All Things Habitat - Lets talk.....
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Link to peliminary 2014 Wisconsin 9 Day gun season totals
- Thread starter Terrific_tom
- Start date
Terrific_tom
5 year old buck +
After looking at the results, I was surprised at the antlerless kill numbers in the Buck only counties. I know that every youth hunter was given an antlerless tag, just wonder how many were filled by the actual youth that they were issued to or were they filled by someone else in their group.
ELH
A good 3 year old buck
I am OK with youth having their own season, cheaper licenses and antlerless tags in areas that can support it, however, in areas where deer numbers are extremely low (like Iron and Ashland Counties with a total of 182 and 735 deer harvested respectively) why would anyone be able to receive and antlerless tag. Deer numbers get much lower in some of these counties the DNR might have to suspend the season all together if they really want to increase the population........I know......not likely.
D
dipper
Guest
Looks like the herd is better in the south and horrible in the north. Central wi is still putting out some high numbers.
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
Amen ... a buck tag for the wife and 2-3 for the kids ... does anybody really wonder why the proportion of does to bucks are so high?
D
dipper
Guest
I'm getting cock blocked by 80 acres of standing corn the neighbor has. I bet there are over 60-80 deer in there in the next few weeks there will be over 100. Can't do anything with people who still think we dont have enought deer. There is a good chance those deer will have the corn wiped out by Christmas. I still saw 9 baldies tonight on my end, there's only 8 now. I will work on this herd the rest of the year and pick up some more stragglers.
Fun fun
Fun fun
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
Stu ... I saw 10-20 does every night during gun & bow season. If I would drive through the area on neighboring fields in a 4-5 mile square area I would see the same.
When I question hunters about what they saw ... "nothing", asked what they saw "well a bunch of does" ... what about bucks? "no shooters" ... It is a self ful-filling prophecy here, people see and measure what they want based on expectations ... we have plenty of deer, to few hunters.
PS - In case you bring up last winters terrible conditions ... I found 2 dead deer all winter (and that is on 2 separate 300 acre parcels) ... the lowest number of dead deer I have found in 15 years. I usually walk all of the property with the dog every weekend until spring thaw.
ELH
A good 3 year old buck
Tree......I agree that if you are from a county that harvested over 4K deer, you don't have a lack of deer. There are, however, counties in the Northern part of the state with harvest numbers under 1K where I guarantee you will not drive through the neighborhood and see 3 deer much less 10-20. The difference between the far North and the rest of the state is night and day.
B
bat man
Guest
Buck harvest is the number one herd estimation tool in the MN DNR tool box. Your Sawyer County herd would appear to be half the size it was 3 years ago-
Is WI going to see the herd reduction the rest of the midwest has?
Say it isn't so- I was banking that trigger restraint was a possibility.
Terrific_tom
5 year old buck +
What is really sad is if there are 50 wolves in Sawyer County, which I have no doubt that there is. The wolves will kill more deer this year than bucks killed by this gun season.
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strawhead
5 year old buck +
I can only speak of our area. The deer are going to need some help. I didn't find any kills, but have seen tracks of wolves 3 different times since Nov. 21. The deer are constantly being bumped around. This persistent pressure of being pushed around is stress they don't need.
SOMEHOW, hunters need to become more educated in regards to managing the herd where they hunt. Those of us on here know that these managing tools could be 180 degrees different in just a very short distance apart. I don't know if this is realistic. Many have no ties to the area they hunt except for the week of gun hunting.
SOMEHOW, hunters need to become more educated in regards to managing the herd where they hunt. Those of us on here know that these managing tools could be 180 degrees different in just a very short distance apart. I don't know if this is realistic. Many have no ties to the area they hunt except for the week of gun hunting.
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
ELH ... I agree that there are areas of the state where deer numbers are down, it is difficult. I hunted northern Wisconsin in the Eagle River - Phelps area for many years. For whatever reason, I was able to shoot a deer every year there. The first year I took a doe and was labeled a "meat Hunter" ... the next year I took a small spike buck and was some type of hero hunter. Have also hunted in many other parts of the state.
The common theme I run into is that hunters who are willing to shoot a doe have a different attitude and view towards hunting than those who refuse to. Those that will shoot a doe see opportunity and somehow have a successful season, those that won't, always seem to be complaining about no deer.
End of the day ... the glass is either half full or is half empty ... if hunters are not seeing deer, maybe they need to examine their hunting tactics and skills.
Funny thing about the northern Wis hunters I knew, was that those who always complained about no deer, couldn't stop talking about all the deer ay their back yard 100 lbs piles of corn ... opps ... I mean "bird feeders" every night during gun season. :rolleyes:
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CrazyEd
5 year old buck +
I don't have a good gauge for the population in the land surrounding my immediate area. I NEVER drive around and see what else is going on and I don't really talk to anyone in the area. The reason I can go on stand in our area and see high deer numbers is a direct result to my immediate area. When you have 3000 some acres of private, high quality whitetail habitat with zero to no pressure, nature is bound to thrive. I didn't look at the final numbers for Marquette county but last I saw the harvest was down 13% or so. When I was up there sunday on the last day of gun season, I did notice there was still a LOT of standing corn, including 80+ acres directly adjacent to my property line. I know there are tons and tons of deer in there having a great feast.
Terrific_tom
5 year old buck +
I don't think we have seen the worst in the far North. Very few fawns born in the North the last 2 years. The DNR is still letting does to be killed up North and what looks to be another long winter up north will only make deer numbers lower. They have close to 2 feet or more of snow on the ground already. There are very few deer to replenish the deer that were killed this season. My prediction is that in many counties in the far North the buck kill will drop about 50 % next gun season.
B
bat man
Guest
I would encourage your WI DNR to contact Lou Cornicelli at our MN DNR. He was at the helm when they eliminated the youth tags in SW MN due to rampant abuse. That history is likely the reason the went bucks only on NE MN this year. Those youth tags had the highest success rate of any tag the DNR ever sold.
But they won't eliminate cross tagging. Same guys illegally tagging on adult licenses but that is apparently ok.
But they won't eliminate cross tagging. Same guys illegally tagging on adult licenses but that is apparently ok.
