4 Day Oct Deer Hunt

Who's happy to see the 4 Day Oct Deer Hunt go away!!! Me!!!!!

Quackills - I'm not lazy. I know the property. There are trails wide and deep through the areas we've scouted, but very few beds. What does that mean? The deer pass through the public at night, but rarely stop. If they get pushed off the private, you have a chance. Otherwise, its tag stew instead of venison steak.

Do deer know the boundary lines between private and public?? They go where ever the pressure is low, be it private or public. If your not lazy and wiling to work some for a deer you will have better success.

Brad, I dont think public land will change... Heres my opinion..The deer are there...where? I cant say. This year my inlaws bought a 20 and the place is loaded with trails. I had 500-600 photos a week on 2 cameras before season. On the way out the night before opener the fields were loaded (you could see them with the headlights). My father inlaw saw 5 bucks opening morning and shot a good 12 point buck. His cousin, right below him shot one 20 minutes later. The land around us is heavily hunted (not overly hunted) with people being there daily. The trail photos went from 500-600 a week to 20 total. The field full of a deer had nothing in it (again, just headlights on way in - no spot light). The deer were "gone" I sat there for 5 straight days and only saw a handful of deer with all of them being pushed from other hunters. I just dont get it. Yesterday on way to farm there were fields loaded with deer a few miles away at 3:30. I believe that the deer know exactly where and where not to be. So anyways, I believe that the deer are on public land. Where they go and when they come out is another question....Things will not change due to the pressure on public land. You pressure these deer enough and they find a place to away.

I don't have a problem with the 4 extra days of bowhunting because the kill for those 4 days is insignificant. I am pleased as punch the 4 day October hunt is gone, but I would like to know how to balance the deer population on public vs. private lands. Between myself and my 2 daughters we have spent roughly 300 hours deer hunting the last 2 years with no harvest and only a small handful of deer seen. Conversely, a friend of mine hunts similar habitat roughly 15 minutes away and saw 52 deer in the first 3 days of this gun deer season. A dnr wildlife manager would look at this and say the unit is over quota, yet my kids and I are putting days into scouting, hundreds of dollars into fuel, and hundreds of hours in the woods with nothing to show for it. My question - is there a way to balance the equation? Should I have to shell out $$$ thousands of dollars to buy hunting land just to provide a reasonable hope to harvest a buck?

Yes, God forbid that anything should interfere with the bow hunters. (Who have the longest season to hunt in the state already, except coyotes being open all year.) Tim

Maybe no deer hunting at all, but everyone still buy a license to help fund the DNR.

there should be NO doe tags til the herd comes back.

it took us 10 years but we got er gone.

I'm happy without the Oct. doe hunt. Now let's get rid of the 4 day compensation hunt the week prior to the 9 day gun season. This was offered to appease bow hunters for the four day Oct.hunt so if the Oct. hunt is gone so too should the four days before gun season. Let the deer setle down before the hunt.

I have been a proponent also of managing publicly accessible land and private land seperately as well. Many states do this with great success, including Michigan. Problem is, there are too many slob public land hunters that vote against it every time the issue comes up. These slob hunters feel entitled to a deer, and will shoot the first brown baby that runs by them. I have seen hunters from MN in NW WI with two deer in a small deer cart side by side - probably 35-40lbs each. I asked them why they shot such small deer, and they stated that since they have the tags, they HAD to shoot them - this was on County land. Until this entitlement stops or until game managers grow some nards, this will continue. The DNR is only interested in managing total number of deer per unit, and have no regard for the differences between publicly accessible lands vs. private land. If their total number fits their goals for a unit as a whole, they consider it a success. That is the problem.

I think getting rid of this hunt will help but its not going to solve the problem we need to get rid of the late hunts also. The youth hunt should stay because it gives the new comers a chance to hunt without that much pressure on the deer and also not many deer get taken during the youth hunt and i remember the first youth hunt i went on i got to spend time with my dad even though i didnt get a deer i had a great time and got a trial run of what it was like to hunt. I think we need to stop the extra tags and just get back to how things were when there was a lot of deer in wisconsin and make wisconsin one of the best states to hunt in again.

Amen. This is what got me to thinking about issuing tags differently on public and private lands. Not sure if it is doable, but the current system isn't working for the public hunting grounds. These lands are being managed for quantity of hunting numbers for income purposes, but no thought has been given to the quality of the hunting experience.

Hoff, I have hunted the same areas for the last 30+ years. I echo your thoughts exactly. In addition to the unlimited tags, the dnr has been relocating problem wolves in the area. In Eau Claire and Clark counties there are three separate wolf packs. Rumor has it that the one near forest road one is 8-9 wolves strong. In addition, we have been seeing more and more bears. How can the public land in unit 58 be managed the same as the private farm land in unit 58?

For example, just because there are tons of deer on the private farm land in say unit 58 or 59A, that is no reason to offer unlimited antlerless tags for the large tracks of county or paper company land that is adjacent to this private land. What logic is being used when the state offers unlimited antlerless tags for areas that have limited deer?

early and late seasons are good tools if you want to reduce populations in certain areas where it is very high. they are devastating in the wrong areas. example: i hunt area 58 clark county near thorp. years of herd control, Tzone, and early/late hunts + big huge wolves = the herd up there is devastated. I hardly see hunters anymore and where we once did drives and saw 5,6, 8 or sometimes 12 deer per drive my whole 8 guy crew saw 6 or 7 the whole season, and we worked hard to find them. I like those hunts but not anywhere near wolf territory.