2017 Winter Kill

[Mr Mykiss]

Since this topic has been mentioned in a lot of posts regarding hunts and states I thought we could discuss it here. I have a few questions...
1. Is it too early to call it or is there a chance that this will still be a "mild" winter?
2. Does it really affect game populations that much? What's the potential percentage loss here? 20%? 50%? 90%?
3. Does it affect deer more than elk?
4. Will the 2017 winter have the potential to change your applications and hunts for 2017?

[go4steelhd]

For #1 in Oregon  and Idaho there will be a winter die off this year. This is past the mild stage. The question for this will be how bad will it be.
#2 in bad winters It will be 60 or 70% on deer. They say it can be 90% on fawns. The last one like that in Idaho was 1992 followed by another tuff winter in 1996. The deer really never returned to old numbers from there. In 2016 it was the best numbers I've seen since  1992.
#3 deer are the ones greatly affected party because of size. Elk are a big tuff animals, they have big hoofs and generally a large herd can dig down to good feed. I have not seen a noticeable difference in there numbers from year to year by winter kill.
#4 not really

[huntnnw]

Really boils down to a specific area...certain areas I know in WA and ID that this winter is not hurting the deer and some areas can be just 15 or 20 mi aways be a totally different winter for them. its to broad to say a winter kill in a state.

[Mr Mykiss]

As per the OP I wanted to talk winter kill in general, it's a bit early but I'm sure by mid Feb we'll have more than a few specific areas to talk about

[2MANY]

If the spring green up happens too fast they will overindulge and die.

[Dhoey07]

My hunting buddy and I were just talking about this on Monday.  I'm worried about it, to say the least.

[h2ofowlr]

It's probably going to be a bad winter kill this year.  Lot of cold and snow compounded by habitat loss.

[jrebel]

The snow this year (in my area) is not the issue.  It is soft powdery snow with little to no crust.  It is so lite....Most has blown off the ridges and south facing slopes.  Really quite mild as the snow is concerned.  NOW......The caviat to this problem......The cold has been fridged cold for long periods of time.  This is very bad.  Hope the sub freezing temps end soon. 

[Magnum_Willys]

Just when Idaho was getting good Im afraid two steps back.  Arghhhh

[autodink13]

It seemed like the animals came into winter very healthy. That's a plus.


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[BULLBLASTER]

It seemed like the animals came into winter very healthy. That's a plus.


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in the areas I hunt there was still growing green feed at crazy levels into December. A month or so later than a normal year due to warm temps in November.

[Pathfinder101]

As per the OP I wanted to talk winter kill in general, it's a bit early but I'm sure by mid Feb we'll have more than a few specific areas to talk about

This seems to be my experience.  December snow doesn't kill deer.  FEBRUARY snow kills deer.  When they're in good shape, they usually seem to come out of it OK as long as the really bad weather ends in January.  Both bucks we killed here in WA had good fat on them this year.

[The scout]

The area I hunt in Montana seems to get a high % of bucks that die, I relate it to an early harsh winter not late, I think the bucks never get a chance to put back on the fat they loose during the rut. About 5 yrs ago we found about 10 different bucks as a group and I think 2 does. My washington buck had good fat this yr as well but I can almost guarantee if I would have killed it at the end of November he would have burned through most of his fat content.

[Mr Mykiss]

Does anybody have a link to some sort of snotel data site that might show the trends and or amounts of snow throughout the western states? Current snow levels and percentage of "normal" snow levels for the year type of stuff?

[Dhoey07]

Does anybody have a link to some sort of snotel data site that might show the trends and or amounts of snow throughout the western states? Current snow levels and percentage of "normal" snow levels for the year type of stuff?

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/winter-weather