One deer permit area blues....

[laker1]

Before 172 expanded and took in much of the zone above it,estimates were there was like 26 hunters per square mile on average. Now it is like around 20 hunters per square mile,according to the DNR.

A few years ago they were taking like 5--7 bucks per square mile,now around 2.

The point is there is a lot of hunters in that area due to it being the first big block of public land north of the cities and one heck of lot of cabin owners in that area that hunt there.

Bottom line they are cropping the heck out of the deer herd and the bucks. The last 1-2 years of limited doe permits will help,but winter was hard in that area last winter.

[92python]

Yea - there are a bunch of hunters out there in that zone for sure. I do a lot of scouting and there are a pile of ladder stands as well as a bunch of permanent stands that I have found. I have been passing on the bucks - even the medium 8 pointers with the hope that they might last another year.

Maybe I should buy a tranquilizer gun and keep the immature bucks asleep for the 3 weekends of rifle season. Then again, what would breed the does?

[laker1]

Also in Cass county on Cass county land permanent stands are not allowed.

[92python]

Half our into my Friday evening sit I again had 3 nice does walk through broadside at 30 yards in Cass County. Hard to pass on these nice "eaters" but there is no way I burn my archery tag. Won't be bowhunting there again for at least a couple weeks and will be hunting at Ripley and other areas where I can shoot a doe without burning the archery tag.