Hunting forecast good for Greene County
Bowhunters headed to the woods yesterday morning under ideal conditions. Foliage is extremely heavy, but that shouldn’t have affected those using tree stands too much.
Prior to the start of the season, the word was that no one was seeing an awful lot of deer, but they were seeing heavier antlered bucks, many of which were called real wallhangers.
Western Greene County Wildlife Conservation Officer Rod Burns has also been seeing his share of good bucks while on patrol.
When asked just what he has been seeing, Burns said, “I’ve seen some nice bucks. I’m not seeing as many deer as I used to, but there are still lots of deer.
“In fact, I saw the nicest buck I ever saw a couple weeks ago. I’m going to hunt for him in bow season. He is a big old buck, and the property is open for hunting.”
Burns said he was going to check the weather before he headed out.
“If it is a hot in the early part of the season as it has been, I’ll wait until its cooler and he starts to rut.
“I have been getting reports of nice bucks, and with what I’m seeing myself, I think we should have a pretty good season.
“However, I didn’t see many big bucks until just before the start of the season, but as I said, I’m seeing some nice ones now.
“Last year, the nice bucks didn’t start showing up until the season began.”
With hunting being difficult on the game lands last season, I asked Burns what he has been seeing on the game lands.
“I’m seeing deer on the game lands. They get hunted hard there on the first day, but the pressure slacks off after that until Saturday.
“They do chase a lot of them out of there when the pressure is heavy. I can’t say what it’s really like, as I don’t get a chance to hunt the game lands very often.”
When asked about the turkey population is his district, Burns said, “I’m disappointed in the turkeys. As dry as it was this year, I thought I would see more. I saw some, but not what I was hoping for.
“Last year you could tell there wasn’t as many turkeys.
“If the guys are hearing birds they are going to keep after them. If they go out and don’t hear 10 gobblers, they are not going to come back.
“We definitely don’t have the turkey population we used to have.”
It’s not the lack of food that’s responsible for the lack of game.
Despite the dry conditions, Burns said there seems to be a lot of mast this year.
“I’m seeing lots of acorns, both red and white oak, and apples seem to be plentiful. That should spread the deer out a bit.”
Burns said that rabbit hunters should have an average year. “As dry as it has been, even the young rabbits were having babies. That is what gives you a good population. It seems they did real well.”
As far as other small game species go, Burns said that squirrels are doing well, and grouse hunters will only have an average year at best.
“I saw a few grouse broods,” he said, “but not a whole lot.”
On another positive note, Burns said, “Hunter education classes had better attendance than normal.
“In the August class, we had 70 students, and for the class last weekend 80 youngsters signed up and 70 attended.
“We’re drawing a lot of kids. I hope they get into it and go.”
Burns noted that there is also a lot more girls attending the classes than ever before.
Again this year, pheasants were stocked on Game Land 223 near Kirby for the youngsters to hunt during the special youth hunt, which begins Saturday.
While he still hasn’t had a confirmed sighting, Burns said he has had more bear reports this year than ever before.
I will just be a matter of time, until bear sightings become more frequent in Western Greene County.
Overall, Burns feels this should be a typical hunting season in his district.
Rod Schoener is the Herald-Standard outdoors editor.