WI Deer Harvest Down 22%

[sticknstring]

I've been hearing the same negative reports as we've been discussing here for the past few weeks in MN. I think the days of earn-a-buck and free management tags may be numbered... Either the deer are getting smarter or the population is much lower than we've been led to believe. It's still early but I vote for the latter. Guys who hunt WI - what's the verdict over there?

[Cooter]

You've read my posts - its the latter. Weather was about as good as its gets for opening weekend and I believe license sales were around 700,000. IMO - the WI DNR took a good management tool to an extreme, hopefully they realize this and adjust accordingly.

[slimngrizzly]

I agree. EAB means people are shooting EVERYTHING to get that tag! Its taking its toll! Not good.

The number of quality bucks is suffering as well. Im sure the locals have noticed.

[sparkydm]

I went to Wisc. for opener. Was my first time there, my buddy told me stories of seeing 20 deer a day. I saw 1 deer on sat, 2 on sun, 0 on mon. am. My buddy says this is not how it was last year. Weather was great, just not many deer around. There was wolf sign around, but I think past years of people shooting so many does has taken its toll. JMO

[Jeremy Donabauer]

We hunt in Buffalo Co and I personally have spent a great deal of time there in last 5+ years. Numbers are down maybe in half of what they were a couple years ago. The one thing the DNR hates more than anything is the inability to control so they feel by implementing laws they have more control. I know they hate seeing Buffalo Co the way it is. IE less pressure, big deer, and landowners banning together to do their own management. What really sucks is EAB for archery and non-party hunting. So the law says no party hunting for archers but ok for firearms. And early T zone right before the heat of the rut what a joke. Where we are the deer are down number of shots were down this weekend but I think part of it is that owners and lease holders are very much limiting the number of deer shot. We hunt next to a party of about 12 guys they had only 4 eab stickers they shot one real nice buck and that was it. The owner of the land said no does except for the kids. EAB sucks. Tzone really sucks.

[sticknstring]

I know of an outfitter down there and they take around 25 antlerless deer off the lease every year since EAB started. They struggled to get everyone stickers this year. It's going to get ugly... It's already bad enough with the amount of nubs being plucked off.