A little WI gun deer success

Well, gun seasons over, deer are butchered, and finally taking a moment to reflect on how good I have it. I do thank the Good Lord above for the 2 biggest blessing in my life – my daughters Lindsey and Olivia.

Like most, we were greeted with the 40mph winds on Saturday to kick off the season. Given the conditions, we again this year just sat in the comfort of the Wieland’s tower and enjoy the very limited time we had. Both girls came down to the farm from college and only had Saturday and Sunday morning to hunt before returning to class.

We had 1 little isolated spot the was protected from the wind and the deer took full advantage. Fawns and does continually came out into a mix of alfalfa and beans to graze. Then they would return into the woods to bed while others came out. After passing on about 4 little bucks, a nice 4×4 came out to join the party with the does. Olivia didn’t hesitate to call the shot and obliterated its heart at about 230yrds across the plot. Fun to watch! No gun in my hand and not even worried about a need to follow up. He made the mistake of giving her a quarterd toward her shot with a 2′ wide window between the does in front of him. Like a cartoon, all dozen deer in the field went airborn and scattered like prairie dogs. As the herd dissipated, her buck hit the ground just a few yards away from impact.

The girls went out to pull him off into the shade. It gave me a good chuckle to see the “Team Work” – One watching and one working – LOL. They got their act together and realized it was going to take both girls in order to get it done.

Sunday was much more pleasant with a lot less wind. We had plenty of does and small bucks crossing our field and pretty much non stop action until about 10 am. Olivia had to work that afternoon and headed out of the tower at about 10:45am. Just minutes after hearing her pull out of the driveway, I spotted a doe being chased through the woods. She bolted out into our field with her tongue hanging out and looking quite exhausted. Fortunately, just yards behind her was Brutus, with his nose to the ground chasing her. AND a party bonus – a second buck with his antlers lowered and just about to ram Brutus in the rear end.

I was in the best position to shoot so I dropped the hammer on our #1 target first. Chip shot at about 150 yrds. He spun 180 degrees and dropped like a ton of bricks. The second buck made a fatal mistake. As I bolted up the next round, he just happened to remain in my field of view. Like slow motion, he just trotted out further into my field. A touch of the trigger and he balled up and it was game over – We’re tagged out for bucks. Lindsey had to leave by 1pm for school and we discussed filling her tag. (group or party gun hunting is legal in WI).

Few other Hi/lows –
Had a lot of yearlings feeding in the plots. Seemed like the mature does were content to stay in the woods and graze on acorns. By mid week, they changed over to corn and my neighbors had a ton of deer in their fields.

Road hunter stopped on the road in the valley beneath my stand and shot a yearling. After driving all the deer out of my sanctuary area, the little button buck came out flopping into my field. I wouldn’t let it go to waste, so i finished it and tagged it.

Nephew that never deer hunted before came up for the last weekend to hunt with me. Poor city kid got the whole experience. After sitting all morning and not seeing anything, he started in with the “lets go in and eat lunch….” I laughed and said we were staying right there. Few minutes later, an anterless came out and gave him a perfect opportunity. about 150yrd shot while grazing. He made a very well placed shot and it dropped dead in its tracks. So not only did he get to field dress his first deer, we skinned and butchered it that night also. Good learning experience for him.

So, as I pack away our stuff, load the pictures onto the hard drive, I again think I am so blessed.

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Congrats on an awesome season!

Congrats on the great season Randy and even bigger congrats on raising two outstanding young ladies who appreciate the outdoors!!

Will

Randy,
Congratulations on the fantastic season Randy. Thanks for sharing your story. Best way to spend time with family and friends is in the outdoors.

Jeff

Great story Randy and congrats to all the hunters. Sounds like a giant success

Everyone should have a throne like your to perch in.

Great to hunt with the kids and actually have them look forward to it. Nice deer to all.

Nice wrapup report. I hope to get somewhere near the size you’re getting soon, but your crew harvested some very nice deer there.

Wish I had more hunting to do! It seems like MN’s season is over in a flash even though I have 3 weekends in my zone. Next year I’ll probably be out there with a bow to extend the season a little.

Grouse

Here is a few trail cam pics of Brutus. Didn’t have the mass I wanted in a rack….but look at that stud!

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TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Nice wrapup report. I hope to get somewhere near the size you’re getting soon, but your crew harvested some very nice deer there.
Grouse

For us, the entire CWD situation and how it was handled has made for some real ups and downs. In the first couple years, we did need to do a significant reduction in does. ratio was probably near 20:1 for fawns/does to bucks. With that, we had little racks, and very non-aggressive bucks. They didn’t respond to rattling, grunt calls, and so on.

When the ratio go closer we had the most fun. Amazing the difference in how aggressive the bucks became. Everyday of the rut was like an edited TV show. 4 or 5 bucks would come out when rattling, does would come out to see what was going on. I had encounters with bucks that lasted nearly a half hour.

Then the bottom fell out. Everyone was still shooting every doe, fawn, buck…and it was hard to even see a deer. For those mid years, I would see maybe 6 to 10 deer on opening day, maybe 4 or 5 on the second day, and lucky to see 1 for the rest of the week. I about lost my daughters’ interest in hunting WI whitetail. For a kid, how much fun is it to see maybe a couple deer at 500 yrds away – then nothing?

Fortunately enough people complained and the earn-a-buck program was eliminated. But so many guys quit hunting around by me (neighboring land). Additionally, I was finally able to get my neighbors on board to quit shooting every freakin doe and all the tiny bucks. We don’t run a true QDM program – but it is a good honor system. On my land, we have only shot 2 does and 2 fawns (including the one from the recent poacher) in the last 8 years. Last year was the first time in almost 20 years that I saw at least 1 deer every day of our 9 day season. This year was even better though we have a LOT of fawns around.

Hunting pressure is still a key factor and how many of the semi-mature bucks are taken. Last year we saw an up tick in a lot of smaller bucks taken that barely reached their ears. That was very obvious when looking at trail cam pics this year. We had about 6 bucks that were just a little too small for us to consider as shooters. Our hit list was only 4 bucks, and we took 3 of them. Our outlook for next year is we will have 2 or 3 very nice bucks and 4 or 5 that will be maybes.

Great to see you have the girls into hunting. The outdoors can really help keep the family together.

Congrats to you and the entire family Randy. Thanks for the great read and glad to see your hunts were successful. Great to get the kids involved and show them the great outdoors.

Dave

Congrats on an awesome season Randy! It is cool to see how into the hunt your girls are. I’m hoping that all 3 of mine love it as much as I do someday! Here is the middle one 3 minutes after I showed up opening day. She snatched her “new hat” right off my head and wore it around all night. Sandwiched between two boys, I may have to work harder to get/keep her interested, but I plan on giving it my all!

I completely share your sentiments with CWD. We are in the Black Earth/Mount Horeb area that was totally decimated by the special hunts, but by 2012 things were looking up. It has been getting a lot better and last year we decided a few does need to be taken. Now this year we have to get out late season and do a little doe reduction because the population is starting to creep up locally since a lot of land isn’t hunted any more. I am nervous to see what the new CWD program is. I’m sure it will be a lot more of “kill everything” in an attempt to eradicate the disease. I think it would be better to let nature run its course. Let the sick/weak animals die and let the strong survive instead of wiping out the population of strong animals. I believe ND had CWD really bad in the 70s and really did a number on their herd. However, now they seem to have a booming deer population and from what I know, no CWD.

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@haackj

Your not that far away from me. I’m 16 miles north of Richland Center. CO and WY dealt with CWD well before WI. Yes, they also took the approach of the reduction on the landscape and found it didn’t work that well. When their wildlife biologists stepped up to help us, it appeared that WI took a know it all attitude and spit in their faces.

Regardless of how the DNR responded, I blame many hunters for having an intense level of greed. Every year, I see many hunters shooting the does in areas that have low populations. I’m all in favor of hunting legally and putting some meat in the freezer. But we all need to take a level of responsibility in managing this.
Every year, I see a hand full of guys show up to the spring hearings. Some are very passionate and want to contribute some great ideas. Some just show up for curiosity sake. Yet, every website forum has so many guys complaining (myself included) about how its managed. We need more involvement from all hunters.

My time is so much more limited that I get to spend with my girls. Makes me very sentimental when I see the next generation bring their children into our outdoor sports. I can’t tell you how many times I wish these girls came with an owner’s manual or operating instructions. – LOL. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, pushed them too hard at times, too relaxed at times, too long in a treestand in foul weather….and so on.

But both girls have paid me compliments as a father that I think went a long ways in their becoming young ladies. Accountability to their actions. I drilled in their heads from a very young age that everything they do has consequences – both good and bad. When we harvested deer, they helped butcher them and saw the amount of meat in the freezer. During dinner, they got complimented for their labor for the meal we were eating. At school, they had a job. It was to perform at their highest level every day. By their junior and senior years, many teachers recognized their independence and work ethic and allowed them many special privileges. They both got rewarded with amazing scholarships to pursue the college educations.
Nothing got handed to them. Either they earned it, or went without. I’m self employed and haven’t been able to grow any money trees. For 20+ years, they have seen first hand what it takes for me to make a living. When a job is running over in labor, they know I need their help – and they are working for the family, not themselves.
I get complimented often here for the job I have done with my girls. I appreciate it – I truly do. So often I wish I could do more for them or concerned that I haven’t taught them enough. But now that they are older and more self sufficient, I see the few key things that will carry them through life. I tagged a motto many years ago for how I operate my businesses, and I see that same thing developing in my girls.

I C.A.R.E – I am Credible, Accountable, Responsive, and Ethical