Harvesting game is only part of the attraction of hunting. The camaraderie, land management, watching the sun rise and set, the good food and libation all are more important than the harvest.
Nevertheless, we’re hunting not camping and we should track the harvest results.
Our 2014-15 hunting success was way off the prior year.
Our results were negatively affected by:
- The bumper mast crop this year. Whereas the acorn crop failure in 2013-14 caused the deer to travel far and wide to find food and to spend more time in the fields, the bumper crop of acorns this year drastically reduced the distance deer had to travel to get food and limited sightings in and around the food plots
- Apart of the Big Field, a mini-drought struck just after the fields were planted in late August causing a near complete failure of our food plots, most notably in the Tirrell field and in the New Field.
- We also passed on a number of deer during bow season, thinking that, based on last year’s results, we’d have plenty of other chances later in the season. Alas, as the season wore on and the hunting pressure increased, our sightings dropped sharply.
On another negative note, we saw a lot more bear this year.
On the positive side, Mike also connected with a coyote.
Overall, the results of our big game hunting look like this:
| 2013-14 | 2014-15 | |
| Deer | 8 | 2 |
| Turkey | 3 | TBD During Spring Gobbler |
| Coyote | 0 | 1 |
Regrettably, we weren’t able to donate any venison to the Hunters For The Hungry program this year.
