How are the deer doing, what are they eating?

[sandbur]

12 inch plus snowfall for later this week. If it stays cold, and we get more snow that will make it tough on deer if we have a late spring like last year.

So Wisconsin DNR decided giving out 11,000 plus doe tags in my county wasn’t good enough, so they decide to have an extended holiday hunt, and extend bow hunting until the end of January. My observation is deer numbers are down in my land.

Was CWD a reason for the extended season?


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[4wanderingeyes]

Not in my county.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

PoorSand, post #16 - Wow !! That's a heck of a crab tree. It's bending over from fruit load. I wouldn't mind having a few like that at camp.

 

[bigbuck321]

I hunt property in northern WI. We have 9 food plots with beans, turnips, clover, etc planted in them. The deer hammer the food plots all summer and fall. But when the cold temps and snow come they always disappear. Even though we have enough food for the most part of the winter they always travel to fresh clear cuts. I believe the deer have always traveled to those newer clear cuts every winter. Its going to be hard to change up a pattern they have been doing for lots of years.

 

[Livesintrees]

I hunt property in northern WI. We have 9 food plots with beans, turnips, clover, etc planted in them. The deer hammer the food plots all summer and fall. But when the cold temps and snow come they always disappear. Even though we have enough food for the most part of the winter they always travel to fresh clear cuts. I believe the deer have always traveled to those newer clear cuts every winter. Its going to be hard to change up a pattern they have been doing for lots of years.

How’s the cover on your property?

 

[sandbur]

I hunt property in northern WI. We have 9 food plots with beans, turnips, clover, etc planted in them. The deer hammer the food plots all summer and fall. But when the cold temps and snow come they always disappear. Even though we have enough food for the most part of the winter they always travel to fresh clear cuts. I believe the deer have always traveled to those newer clear cuts every winter. Its going to be hard to change up a pattern they have been doing for lots of years.

How’s the cover on your property?

My question was going to be about coniferous cover.


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[BuckSutherland]

12 inch plus snowfall for later this week. If it stays cold, and we get more snow that will make it tough on deer if we have a late spring like last year.

So Wisconsin DNR decided giving out 11,000 plus doe tags in my county wasn’t good enough, so they decide to have an extended holiday hunt, and extend bow hunting until the end of January. My observation is deer numbers are down in my land.

Growing up and for the beginning part of my adult life I viewed the DNR as the protectors of our resources. As I age, (Late 30s now) I have grown to despise the DNR and everything they stand for. The MN DNR resembles a large publicly funded political organization that uses taxpayer dollars to keep the fishing and hunting of this state as shitty as they possibly can. If they had any shred of credibility they would come out and say that Lake Mille Lacs is full of walleyes, and its not global warming that's killing our moose and deer, but instead wolves. So many obvious answers in plain sight, but they sit on the fence and hold their hands out for more money and power. They use "science" to drive a political agenda. Our (MN DNR) has been weaponized to decimate our deer herd and continually give us a shit sandwich and poor-pathetic fishing across much of the state.

Hopefully things work out better for you in WI than they do here in MN.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Buck, I am a MN resident, but I hunt in Wisconsin. MN was great hunting, and fishing until About 10 years ago, and the DNR turned political and wanted to try to please everyone, rather then protect the wildlife. For instance, 10 years ago you have a snowmobile trail, great! Now you have a skiing, walking, biking, and horse riding trail, that if you ride a snowmobile on, you need to be careful for people hiking and skiing on the snowmobile funded maintained trail. Even though the other groups don’t pitch in for building, maintaining, or funding.

Fishing, you could use the Milacs Lake issue as an example. Natives can take 168,000 pounds of walleyes, but the remaining US population? Closed ice fishing, or a 2 fish limit. But then they say there is not enough walleye, so closes the non native fishing, but the natives just increase their quotas.

Deer hunting let’s give into the horn porn folks in the SE part of the state, and have a minimum antler size, and not have a antlerless season, then wonder why when diseases settle into the herd in the area, why would that happen?

I could go on. Like where I live, the highway divides one of the zones. On one side of the road is up to 5 antlerless tags, plus a buck. On the on the other side of the highway, it is buck only.

How about fishing lines, you can fish with 2 in the winter, but one in the summer. Their reasoning, people would decimate the walleye population if there was 2 lines allowed in the summer as well. Although all neighboring states allow 3 or more year around, and have some pretty good fishing.

I could go on and on, but I won’t.

 

[Livesintrees]

Buck, I am a MN resident, but I hunt in Wisconsin. MN was great hunting, and fishing until About 10 years ago, and the DNR turned political and wanted to try to please everyone, rather then protect the wildlife. For instance, 10 years ago you have a snowmobile trail, great! Now you have a skiing, walking, biking, and horse riding trail, that if you ride a snowmobile on, you need to be careful for people hiking and skiing on the snowmobile funded maintained trail. Even though the other groups don’t pitch in for building, maintaining, or funding.

Fishing, you could use the Milacs Lake issue as an example. Natives can take 168,000 pounds of walleyes, but the remaining US population? Closed ice fishing, or a 2 fish limit. But then they say there is not enough walleye, so closes the non native fishing, but the natives just increase their quotas.

Deer hunting let’s give into the horn porn folks in the SE part of the state, and have a minimum antler size, and not have a antlerless season, then wonder why when diseases settle into the herd in the area, why would that happen?

I could go on. Like where I live, the highway divides one of the zones. On one side of the road is up to 5 antlerless tags, plus a buck. On the on the other side of the highway, it is buck only.

How about fishing lines, you can fish with 2 in the winter, but one in the summer. Their reasoning, people would decimate the walleye population if there was 2 lines allowed in the summer as well. Although all neighboring states allow 3 or more year around, and have some pretty good fishing.

I could go on and on, but I won’t.

Excellent points and they exist in some form throughout where the membership hunts. What always gets me is that we my dollars go to state land preservation etc. however a large portion is open to hikers and bikers and so on. So wait a minute. I have to buy tags galore to hunt here and use the land, but a guy who wants to walk his dog off trail through the woods does so for free? Now don’t get me wrong, bc I no longer hunt public land and haven’t in quite some time, but at what point does someone else contribute for a change?

In NJ I hunt all seasons and weapons. I hunt two different zones. So the breakdown is this. Fall bow I need to buy a tag that’s good statewide. EAB still exists although my home area has been hammered by EHD by no regulation changes have been made. Thencome peemit bow I need to buy a permit for each zone that’s good for doe only. I have to buy a buck tag to take a buck during permit bow season. Same routine for permit shotgun and permit muzzleloader plus the addition of a rifle permit to hunt with a muzzleloader. I also need to buy a general firearms license to hunt for 6 days in December. Then should I want to hunt winter bow I have to buy yet another tag. So for me to hunt two zones each year I need purchase 13 separate tags to hunt in my home state as a resident. This allows me unlimited does and the possibility of shooting 6 bucks. The State DNR considers this “management”. Hunters here don’t get it. They are concerned with “getting it done” and “filled my tag”. The total mismanagement of the states resources by the DNR means that if hunters don’t rake it upon themselves to let bucks walk and not take as many does (especially after an event like EHD) we are screwed. I could list a full books worth of issues and legit mismanagement here. It’s sad.

 

[sandbur]

Buck, I am a MN resident, but I hunt in Wisconsin. MN was great hunting, and fishing until About 10 years ago, and the DNR turned political and wanted to try to please everyone, rather then protect the wildlife. For instance, 10 years ago you have a snowmobile trail, great! Now you have a skiing, walking, biking, and horse riding trail, that if you ride a snowmobile on, you need to be careful for people hiking and skiing on the snowmobile funded maintained trail. Even though the other groups don’t pitch in for building, maintaining, or funding.

Fishing, you could use the Milacs Lake issue as an example. Natives can take 168,000 pounds of walleyes, but the remaining US population? Closed ice fishing, or a 2 fish limit. But then they say there is not enough walleye, so closes the non native fishing, but the natives just increase their quotas.

Deer hunting let’s give into the horn porn folks in the SE part of the state, and have a minimum antler size, and not have a antlerless season, then wonder why when diseases settle into the herd in the area, why would that happen?

I could go on. Like where I live, the highway divides one of the zones. On one side of the road is up to 5 antlerless tags, plus a buck. On the on the other side of the highway, it is buck only.

How about fishing lines, you can fish with 2 in the winter, but one in the summer. Their reasoning, people would decimate the walleye population if there was 2 lines allowed in the summer as well. Although all neighboring states allow 3 or more year around, and have some pretty good fishing.

I could go on and on, but I won’t.

Our current ‘wildlife biologists’ are now really ecologists who have less and less interest in game species. Not like the biologists a generation or two in the past.

Cut every tree on a wildlife area so it can look like when the Buffalo were here, but there will never be buffalo on the 100 or two hundred acre parcel. Just remove every stitch of cover and it will be flat when the snow is 4 feet deep.
Plus don’t allow any foodplots because eco minded folks are concerned about herbicides and bees and butterflies, even though the surrounding thousands of acres are farmed conventional ly. What difference would a five acre foodplot make to the bees and butterflies compared to those thousands of acres.

Then when the snow is deep, where does the wildlife go? To the farmsteads with tree groves and stored feeds for livestock,


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[Bowsnbucks]

Posts #28,29,30 - The sound you hear is my violin playing slowly for you. Same sh here. License fees and tag fees are the goal. We hunters foot the bill for other non-payers to have access to lands they chip in NOTHING for. To me - if you're on public land - YOU PAY SOMETHING !! Sticking hunters is easy because we're a passionate group that keeps coming back each hunting season. They know we're hooked on hunting - like a drug addict - so we're easy to "farm" for fee $$$.

I'm kind of an ecology guy - because I love nature. But how can food plots, pollinator strips, tree plantings, & wild meadows be bad ??? Are strip malls and housing developments better ?? Like Sandbur said - conventional farming sprays more stuff than a food plotter over lots more acreage. What gives ??

 

[BuckSutherland]

National weather service says we got 15" of snow about 15 miles west of my land by Federal Dam (East side of Leech Lake). We always get too much damn snow on the east side. My buddy is SE of us about 45 miles. He is just north of Palisade. He says about 18" of snow there. Sure hope the deer in my area head to the winter yards. The next 2 weeks temps are pretty good for deer survival, but they suck if you are anxious to get the fish house on the lake.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

We lucked out on my land, I would say about 6 inches. The deer are still digging and eating at this point, but much more then that they will probably move on until spring.

 

[Freeborn]

Deer should be in pretty good shape going into the recent storm, there was zero snow and mild temps until early this week. Based on reports my place should have gotten about 13" of snow or less. Temps now have dropped to -3 with a windchill of -18. Its the type of event that reminds us we need to plant cover and food for the worst weather events. I have 3 acres of beans and 3 acres of corn in my Central Plot. These crops are going to get hammered now that we have snow and cold temps. Glad The plots are doing what I planted them to do. In a month or so and during a weather break I'll head to my place and cut a bunch of poplar for the deer to feed on.

 

[kl9]

Buck, I am a MN resident, but I hunt in Wisconsin. MN was great hunting, and fishing until About 10 years ago, and the DNR turned political and wanted to try to please everyone, rather then protect the wildlife. For instance, 10 years ago you have a snowmobile trail, great! Now you have a skiing, walking, biking, and horse riding trail, that if you ride a snowmobile on, you need to be careful for people hiking and skiing on the snowmobile funded maintained trail. Even though the other groups don’t pitch in for building, maintaining, or funding.

Fishing, you could use the Milacs Lake issue as an example. Natives can take 168,000 pounds of walleyes, but the remaining US population? Closed ice fishing, or a 2 fish limit. But then they say there is not enough walleye, so closes the non native fishing, but the natives just increase their quotas.

Deer hunting let’s give into the horn porn folks in the SE part of the state, and have a minimum antler size, and not have a antlerless season, then wonder why when diseases settle into the herd in the area, why would that happen?

I could go on. Like where I live, the highway divides one of the zones. On one side of the road is up to 5 antlerless tags, plus a buck. On the on the other side of the highway, it is buck only.

How about fishing lines, you can fish with 2 in the winter, but one in the summer. Their reasoning, people would decimate the walleye population if there was 2 lines allowed in the summer as well. Although all neighboring states allow 3 or more year around, and have some pretty good fishing.

I could go on and on, but I won’t.

Please post even just 1 article that states high deer populations cause CWD. Just one...

Also, APR IS a measure that is meant to decrease deer populations. Less pressure on certain bucks means more pressure on the does, which is the primary population control lever.

Funny how you say “horn porn” hunters as if those types of hunters are an issue. I’d bet you’d be giddy as hell to come hunt my place in SE MN if I showed you what is going on down here.


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[4wanderingeyes]

Please post even just 1 article that states high deer populations cause CWD. Just one...

Also, APR IS a measure that is meant to decrease deer populations. Less pressure on certain bucks means more pressure on the does, which is the primary population control lever.

Funny how you say “horn porn” hunters as if those types of hunters are an issue. I’d bet you’d be giddy as hell to come hunt my place in SE MN if I showed you what is going on down here.


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I never said high deer number "caused" cwd, it just spreads easier through high numbers, then it does with low numbers.
Zone 3b, had no doe tags for how many years, and then implemented a minimal antler restriction that just limited the amount of bucks that could be taken as well, you then ended up with very high numbers, even after allowing doe tags, because no one would shoot does. This created high numbers in certain areas, and when CWD was brought in the area from deer farms, it spread easier in the high deer numbers.

Maybe my use of the term horn porn might have offended you, and honestly I didnt use it as an insult, I used it to group horn hunters together, the ones who fought for the APR. My thoughts have always been, not to have the government tell you what you can hunt. If you want to have personal goals of antlers great, but some people dont want them, and are having other peoples goals forced onto them.

I personally have my own goals, and they will change when I see fit, and I dont have the government telling me what I can or cant shoot as far as antler size. I know a lot of hunters, and some hunt for meat, and some for the sport. APR supports one of those groups, and takes away from the other group.

As for hunting in your area, exciting me, I will pass. My thrill comes from what I made on my own property, not from what I could shoot from someone elses property, and what they built. Just like I would never have any thrill from hunting a high fenced area.

Does big antler deer excite me? Sure, but I dont hunt for them. I would much rather have a medium sized deer that will fill my freezer with tasty treats, then hang some antlers on the wall.

 

[kl9]

Please post even just 1 article that states high deer populations cause CWD. Just one...

Also, APR IS a measure that is meant to decrease deer populations. Less pressure on certain bucks means more pressure on the does, which is the primary population control lever.

Funny how you say “horn porn” hunters as if those types of hunters are an issue. I’d bet you’d be giddy as hell to come hunt my place in SE MN if I showed you what is going on down here.


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I never said high deer number "caused" cwd, it just spreads easier through high numbers, then it does with low numbers.
Zone 3b, had no doe tags for how many years, and then implemented a minimal antler restriction that just limited the amount of bucks that could be taken as well, you then ended up with very high numbers, even after allowing doe tags, because no one would shoot does. This created high numbers in certain areas, and when CWD was brought in the area from deer farms, it spread easier in the high deer numbers.

Maybe my use of the term horn porn might have offended you, and honestly I didnt use it as an insult, I used it to group horn hunters together, the ones who fought for the APR. My thoughts have always been, not to have the government tell you what you can hunt. If you want to have personal goals of antlers great, but some people dont want them, and are having other peoples goals forced onto them.

I personally have my own goals, and they will change when I see fit, and I dont have the government telling me what I can or cant shoot as far as antler size. I know a lot of hunters, and some hunt for meat, and some for the sport. APR supports one of those groups, and takes away from the other group.

As for hunting in your area, exciting me, I will pass. My thrill comes from what I made on my own property, not from what I could shoot from someone elses property, and what they built. Just like I would never have any thrill from hunting a high fenced area.

Does big antler deer excite me? Sure, but I dont hunt for them. I would much rather have a medium sized deer that will fill my freezer with tasty treats, then hang some antlers on the wall.

I hear people say this all the time. If a medium doe/buck walks by (which is ideal according to you) followed by a 150” 10 I’d bet you would shoot the 10. Just like every other “meat” hunter would. Even though they “can’t eat the horns.” Ironic. In my area there are enough bucks and does that anyone saying the APR is restricting their hunting is kidding themselves and everyone else.


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[4wanderingeyes]

I hear people say this all the time. If a medium doe/buck walks by (which is ideal according to you) followed by a 150” 10 I’d bet you would shoot the 10. Just like every other “meat” hunter would. Even though they “can’t eat the horns.” Ironic. In my area there are enough bucks and does that anyone saying the APR is restricting their hunting is kidding themselves and everyone else.


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I am sure I would, but it would be off of my land, that I governed, with my own rules, not because I wanted the government to tell me how to hunt. I am sorry, but I am not of fan of government telling me what I can, and what I cant do. Mostly because the government messes up everything they get involved with. Some laws are common sense laws, and need to be enforced. Such as over the limits, and seasons, and night hunting. But to make a law that says a deer needs to have a certain size antlers that everyone needs to abide by, or get a ticket, and their deer, and possibly guns taken away, seems un needed.

I have no problem with self appointed APR limits, I do have a problem with government enforced APR.

 

[sagittarius]

So Wisconsin DNR decided giving out 11,000 plus doe tags in my county wasn’t good enough, so they decide to have an extended holiday hunt, and extend bow hunting until the end of January. My observation is deer numbers are down in my land.

Your local Washburn County Deer Advisory Council (CDAC) decided to allow 11000 plus tags for purchase. They also voted for the Holiday hunt and January archery season extension. The WDNR does not have a vote on the Council. The Washburn CDAC recommendations were approved by the Governor appointed Natural Resoures Board. Only then are the DNR forced by law to offer those antlerless harvest tags for sale. Your local CDAC has managed the deer in Washburn County for the last 5 seasons, not the DNR.

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/hunt/CDACFind.aspx

 

[Telemark]

I hear people say this all the time. If a medium doe/buck walks by (which is ideal according to you) followed by a 150” 10 I’d bet you would shoot the 10. Just like every other “meat” hunter would. Even though they “can’t eat the horns.”

To be fair, a 150" buck will have significantly more meat than a medium doe or buck.