Question:
The truth is our mule deer herds generally are being mismanaged. Does
anyone dispute this? If so, I welcome a correction to my observations.
Here in Arizona, there are few mature bucks are alive at the end of the
rifle season. Buck:doe ratios are biolgically imbalanced. I mean, way out
of balance.
The genetics of our mule deer herds have probably also suffered
permanently.
Answer:
I just went hunting 18B here in Arizona, and I agree that our herds are
in poor shape. What some folks who have been suggesting doe hunts don't
seem to realize is that does aren't too plentiful, either. This season I
caught one fast glimpse of a doe going over a hill. Last season, my best,
I saw 10 deer, all does, come to a waterhole and I even heard them
grunting to one another. The year before that, I didn't see any deer at
all. I get envious when I read the posts that talk about seeing 75 does
and passing on some forkhorn bucks, all on one day.I'd like to see a
buck, period! Having lived in California, I'm used to high numbers of
deer, and I've traveled a lot around the West and seen deer, even during
hunting season.
I have yet to find a good spot in Arizona for deer. Javelina, pronghorn,
and elk seem to be doing fair to excellent, but deer are few and far
between.I think deer permits need to be reduced even more than they
already have been (5000 were cut this year).However, I don't go for
eliminating rifle hunting, because I'm a rifle hunter.I don't choose to
bowhunt and I don't know how to use a muzzleloader.
Habitat destruction has really hurt some areas. I've been told by locals
that the hunting in Unit 16A used to be pretty good, until all the new
subdivisions sprang up out there.
Another thing is drought. This year was the first good rainfall in awhile
and small game numbers show it. Deer take longer to respond. There also
seem to be cycles in muley numbers, something recognized but not fully
understood by deer researchers.The 1960s were supposed to be good muley
hunting years, the '70s were bad, with a drastic drop in numbers, my
magazines from the '80s talk about how muley hunting was getting good
again, and now I find poor hunting in the '90s.One thing to remember is
that muleys are not whitetails and shouldn't be managed as such. (There
was an article about that in a early '90s National Wildlife magazine.)
Whitetails are like coyotes and respond to heavy hunting pressure by
increasing their normal production,i.e. breeding at younger ages and
producing more young.That's why heavily hunted deer populations, like
those in Texas, can sustain that heavy hunting pressure with no problems.
Muleys are far more vulnerable to hunting pressure.
This year I went out and found a perfect deer habitat, but not a single
deer track ANYWHERE! Cliffrose, a favorite deer food, grew happily and
unnibbled near water and thick cover. There should have been a deer
there, at least a doe!
We do need to change something. I'm getting tired of going out hunting,
day after day, for years, and hardly seeing even a doe. Though I do see
everything else under the sun! The animals know when the hunting season's
for them!
P.S.Thanks to the folks who responded to my Arizona Deer Hunt Info Wanted
post. As you've probably figured out, I didn't get, much less see, a
buck.However, I've been noticing some high success rates in SE AZ for
whitetails.
