2009 Wisconsin Firearms Deer Season Thread

[Lunker]

Hunted friday afternoon and all day saturday.Didn't see a deer. Also heard very poor reports the last few days from friends around the state.

[skee0025]

Went out for a last ditch hunt this morning. Conditions were perfect a light wind and fresh snow, but nothing moving. When we got back to the house the wife informed us that while we were out several nice sized does took a leisurely stroll through the yard and into the corn fields out back, figures. Just gonna have to wait for the late antlerless season in December.

[imhooked]

Took a small spike Sat. AM

50 caliber roundball through the chest.

Ran about 10 yards.

Now I don't have to go out during our BP season when the forcast says is going to get much colder

[tritonman]

I hunted the Bayfield county area the entire 9 days (which I have done for ten straight years now) and I never saw one deer on stand!!! Opening day I heard maybe 30 shots which in normal years I would here better than 100. After opening day there was hardly a shot at all. There is four of us that hunt up there and every year at least one of us shoots a trophy buck. In 2006 we all shot big bucks on the first day of the season. This year we did not see a big buck and we hardly saw any does. We hunted hard every day also. I think there was a little mismanagement in that area the last few years.

[sparkydm]

I hunt about 10 or 12 miles north of Danbury. 3 of us filled our 7 tags the first two days. We saw alot of deer! My buddy's cousin hunts with a crew of 7 guys in the same area. None of them even saw a deer the whole season. Go figure.

[fishtrapgirl]

My husband got a second deer on Saturday morning, a 7 point buck. Will probably do some late season bowhunting, looking for a wallhanger only as we have plenty of venison with the two. We saw ALOT of deer this year! Happy with the season, wish we would have had snow for the entire time though.

[Cooter]

My bud and his group of 6 ended up with 7 deer, lots of shooting in the area. The kicker is it was not a herd control unit so they had to buy doe tags and that unit sold out pretty quick. Sounds like lots of herd control units were quiet while that particular non-herd control unit had plenty of deer to go around - go figure.

[standsitter]

Only saw 2 deer all week, and this big boy came out Sunday (22nd) at 4:00 p.m. Almost fell out of my tree, but got the shot off, and had good trail to expired deer about 80 yards-He is 13 pts-biggest for me to date!

[paceman]

Awesome buck!!!!!

[bottomdweller]

Our group seen few deer, I did manage a six ptr. We got one nice ten and an eight. I usually let the small bucks go but there are few deer around and I didnt want to take a doe and I needed some venny. Fishtrapgirl, sounds like you guys faired well, congrats. Nice buck stand.

[Cooter]

bottom - We have plenty of people in our area in similar situations, seeing so few does they are reluctant to shoot them and instead taking smaller bucks they normally would pass on.

I think where I hunt with 3 years of EAB a lot more bucks, both big and small, made it through the seasons as people harvested lots of does. So while I don't like the overall decrease in deer numbers we have been seeing more bucks, both small and big.

[96trigger]

My brother had a poor Wisconsing firearm. He missed one doe all week down by Ripon Wisconsin. The group he goes with usually shoots double digit deer, this year they got two. He also works at a feed mill as a nutritionist in the Menomonie area. He has alot of contact with farmers. The hunting was way down this year and people were not very happy. He said EAB has pretty much decimated the population for awhile.

[Cooter]

Hunters register 195,647 deer in November hunt

News Release Published: December 1, 2009 by the Central Office

Contact(s): Keith Warnke (608) 264-6023

MADISON – A survey of Wisconsin deer registration stations conducted by the state Department of Natural Resources has yielded a preliminary tally of 195,647 for the just-ended, nine-day November gun deer hunt. This includes a buck tally of 86,251 and an antlerless tally of 109,396.

This number is preliminary and is expected change before a final report is published in late winter. It does not include harvest information from the archery, October antlerless gun deer hunt, muzzleloader, December antlerless deer gun hunt or late archery seasons. The preliminary harvest count in 2008 was 276,895.

“Deer populations are variable throughout the state,” said Keith Warnke, DNR’s big game biologist, “and we believe people when they say they did not see deer in their hunting area. We have also received reports from successful camps. As always, local populations make all the difference.

“Wildlife management and especially deer management is a process of continual adjustment. In response to hunter input we adjusted seasons this year to reflect lower populations across the north and central forests and suspended EAB in many areas.”

DNR wildlife officials anticipated the total harvest would be down due to changes in season structure that significantly reduced the antlerless deer harvest, lower fawn production and tough weather conditions for deer and hunters alike. In some northeastern units it was not possible to shoot an antlerless deer and in other northern region units the small supply of bonus antlerless deer tags did not meet demand. Careful adjustment of antlerless tag numbers is an important tool in managing deer numbers.

“There are still days to hunt in 2009 in herd control units where deer are above goal and in CWD units. The muzzleloader hunt is underway and the December antlerless hunt is around the corner.”

In February, DNR biologists will compare unit-level harvest numbers against overwinter population estimates and will adjust the recommended season structure for 2010 to address any significant trends.

“A pillar of Wisconsin deer management is the accurate harvest figures provided by hunters,” said DNR wildlife biologist Jeff Pritzl. “Periods of stable deer populations have always been relatively short-lived in Wisconsin. Mandatory deer registration allows us to respond quickly to changing population levels. We have annually adapted our harvest strategies, and will continue to do so in consideration of what the 2009 harvest tells us about the deer population.”

“This year, in response to hunter input, we moved 29 units from earn-a-buck to herd control status and 38 units from herd control to regular unit status. The total number of regular units grew from 21 in 2008 to 59 this year.” said Warnke. “The result was inevitably less antlerless opportunity and lower antlerless harvest numbers.”

A table of county by county (pdf; 39kb) harvest broken down by DNR region, with a comparison to the 2008 preliminary harvest is available on the DNR Web site.

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/news/pdf/2009_9_day_table.pdf

[Cooter]

Some interesting news on WI deer hunting here:

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/ub...dee#Post2085345

[standsitter]

Another pic of my public land Buck

[bottomdweller]

Thanks for posting that cooter. I dont know whats going to happen to the herd, I hope they can figure it out. Why let the numbers drop so much. Eventually they will lose revenue if this keeps up.