WI Preliminary harvest numbers

Very nice Dean! I’ll be up to get two from you this fall!

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Wade…What do these retail for new? RR

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The lowest I found them was $151. But that didn’t include shipping.

WI Preliminary harvest numbers are due out this afternoon. I can not wait to see what kind of figures are thrown around this year. With over 600,000 hunters out in the woods, I’m sure the DNR will tell us…….”Another Record Harvest”

If the over/under was 300,000, I’d take the under. If the books are not cooked. Wasn’t it 315xxxish last year?

Record kills = fewer survivors…

Dr. Deer needs to figure it out in Dairy Land.

Here ya go kids…..

2011 deer gun season results

For Richland County, I was happy to see that the kill was about the same, but 500 more bucks than does this year!. That equates to the potential of 500 extra does dropping 1 to 2 fawns this spring

When I dropped my head off at Peterson Taxidermy today they were down 80 heads from last year

Yikes. The areas I hang out.

WASHBURN -32%

BURNETT -38%

Worst two in the state! My observations and feedback from others around there appear to be correct. Scorched earth (herd control) policy is working…

Pat, I wonder how much of that is the economy Vs the kill? I know a couple guys that have horns cut off and “future plans” of the head mount because they can’t afford it now….myself included.

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Pat, I wonder how much of that is the economy Vs the kill? I know a couple guys that have horns cut off and “future plans” of the head mount because they can’t afford it now….myself included.

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Everyone I talked too and the guys there talked too said they saw very few deer at all. Let alone good bucks. They still had them on camera but they only moved at night.

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WASHBURN -32%
BURNETT -38%

Worst two in the state!

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Not surprised as well based on what I’ve been hearing…

The question now is what do they plan to do about it??? First plan of action should be take away that additional does only firearm season we have coming up in a few weeks.

No doubt, Washburn for me for rifle hunting and Barron for bow hunting is down 20%. WTG WI DNR. Good thing I have 2 Bonus Tags left to fill.

Dunn county showed good numbers.

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Dunn county showed good numbers.

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Yea. At least its not the same everywhere. Unlike bird hunting though its kind of difficult moving around to different areas chasing them. With so many people hunting deer you cant bring the hunters to the deer. Time for the DNR to step up. It’s probaby going to be imperfect and complicated to hunters but they have to do something.

To think the doe hunt is still coming up in those low counties makes me cringe.

I wonder if the numbers are down in the Washburn/Douglas/Burnett counties because there are less deer or people are just choosing not to shoot as many deer? I was lucky to see more deer than recent years in that area this last season and also while grouse/duck hunting. I talked to many people in that area that are choosing to not fill their tags. I chose to this year. But, for the last three years, I didn’t shoot a deer in that area.

I am up there nearly every weekend and I live to drive around. No doubt less deer.

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I am up there nearly every weekend and I live to drive around. No doubt less deer.

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It is a fun area to explore. I got to do that while growing up near Siren. We have a cabin North of Minong. That’s where my parents live now fulltime. I like to go up there and spend time with most of my uncles and friends. They report a decent deer herd this year. Perhaps not like it was in the early ’90’s, but nice nonetheless.

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I wonder if the numbers are down in the Washburn/Douglas/Burnett counties because there are less deer or people are just choosing not to shoot as many deer?

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With the storms that came through this summer providing ideal cover for whitetails in the form of blowdowns, it would be easy to blame the low numbers on that but I don’t think that is the case.

I spend quite a bit of time driving roads, talking to other hunters/landowners in the area, shining fields in the offseason, and have quite a few trail cameras out as well. In most areas in the county, particularly state land that gets increased pressure, numbers are down no doubt about it.

I wish it wasn’t this way, but its time to face the facts that are put in front of us. Now its time to band together and find a management plan that can get these areas back on track.

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I wish it wasn’t this way, but its time to face the facts that are put in front of us. Now its time to band together and find a management plan that can get these areas back on track.

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I agree very much. After talking to all my neighbors, I was very shocked to have seen all the deer that we did this year. Two guys to the north property of me only saw 3 does wondering around by them throughout the entire season, and not a single buck. Guys to the east of me ran a lot of deer out of their property on opening morning, and didn’t see much there after. Property to the west was only hunted a couple times by only a couple of us. Our saving grace for seeing deer was having the perfect blend and locations of food sources. My leased corn field and my food plots all coincide with bedding areas. We had deer take residency by us that resulted in drawing the deer from the surrounding properties.
With all the management projects that I have done in the last couple years, in addition to trapping my land, I know the population is way down with just small pockets of deer. Trail cams on the most heavily used trails and I was only getting about 1 picture per day. When the plants in my plot turned over for high concentrations of carbohydrates after the freeze, that increased a lot in the plot and bedding area only. I didn’t see any significant traveling from my plot to other properties. I wonder how much “food plots” have taken a toll in other regions with people drawing in deer and keeping them there rather than the deer covering larger ranges seeking food?

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I wonder how much “food plots” have taken a toll in other regions with people drawing in deer and keeping them there rather than the deer covering larger ranges seeking food?

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Randy:

I have QDM to the north of us and I am betting it is significant… But I also believe that our land has matured, the farmers to the south of us got out of farming and used to drive deer every day are no longer doing it… There is significant tag alder swamp to the S/SW of us that is probably not being driven any more and with any decent food plots to the north, if I was a deer I would stay close to those food sources…

The 80 to the west of me was split into two 40’s, then one 40 ended up as two 20’s. We always hoped that we were used by the deer to be the safe haven of the area, but most of our escape routes have been cut off and as a result, they are not getting to our safe haven quite as much.

Mark

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I wish it wasn’t this way, but its time to face the facts that are put in front of us. Now its time to band together and find a management plan that can get these areas back on track.

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I agree very much. After talking to all my neighbors, I was very shocked to have seen all the deer that we did this year. Two guys to the north property of me only saw 3 does wondering around by them throughout the entire season, and not a single buck. Guys to the east of me ran a lot of deer out of their property on opening morning, and didn’t see much there after. Property to the west was only hunted a couple times by only a couple of us. Our saving grace for seeing deer was having the perfect blend and locations of food sources. My leased corn field and my food plots all coincide with bedding areas. We had deer take residency by us that resulted in drawing the deer from the surrounding properties.
With all the management projects that I have done in the last couple years, in addition to trapping my land, I know the population is way down with just small pockets of deer. Trail cams on the most heavily used trails and I was only getting about 1 picture per day. When the plants in my plot turned over for high concentrations of carbohydrates after the freeze, that increased a lot in the plot and bedding area only. I didn’t see any significant traveling from my plot to other properties. I wonder how much “food plots” have taken a toll in other regions with people drawing in deer and keeping them there rather than the deer covering larger ranges seeking food?

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Where we hunt in burnett county I think a big reason (for gun season anyway) don’t see near the deer we used to is partially because of QDM. Alot of land around has been bought buy guys that practice it put food plots in etc(we do also). But along with that comes that exact ‘safe haven’ word that was just mentioned. Everyone putting work in to have better deer and no one wants to move deer of their property with doing deer drives etc, which used to be common place a few years back. I can’t blame them we do the same, but what I think it leads to is once teh guns start firing these deer head to the swamps on these 120 acres parcels that have 2 or 3 guys stand hunting and just never leave except for at night. I think it leads to alot less deer being seen than just a few years back.

I have no problem with it though as I will just hunt them during the rut with a bow when they are on their feet moving around.