Is today’s deer herd nutritionally more healthy than prior to pro baiting laws

[JHbowhunter]

@FDhunt1213, just make sure you give me all the loins and choice steaks off the hams, before giving your doggie the chop meat...    

[FDhunt1213]

Just now, JHbowhunter said:

@FDhunt1213, just make sure you give me all the loins and choice steaks off the hams, before giving your doggie the chop meat...    

lol the dog only gets about 15-20 pounds of chop meat from each deer basically the scraps get ground up along with some of the front shoulders especially if they are shot up. I got you some loins though since you’re a fellow Mathews elitist !!  

[Lunatic]

15 minutes ago, FDhunt1213 said:

lol the dog only gets about 15-20 pounds of chop meat from each deer basically the scraps get ground up along with some of the front shoulders especially if they are shot up. I got you some loins though since you’re a fellow Mathews elitist !!  

If he was a Hoyt elitist he wouldnt have to ask other hunters to suplement his meat reserves

[FDhunt1213]

1 minute ago, Lunatic said:

If he was a Hoyt elitist he wouldnt have to ask other hunters to suplement his meat reserves

One time @JHbowhunter held a Hoyt it immediately turned to dust 

[JHbowhunter]

5 minutes ago, FDhunt1213 said:

One time @JHbowhunter held a Hoyt it immediately turned to dust 

what is a Hoyt?  Never heard of it.   Are they any good?

[archer36]

 You guys crack me up. I hunted Illinois once. Will Primos had two teams filming, an Elk Outfitter from Colorado,  Jay Gregory and Jay Sibilski filming for Drury Brothers, Dan Perez left when I arrived (he was using a PSE), and a shooter representing Matthews. All they did was bust each other's nuts all week. Hoyt vs Matthews blah, blah, blah. Primos was just coming on or off his sponsorship with Bear. Remember the Bear Truth? Bottom line is these discussions are silly among us average people. When you get PAID to use a bow, then it matters. Whatever they are using at the time is the best. 

It was a lot of fun watching them though. 

Edited January 5 by archer36

[Lunatic]

45 minutes ago, JHbowhunter said:

what is a Hoyt?  Never heard of it.   Are they any good?

That’s why you are buying beef at acme 

[NorthJerseyMike]

3 hours ago, Bucksnbows said:

Why not?  Plant geneticists strive for maximum yield when modifying seeds like corn or soybeans or whatever. How does that have a negative impact on human or deer health?  Remember that there are more whitetail deer in North America today than at any known time in history. 

There are two sides to the argument, but the unknown variables of how allergens escalate up the food chain are concerning. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-truth-about-genetically-modified-food/

[Greybeard]

I'm not seeing any difference.  Shot deer in the 80's that weighed the same as today if not more.  178lb buck and 125lb doe, average was 125 to 145+ for younger bucks depending on age, 85-100lb does.  There were more cornfields and ag fields back then so they weren't deprived of corn.  30-35 deer would feed in a 5acre grass field at night before moving on to the corn fields a couple miles away and never depleted the sources.  Baiting doesn't make any difference as far as the nutrition they get between then and now, IMO.  May help during long winters with deep snow to help keep them from depleting their fat reserves in areas with no other easy food source.  I still see them yarding up around acorns or in sheltered areas rather than moving close to bait piles.  Guess it would depend on where the deer are and what natural food is available there.  Deer that have been pulled in close to homes by baiting may have become dependent more on that source of food

[FeniQuest217]

Food is food. They find ways to survive but every bit helps. We won't know if they eat that day or not in winter. Maybe they couldn't find something - but i throwing out corn and apples and minerals helps them not starve thats for sure. You can argue how much "nutrition" but on a day like saturday you throw out some corn theyll be all over it bc they know a storm is a coming!!!! (sorry soouth Jersey you're just getting rain  )

[vdep217]

4 hours ago, smittty said:

You must be very young. But before theses liberal bag limits you could see over a hundred deer in a field and think nothing of it now if you see a few dozen that’s a big deal yes that was before the six month season and that brown and down thinking because you could only take a few deer a year and only had weeks to do it not six months to kill what you want. For Christ sake I reads post on here this week a guy had to go kill one more deer for his dog I mean come on now for your dog go pick up a roadkill. To many pig hunters makes me sick

There are zones that are still only 1 or 2 deer per season and 1 doe day for shot gun

[JHbowhunter]

Since I been feeding my deer a blend of Taco Bell and KFC - they really been packing on the lbs.  

My September buck was a porky 193# dressed weight. 

[Rusty]

I tried feeding my deer but bears ate everything.   

[tpr1921]

I have been supplementally feeding the deer on my property 365 days a year for the past 7 years using gravity feeders which allow them to feed at will. They consume 3 times as much corn during June, July and August as opposed to any other time of the year. The buck body weights have increased substantially. 

 

 

[Bucksnbows]

22 hours ago, archer36 said:

Once again. how are these statistics derived? Deer per square mile is misleading. If the area is only 20% deer habitat and the rest developed, then it's BS. Has there ever been a fixed "number" arrived at? Once again, who took these surveys and how were they done. Did they use helicopters 100 years ago. I am not doubting some of it but can't accept all of it. Maybe deer expanded because Bison were almost eliminated. As I mentioned, could have been a cyclical thing.

Drive down a suburban street that borders woods. You see deer on people's front lawns. Why? Habitat loss. The presence of deer makes you think they are overpopulated when the opposite can be true. 

The fatal flaw you’re making is “habitat loss” when the exact opposite is true. Man creates edge habitat. Deer prefer edge habitat. The deer are in yards not because someone removed their forest, they’re there because it is preferred habitat and holds fewer predators.  Ask yourself why NJ big woods deer zones have more restrictive bag limits than areas with more diverse habitat types.