AFTER THE FIRST WEEK (of deer season) by Ralph Bice    November 21, 1973

This is not to be, “Well, I told you so”, but just a short summary of the first week of deer season. We will start with partridge. Last spring I made a rather long range forecast that the partridge hunting would not be good this fall. I based my predictions on the fact that there was much less drumming than is usual in the spring. During the summer I had hopes that I was wrong for we saw quite a few flocks of young partridge. But come opening day and there were few of these birds in evidence. It used to be a standing joke that after deer season came around and everyone was carrying a heavy rifle there would be numbers of these grouse. But not this fall as even with the snow there are very few partridge to be seen and no signs, or very few. This could be part of a cycle though we did not have many partridge in the fall of ’72.

I did see one partridge that was decidedly sick. It flew up in front of two hunters and then made a very abrupt landing in some grass. Since they only had rifles they did not wish to shoot so they looked where it had landed and found it hidden in some grass. The man who caught it thought he had a cheap bird but when he cleaned it it was hardly more than skin and bone. Also tight in with the intestines was a growth almost as large as the cavity. So perhaps other partridge have had a similar sickness and this accounts for the scarcity of birds.

But it is the scarcity of deer that is the worry. Again, for several weeks, I have commented on the scarcity of deer signs and in spite of the press reports which assured good hunting the deer are less in evidence than any year since 1930. The usual number of hunters are in registered camps but not as many transient hunters. In the township where we hunt there have only been two deer taken so far this fall. Some camps have not seen a deer. One group that went home did get a deer opening morning but since then, and we had snow four of six days, they did not see a single tracks and the area is about, or was, the best hunting in McCraney. Our gang have seen only two deer and had shooting with no luck at one of them and though we hunted every day, as I said there was snow, we saw very few tracks. So I hope other areas of the district are having better luck. I did hear that further south the hunters are getting deer but the areas east of Highway 11 are going to be buying meat unless there is a lot of improvement in the second week.

We had a hunter drop into camp for a chat and he was wondering where the deer were. I remarked that there were few deer in the woods and he sort of contradicted me because he said an old Ranger (and we do not have Rangers any more) had told him twice during the summer that there were many deer around. But after a few days hunting on the snow he did change his mind. Then another hunter said a conservation officer had told him there were many deer along the road during the summer. I do not know who this officer was but definitely it was not our local man for he knew the score all along.

Have talked to a few hunters who think the season will have to be closed for a few years. I cannot see why for the deer the hunters are taking certainly do not hurt. I do think all of us would be willing to co-operate with any new plan if it had a chance of success. But since the wolves are taking many more deer than the hunters perhaps that is where the controls should start.

We found one dead moose and where there had been another. The first was definitely not a wolf kill as only the ravens had been eating it. The other had died during the winter. One group of hunters told me of seeing a moose that was hardly able to wade through a swamp and it looked in good condition. There are quite a few moose tracks but not as nearly as many as there were during the summer.

There will be hunters in the woods for the second week and lets hope they have better luck than the hunters who were in the woods the first week.