Article on whitetail hunting in Idaho

[Mule Deer]

http://m.cdapress.com/columns/my_turn/article_2e08b4cd-1057-5169-8f33-2d0fca56b87a.html?mode=jqm

Loved this article.

Maybe I'm in the minority because I hear good things about the panhandle whitetail hunting. I hunted it for the first time this year and did get a buck. But I was very underwhelmed about the amount of deer on public land.

 

[johnp]

The article paints a pretty bleak picture for whitetail deer in Idaho . The forestry practice of clear cutting should be a great habitat improvement after the initial year of the cut .
John

 

[VAspeedgoat]

Im not sure what his credentials are but he sure sounds like just another disgruntled hunter. I agree, the clear cutting should improve the hunting, I know it does here. He's right about blue tongue and its effects but whitetails especially seem pretty adept at bouncing back from that. But then again I'm not on the ground so maybe it is that bad.

 

[TheTone]

Its an opinion piece from one guy. We did lose a lot of deer to blue tongue this year, but there are still deer around. I'm a pretty lousy whitetail hunter and I managed to kill a decent buck on public land this year in the same county where the author of the piece lives. As for the cleacutting he mentions, some of the land around here is absolutely butchered, even the loggers and foresters will comment on how rough they are on the land. Along with it comes lots of logging roads that turn into ATV heaven come fall. Many people seem to think the best way to hunt this stuff is from the seat of an atv and see how many miles you can put on in a day. For those wanting to walk that can make for some crappy hunting.

 

[StrutNut]

Those logged out areas become deer magnets though. Those fresh sprouts coming up just pull in the deer. Some of the best deer hunting I have had was in areas right next to clear cuts. As those new trees start growing and its start getting thicker they really stack up in there. The DNR in WI just cleared out part of a management area near where we hunt. The previous year the landowner in the section east of us also logged his property off. We ahve the woods and the section west of us is standing corn and beans as it was too wet to harvest. The deer are still feeding east in the clear cut and not the standing beans or corn. Frustrating to say the least as we thought we were going to be sitting perfect for this late season.

 

[243 AI]

The guy is on to something in my opinion after living in ID my entire 48 years and hunting whitetails virtually every year. The F&G is milking whitetail for all they can at the moment because it is one of the few big game animals doing okay. Numbers are okay, but the buck age class has changed a bunch from what I have seen.

I remember attending F&G meeting 20 plus years ago where the main focus by the commissioners and biologists was not over harvesting bucks during the rut by keeping seasons out of the entire rutting period. We had some really good whitetail hunting for bucks in the mid-80's through 2000.

Now the focus by F&G is "increasing opportunity" which is just another way of hopefully creating more revenue, but ignoring what is going on with buck harvest. The rifle season now opens Oct 10 and goes until Dec 1. For many years in the unit I hunted whitetail, the season was opened around Nov 1 and closed always on Nov 20. There was even a few years where they went to WT bucks only.

While it's still possible to get a good buck, there sure aren't as many of them around as there used to be.... The IDF&G has gone away from doing what best for deer and going for maximum earning off what whitetail they have left.