Deer hunting reports wisc rifle season

[tunrevir]

Looking foreward to the rifle season this weekend. I have heard from a couple of buddies that the bigger bucks are on their feet and moving right now. I am hoping that this continues throughout the next weekend. I'll be hunting Rusk county between Bruce and Ladysmith and will give a report when I get back on the action I see.

Tunrevir~

[DonBo]

Good luck Randy, (and everyone else headed over to the land of cheeses) I know there's some bruisers on your property, let's see some hero photos!

[tunrevir]

Thanks, Don I hope your buddy is doing okay after his fall. I sat in the treestand the other night (Tues) when it was so windy and I couldn't help but think of him and buckle myself in. I had a strange feeling that if the tree went down I was going to meet my maker so I eventually climbed down and just hunted off the ground where the winds wern't nearly as bad. Saw a small 8 point but that was it. Hoping to tag a deer or 2 this weekend. The exciting part is that my son (9) is going to be sitting with me and my daughter (12) will be hunting nearby. Grandpa has us pretty well setup so I am hoping for the best. Light winds and a bit of snow should make things interesting! I leave asap tomorrow after work, head home, pack the cooler, grab the kids at school and head to the east! I am super excited just to be hanging in deercamp again.

Randy

[Grayfox]

I hope everyone's opener is going better than ours. I saw 2 does and a fawn yesterday and a train of 3 does and 3 fawns this morning. I just can't bring myself to take one over here. Matter of fact, we haven't taken an antlerless deer off our property in 5 years now because I know that the 9 day a year hunters North of me will manage the herd and then some for me and all my neibors. 5 guys hunting a 20 and shoot every deer they see. Wisconsin has got to stop giving out all these doe tags. Some guys just don't know how to get rid of the itch in their trigger finger.

Maybe try coyote or fox hunting when you can shoot as many as you want and it will actually help the deer and other small game numbers.

Rob

[DonBo]

Come on Rob, tell us how you really feel about the DNR handing out antlerless tags like candy. (and the people who use them)

[Grayfox]

Sorry Don. I hate to be a whiner but it's really too bad that it's taking this long for this state to even consider listening to the hunters when we tell them that the herd is in trouble. We've gone from seeing 30 deer a day opening day of gun 15 years ago to seeing 6 last year and now 3 by me and none for the kid. Pretty pathetic. The neibors who live in town and come out here have a pretty good funnel on there property North of me and they just keep pounding away at them until they run out of tags or the season closes. You just can't take that many does off a 20 acre area(with 5 hunters)and not affect the population in the area for years to come. The only good thing is the neibors to the South don't hunt and there's a pretty good bedding area over there so I don't go anywhere near there for fear of scareing them out of there. I think the coyotes and bears really took a toll on the fawns this year as well. Most of the does I've seen this fall haven't had a fawn with them.

Rob

[mwal]

Well hunting in zone 9 is a bust so far. It started snowing at 11:30 Sat into the night 16 inches here in Barnes. No deer seen for 3 hunters. Very few shots and almost no one out today. Roads are a disaster. We are in a intensive harvest zone and nobody knows why they think there are many deer here. Last season we were blanked for 5 guys. Looking the same for this year. Will hunt till Wed then again on the weekend. Heard maybe a dozen shots opening day pathetic.

Mwal

[Cooter]

I've been grumbling about deer numbers - this year again. First opening day ever we didn't even see a deer(group of 3). No we didn't hunt the afternoon in the rain/snow.

Saw one buck yesterday and the uncle got him, was a dandy. Did 3 drives and we kicked out one coyote. 42 deer/square mile my hind end.

Snow doesn't lie, wasn't squat for tracks.

Part of the problem is the size of some units. 59B that I hunt is huge. There are places within the unit with decent deer numbers, but many that don't.

Great way to get kids into hunting, sit all day and see nothing.

Enough whining for now.

[tunrevir]

We just got back. Spent 2 FULL days on stand with my daughter and her granddad and myself and my son. Saw a total of 5 deer in 2 sunup to sundown sits. Saturday nothing between us, Sunday my daughter saw 4 does but opted not to shoot as they were small and I saw a small 4 point buck at 11 am Sunday. We had a ton of deer on camera running into Thursday but nothing showed in 2 days of hunting. I think the bigger bucks were in tight cover with the does or catching up on their rest. Maybe this weekend will bring some better luck for us:)

Tunrevir~

[riverrat63]

Was up in drummond for 3 full days never saw a deer the first time I have never gotten a deer vary disappointed I hiked allmost 2miles back in the woods hunted all day, the area I was hunting was herd control so my question to the dnr were in the world do u get num for the deer herd size u just put num in a hat then draw one becouse I sure in *ell don't see the point in keeping it a herd control unit when there is no herd to control, sorry just disappointed

[schmitty3]

Made it out Saturday and Sunday up near Superior. Saw one doe Saturday evening, and nothing Sunday. Dad and uncle didn't see a deer. Neighbors saw a couple does, and small bucks. Slowest opening weekend i've ever had. Didn't see any deer tracks by my stand Sunday morning after the snow, but my dad said they were all over back in the thick stuff. I think their hiding out in the thick swampy areas, and have a good game plan for next weekend.

[nolte]

All I can say is that it's pretty bleak on the deer front in NW WI. Sure there have been some nice bucks taken but overall it down a lot. Just from the opening weekend counts from the DNR compared to last year, Burnett down 38%, Washburn down 50%, Polk down 35%, Barron down 25%. And personally I thought 2010 was a bad year, so it's even worse this year. Pretty scary too since you can get a $2 doe tag in all these counties. I know the harvest isn't down from guys not having a tag in their pocket. I think it would have been a good year to go on a hunt someplace else.

[fishtrapgirl]

I was only able to hunt a few hours on Saturday but managed to see a total of 20 deer. All does and fawns. Saw 9 on Sunday, was only out for a couple hours. Again saw all does and fawns and one small 6 point who walked past me less than 10 feet away. Went out this afternoon and saw 8, all does and fawns. Seeing plenty of deer, but this year we are only after something with big antlers. We have been passing on small bucks now for several years, and we are getting some big ones on the cameras. My husband and I joke all the deer are on our property because they know they will be safe. We have a doe with triplets that is always hanging around the house. On Saturday they all bedded down by me in my stand. We'd sure like to see them make it thru the season. I'm not sure why every year we seem to have so many deer around when everyone else isn't seeing much. We don't bait nor do we do food plots because we keep a few beef cows on our land and they would destroy the food plots. There must be something the deer are attracted to.

[vman59]

Well for us its time to try and find private land to hunt. Saturday was a total bust for me 1 and of the 2 sons I was hunting with. We hunt cty Forest land in Barron Cty and yes I know its something you have to put up with hunting on public land but this year took the cake. When I was brought up my Dad taught me to respect other hunters and give them their space if they were there first and I have taught the same thing to each of my 4 sons. I just am astounded at the total lack of common courtesy, respect and just plain hunting ethics that our young people show. We were all in stand by 530am opening day and ready to go , at 7:10 am 10 young people I'd say early 20's at the oldest come walking down into the swamp talking at the top of their lungs and just plain start walking around all over every where. they did this all over the 1000+ piece of cty forest I was hunting and really ticked some people off . But they could care less about anyone else and I did see them come out with 2 deer no bigger than my lab. Sunday was another day for everyone hunting as they didn't show up right away until late morning but in that time we saw plenty of deer of which we each shot a buck and I dispatched a limping doe as did one of my sons. These same young people hit a buck looked for 30 minutes and left. They talk about keeping the hunting heritage alive well if this is an example of whats to come might as well we are in trouble.

[GatorBait]

Talked with my local game warden yesterday, informed him of my bleak season and he agreed that it was another disappointing season for his area. The first 3 days I saw a total of 6 doe that were pushed off the neighbors overgrown white pine plantation. I swear to the Deer gods that almost every deer within a 5 sq mile radius is in that tree lot. It's hilarious cause as I drive by I can see herds of deer just chillin. They are smarter than us!!! We took 1 doe out of our party of 6 and never seen an antler. Hoping for a muzzy kill now!!

[tunrevir]

Due to work constraints I didn't make it over for the 2nd weekend of hunting but my father in law and daughter went back Thursday night and hunted the weekend. My daughter took a decent 8 pt on Saturday afternoon. My father in law saw many does and a few smaller bucks but not the buck he was looking for. On to the muzzy season now. I may head back over to hunt the late doe season the 8-11th but that will depend on how my late season bowhunting ends up in Mn. Vman, I feel your pain! We hunted a small private parcel consisting of a 30 acre woods and the local boys come through and drive everything in the area. There is even a school bus that drives the backroads and drops of the pushers some 20-30 guys and they push huge tracts of land. Can really disrupt a hunt and I feel for the guys like you, that get up early, hike in and get on stand only to have a large group come through and drive the deer into the next county!

Tunrevir~

[clam up]

I hunted up in Zone 6 near Mason, Wi. While I personally saw the fewest deer in my 22 yrs up there, we hit our average for our camp with 4 deer shot for 6 guys. One nice 8pt. At the tavern on friday night, we heard of plenty of deer being seen and shot in certain areas and little to no action in other areas. My hope is that the lack of deer around our camp will force the wolves to move on and the deer to begin to populate again. I saw what I thought was a coyote track, which would be a great sign as the wolves have had them expelled for years now. I too am going to head up for the late Wi doe hunt to try to get some meat and try to stick one here in MN late archery too. The freezer is getting low!

[jdog]

i have a question about the late season doe hunt is it open to any zone with your 1st season tag or do you need to buy a seperate tag

[DonBo]

No seperate license needed. Any antlerless tag can be used.

[Lundcranking]

Our group has hunted zone 2 and zone 6 near Delta and Mason for well over 30 years and as a group we saw the fewest deer ever. Zero deer shot for our group! We have seen a huge decline in overall deer sitings over the last 2 to 3 years. I really enjoy hunting the vast forest but it is going to be difficult getting the youth excited about hunting in national forest when one doesn't see much for animals.