Marinette Co. Game Reports

Anyone hunting in Marinette Co. This year let us know how your doing. It is a fairly public land county so deer numbers are down. Let us know how your doing on grouse, deer, rabbits, squirrels or whatever your after. If you are trapping up there show us some of your sets and how your doing. Ill keep this thread as up to date as I can and hope some others will post reports and pics.

Headed up for two weeks. Work cant get done fast enough today. Bro showed some brutes on cam mid day when he took ride up this wk.

GV = lake link's version of Pat Durkin. When in doubt, keep shooting.

Blackbird:

Well, I for one am not "whining" about the public land hunting opportunities in NE Wisconsin. I have a Mason jar filled with deer tags from the past 35 years all of which were filled in 44/45/49A/49B/51A/51B. I've never shot a deer anywhere else.

I personally do not want my own hunk of private land. I have a small lot and a modest cabin up there in 49A and I'm "perfectly fine" with that. I would just like to add that since you included "spiritually" in your appreciation for the land, I must state that the feeling is not unique to private land owners. There are numerous places on public land that give me the spiritual appreciation of the land.

There are surprisingly few "slob hunters" in my little hunk of paradise in the Nicolet. I see very little garbage or even spent shotgun hulls. For that matter I rarely even see any hunters where I go. Even Opening Day is relatively orderly and to a man, every guy I've actually talked to out in the field has been real nice.

I feel bad for those whose experiences have been "less favorable".

Does anybody hunt or used to hunt NW of Pembine? North of Cty O ??? Just curious if anybody could share some spots to avoid, or to check out. I may be going up there 2nd weekend of gun season and was looking for a starting point. PM me if you wish.

GV - what is the DNR's technical definition of "deer range". Do you agree with that definition?

The "technical" definition......right from the workbook is this:

Deer range in Wisconsin is defined as all permanent cover-- forest, woodlot, brushcovered land or marsh-- at least ten acres or more in size. Agriculture and grass fields within 5 chains (100 m) of permanent cover were also included as deer range. Areas of permanent cover smaller than 10 acres can be included as deer range if they are known to be commonly occupied by deer.

I agree with the principal. The DNR manages to a posthunt, or overwinter population. A population after hunting season is over. The "deer range" is roughly defined as that amount of permanent cover land that can provide food and shelter to a specific size herd that can survive over the winter and not overtly damage their own environment.

Isn't the DNR required by Statute to establish quotas using the SAK formula?

Obviously not required to use it where it's known to be inaccurate. IE.......protracted use of EAB. In those areas they use an "inventory" model.

Was 51B ever an Earn a Buck unit? How does EAB impact SAK results?

51B was on EAB in 1996, 2004, and 2006. SAK uses the yearling buck harvest figures as its driver. When yearling buck harvest is impacted in some way that doesn't allow random harvest of this age group (EAB or significant percentage of trophy hunting as examples)......SAK is unreliable.

Consecutive years, in some cases prolonged consecutive years, of EAB are just incompatible with SAK. However, since SAK is a non-inventory system.....it doesn't have a "compounding affect" one year to the next. Each year generates estimates on that year's harvest. Having an EAB season every so often won't Violate SAK. Having SAK in protracted consecutive seasons certainly will. The harvest of yearling bucks is no longer random........IE.....harvested as presented. EAB has a restricting affect on ALL buck harvest. Obviously, trophy hunting also has a negative effect on yearling buck harvest.

When people "own" their own land I feel they care for it, because they have a vested interest in it financially, spiritually, etc.... When people hunt public land, they generally abuse it, overuse it, and overharvest it. This is my opinion, but tell me that overharvest on public land is not a problem, prove it to me and I'll definitely believe you. Here's where the whole, get a second job to buy some land spiel comes in. If you don't like it there are hundreds of thousands of acres available to be purchased and you don't have to be wealthy to afford it, but you do have to save enough to put a significant downpayment on it, so the financing will be made available to you. My household income is less than $75k a year, I owe $82k on my house and have paid off approximately half of a $55k parcel of land in 2 years. It's all what's important to you. I may be selfish because I chose to have land rather than having kids, but even with kids land is affordable, you just have to hunt for it, or if you don't want to spring for it, put in the work on public land and prepare to be dissappointed often if your goal is to harvest alot of deer.

My 2 cents

GV - what is the DNR's technical definition of "deer range". Do you agree with that definition?

Isn't the DNR required by Statute to establish quotas using the SAK formula? Was 51B ever an Earn a Buck unit? How does EAB impact SAK results?

For fun...take a look at the fall 2010 DNR population estimate for 51B. It was...get this...65 (not a typo) deer per square mile for every square mile of "deer habitat".

51B encompasses ~605 sq mi........of which 389 sq mi is defined as "deer range".

2010 harvest was ~13.2 deer per square mile. Post hunt population estimate was ~50 deer per square mile.

Goal for 51B is 25 deer per sq mi.......post hunt.

If you used the entire area of the unit......disregarding the "deer range" subset, the 2010 prehunt estimate would be ~42 deer per sq mi.......and the post hunt estimate would be ~32 deer per sq mi. The goal would also be commensurately lower......~16 deer per sq mi.

There is so little public land around there that most of it is overhunted and "devoid of deer".

I agree with this.

I'm not a "hard-core 51B hunter". My place is in 49A and I spend 75-95% of my deer hunting time up there. But once in a while (and with the plentiful antlerless harvest opportunities) I do like to tromp around some new terrain, like the public land immediately south of Highway 64.

Quite frankly, I've done some stomping around 51A and haven't seen diddly-squat over there either.

Clearly, these tons and tons of deer are on private land where the average public land hunter can't get at them. It always used to be that the vast tracts of public land in 44, 45 and 49A were adequately populated with deer and the access to private land was never a concern.

My uncles farm is in 51b and there may be 60+ deer per square mile there. Used to be alot more, now there are more and bigger bucks with less numbers. I've shot at least 2 bucks a year there for the past 10. No Wisconsin for me this year though. Can't do it all and don't eat venison every day to justify shooting 4 (2 in Michigan and 2 in Wisconsin) Lots of big blocks of private land and old farmsteads. Not real easy to get permission up there(where the big deer numbers are.) I usually don't heed what the DNR says either, but it may be close to accurate there. Uncle already passed 17 different bucks this year. There is so little public land around there that most of it is overhunted and "devoid of deer". Do a little scouting though and you'll find some sleeper trophy buck spots. Not ones that you'll kill big buck right next to the road though! Oh youngbuck, I'm curious where you are hunting, maybe I've heard your shots and you've heard mine, 2 years ago gun season sounded like a warzone, not last year as there was a ton of standing water in the swamps and it was warm!

"Public land that I've hunted in 51B is "essentially devoid of deer".

+1 from another guy who spends a lot of time in the area.

For fun...take a look at the fall 2010 DNR population estimate for 51B. It was...get this...65 (not a typo) deer per square mile for every square mile of "deer habitat".

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/hunt/deer/fall_deer_per_DR.htm

Public land that I've hunted in 51B is "essentially devoid of deer".

A lot of that land (just south of Highway 64) looks like "impenetrable swamp".

I suppose that swamp land might be "crawling with deer" though.......

I'd like to know precisely WHERE Marinette County is 99% above goal so I can go there and blast a deer with a clean conscience.

Southern tip of the county.........unit 51B.

I'd like to know precisely WHERE Marinette County is 99% above goal so I can go there and blast a deer with a clean conscience.

My freezer is looking MIGHTY EMPTY right about now.

"to 99% above goal"....

Bahhhhh hahahaha.....

How can the Dept set a goal when it cannot accurate measure the population to begin with? How can a unit go from 1800 anterless permits in 2010 to 4425 permits in 2011? If tags are proportionate to population and desired "goal", then did this unit have a 245% increase in deer population?

No more DNR koolaide for this hunter.