Answers to why many haven't seen a deer.

[skee0025]

I hunt By Plum City near Ellsworth, Did I see less Deer....yes. One thing I havent seen mentioned was the poor weather (high Winds) during opener or the fact that there was still alot of standing corn. The land I was hunting was clear but the surrounding area still had many large fields with corn still standing. If the Bow hunters were reporting alot of deer activity but rifle hunter saw relatively few deer it wasnt wolves or bears. The predation rate could not possibly be that high in that short of time. As I went down to Pepin to register my deer opening day (just at sunset) I counted no less then 35 deer in the 9 mile drive from my dads house into town. They were there they just had no reason to move, they were safe and comfortable in the standing corn

[outdoor ran]

Tell me about it, I hunted the Mn rifle season too. First time I've ever hunted in MN. The guys I work with have a area they hunt thats produced some big bucks and has always been full of deer. They told me to let a bunch of deer go and the big boy will come. Well I let a little 8 pter and a doe go opening morning and I hunted another 9 days and never seen another deer lol. The weather was horrible and there seemed to be no deer moving.

What worries me about he WI season was we couldn't even get deer moving driving them. The muzzleloader guys didn't see much and there still doesn't seem to be much tracks around. Who knows, maybe next year there will be deer everywhere. I have my doubts though.

[goblueM]

good point about the standing corn - late harvest this year combined with SUPER windy rifle season is most likely the driving force. With some local overharvest or wolf activity coming in a distant second

[Cooter]

I don't buy any of their 'excuses' - you massacre does for long enough and you end up in this situation, pretty simple. I'm like a broken record but again you just can't go from handing out a few choice permits each year to EAB without dramatic results. IMO they went with EAB, zone T/herd control hunts, and handing out doe tags for about 2 years longer than necessary in many units.

[DonBo]

I agree comlpetely!!!! There are no corn fields for the deer to hide in where I hunt...there are just very few deer. We shot them all the last few years. It's that simple.

[Cooter]

I thought the horse just twitched a bit so.....if kills are down again next year at least the DNR has the winter to blame now.