Zone 3A

[galaxyman]

As and avid 3A hunter for many yearws I would like to start a discussion on the seasons length. Specifically, I would like to see the second weekend added back onton this season. This year I saw the fewest number of hunters in the field I have ever seen for this season.

Perhaps a second weekend would add more interest. I now in my case it would allow me a much desired "second hunt".

[Dan Thiem]

3A for me too! As long as I can remember we always had two weekends to hunt. But I just took more vacation days off work. By the end of the season I guess I had enough time in the stand. I would like to have them weekends back too but the D.N.R. knows what they're doing and I'll just have fun being in the woods whatever the season is.

[96trigger]

Galaxy, the whole reason for the lengthened 3b was to help trim the doe population. The seasons should stay the same. That said, this is the first year that I noticed how skittish the does were. We shot just as many bucks in 3b as does. Numerous people that I talked to had trouble seeing deer. It might have just been a wierd season, but its possible that all the does being taken during the buck season is going to hurt more than it will help. Just my 2cents.

[JKing]

I'm kind of undecided on this topic. As a 3B hunter I havent't really found that the added weekend for us has helped considerably but since the 3A season can shoot doe's now I think the DNR wanted to still have some incentive to go the 3B season. If you can get Doe tags & have two full weekends to hunt I believe there would be more 3B hunters going 3A instead. I kind of liked the off weekend in the middle just because it gave me another weekend to go bow hunting.

[galaxyman]

TRIGGER, I ALSO OBSERVED SOME VERY SKITTISH DOES THIS YEAR. THE OPENING OF THE DOE TAGS FOR 3A DID PRODUCE SOME DOE HARVESTING SO THIS MAY HAVE INCREASED THEIR AWARENESS?

I ALSO AGREE WITH DAN IN THAT THE DNR DOES KNOW WHAT IT IS DOING. GUESS I WILL ENJOY THE TIME I HAVE IN 3A AND GET THE BOW OUT FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON.

[zepman]

Interesting topic. 3B hunter here. Wasn't the shortening of the 3A season and adding does to the mix meant to ease up a little on the bucks during the rut? Usually 3A is right on line with the rut in this part of the state. I think the way they (dnr) have it now is a step in the right direction. I would like to see antler restrictions be placed on those of us who hunt the 3B season as well. I know for a fact that the little bucks get just blasted during the 3B season. Antler restrictions would allow some of these to grow up a little and create a greater doe harvest which would help everybody out. My 2 cents.

[96trigger]

I thought about this alot this last week, I do think that the DNR does a nice job, but the way the season is now might backfire. We hunt 3b to put meat in the freezer. I am a big believer in QDM to help get sizable bucks because I bow hunt. Unfortunately, like I said, we are meat hunters, we like to eat deer, this year, I was disturbed at the number of small bucks we shot, me not included, because we just weren't seeing the does. I know the does were there, there were numerous sets of tracks after the snowfall on Friday, but all the deer moved at dark. There was only 2 shots fired in my area, but during buck season, there were two large groups in my area. These deer got educated before I ever hit the woods, the result, was seeing a lack of deer. I bowhunted this area a couple of times this fall and always saw plenty of deer. Like I said, this might have just been an odd year, but a couple more like this would make me, and others like me, go 3A. I already think that the 2 seasons are great for splitting the number of hunters, but an extra weekend where the deer are barely moving, isn't going to be enough for most people. We all bought bonus tags this year and not one person needed to use them. I'd like to hear more thoughts on this. It might need to get brought up to the DNR. I don't think anyone that hunts 3A really wants more hunters in the area, and nobody is going to continue to hunt 3B if they stop seeing deer.

[mitch]

My group hunts 3B. On the first morning we saw over 100 deer for 5 of us. Maybe 5 were bucks. The next day we didn't see any. Partly because of the weather partly because I think they figured out it was hunting season again. We didn't do any drives. The land gets hunted during 3A too and they usually see lots of deer. If we wouldn't have filled our tags the first weekend I'm glad that we would have had the second weekend to finish them off. I think its good to have a second weekend available to get a couple spooky deer.