenville area 15 years ago because the deer hunting was so much better in our back yard. I agree with you on the coyotes and I shoot them whenever I see them. My FIL shot one a few weeks ago. The problem with the lower deer kill numbers is there are far fewer hunters than there used to be. IF and W said this week they will have to draw money from the general fund soon as the number of licenses is so low it no longer covers the department's costs. There was a whole generation of kids,now of the hunting age, that have no interest in hunting. Partially because it is scowled upon by many of their teachers, staff and peers, but also video games and electronic media have become the new pastime for these more pampered kids. The parents tend to be a more yuppified group that wouldn't know one end of a gun from the other. Hunting clubs are all but gone. Most of the old Rod and Gun clubs in southern Maine are gone. I taught hunter safety for 5 years and now the demand for these classes is nothing compared to when I was teaching. You get a few reluctant wives and girlfriends around moose permit time but not too many deer hunters coming along. The any deer permit increases are for the South coastal areas. They are over run by deer in many of these places. My area included. People are more worried about Lyme disease than they are the deer now. Many of these towns did it to themselves by not allowing firearms hunting. There are just not enough bow hunters to do the job. Even the enticement of getting up to three deer won't draw enough hunters to thin them out.

Wow. That's too bad. It's been a few years (well more than a few now but not too long) since I last hunted deer in Northern Maine. The deer population then wasn't any better than Vermont (small population spread thin really), but I didn't have tons of hunters packed in on top of me either like I frequently run into with all the land getting posted here so it was good hunting to me, and the deer I got were decent sizes then. Now if I could finally get drawn for a moose permit...

You're definately right about the youth, we need to get more of them away from the video games and taught the truth about hunting too or the antis will destroy hunting someday...and the lack of places to hunt with land getting posted isn't helping either...

[dmyankee]

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

Wow. That's too bad. It's been a few years (well more than a few now but not too long) since I last hunted deer in Northern Maine. The deer population then wasn't any better than Vermont (small population spread thin really), but I didn't have tons of hunters packed in on top of me either like I frequently run into with all the land getting posted here so it was good hunting to me, and the deer I got were decent sizes then. Now if I could finally get drawn for a moose permit...

You're definately right about the youth, we need to get more of them away from the video games and taught the truth about hunting too or the antis will destroy hunting someday...and the lack of places to hunt with land getting posted isn't helping either...

I used to hunt a hill across from the state park in Dorset regularly. Took three bucks out of there in the early 80's.

A bad month of deer hunting is still better than a good day at work. My buddy and me did a lot of tipping this month, so we weren't totally concentrated on hunting, and I keep a revolver with me anyways. We saw six doe and one unidentified creature.

When we finally saw a nice buck last week up by the B-52, my partner got a little ahead of me while I stumbled around for the glasses. I couldn't take the shot with the .444 Marlin and he took a 400 yard shot with his 7mm. There was no sign he had been hit. We searched a 1/2 mile square of ancient beaver bog and dense 20 year old spruce stands for a day and a half looking for him.

Half the trouble with the herd up here is predation and winter kill. The other half of the problem is that the guides are over hunting some key areas. You can not keep putting dozens of hunters in the same areas season after season an not expect a hit on the overall herd. Places around Pittston Farm or East and West outlets hold a fraction of the deer population they did back in the 80's and 90's. In 1985, the town reported 124 registrations the first week of the season. That number may well be about 30 this year.

Tipping the moose swales has been great this year. Some of the best tips I've seen in ages! Healthy trees, few aphids. Someone in the County saw them and ordered a ton or more.

The sun is finally out here, with 2 fresh inches on the ground. Time to dissapear into the bush for a couple of days. Two entire months of hunting is exausting, but never enough. We always have partridge season for the month of December, and you can track them in the snow too! The muskets are already out of their cases and ready to go for next week. I have a couple of friends with doe permits for the WMD just south of here, so we will get down to the farm country for a couple of weeks.

[Maine Writer]

I wimped out today. I didn't want to go to the coast to hunt with DH and his dad. I've been nice and warm making Christmas wreaths instead. I haven't decided on muzzle loading yet.