WI Hunting Rule Changes

[wiscwhip]

Not every hunter in SE MN is happy with the APR's. I work with several who only shoot "mounters" and if they don't see one worthy of the wall, they eat their tags(they do not shoot does). That said, they will however shoot a buck with inferior genetics, such as the deer I mentioned in an earlier thread that has been seen on trail camera for 3 years with 3pts on one side and a long spike on the other side. APR's do not allow them to remove such deer from the gene pool, and it shows, because they now have multiple bucks, both on trailcam and personal sightings with the very same features in their antlers as well. "High grading" bucks is a very real phenomenon and it is beginning to take place in SE MN as we speak. Your buck to doe ratio is more a result of only being able to harvest 1 buck per year, the only way the APR's help that is because most guys who don't see a "legal" buck will eventually harvest a doe for the table, thus leaving one less doe and all the inferior bucks on the landscape to help "balance" the ratio, and to eventually have the potential to dilute the gene pool in an unwanted way.

 

[bwoods11]

True....Buffalo County is better but some counties in MN are catching up to that level because of APR.

Actually I would like to see how some compare this year.

The book argument is just that. It's not fact or comparison....The county where I hunt in Iowa would put all Wisconsin and MN to shame if they actually entered the bucks.

Several 185 inch plus that I know of this year and gun season hasn't started! Two book bucks in my section.

 

[shawnv]

The book may not have even 1/2 the entries but it is a large sample size of the population that you can follow the trend. Many Wisconsin counties have guys that to not enter their deer in the books too.

 

[Tree Spud]

The book argument is just that. It's not fact or comparison....The county where I hunt in Iowa would put all Wisconsin and MN to shame if they actually entered the bucks.

I want some of whatever you are smoking ... :rolleyes:

In my WIS community, not even the county, I know of 2 - 180" plus and 1 - 200" plus bucks taken in the past 6 days within 6 miles of my farm and I have not even had a chance to get to some of my better archery & gun contacts.

I know of many 160" plus bucks that are taken every year that are never entered in any book. Some guys in our area do very well and do not want the attention. I would bet that about 1/2 of these size bucks do not get entered.

Iowa does very well, but they will never put Wis to shame ...

 

[shawnv]

I want some of whatever you are smoking ... :rolleyes:

In my WIS community, not even the county, I know of 2 - 180" plus and 1 - 200" plus bucks taken in the past 6 days within 6 miles of my farm and I have not even had a chance to get to some of my better archery & gun contacts.

I know of many 160" plus bucks that are taken every year that are never entered in any book. Some guys in our area do very well and do not want the attention. I would bet that about 1/2 of these size bucks do not get entered.

Iowa does very well, but they will never put Wis to shame ...

A friend of a friend in Buffalo County....if he had his deer scored he would have 2-3 times the numbers of booners shot by any single hunter out there but this individual only has 80 acres and likes to keep his spot tight lipped.

 

[bwoods11]

Tree Spud/---I'm not a smoker!!

I'll stand by my belief that the county that I own land in Iowa will produce more book bucks harvested by hunters (not entered) than any county in MN or Wisconsin.

I did not say the whole state of Iowa, county by county basis is my comparison.

Personally not criticizing Wisconsin as I like later rifle season etc...

 

[bwoods11]

IA simply doesn't have the numbers of deer that WI has...I think the herd was around 450K last year according to the IA DNR. WI's herd is likely 3 times that size. Simple math indicates more of each age class of deer will occur in WI. WI has more deer hunters than IA has deer

Comparing the county that I hunt in... Only!!

 

[kabic]

you guys talk about "the book" like it's the bible or something LOL :p

 

[bueller]

I want some of whatever you are smoking ... :rolleyes:

In my WIS community, not even the county, I know of 2 - 180" plus and 1 - 200" plus bucks taken in the past 6 days within 6 miles of my farm and I have not even had a chance to get to some of my better archery & gun contacts.

I know of many 160" plus bucks that are taken every year that are never entered in any book. Some guys in our area do very well and do not want the attention. I would bet that about 1/2 of these size bucks do not get entered.

Iowa does very well, but they will never put Wis to shame ...

Sounds like plenty of trophy opportunities available. What more do you want the DNR to do in an area with bucks like that being common?

 

[bueller]

Many here complain that hunters in their areas won't shoot does. Not the case in my area. Even with limited doe tags available over here this year there was still lots of harvesting going on. Every license purchased for a person 17 or under comes with a free JR antlerless tag. I'm in support of that. However these tags can be used under the group hunting law. I'm NOT in support of that. Give kids tags so they can shoot deer themselves. Dad, uncle, brother, cousin, aunt, grandpa, etc... shouldn't be able to fill the kids doe tag for them.

 

[shawnv]

This has gotten off topic but I would rather be in Iowa on private ground more often than not if I had the choice because of the reduced pressure that allows a higher % of their deer to mature. Funny though, you see the guys in Iowa complain just as much as us in WI, MN or IL and let's not forget Kansas.

Thinking long term and not just over the past couple of poor seasons what did the DNR's do differently in the 80's than they are now and were most folks happy then. I do remember hunter's choice in WI still being around when I started hunting in the late 80's. Maybe what we saw from 1985-2005 was not "normal" and something more realistic is just a little better than was there was in the 60's and early 70's for numbers.

 

[BJE80]

Hunters choice was a good system I thought. It made people think about what they were going to shoot knowing they were done. But it still allowed people that have trouble killing deer to harvest more often.

 

[shawnv]

Hunters choice was a good system I thought. It made people think about what they were going to shoot knowing they were done. But it still allowed people that have trouble killing deer to harvest more often.

I do think it saved a lot of bucks after opening day at least on the Clark County forest ground I hunted back then.

 

[BJE80]

I do think it saved a lot of bucks after opening day at least on the Clark County forest ground I hunted back then.

So a doe comes through opening morning. A guy can blast it and keep his butt in the stand knowing he can still hunt bucks. You burn your buck tag shooting that doe it really makes you think.

 

[wildfire]

About being tight lipped, how many of you would tell anyone about a hot bite on a lake near you? Next time you go, it looks like a fishing contest underway.

 

[Tree Spud]

Sounds like plenty of trophy opportunities available. What more do you want the DNR to do in an area with bucks like that being common?

Common is a very relative term ... Every gal has an opportunity at a 3 carat flawless diamond engagement ring, very few get one though.

I'll go back to my original comment ... earn-a-buck was a very effective resource management tool, probably the best tool that the DNR has implemented in whitetail hunting if you look at herd balance & mgmt. goals.

The DNR keeps complaining about many units being over population goals, yet bucks can only breed, they cannot carry and deliver a fawn(s). There is a very strong subset of hunters in Wis that simply refuse to shoot a doe.

 

[wiscwhip]

EAB was hands down the most effective herd management tool the DNR ever instated, not to mention that it led to increased numbers of mature bucks. You are 100% correct Spud, in some areas of WI, hunters must be forced into shooting a doe, which EAB did a very good job of. He!!, during the very early years of EAB, some of these A-holes would shoot one doe and have 3 or 4 people register the same doe to keep from shooting any more of them off their properties. Then the DNR wised up and started clipping the ear on every doe registered, so they could ID whether it was a new kill or not. EAB banned by state statute, and now we have "Bonus Buck" rules, which essentially does nothing that EAB didn't already do accept allow the killing of even more antlered deer and essentially does nothing to "control" deer numbers. A few crybabies that had Mr. Big walk under their stand and had to pass him because they were too selfish to harvest a doe first to get their EAB authorization sticker, which would have allowed them to harvest Mr. Big legally, ruined it for everyone.

 

[Tree Spud]

Wish they'd move to MN

All we need is a "hunter exchange"....we'll export you guys in need of doe shooters some of our "fill the freezer with anything that is a deer" hunters and you guys send us some of those "refuse to shoot a doe" hunters o_O

LOL! You really want to start cross breeding Packer & Viking fans ... :eek:

 

[shawnv]

EAB, did allow for some awesome bucks to grow but it was not good at all where my home farm is and it has yet to recover from the over harvest of does here.

 

[bwoods11]

The cultural anomaly that only hunters in Buffalo, Waupaca and Shawano counties are predisposed to enter book bucks and the rest of the country does not if complete bs.

There is no way to argue this, we can only go by # of entries. You say BS? I don't think so, you'd be surprised if you hunted there.

I see the photos of 170-240 inch bucks shot in the county I hunt in, and I know some of the guys, yet I do not see them in the books....the book is registered deer, it doesn't count the ones that are not registered. Die hard guys (bow hunters) in that area literally pass 160 inch bucks and maybe they do that in Buffalo County too??...but it's a culture in it's own, when they shoot one they don't put it in the books.