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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tim Sandstrom" data-source="post: 238887" data-attributes="member: 1108">Oh is this on queue!  All I can say is in two short years it has changed for me big time.  We had 8 tags in the close family/friend category.  WAAAAAAYYYYYYY too many at once.  Crazy to think since all put in separate.  Long story short, 3 did not fill.  And not one filled over a 160 class deer.  Not everyone was trying at the same effort but my poor brother started scouting in mid-Sept every weekend to opener and then hunted 16 STRAIGHT days never leaving the badlands.  He was looking for 180 or better.  Then 170 or better.  Then we started talking 160 or better.  Didn't happen.Between me, a couple friends, himself, my wife and others there was TONS of glass time.  And lots of miles on the ground between a few of us and especially my brother.  The guy busted his butt harder than anyone I know and probably ever will know.  He burned all his vacation in three weeks of hunting and left his life behind.  Plus throw in the crazy weather conditions!  Man did he ever deserve to be rewarded.  He hunts the right way and ooof did I want it to happen for him.Think I'll response to posts that jar my mind in order.  This on is to say I agree.  And it started last year just like you stated.  I blamed it on the drought last year.  Maybe it still is.  But then I thought, maybe the geographic area just got hit too hard too long last year with the cold weather and it knocked down the tired mature deer doing most of the rut running.  Then I went onto the bow hunters.  Then the pressure.  Then the public vs private.  The list goes on.- - - Updated - - -I'm being honest.  In the last four years we see about two 170 plush deer each year while bow hunting.  Best year we probably had 4 of them.  We normally see a good handful of 160 deer.  And a decent enough of "hmmm I better look" 150 class deer.  The last two years, wow for terrible.  And we normally only bow hunt in October when deer are solitude and hard to spot.  So usually, expect that number to grow in quality deer sightings as the rut gets going.  This year we did start to see some come out of the woodworks but ended up being too late in the hunt.  But they were probably just mid-160 deer.  Maybe one woulda cracked 170.  Minus a good one that was bordering public.  He made for a nice picture.- - - Updated - - -I spoke to three ranchers this year.  One was to the point he was pleading for bow hunters who stopped to ask him permission that they only shoot scrub junk horned bucks and leave genetic potential deep fork four points to see more years.  The other said none of his hunting crew had shot a deer and the other while did have a dandy to show said the same thing.  Tough to find the mature deer.Granted, they are surrounded by a decent amount of public land so maybe they are victims of pressure.  But we look at the tag situation, it still isn't what it use to be.- - - Updated - - -I haven't been doing my job paying attention the last few years.  Where did you pull 2017 numbers from?  I'd like to get myself back informed on this because 1043 is not a small number and that might as you put it already, make me start to voice my opinion a different way than I want.  But this might be turning into need vs want!</blockquote>

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