WI Deer hunters, how did you do?

[skee0025]

Just curious to see how others did. According to early numbers from the Department of Natural Resources, hunters registered 243,739 deer through the nine-day season, That's up 7.7 percent from 2011. I hunted in Pierce County and it was like a ghost town over there. I normally see 20-30 deer in shooting range (shotgun zone) over opening weekend and I didnt see 15 all season with only 4 in range and I hunted everyday. I spoke with alot of people at registration sites and with deer processors and they all claim numbers are way down. How did you fare?

[tritonman]

I hunted up in Bayfield County. Sat 8 1/2 days on stand and saw 9 deer. It's the worst I've ever seen out there. I sat five days and didn't see a deer. The weather played a big role in deer activity but the numbers are down quite a bit from what I saw on trail cams and what others in the area said they saw.

[skee0025]

The big Buck/Doe board we were in on only had 3 deer reported out of over 60 names registered. That was as of 11 am Sunday morning closing day.

[tunrevir]

I hunted th my kids over in Rusk Co. opening weekend. We saw a few small bucks and a few does each time we sat. My son shot a nice doe and my daughter a nice mature 8 pointer. We passed on the smaller bucks. DNR aged both deer at 4.5 years old at registration. I went back for the second weekend and hunted Saturday and Sunday. Again I saw a few smaller bucks and 10 does from Saturday am till Sunday pm. Nothing I would consider shooting at but fun to be out nonetheless. I had a large 10 that came by Friday night before I got up there and late night ealy am had a 400+ black bear stroll by the camera. Needless to say, it was a little scary sitting in my groundblind in the morning in the dark! I had 4 grouse that hung around most of the weekend and got to see the male in full strut showing off for the ladies. I thought it was a bit weird to see a grouse fanned and strutting around this time of year. Maybe he's trying to get a head start on the ladies for next spring! Planned to head back for muzzy but had to work. Evenings seemd better then mornings for numbers where we were at.

Tunrevir~

[B-man715]

Saw a lot (30+). A handful of bucks, none were big enough for the wall....... again.......

Wacked a few does for the freezer.

[Musky Buck]

My relatives near Siren saw 0. Not sure how many days they tried though, interesting start to this post saw 15 only 4 in range that would be considered really good I think for plenty of areas in MN lol.

[skee0025]

interesting start to this post saw 15 only 4 in range that would be considered really good I think for plenty of areas in MN lol.

Its one of the reasons I no longer hunt in Minnesota. I had flashbacks to hunting in the 80's and at that time, where we hunted was one of the better parts of the state.

[Musky Buck]

I talked to kinda forgot about my brother in law and his friend who hunt north of New Richmond, he saw 1 doe and the other guy saw a doe and 2 fawns for the season, they hunted 5 days.

[bloc004]

We had one of the best years in a long time. We hunt just south of Black River Falls and we had 4 bucks and 3 does for 5 guys. Came up on a field right at the last shooting minutes with at least 8 deer eating in it. Population is looking good in our area!

[Musky Buck]

Hey Wisc. folk or hunters, are there parts of the state thin on deer so to speak ? How far apart is Siren and NR ? The 6 guys I know saw 3 deer for the season, that's way down from the years they'd see 30-50 between them. Just curious are wolves in good numbers or did they allow lots of anterless or hang on those farm permits or whatever ? Just curious is all.

[tfran123]

I know multiple parties that hunt Bayfield County, it's wolves there that are the biggest problem. Unreal how many they see while on stand. Our state doesn't have a clue how efficient they are at taking deer, they are deer killing machines. Not a doubt in my mind as I see their kills all fall long in Central MN, and I would think it gets easier for them once there is snow on the ground.

[Sinker]

Hey MuskyBuck, just back from hunting my tail off most of the gun and muzzleloader seasons just east of Siren near Hertel. Long story-short, I struck out but my daughter shot a nice 5-pointer on opening day. The last two years we haven't shot any antlerless deer and won't until we start seeing more does and fawns on the trail-cams around the cabin. We actually never really shot many does in the past anyway. But yeah, I think the liberal use of antlerless tags in the past has took it's toll. We've heard rumors of wolves in our area but never have seen or heard them. We do have coyotes and bears however. That doesn't help. It seems every year, even this year, that prior to the season you have plenty of bucks on the cameras and then they disappear when the shooting starts. I leave the cameras out now and when I go up ice fishing later I'll pull the cards and see what survived. Most of the time it's a kick in the seeds to see the bucks coming around again!

[Musky Buck]

Right on Sinker thanks for the report. I was just curious really because hearing that the harvest was up this year in Wisc. I was curious as to why some areas were pretty thin on deer but I don't have much of a pool of people to draw info from. Glad your daughter got one and a buck at that nice! I drove the New Richmond to Taylors Falls run a few times this fall and a week ago and the thing that struck me the most was how few road kills there were simply because that drive a few years back was really high risk in the dark. Maybe people hitting them are keeping them or someone else is scooping them if they're salvageable.

[TRZ II]

Sinker, I'm sure you will pound enough crappies on the river to make up for lack of venison! Be fun to get out sometime, been a lot of years....

[mwal]

Our Party of 6 hunts the Barnes area our kill was 0 for the 4th year in a row. 3 of them hunted all 9 days. There is sign but all activity is nocturnal. No one saw a deer during shooting hours. We are considering hanging it up. its so expensive being out of state etc. They keep saying there are plenty I have a friend that drives school bus he drives during prime deer viewing times he declined to hunt this year he has seen so few. I saw a wolf. Other parties in our area also blanked there is a big group of hunter between Gordon and Barnes that do drives with lots of guys and this was there worst season in 47 years 1 buck they do not shoot does . They did not say if they saw many does. As recently as 5 or 6 years ago they had 8 to 15 bucks for 20 some guys. most of the meat poles we saw were empty. Very disappointing. I have been hunting here since 1976 and this is by far the worst stretch I have ever seen. In the 70' we couldn't shoot does but at least you saw a dozen plus deer a weekend. Now I hope to see nut hatches and read books.

Mwal

[Sinker]

Hey TRZ! You're still around! Yeah, we'll fish down there sometime. Haven't really fished it much the past few winters but maybe it will be better this year. Later.

[tfran123]

Mwal:

Heard many reports that sound like yours. "Yes" there were liberal bag limits and that didn't help but I trust wolves have really had an impact, there is no other logical explanation as the winter kill(s) have not been that bad.

[Musky Buck]

Mwal that's why I was like the Wisc. harvest is up but plenty of the reports I've read were kinda dismal. Maybe they meant up from the previous year but not up in like the up up years. Anyway, I know again numbers in my area in MN are way down, my dad hasn't shot a deer since 1991 and the wintering herd has been gone behind his house for 3 years now with corn right next to the creek bottom and then where I primarily hunt at our neighbors a mile away in that tamarac swamp that wintering herd is gone also, I've taken 5 bucks there in 11 years and there's corn right up to the edge of that swamp and there's just nothing around those 2 wintering grounds anymore even if there were the wolves would reek havoc in there and maybe they did and have, talking 60-100 deer wintered there combined for as many winters back as I can remember, I do recall finding 3 dead bucks that were eaten right up to their antlers in february a few years back, the beginning of the wolves there plus the tail end of the 5 tag years, that combo is likely what's what.

[mwal]

How true, My local registration station used to register well over a thousand now around 400 which is up. Ouch

We also see bears all the time. We used to see one crossing the road every couple years now there are on our deck crossing roads every other weekend etc. My brother in Amery sees bear all the time now as well. They killed 2 bucks this year for 5 guys 1st 2 in 3 years. He doesn't allow anyone but the kids under 18 to shot does any more he used to see 20 or 30 in his fields at dusk now he said he sees more turkey, cranes and bears than deer. He never sees more than 2 deer at a time.

Mwal

[DonBo]

There's no question that parts of the state are way down for deer numbers. Unlimited antlerless tags along with the severe winter a couple years ago have been devastating on local herds. No question that the northern tier of counties have a wolf problem as well.

I'm surprised the numbers are up slightly across the state because most areas lowered the number of antlerlass tags available this year. I'm sure last years non-existant winter helped the numbers somewhat.

[nbadger23]

I've hunted near Spooner for 20 years now and we've seen the deer numbers going downward for the past 5 years. I hunted all day Saturday and saw 5 deer. I hunted all day on Sunday and caught a glimpse of a deer for about 30 seconds around 2:00. I hunted a.m and p.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and saw 2 more deer in those 3 days. My dad hunted the same amount of time I did and saw 2 deer, both of which were on Saturday. I don't know how he handled the boredom.

I know we have a decent coyote population and a strong bear population, but not sure on the wolf situation. I also know that the local farmers have shot a lot of deer through Ag tags over the years (one year the neighbor told me that they were up to 30 does so far!). Combine that with IMO, WAY too liberal doe tags over the past 10 years and we're now at a pretty dismal spot.

I'm starting to hear a lot of people say "I'm not shooting does anymore." That's an interesting observation hunters are making considering the DNR would have allowed us to buy an unlimited amount of doe tags if we wanted. Something isn't quite lining up.

Don't even get me started on bucks.... I'd be happier than heck to see a buck over 80" but that hasn't happened in well over 5 years. If it weren't for family, there's no way I'd be paying $170 to hunt there.

The southern part of the state seems to be exactly the opposite from what I'm hearing and reading. Deer all over the place, good bucks, etc. There's not one thing to blame, there are a number of factors, but I think you're going to see a concerted effort by hunters to stop shooting does and try to let the population rebound, no matter how many doe tags the DNR puts out there.

[Musky Buck]

10 4 I agree on the number of factors, it usually is winter/coyotes/wolves/bobcats take some even generally fawns and hunting. I'm glad we at least started this winter ok as well, they should be going into this in excellent shape. One thing I have 0 clue about is Wisc. muzzy season how does that go ? After rifle ? Can anyone muzzy saying non-tagged rifle guys and bow what is the operation across the st.croix

[mwal]

We have not taken or seen a buck since 2006 . It was a fork horn and was the only buck for our group.

Mwal

[6arrows]

Hunted the solon springs area for 9 days with my 16 year old son i been hunting in same area since i was 12 im 38 now not as many deer as there use to be. But my son did shoot a nice 6 pointer and 2 does for the freezer. I was sure proud of him as this was the first year he was not in the same tree with me. He had picked a different spot about mile n half from me. It sure felt different getting droped off on my trail and watching him drive away to go to his own place. When he shot his buck he came to get me right away he was so excited i herd my truck horn honking from when he left his tree.