Time to close the Manitoba deer season for at least 2014 and 2015

The same silly cry wolf thread was started on a local forum too. If populations were so low why did MF allow three tags this year? Why did everyone I know fill ALL there tags? Why was I tripping over deer chicken hunting?

Why are all the freezers at cousins and their cousins over full? Why are they allowing unlimited (trade in samples) tags in certain areas? MPI will beg differ that there is a population shortage. Please answer me all these questions and convince us that you did not just have a bad year.

Again I do not know one person (face to face) that had a problem this season. It should be noted that everyone I know "hunts" deer! It upsets me because this is my youngest sons first season next season. Show me the data that numbers are down and I'll vote to close too. But until such time I vote no to close!

To be clear before the flaming starts, i'm all for conservation, I only take one a year regardless of allowing multiple. However my experience and opinion this year says no shortage.
 
bearkilr said:
OK, but close it for everyone, not just those of us who require licenses. Otherwise I'm 100% opposed to your proposition.
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This. Conservation doesn't work well if there's a pile of people exempt from it. I held off this year, waiting for a barren doe or old buck to come along and wound up with nothing. Didn't see a whole lot of anything really. My Metis buddies all had three deer tags a piece, filled most of them and shot a couple elk, which I now have to wait five years or more to be drawn for. Kinda bitter. My family has been in North America for as long as Metis have been around...we hunted for sustenence too, right into the 1960's....
 
radmacks said:
The same silly cry wolf thread was started on a local forum too. If populations were so low why did MF allow three tags this year? Why did everyone I know fill ALL there tags? Why was I tripping over deer chicken hunting?

Why are all the freezers at cousins and their cousins over full? Why are they allowing unlimited (trade in samples) tags in certain areas? MPI will beg differ that there is a population shortage. Please answer me all these questions and convince us that you did not just have a bad year.

Again I do not know one person (face to face) that had a problem this season. It should be noted that everyone I know "hunts" deer! It upsets me because this is my youngest sons first season next season. Show me the data that numbers are down and I'll vote to close too. But until such time I vote no to close!

To be clear before the flaming starts, i'm all for conservation, I only take one a year regardless of allowing multiple. However my experience and opinion this year says no shortage.
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Many other people's experience was very different from yours this year. Most guys I know were looking at 50 percent or worse success rates in their hunting camps. We do 90 percent of our hunting on four quarters of land in the Interlake. Once snow fell we did some extensive tracking and figured we only have six does on that land. No buck sign there for the entire season. Not one scrape, rub or draggy footprint. Bad.

*also, our chicken/partridge population seems to be near non existant right now.
 
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"The white-tailed deer is the most abundant and readily-seen big game animal. High deer numbers are seen in the province in spite of the historic loss of winter forest shelter to agriculture and urban development. Population estimates remain between 150,000 and 160,000. A historic peak of about 250,000 occurred in the summer of 1995, in contrast to a low of 60,000 in 1974." End quote Manitoba Conservation web site.

Clearly not as awesome as 1995 but absolutely no where near the scare in the 1974. Thats fact.
 
Jon. said:
Hey some people are more equal than others. Time to end treaties and be done with it. We're all canadian citizens....
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Agreed 100%. This is apartheid. We need a Mandela in Canada. Segregation of rights by race or colour is no different. We pay taxes to boot. Equal rights, human rights were such a huge issues in the 80's and now our government turns away from any fight.
 
radmacks said:
The same silly cry wolf thread was started on a local forum too. If populations were so low why did MF allow three tags this year? Why did everyone I know fill ALL there tags? Why was I tripping over deer chicken hunting?

Why are all the freezers at cousins and their cousins over full? Why are they allowing unlimited (trade in samples) tags in certain areas? MPI will beg differ that there is a population shortage. Please answer me all these questions and convince us that you did not just have a bad year.

Again I do not know one person (face to face) that had a problem this season. It should be noted that everyone I know "hunts" deer! It upsets me because this is my youngest sons first season next season. Show me the data that numbers are down and I'll vote to close too. But until such time I vote no to close!

To be clear before the flaming starts, i'm all for conservation, I only take one a year regardless of allowing multiple. However my experience and opinion this year says no shortage.
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I pretty much agree with everything you said.I think the population was over abundant the last few years and now are at normal levels.No trouble filling our tags in central Sask. this year either.
 
On the topic of shutting down the season i'm not sure is the right thing to do. Cutting back the tags based on a "word of mouth" theory may not also be the right thing to do. The fact is though that Manitoba Conservation doesn't have all the money that it needs to do surveys for every animal for GHA's every year or even ever 5th year. Even with all the hydro money ect ect there are limits to what can be accomplished here and unfortunately we don't have the population to pay the taxes that would be needed to fund things like this. This issue from what I've seen is a more localized problem. Part of my job is to do surveys working with these companies and from what I've seen the farmland based deer have taken a hit north of winnipeg but lots of the backwoods deer still thrive in most areas. Which means that your average road hunter won't be seeing as many deer as he used to. (not accusing anyone here of being road hunters I just know lots of people who are)

As for the first nations issues here I believe something more needs to be done to regulate the harvest of animals both metis and treaty (just a quick note I am metis), especially with the constant increase in population. My concerns aren't to great for the deer at this point but the elk and moose populations aren't sustainable in many area and we're seeing decreasing numbers to the point where there population once huge is now completely depleted. Now that isn't solely because of over hunting, other major factors are predation and disease. A perfect example of disease is about ten years ago when winter ticks wiped out about 40% of the moose population in the duck mountains. Brain worm is also been very volatile by destroying the moose population in the whiteshell. So over harvesting is the only thing we really can control BUT that would be a HUUGE political debate that I know just about everyone in conservation wouldn't want to be involved in. The only things that I see happening are Conservation closures of a specific GHA when it is at a very very critical level.

But thats just my 2 points lol
 
So I guess the question is why are a lot of people seeing no deer and the rest seeing plenty?

I've hunted whitetail in a couple of different areas in the last couple of years. In the last five years I've had no problems picking and choosing what type of deer I wanted. When I was allowed to I wouldn't have a problem getting one in archery, muzzleloader, and rifle. Previous to that my job pretty much kept me from hunting other than a couple of days per year and it was a little harder.

In one unnamed area three years ago, a buddy and I were hunting and saw over 100 deer in 5 days of hunting. Included were 12 very healthy bucks. We stopped for a bite to eat at a local gas station and were talking with some locals and they claimed they had been out hunting plenty of times that year and had seen nothing.

It's called hunting for a reason. You have to find the animals and not just go to the same tree stand your father and grandfather hunted the 40 years previous. I'm sure there are fluctuations in the deer population but from what I've seen so far it has been far from the devastation that everyone seems to think it is.
 
radmacks said:
The same silly cry wolf thread was started on a local forum too. If populations were so low why did MF allow three tags this year? Why did everyone I know fill ALL there tags? Why was I tripping over deer chicken hunting?

Why are all the freezers at cousins and their cousins over full? Why are they allowing unlimited (trade in samples) tags in certain areas? MPI will beg differ that there is a population shortage. Please answer me all these questions and convince us that you did not just have a bad year.

Again I do not know one person (face to face) that had a problem this season. It should be noted that everyone I know "hunts" deer! It upsets me because this is my youngest sons first season next season. Show me the data that numbers are down and I'll vote to close too. But until such time I vote no to close!

To be clear before the flaming starts, i'm all for conservation, I only take one a year regardless of allowing multiple. However my experience and opinion this year says no shortage.
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I feel the same way here in NW Saskatchewan. Mostly the outfitters crying about lack of quality deer and that means not as many big bucks this year. Everyone I know said ya they noticed a drop in population but we all still filled our freezers. I even managed to get a 170 class buck this year. Better then the few outfitters I know up here. One even offered me a pretty penny for the head I had, so some American could say he got it. Ya right I would give that trophy away. Another crappy winter means some young healthy deer will be around next year, I would say it's mother natures way of thinning the herd to make it healthier in the long run.
Cheers
Geoff
 
The general consensus from hunters and game officials/biologists is that the deer population is down considerably in many areas of the prairie provinces. I'm sure there are hunters out there who "inflate" sightings and downplay the situation as they're worried about closures. In the area I hunt, the population is the lowest it's been since I started deer hunting 30+ years ago, no question, and that is also the opinion of others, including Metis and First Nations.
 
I think those hunting in Eastman had greater success as the deer seemed to have fared better there however in my personal experience and that of every serious deer hunter I personally know and through lengthy face to face discussions with Conservation Officers and landwoners out West I am absolutely convinced the deer numbers are at lows in most of the Province that have not been seen in decades. Some claim to have exemplary hunting seasons and without a doubt some did through luck or access to areas where animals had better conditions, less predation and less First Nations activities...

So given what I have seen first hand over 30+ years of serious deer hunting I believe a closure is necessary for the good of the population and will be attempting to advance this issue through lobbying of Manitoba Conservation and the MWF...
 
I've only lived and hunted in Manitoba for a couple of years now, and I'm a bit amazed at the prevalent talk about how low the deer populations are. I have seen far more deer here than I ever saw when I lived in Ontario...and these are bad years? What's a good year like? If there really is a problem...rather than simply a natural rise and fall in natural populations due to variations in weather, predation, or whatever...then an extreme step like closing the season completely seems excessive. IF a change is required (and that's a big IF) then why not simply institute a draw system for doe tags, allowing over-the-counter purchase of buck tags only? That way, the hard-core guys who won't shoot a deer unless it carries a record-book rack can still do their thing (which will never affect the overall population anyway), and most meat hunters can still get a spike or other young buck for the freezer, instead of shooting a doe on the first morning. Or, if necessary, institute a draw system for any tag. For that matter, why not push the season back a week or two...no hunting during the rut, and then perhaps bucks-only after that?

Or is that not enough doom and gloom for everybody?
 
jjohnwm said:
I've only lived and hunted in Manitoba for a couple of years now, and I'm a bit amazed at the prevalent talk about how low the deer populations are. I have seen far more deer here than I ever saw when I lived in Ontario...and these are bad years? What's a good year like? If there really is a problem...rather than simply a natural rise and fall in natural populations due to variations in weather, predation, or whatever...then an extreme step like closing the season completely seems excessive. IF a change is required (and that's a big IF) then why not simply institute a draw system for doe tags, allowing over-the-counter purchase of buck tags only? That way, the hard-core guys who won't shoot a deer unless it carries a record-book rack can still do their thing (which will never affect the overall population anyway), and most meat hunters can still get a spike or other young buck for the freezer, instead of shooting a doe on the first morning. Or, if necessary, institute a draw system for any tag. For that matter, why not push the season back a week or two...no hunting during the rut, and then perhaps bucks-only after that?

Or is that not enough doom and gloom for everybody?
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My experience is similar to yours. I grew up and hunted in Eastern Canada and never, not once, did I ever see as many deer in a season as I can here. In fact I often see more deer in a day then I did an entire season back east. It's all relative. Even last fall my best day was 9 bucks and about 20 does in a single day. Never had that happen back home.

I have lived in Saskatchewan for nearly a decade now so I can say for certain the numbers are down compared to a few years ago. In some of my favourite areas the WT sightings last fall were easily less then half of what it was a few years ago BUT still significantly better then what I was used to growing up back east.

This is just all part of Mother Natures natural cycle.
 
Don't recall the year but back when I was a kid the season was as already said shut down all together but I also recall bucks only for a few seasons...Today with all the politics, money and the NDP looking after their aboriginal and metis concerns (votes). I doubt we will see sound game regulation like was practiced in the past...Heck when the winter was tough back in the day the province used to feed the hard hit game...Now the NDP and their government auto insurance figure why would we feed the deer when they are costing us due to auto collisions...Money, politics and power, what a way to manage a natural resource...They may shut the season down for us law abiding, tax paying ethical hunters, we don't vote NDP anyway...But forget about a complete hunting closure for all...After all there is an election to prepare for!!!
 
The bottom line is that you can't manage a game population unless all those involved work together and try to abide by similar restrictions and regulations. It's a futile effort and nothing but window dressing to approach this from a different angle. In no way would I support anything but a total closure for all.
 
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