Wisc. success ?

[Musky Buck]

Sunday star and trib stated Wisc. rifle season hunters took 276,000 deer. In 2007 we took in MN 260,000 deer. I know the issue is mature bucks between the 2 states, but isn't that a low harvest for Wisc. and don't they have about 200,000 more rifle hunters than MN ? If any of this is true what happened in Wisc. why the low number when alledgedly they had good weather for hunting ? Just curious ?

[kr8r.tom]

wisconsin was down 20% this year in regristration.

[Musky Buck]

What is the speculation on it ? Perfect weather is what I heard, they have a later opener than MN, they have another 500,000 animals than MN, another couple hundred thousand hunters, ??? What's up ?

[Musky Buck]

I guess what is an average take in Wisc. must not be 276,000 deer.

[Bear55]

Maybe the deer are getting smarter.

[Musky Buck]

Maybe the pressure being placed on the outdoors with the volume of people are producing a much more nocturnal herd ? Things out there have changed. Remember when the boom on Laq Qui Parle geese was in October ? Now they say come much later, November is when the refuge peaks, are our deer feeling the same way, are they sensing the change or are they not as strong in numbers as we believe they are ? My area is a 5 deer area, zone 2, area 240, from the past 2 years I'd say we should be applying for a doe permit in some of that area, I'm seeing very few deer, even before season and the wintering herd has shrunk sustantially.

[WaveWacker]

Oh don't even bring this up to friends of mine from Wis. They are ticked off with all the earn a buck, T-zone, etc. things going on over there. There are some real doubts as to the esitmated number of deer in Wis. and the way they are being managed.

[Cooter]

Thanks wavewacker!!

[J_D]

we hunt north of hayward and saw all types of deer, both on the stand and doing deer drives. we also shot two very nice bucks, including the biggest ever for my camp, around 150 class. this is in a herd control unit. so to sum it up i personally don't believe there are problems with the wisc herd, it just hunting, the guys who put in the most time will more than likely get a chance, it just happened that my chance came on thanksgiving morning when the herd came by, 3 does and a nice eight, and my darn gun wouldn't shoot, well thats why it called hunting and not killing i guess.

[96trigger]

Quote:

3 does and a nice eight, and my darn gun wouldn't shoot,

OMG, that happens to me in my dreams all the time. I'm hunting, see a nice buck, and no matter how hard I squeeze the trigger, its like the safety stays on. Happens almost all the time, very frustrating dreams.... LOL

[inspec_brad]

What is the speculation on it ? Perfect weather is what I heard, they have a later opener than MN, they have another 500,000 animals than MN, another couple hundred thousand hunters, ??? What's up ?

I bet all the deer crossed the mighty mississippi when the season started and ended up in the SE part of the state. MNDNR conducted their deer count for this area at that time. We can still shoot 5 deer now because of this.

[J_D]

ya i wish it was a dream, now i have a reoccuring nightmare everytime i even think about deer hunting, buck in my scope 30 yards broadside, pull the trigger, nothing, check the chamber, oh theres a bullet in there alright, check the saftey, its definitely off, buck stops this time 20 yards away. pull the trigger, nothing, look at gun ready to cry and boom, only problem is it went off 10 seconds after i pulled the trigger. whats really fun is i shot two does in minnesota, no problems there, finally get a chance at a buck and i got problems. not lol, definitely not a laughing matter.

[Musky Buck]

BullMN, in my area it is a 5 deer area still, couple years ago our group quit buying the bonus bambi permits because we aren't seeing deer like we did 5 years ago, way less. Any thoughts on the early antlerless rifle hunts ? The year they did it in my area I saw 14 fawns and 3 bucks. I've seen 2 does in the past 3 years of rifle hunting. Couldn't they hold that hunt after rifle season statistics are in ?

[Grant Pearson]

Maybe the deer are getting smarter.

I wouldn't necessarily agree. My father and I own some land and we harvested 9 deer this year alone between the regular season and the 2 doe seasons. 2 guys, 9 deer. no more buying beef for a LONG while!!!!!

[Cooter]

Snow doesn't lie, deer aren't smart enough to figure out a way not to leave tracks!

[Musky Buck]

That's the thing Eddie, I mean Cooter, I have monitored wintering herds on my 3 separate areas for 25 years and it's way down, the snow is the key, the tracks aren't there and driving around those sections of land thousands of times noting way fewer deer, but we still can get 5 tags.

[Bear55]

Originally Posted By: Bear55

Maybe the deer are getting smarter.

I wouldn't necessarily agree. My father and I own some land and we harvested 9 deer this year alone between the regular season and the 2 doe seasons. 2 guys, 9 deer. no more buying beef for a LONG while!!!!!

I was joking there. No doubt deer numbers are way down across most of MN and WI, I think some of you are right, too many extra tags/deer being shot the past 4-5 years.

[LOTWSvirgin]

Sounds like the iowa season which will end this weekend has been pretty bad too

[Grant Pearson]

In Wisconsin, at least the zone that I hunt in, you could ultimitely buy an unlimited number of tags if you wanted to. Is that excessive? I agree. There should be a limit on the number of tags that you should be able to buy. In reality though, my immediate family (2 adults and 1 infant) can eat 5 deer a year. We eat almost exclusively venison and/or wild game (fish, pheasent, waterfowl, etc) instead of domesticated meat because it's cheaper in the long run and healthier. Who knows how many growth hormones and whatever else is added to cattle and poultry.

[skee0025]

We Hunt North of Pepin, near Plum City. We got 4 deer between 2 hunters. I dont know about perfect weather, It was windy where we were and we saw relatively little pressure from other hunters. That combined with the fact that most of the Farmers still had thousands of Acres of corn left standing in the fields and that more than accounts for the lack of deer seen/taken. The deer had no reason to move. Talk to bow hunters, they have said they saw all kinds of deer. We also went out for the late antlerless season, I had one down before I got out to my stand and saw a total of 24 deer that day(I went out at 3 pm) 10 in the first 15 minutes. There are plenty of deer. In the interest of full disclosure--Zone 61, EAB/Herd Management.