I have a theory. I’m not speaking statewide. I am simply referring to the NW corner.
Like I’ve said before, warmer days are normal. Timing of those warmer days does matter though. People struggled early in the season because of acorns and warm weather on the weekends ppl normally hunt. Doe harvest started out behind. Ppl normally base doe harvest on what they see. They see less, then they shoot less. They will however, kill a buck, just because it’s a buck and not a doe.
The rut rolls around, and people certainly aren’t going to kill a doe with bucks running all the country with their tongues out, but because they’ve seen fewer deer, they’re less selective on bucks, so a lot of those numbers are not considerably less than most years. Doe harvest continues to do down, while buck harvest slightly inches upward. There’s been a lot of bucks killed up here in the last two weeks, and ppl still aren’t killing does, out of choice, not because they’ve disappeared.
My theory is that does concentrate heavily around food sources like fish schooled up on a brushpile…..Therefore, there arent as many “squares” with does spread out across them right now…..Bucks however travel and move around on the landscape a lot more than does especially during the rut regardless of food…..So they’re still getting shot and may even ben getting shot in place of the does that some hunters arent seeing…….In many of the northern counties you wont know what impact the 2 doe rule will really have until next year when the does are likely to be spread out again giving more hunting the opportunity to make that choice.
