Where did all the deer go?

[Wade Joseph]

I had 5-8 deer coming to my back yard evey evening to eat the corn I was putting out. (Yes its legal for me to do that here) but about last wed or thurs they stopped coming in. At least during daylight. Now the corn disapears every night, but I am not seeing any deer from 5am to 10-11 pm. They musta went nocturnal a couple days before the season. No surprise. WI has been huntimg deer the same 9 days for 75 years now. They must have figured it out by now.

[GatorBait]

I have to agree Wade. Seen deer all bow season, hunted the same spot for gun which has produced 2 140 class bucks for me the last 2 years, but I've seen 1 doe since saturday. Scrapes are being worked, but assuming at about 1am. lol. They hear that 1st gun shot on opener and they say, "Well, glad I can sit right here and eat some grass cause I ain't moving for 9 days." Suppose it depends on hunting pressure, hope to see some more movement from the deer towards the end of the week. GL

[Northlander]

They are all on the St.Louis River and at Murphy Oil. Someone must be ffeding them on water street because there was like a dozen of them crossing water street when I was down there today. Saw another dozen in Oliver area and then a bunch more at Murphy. The deer havent been in my yard for a while.

[Wade Joseph]

I stayed up past my bedtime last night and sure enough, at 12:05 I had 5 deer in the back yard eating corn. Guess I will have to wait til gun season is over and hopefully they will come back to daytime routines.

[Cooter]

Wade,

I was in your neck of the woods earlier this year and warned the local deer about the upcoming gun season Seriously, it doesn't take long for them to figure out somethings up - its their home 24/7. My theory is they have an underground system(complete with stashes of acorns, corn, etc.) installed for gun season

[outdoor ran]

My yard deer have disappeared also. There not even hitting the corn and apples at nite.

[Swamp Scooter]

In our area of N. WI - Iron River area there have been tons of wolf activity. We had 8 hunters and saw 0 deer in 7 days of hunting. We even relocated a bit but must not have gotten out of the wolf range. Any idea how long they stay around? Not even any deer on the roadside at night or morning. Very disappointing to not even see a deer. The deer were around all year and then all gone. Corn put out Thursday before opener was STILL there on Thanksgiving! Very strange. Any tips for T zone hunting?

Thanks

[mwal]

We were South of Barnes and this was the 2nd worst season we have ever had. Last year being the worst noting sighted after Sun. Not a deer sighted after Mon for 4 hunters putting full days on the stand. We saw fresh sign just tunred nocturnal on us. Also there are wolves here as well. Very few shots heard. Most of the camps had very lean meat poles this year. We have also noticed a large increase in archery hunting in the area as well. Maybe the deer are more wary due to wolves and hunting pressure.

Mwal

[kjgmh]

I was in the Ashland and Barnes area during season and deer sightings were way down for our group. Only decent buck I saw was on opening day before 10 am. We also had wolves in the area by Ashland. One of our groups was on a field edge with a couple of round bales left in it, the wolf hoped up on one of the round bales and napped there for a couple of hours.

[Jim Hudson]

Definately a lot less deer up here in the north then years past... Even though I didnt make it into the woods for the gun season, the reports from everyone showed that the deer numbers were down (a good thing in my mind IMHO) and that the deer activity/movements was down due to the weather.

Personally thinking, I think the above average temperatures and the timing of the gun season with a period when the bucks are really locked up with does had to do with limited buck sightings (the period of November 12th through the 20th has always been bad for me for seeing mature bucks). Most parties stated doe and or fawn sightings were good just the big boys were not moving. Seems like the anterless harvest was pretty good though... Next year should produce some real quality bucks, with the lack of 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 year old bucks being taken.

[walleye_dog]

We have a camp in the Dairyland area, and this was our worst year we can remember. Not one shot fired by four hunters. We figure the mild temps this year just did not move the deer, and the deer we did happen to see were so spooked and cautious we did not stand a chance. But then again the eight different timberwolves we saw within a one mile radius of camp throughout the week probably had the most effect on those deer.

[Blake]

hunted in Forest Co. and the hunt was ugly...1 spiker for 8 hunters...My buddy that lives there and owns the land we hunt on, his land butts up to the Nicolet forest....He has seen 2 bear during bow season and tooooo many wolves's and coyotes. He figures they have had an impact as he can't remember a year with so few deer...

As a side note...a number of years ago he was sitting in his tree stand during bow season when he heard this massive crashing through the brush.....he figured it must be a bear as the noise was big....Here comes a 4 point moose through the brush and he almost fell out of his tree!! This moose was spotted several times in that area..Crandon, WI...but he figures it came down from the UP as it's not that far away.

What a guy won't see from his tree stand.........

[outdoor ran]

my hunting party went out and drove some of our hunting spots for the doe blast. Spots we had seen hardly any deer during the 9 day gun season. thay said there were deer and tracks everywhere. There best drive kicked out 10 does and 4 bucks.

I went and hung a stand in that area and will try a couple of more times with the bow. I havnt had any luck bow hunting in dec. in the past. Maybe get lucky this year.

Good luck if you get out