The harvest totals are out for last season and it looks like the deer kill was up by about 27K statewide, with a total kill of 242,000, above the 10 year average. Maybe the lack of acorns had them moving? I don't know but it was the fewest I have ever seen through the end of October. Picked up a lot in November. Now getting plenty of pics on trailcams. But the last couple years it seems like there have been a lot of general complaints about plummeting deer numbers. That does not seem to be reflected in the harvest figures:

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/d ... ummary.asp

Those numbers do not reflect the kill around where I live. Numerous landowners said they're kill #'s were way down

I was surprised to see the kill take such a bounce this year and especially in Bedford. But the stated goal of DGIF is to reduce the herd to where harvest numbers actually fall. So I wonder what they will do to make this happen?

Some of those numbers could be phantoms too. I thought I heard some say that EAB has made many report doe kills that don't really exist. I think last year Barry showed his families meat locker and there were only a couple does out of hundreds of bucks. If people are having trouble getting deer on the ground they may resort to false claims so they can buck hunt later in the year. I shot 2 does up here last year and they were the only 2 does I saw. Probably saw 10 or more bucks though.

Just some thoughts.

Vic

I would bet there were a lot more field kills this year.