Only took 23 years

[Sask hunter]

Motor vehicle collisions is how Illinois determines deer density.

Sounds like Sask lol

 

[brocksw]

Of course they did but you combine that with 20 years of trying to kill all the deer through open culls or way too many tags and you get where we are. Shut down almost all the mulie doe tags in Sask last year. Before we could draw doe tags every year and most areas were 2 doe tags. Now they changed all the mulie hunting to bucks only and certain areas are shut down completely.

The first year they did a cull here it was OTC earn a buck. Between that and the hard winter that followed the survey they flew had half as many deer as the before hand. And our deer density is no where near as high as most states

My understanding is that SK hasn’t done a cull on deer since the 2000s. 2007 iirc.

 

[Sask hunter]

My understanding is that SK hasn’t done a cull on deer since the 2000s. 2007 iirc.

Yes they don’t call it culls cause of backlash. they just doubled all the tags in the zones. 2008 was one of the last ones I think with earn a buck. Was WW3 out there then

 

[Nick87]

That’s a lot of collisions. I mean hunters are freaking out over 1000 deer being culled in a year and meanwhile 25k deer a year were being turned into road dust on the hwy.

Once again its a big state. 1000 deer per year in cwd counties (before all the addiatonal cwd hunter numbers) . Not the entire state?

 

[Nick87]

I wasn't joking about the use of deer collisions to determine population either.

 

[brocksw]

Yes they don’t call it culls cause of backlash. they just doubled all the tags in the zones. 2008 was one of the last ones I think with earn a buck. Was WW3 out there then

This tag allocation summary makes no mention of doubling tags for mule deer. Just mentions normal fluctuations due to winters that we can trace back accurately.

Do you have a link to harvest or tag numbers in SW Saskatchewan from 2000-2020?

 

[brocksw]

I wasn't joking about the use of deer collisions to determine population either.

It’s probably not a bad metric. Especially since it seems to correspond closely with harvest and population numbers by year.

 

[brocksw]

Once again it’s a big state. 1000 deer per year in cwd counties (before all the addiatonal cwd hunter numbers) . Not the entire state?

Compare deer collisions by county with the cwd map Illinois puts out. Theres more deer being hit by cars than being culled by the IDNR.

 

[Sask hunter]

This tag allocation summary makes no mention of doubling tags for mule deer. Just mentions normal fluctuations due to winters that we can trace back accurately.
View attachment 406579
Do you have a link to harvest or tag numbers in SW Saskatchewan from 2000-2020?

No link you’ll just have to trust me

 

[Nick87]

Compare deer collisions by county with the cwd map Illinois puts out. Theres more deer being hit by cars than being culled by the IDNR.

. They were probably hitting deer with cars before CWD.

 

[brocksw]

. They were probably hitting deer with cars before CWD.

Of course. That’s not the point. The point is that far more deer are killed by cars than the IDNR is culling.

 

[buckbull]

Nick is correct, the illinois deer herd is managed by the number of deer hit on the roadways. Lots of deer struck by cars are not reported. Most folks hit deer and keep on driving.

 

[brocksw]

No link you’ll just have to trust me

I know there was some increased harvest. But with 80% prevalence I think it’s pretty obvious why SW SK mule deer are in the shape they’re in.

 

[Sask hunter]

No link you’ll just have to trust me

This tag allocation summary makes no mention of doubling tags for mule deer. Just mentions normal fluctuations due to winters that we can trace back accurately.
View attachment 406579
Do you have a link to harvest or tag numbers in SW Saskatchewan from 2000-2020?

I went and looked at one zone not going to look any further cause I can see the deer population is crap anytime I go down south. 2017 anterless mulie in zone 1 which runs down along MT and was probably one of the best areas in all of Sask. 2017 50 youth 150 regular doe tags. 2024 150 youth 450 regular mulie doe tags. 2025 they shut down 99% of doe mulie hunting

 

[Sask hunter]

I know there was some increased harvest. But with 80% prevalence I think it’s pretty obvious why SW SK mule deer are in the shape they’re in.

I don’t disagree CWD is a big factor but trying to kill it off never worked. Hard to shoot big bucks when they die at 2-3 years old. I have been fortunate to shoot some good Mulies and I refuse to make a 6 hour trip down south to shoot a 140-160 class buck. Smaller then any mulie I have ever shot

 

[Nick87]

Of course. That’s not the point. The point is that far more deer are killed by cars than the IDNR is culling.

If they're not culling that many then how did they ever expect to keep the disease from spreading?

 

[brocksw]

I don’t disagree CWD is a big factor but trying to kill it off never worked. Hard to shoot big bucks when they die at 2-3 years old. I have been fortunate to shoot some good Mulies and I refuse to make a 6 hour trip down south to shoot a 140-160 class buck. Smaller then any mulie I have ever shot

You're right. If the expectation was that it was going to stop or eradicate the disease, it did not work. That has only happened once, in New York. Every where else it either didn't work at all, or it slowed growth in prevalence. It is certainly not a one size fits all answer to this problem.

 

[brocksw]

If they're not culling that many then how did they ever expect to keep the disease from spreading?

Targeted culling. A lot has changed in the last 25 years. The first culling efforts that took place 20 years ago in places like SK or WI were more like eradication efforts. The idea was to kill as many deer as possible without bias, in hopes that you'd kill all CWD positive animals and arrest disease transmission. That, obviously, did not work.

More recent efforts, Illinois, Missouri, and I believe Arkansas, were coined "targeted culling".

They would target individual family groups of deer. For example, if a positive was found in a new area or in an area that did not have any positives before, they would go in and cull the group of deer living in the immediate area that the new positive came from. The idea is to be more precise in the cull and target the group of deer that had the highest chance of being in contact with the positive that was found.

 

[brocksw]

I went and looked at one zone not going to look any further cause I can see the deer population is crap anytime I go down south. 2017 anterless mulie in zone 1 which runs down along MT and was probably one of the best areas in all of Sask. 2017 50 youth 150 regular doe tags. 2024 150 youth 450 regular mulie doe tags. 2025 they shut down 99% of doe mulie hunting

So they tripled harvest in that unit from 2017 to 2024, then did a 180 and completely shut down the doe season in that same unit in 2025?

Interesting...

 

[Sask hunter]

So they tripled harvest in that unit from 2017 to 2024, then did a 180 and completely shut down the doe season in that same unit in 2025?

Interesting...

Your correct. Not just that unit about 99% of the zones. Not sure how many zones have a doe harvest still but it’s less then 6 all in SE or east Sask