Rifle hunters will have their last hooray for putting venison in the freezer this weekend, as the regular Southern Zone deer season closes Dec. 13 at sunset. Then the muzzleloading and archery hunters get an additional week to test their hunting skills and resolve against what many consider our wariest of wildlife species.
No need to feel sorry for the deer since they've already had three weeks experience at avoiding hunters, and judging from the trend in our weather, they'll also benefit from conditions that will be less than comfortable for the hunters that are still hearty enough to face the cold, snow and chill factors. Throw in the possibility of crusted, noisy snow and the hunters will really find things difficult.
I'm not exactly confident that there'll be all that many hunters out next week, and this is especially true of the bowhunters. Bowhunting is challenging enough during the earlier archery-only season in October and early November, but when you add subfreezing temperatures and snow, even the most diehard bowhunters will be severely tested. Muzzleloader hunters, on the other hand, have it a bit easier since they aren't dealing with all the various actions required to draw and shoot a bow when muscles are cold and stiff and fingers are numbed from the cold.
Last year the estimated deer take in Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) 7M was 10,568 compared to the 222,979 deer taken statewide. Since the original WMU 7M was split and a new one, WMU 7P was formed, it'll be interesting to see if the combined 2009 harvests of those two WMUs come close to matching last year's 7M figure. Although I couldn't locate the deer take figures for the late 2008 special season, I'd hazard a guess that of the 29,735 deer estimated taken in the entire Southern Zone last year by archers and of the 9,772 taken by muzzleloaders, the vast majority weren't taken during the late December special season.
Non-hunters in the warmth of their vehicle are accustomed to seeing deer in fields as they drive along roads or on their property when looking out a window from the warm security of their home undoubtedly have no idea of what it's like to spend hours sitting or standing in the frigid outdoors while hunting late-season deer. Deer, on the other hand, with their dense coat of hollow hair fibers are well suited to staying warm in the cold weather. Also they see very well at night, so they aren't confined to the sunrise to sunset activity limits lawfully placed on hunters. As such, deer often rest in dense secure cover during the daylight hours, then do the bulk of their moving and feeding at night.
One thing I've noticed this hunting season is there have been more hunters than usual lamenting about the lack of deer they've seen, and especially a lack of legal bucks. Despite the number of car-deer accidents we often quote, keep in mind that the majority of these occur at night or just prior to sunrise or just after sunset, when hunters have yet to start or have already quit for the day. That tells me many deer become more nocturnal during the hunting season. Plus, deer have more secure areas to avoid hunters than ever before, thanks to increased posting of private lands and more rural residential development near or in prime deer habitat.
Although our area deer seldom yard up in winter like those deer in the more severe climates and terrains of the Adirondacks and Tug Hill, they often congregate in large numbers during deer season in the more secure areas that aren't hunted. It's not unusual for people to encounter a literal “herd” of a dozen or more that have taken a daylight refuge in dense cover or other unhunted habitat. Only when someone walks through the area do all the deer start exiting, almost like bees streaming from a hive. I've heard reports of people counting 25 or more deer that suddenly began streaming out of a surprisingly small area that nonetheless was chosen for its refuge-like conditions. Often these areas are dense briars or thickets near housing, low-growth evergreen plantations or dense swamps that have small dry hummock “islands” the deer can bed on.
The positive thing about the late season is, if there's snow on the ground, the tracks left by deer, especially if they're made at night, can tell much about their travels and also where they may be bedding down for the day. Trackers may be surprised to discover the tracks may lead to some thick fringe cover behind someone's residence, or they may just lead to and continue into private land that's been posted. Either way, the hunt for those deer is probably over.
Last year the DEC listed 717,696 resident big game hunting licenses as being sold, along with 24,999 non resident big game licenses. It also estimated there were105,747 adult bucks (one antler of at least three inches long) taken in the state last fall. Add to the combined resident and non resident licenses all those Sportsman or Super Sportsman licenses sold (about 10,000) that include the big game hunting license, and we're looking at over 800,000 potential deer hunters statewide. So during the 2008 deer seasons the success ratio on taking legal bucks was about 13 percent. Of course those odds went up when the total estimated deer harvest which includes antlerless deer is figured in.
The DEC says it bases its decision on how many antlerless permits (DMPs) should be issued each year in each WMU on the bucks taken per square mile the previous year. We'll get the estimated harvest for this current season, which will probably come out next March, and then we'll wait and see how many DMPs will be issued for the upcoming 2010 season. Now, if the bucks per square mile number is down and then the DMP issuance number remains the same or increases, some of us will start wondering if deer management is truly working in the state, and specifically in our region.