A soggy ending

[Brokennock]

Northern Connecticut's deer population has seemed to be dropping for a few years. This year has been awful. Not just for me, many are saying they aren't seeing deer, or much sign. A few on trail cams at night, but no where near as many as years past. My friend's farm is the best deer and game (or beef and pig) processor around, last year we had done almost 200 deer by the start of muzzleloader season the second week of December. This year,,, 90 deer, and they just shut off mid to late October. I saw a lot of deer in certain places at the beginning of archery season in September. But other areas that always produced, nothing. Well, at least no deer, the bear population is getting ridiculous and no sign of them opening a season.

I never get out as much as I'd like. I work weird hours and it's a 45 minute drive to my closest "good" area. But I got out as much as I could. And after not seeing much during shotgun season (I went out with my flint smoothrifle) my hunting partner and I started poking around some of our old spots further away in rougher country, with rougher animals. One of our old favorite areas we abandoned due to being chased out by moose one evening. Well, still no deer or much sign of them.
But, the season was not lost. I saw so many bears I lost count, 2 bobcats, fox, 2 fishers, squirrels of many colors, and moose.
Today was the last day for hunting with a front stuffer. It rained all day but I was out anyway. Thank goodness for wool. The gun had been loaded for over a week. Temperatures ranged in that time from the low 20's to the low 50's with several rain events and overall high humidity. Spent today with my olive oil/beeswax blend patch lube smeared on the edges of the pan/frizzen junction, cow's knee covering the lock area, lock area under armpit when moving, muzzle down.

Well, despite the wet. The gun went bang at last light. Maybe the deer will be back next year,,, or maybe I'll finally be somewhere else.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Some years are just like that hey.

Well done on you perseverance and mastery of the elements :hatsoff:

B.

 

[will5a1]

It is it own reward, isn't it, if we make meat all the better. You'll get your deer next year, probably on opening day.

 

[agill]

Sounds like the story here. However, congratulations on seeing the moose and fisher. Never saw them alive before. :hatsoff:

 

[Spikebuck]

All one can do is give it their best. Good job on keeping your powder dry in those conditions! :hatsoff: At least it sounds like you saw a lot of wildlife and that certainly keeps a hunt interesting.

Bear play havoc on fawns. A high population will definitely put a dent in the deer population long term. Has there been an effort to get a bear season and the anti's keep getting it shot down? I know New Jersey had a long haul to get a bear season in place fighting an anti-hunting governor for some time. My niece lives there and was almost afraid to come out of the house or let the kids play in the back yard there were so many bear around. Was not uncommon to come around the corner of the house and run into one in the yard.

 

[Patocazador]

"Bear play havoc on fawns. A high population will definitely put a dent in the deer population long term."

This may be the answer or at least part of the answer.
The areas I hunt don't have many bears but the overabundance of acorns and very hot weather has made it hard for anyone to see a deer. I've seen less than a dozen all season.

 

[caddo]

Sounds like you gave it your best shot, I'd hunt with you any day. You stuck with it and didn't give up. I bet next year is your year.

 

[Brokennock]

The legislature has given the D.E.E.P. the okay to create a bear hunting season and implement the required permits, fees, regulations, etc. on a timeline of D.E.E.P.'s discretion. It's already been a couple years, no season or tags available yet. I'm hoping that when they do, they keep it simple and just make tags available to hunters during the regular deer, and maybe spring turkey, seasons.

Acorn crop was insane this year, really all mast producers ran heavy. Lots of acorns of all varieties, all the hickorys produced, apples galore, even the rarely seen beech nuts were in abundance. So I figured deer movement would be minimal and patterns would be disrupted or nonexistent. But all sign of deer just disappeared and stopped being refreshed. We couldn't even spook any. Oh well, I have another few days of archery hunting with my longbow or selfbow.

 

[Brokennock]

Moose are a relatively recent re-arrival here, at least in numbers that lead to reliable regular sightings and them having established territories. Not sure when they disappeared officially but they've only been back for a bit over a decade, but, they are one animal that has returned without humans reintroducing them. Turkeys have made a huge comeback but were brought back by man, the fisher too was reintroduced, nasty hostile little buggers. For such a small and densely populated state we do have quite a bit of wildlife. Now if we could just get the partridge (ruffed grouse) population to grow like the turkey's did.