Deer Season 2004

[Jim Hudson]

How did everyone do? In the northern part of the state here, I believe a lot of deer were harvested but a lot of the bigger bucks made it through the 9 day season. I only heard of and seen a few bigger buck taken. A lot had to do with the weather we had and from what people are saying is because they had to pass up larger bucks to shoot their doe first. But I believe a lot of these bigger bucks were right tight with does, and from talking to a lot of people they did not see many does. Give your input on your season and what you thought.

I think the muzzleloading season and late archery season are going to produce some good bucks this year.

[Buckslayer]

I probably saw around 20 deer for the season, which is pretty bad, and only 2 of them were bucks. This is in an area, where every year 2 or 3 members of our party get mature bucks. We had 12 deer hanging, of which only 3 were bucks. Generally we are pretty selective of the deer we take, especially on our land, but this year we didnt see many bucks moving to be selective with. Last year I shot a buck late in december, we'll have to try it again.

[puffinstuff]

It took nearly the whole day to get this one! Shot at 4pm openers, I didn't think I was gonna get one for a while there! Oh well, a little drama in life is always welcome.

[mwal]

Worst season we have ever had in zone 9. 1 small 3 pt taken early opener 3 does seen opener 5 hunters That is it our neighbors got 3 does openening day never saw another deer. Didn't see any on roads in the dark. We never saw a deer after opening day. The least amount of shots I have ever heard. Been hunting there since 1976. After the snow we covered some territory and never saw many tracks at all. I don't know why they disappeared early in the fall we saw tons of deer driving at dusk was dangerous. My brother did ok in zone 22 but very few bucks. He does mainly deer drives in farm country. Zone 9 is the big woods. Anxious to hear other reports as well. Some of the deer camps we drive by usually have 15 or more hanging the most we saw was 6 .

Mwal

[mille lacs muskie bum]

Our group did excellent. At the end of the season we had 6 deer hanging.5 bucks one doe. We saw many more bucks than does but they were either too far out or we missed them. We got one 6 point, 3 spikes, and an awesome 10 point. the six point was my first buck (second deer). We saw more bucks this year than we have in 30 years.

[lawdog]

Our group did very well again in zone 59c. We had 7 bucks and 7 does hanging by Sunday noon. Not bad for 13 hunters. Biggest buck was a ten, then an 8. I shot a 9 but he wasn't that big. The others were somewhat smaller. The antlerless were all decent.

I saw 4 bucks and 10 does while sitting on stand Sat. morning.

[mntraveler]

Our party did well all in all in zones 23 and 24. There were 10 of us total. 3 of them only hunted a couple days so we can't really include them in the total. All but one of the rest of us got our buck. There were some really nice ones and a few smaller ones. Of course I had a smaller one because last year my luck was pretty terrible and I didn't want to sit on the stand for 90 hours without getting another chance. Turns out, if I had not shot the fork horn I did Sat morning I would have had a chance at a 6 and 8 pointer 15 minutes later. Oh well. At least I know there will be a few more nice deer around next season.

[Cooter]

Had a decent season, but what sticks in my mind is all the tracks in the snow from Sat night we saw and how few deer we saw on Sun. If there hadn't been any snow, I'd have believed they were all dead or in the next county - kind of humbling!

[frozen toes]

I also hunt in 59C in WI. Shot a decent 8 pointer with an 18 1/2" inside spread. My bow season was much better than the gun season as far as deer numbers. I harvested 2 does with a bow while passing on many more. When the guns start blazing on the land I hunt, the deer crawl into a big hole. Fine by me as I still have the late bow to get another couple

[muskybuck]

Frozentoes, glad to see you back. I was worried about you.

I deer hunted up by clam lake and it was the worst hunt we have had up there in 10 years. It was an EAB area and I am worried about the deer herd up there right now. With the wolves and the EAB it did not look good. Of coarse if the wolves come in during the hunt the deer will disappear for a awhile for safety sake. I saw one doe in six days and she ran across the tar road one day while I was walking back the the trailer. Three hunters, six days, no deer.

[frozen toes]

Hey muskybuck

I have been "lurking" a lot . Ready to hit the dam this year? After a short learning curve last year, I got the hang of them river eye's. Am just going nuts waiting on the ice. I heard on the radio that the last barge for the year went through today, so now we can build some ice. As far as gun season, it was real slow for me as well this year. In my case, the deer are there, but they sure became scarce. I would like to blame it on the standing corn, but I don't totally agree with that theory. They just simply won the game this year, except for one anyway.

[outdoor ran]

This years deer season was a success for our hunting party of nine which hunts units 1 through 4. What I mean by successful is that none of us were shot and killed this season. We have to hunt public hunting grounds and we were really discouraged by the small amount of deer that we saw. I saw twelve bucks between bow hunting and rifle hunting, with the largest being only a 6-pointer. I guess I got spoiled over the last few years, I expect and enjoy seeing deer. Just seems to me that hunters in Minnesota are shooting big bucks and a majority of Wisconsin hunters are shooting does, fawns and little bucks. I feel like I'm the only person that doesn't like the way that Wisconsin is managing their deer herd. It just seems to me that the goal in Wisconsin is to kill every single deer so that there is never a deer/car collision ever again. The problem is that the public hunting grounds are getting so shredded that there is hardly any deer left on them. Meanwhile, the deer that are getting hit on the highway are coming off of private land. I'm just really baffled by how they count the number of deer in Wisconsin. Maybe I'm way off base here. If anyone else feels the same, let me know.

[puffinstuff]

Let's try again.

[Hammer-Smites]

I shot a decent 2 1/2 yr 8 pt opening morning. Got ran over by deer. 10 does and fawns and 2 bucks came by me by 7:15 opening morning.

It was real hit or miss though around the area and I think there were a lot of deer in the standing corn. There was a lot of corn that hadn't been picked in the area.

Nice buck puff!!

[muskybuck]

Frozentoes, I expect to see people slipping out by the airport road today or tomorrow. Hope it stays cold now for a few more days.

[Jim Hudson]

Outdoor Ran, I am sorry to hear you and your group didnt see many deer this year. I think a lot of folks are thinking the way you are. I spoke to many hunters who had a below average bow and gun season. I do not know for sure what caused this, cause from what I have seen there are plenty of deer around, private and public land (even though it appears our anterless population is down from years past). I hunt primarily public lands and see plenty of deer throughout all the seasons. I hunt in Units 2 and 3, where most hunting is done in 3. So truthfully I can speak of the public lands here, which do get a huge amount of pressure during gun season and substantial pressure during bow season, where the peak is usually starting late October.

This season, particularly during gun season, I believe a lot of deer were not moving during optimum times for the average hunter. From what I could see and figure, this season hit right smack dab into the main breeding phase of the rut and a lot of the bigger bucks were right tight to the does. Where these deer where bedding early morning, with sporatic movement mid morning through mid afternoon, and bedding again during late evening to move again after dark. I can tell you this, there are a lot of bigger 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 year old bucks that made it through this gun season. And this lack of movement can be contributed from the fact that our anterless deer were hunted pretty darn hard this year for EAB units, so it made a lot of these does more elusive and less populated. Anyways, I seen plenty of deer, but these are just my thoughts of why people did not see as many deer this season.

Puff, where did you harvest that buck? Nice deer.

[puffinstuff]

That deer was shot in 62a, Marathon County.

[Jim Hudson]

Anyone else got any pictures to post of this years deer?

Anyways, heard of a big non-typical that came out of Buffalo County this gun season, supposably 220 to 230 gross. Shot opening day. Would love to see a picture of this deer.