Deer numbers your zone(up-down)-2010-season type are you satisfied

[laker1]

I hunted zone 172 and seen less sign and deer this year. Few tracks in the snow compared to 3-4 years ago. Glad they went to the lottery. Need to build the breeders back up. Your observations and opinions ?

[BigJakeL]

I Wisconsin I hunt 116 and have seen more deer this year than in previous! It is getting better over here for the most part! Just wish they would stop handing out so many tags!

[Steve Foss]

I typically hunt up by Ely in what is now 118. Deer numbers seem about the same as last year (low after a couple of tough winters). While it sucks to be lotto (118 is), I agree those does need to be left alone as much as possible this year.

[BigJakeL]

Steve,

I use to live in Ely from 2006-2008. I noticed that between the wolves and the winter it was really taking a toll on the deer population!

[96trigger]

342, deer sightings were down. Heard more shooting than normal though, so I am assuming it is about where it has been.

[NoWiser]

I hunted NE Minnesota public land the first two weekends and the numbers seem similar to last year. Seems they are about where they should be, and I'm very happy with the amount of deer I saw.

This past weekend I was in zone 172 where we hunt public land. I didn't hunt, having gotten a deer already, but went to relax and spend time with the group. From what I heard the numbers of deer seen were very similar to last year (very good). Almost everyone saw multiple deer, with some seeing 10+ per day. Most of the group is typical "brown its down" and, had it not been for being a lottery area, it would have been a deer slaughter-fest this year for them.

[juniordo1]

I hunted 178 and 179 this year. My opinion:

178 - Up from last year. Lots of does and fawns running around seeing lots of deer by roads/in fields at night. Saw 9 deer from stand during rifle season (5 Days), two of which were big bucks.

179 - Down from last year. Deer sign was way down in terms of tracks/rubs/scrapes. No big bucks seen/taken. Not seeing deer by roads/fields at night, saw zero deer from stand during rifle season (4 days)

I was able to take a nice doe last Friday from 178 and yes I am satisfied

[Sorgy]

Our group hunts 177 Near Angora. Deer numbers were decent we ended up with 4 deer. 3 bucks and 1 doe.

Our group was a little more careful with shots and holding out for bucks that are 2.5 years old or better. The boys can shoot 1.5 year olds.

I saw lots of deer and sign. However many young deer. lots of smaller 1.5 to 2.5 year old bucks on trail cameras and sightings. Our group of 10 guys saw 2 bucks that were 3 1/2 or better.

We had a pack of 7 wolves in our area again all season. My dad had the entire pack walk by at 50 feet opening day. There were Wolf tracks all over our area in the snow.

If the winter is not too hard there should be some nice 3.5 year old bucks next year.

Steve

[Steve Foss]

179 - Down from last year. Deer sign was way down in terms of tracks/rubs/scrapes. No big bucks seen/taken. Not seeing deer by roads/fields at night, saw zero deer from stand during rifle season (4 days)

[madbomber10]

Zone 214 - Deer numbers are down and have been for about 3 years.

We would like to see the number of deer that we did 10-15 years ago, which would be below 5 years or so ago and above current numbers. At the highest numbers there were to many young deer and to much crop damage.

[TRZ II]

Hunted 156. Our party of 5 all got a deer for the 3rd straight year. Numbers seem about the same. Pretty low density, you need to work hard to get a deer. Yet it varies I seen 4, one member of our party seen 25. Still vary satisfied, these are good years for deer hunting!

[ANYFISH2]

hunted 246 opening weekend we where 3 for 4 on opening day. We expected a good year as trails where beat down hard for a few weeks before opener, which is odd for us as we usually do not get much sign until the week bfore opener. As a group we saw 11 deer opening weekend, up from 1 or 2 a person. One more year of lottery and we might see a managed season once again.

I then hunted with a friend on his farm in 214 monday through saturday. 3 deer where seen all week. Lots of nightime activity but nothing during the day. I feel there could certainly be more deer in this area (or most portions). I liked there years of plenty.

[Musky Buck]

I'd say compared to 5 years ago there were 75% less deer around than then in my area, but it makes sense, 5 tags for quite awhile, and there were too many around 6 years ago, I'm worried about this winter, lots of black dirt near their wintering grounds and hardly anything for food, time will tell.

[paceman]

I hunt 241 and 239. I would say the numbers are about the same if not up slightly. I am sastified with the numbers I saw.

[HunterLee]

down area 265 nicer bucks but fewer deer in general by quite a bit

[Agent Andy]

I hunt area 181. The numbers were down from the past few years. We did harvest 7 deer for 7 of us, but saw a lot fewer deer. The weather may have played a roll. Also the sighting of wolves on many different occasions (6 in one pack) sure didn't help. I hope next year the DNR eliminates the 5 bonus tags.

[Jameson]

area 285, judging by the number of shots heard- not many deer. Judging by the number of deer seen- not many deer. Judging by the amount of tracks seen lately in the snow around my corn plots- too many deer. Deer numbers are likely about the same as past years.

601- deer number up, too many deer.

159- deer numbers steady, just enough deer.

223/224- deer numbers down.

225- deer numbers down. IMO at a population level that is o.k.

176- only grouse hunted this year as we did last year. Deer numbers way down. 3,4,5 years ago their were many deer, not no more.

[Archerysniper]

I have hunted the archery and slug season in zones 225 and 227 deer numbers are way down you have to search to find the pockets of deer they both are 7 deer areas. Slug season I hunted every day the week days only in the evenings but put lots of time in saw 5, four of those were fawns and the 5th was a fork horn. Went up north of lake winne for the 3rd weekend of rifle saw 11 in 2 days in the lottery area one 6 point rest were does and fawns.

[creepworm]

Zone 240 in my opinion is probably close to last year, but slightly down. Our group saw less deer than normal but groups around us had luck and there was quite a bit of shooting opening morning.

[zepman]

348 (3B season) deer sightings were at an all time low...our group of 12 took 2 deer...and 6 hunters never saw a deer in the two days of hunting. The countryside surrounding us was amazingly quite all weekend long so I know it just wasn't in our section that people were struggling. I've never seen it like this in the 20 some years I've hunted in this area...hopefully, this week will bring some better results.

[hockeybc69]

Area 240.

We could have filled tags for 5 of us with ease during firearm. But we let the 2 kids take deer, while the 3 adults held out for mature bucks. No mature bucks showed up.

Its so hard to say where we really stand on populations. We saw deer, so its good I think.

But the trail cams show sooo much more. In the end, we dont see a lot of the deer that frequent the area for sure. In my opinion, I think a lot of people would be very surprised whats around if they were running cams.

So to answer the questions:

Up/down? I plead the fifth. I have no idea. Every year I get a lot of deer on cam we never see with our own eyes. I will leave this up to the DNR to determine. I am not going to claim to be an arm chair biologist.

Are we satisfied? We saw deer, so it wasnt bad. Just cant seem to connect on what our goals are set to be. So I am in no position to complain because we could have shot deer if we wanted. Just didnt see what we wanted, so another year of a level of disappointment.

[laker1]

As a individual hunting party you can not really speculate how the deer herd is,but cumalatively(sp) from comments individuals and party's you get a pretty good picture what the deer population is like. The harvest kill sometimes does not give a true picture either, for many areas a hunter hunts to he kills a deer, he may see 1 deer or 100 deer but he only shot one deer. It would be nice if you had a log of a thousand hunters how many deer they see/day from season to season. Good reason to keep a diary or log just for your own personnel satisfaction. Keep the info flowing-good talking point. tracks in the snow are good indicators-are you seeing more deer tracks after the snow in parts of deer zones?

[archerystud]

Area 291,

Deer sightings were about the same as the last couple of years.

I actually think the one longer season is helping our deer numbers, at least for more mature deer. In farm country when we had two different seasons you used to get one party hunting an area for one season and then a new party coming in for the second season. Now you typically only have one party hunting the entire time which has less tags flowing through the land.

Hunter numbers were WAY down for the second weekend. My dad and I were filled out so we drove around and hardly anyone was hunting that second weekend. I don't think the nasty weather helped as it seemed to deter some hunters. Personally I would have been out in the snow if I would have had any tags left.

[96trigger]

Quote:

As a individual hunting party you can not really speculate how the deer herd is,but cumalatively(sp) from comments individuals and party's you get a pretty good picture what the deer population is like.

I don't disagree with this, but we as hunters also talk to other hunters. I know the deer were there in 342, but during firearm they never showed. Weeks leading up to firearm during the bow season, it was not uncommon to see 10-15 deer feeding in the fields in the evening. During the season, it went to almost 0. And this was just a couple days before the season even. I believe weather played a large part in our area. It was warm and windy. We were all hunting bluff sides, and field edges on top of the bluffs and hardly saw anyt deer. In the river bottoms, where it was cooler and alot less windier, I heard more shots than I ever have in 20 years of hunting that spot. In reality, the harvest numbers will tell the whole story.

[Musky Buck]

I'm totally in the opposite stud, in my old zone 4 areas though we never had new parties coming in, just 1/2 the party hunted first weekend and half the 2nd so 1 longer season in my area is hurting deer numbers especially mature deer. Now these quite a few groups are getting bonus tags with more than 2x the amount of days in the field plus muzzleloader and they use the tags that don't muzzleload first plus in the 2 day season you hunted, if weather wiped you out it did, now having an additional 7 days and nights is crippling the mature deer in our area as you are guaranteed to have some decent deer movement days, in the past you were done and those deer survived the season, there were also sanctuary areas for groups that only hunted the first weekend, their land helped many mature deer make it to next season and those bucks became much larger the next year and spread to many lands in the area, now it's 9 straight days of pressure with 16 more right around the corner, 25 gun days in these heated fishouse stands and when 4 come out the largest is shot at. Been driving farm country for 25 years and living in it and the last 5 years we have seen the fewest amount of mature deer in velvet, during season, and after season than in our existence. The farmers in our area concur and we scout nearly year round, so stud within an area things can really vary and I will always hate zone 2, doesn't hardly pay for us to hunt after the 1st couple days anyway as they go nocturnal and get pressured weeklong now, at least they had a chance to regroup under zone 4B and resume some kind of normal travel and the rut didn't get so out of whack.