Gun deer license sales

Does anyone know how many gun , bow and crossbow licenses were sold this year in Wisconsin?

I don't know why people are complaining the hunter numbers are decreasing,  I think it's great.  Another 300,000 and we'll be talking.  Every gun hunter that drops out,  that's just less pressure.  Less pressure,  more age.  Keep dropping like flies and WI could be worth sticking around for.

Age structure is poor here,  very poor.  I don't know why people are so worried,  jack the license up to $50 per,  i'll pay it and I hope then half the WI hunters will say screw that.  That would only be a good thing for WI.  Scott Walker couldn't care less about your choosing if your 5 year old hunts,  he just wants your money.  If people believe his BS,  you are drinking too much Gov Walker kool Aide.  He's always been about robbing Peter to pay Paul.  If WI has 800k hunters,  charge double and half drop or even 20%, that would be the best thing that ever happened to WI.  Hunting sucks because the rules suck.  Many areas hunting is just average because of too much pressure.  Too much shooting mom and both fawns.  Stupid WI mentality is what has this state great is some areas,  dead sea in others.

WI has This season,  that season, holiday hunt,  youth hunt,  ML hunts etc  kill all the doe,  hand out 2 tags free and $12 per.  That's not managing.  Look at other states that do it right that actually manage the herd and not license sales. 

When i was a kid,  and you had one bow tag.  Buck or doe,  you pick.  I saw 5-8 deer a night on public ground.  I'd see sometimes as many as 20.  Now,  you are lucky to see a deer track.

I hunt a lot of private now,  but some days you are happy to see a doe and fawn the last 15 minutes of light just to save your day and at least see something.  That's lame.  When we bought that land in the early 90's,  we would see 8-15 each time out.  we didn't kill em...it's the guns all around us on the small parcels that shot every damn thing that walked.  Everyone thinks,  I only have a 30 acre piece,  they aren't living here,  kill em all.  Thats hogwash. 

No argument with that Wicasa. What's frustrating is that our politicians see a funding/budget deficit growing within the DNR. Their answer to that has been massive staff and services cuts while rolling out gimmicky plans in hopes of minimizing license revenue declines.

Meanwhile, state sportsmen and nearly every sporting organization support license fee increases and our politicians refuse to follow through due to their concerns that an increase be perceived as a "tax" increase and runs counter to Walker's tax reduction pledge.

Agree totally with Great Outdoors. I made a plan when I was in my twenties to own a decent chunk of land. Hard work, luck and planning resulted in that goal coming to fruition over 20 years ago. Since then, my family and I have made some great memories managing and hunting our land. To see what has happened locally and around the state with inept management and political shenanigans makes me sick to my stomach. A state that was once a model for conservation and environmental science is now managed by short sighted politicians ( especially you Joel Kleefisch) who put self interest above coherent long term planning and management strategies.

Gimmicks don't sell more licenses and generate interest in the outdoors. A quality product does. Period.

According to the write up the gun numbers were down 12,000 . Also, more surprising is that for the first time in a long time bow licenses were down.  I just don't know why they don't just ask what causes the yearly decline. It has been declining for almost 20 yrs with only a few years of sales increases in that time.  As for me, I went to Price co. again this year and was sadly disappointed. Yes , , ,  , it was windy.  My son Chas and I didn't see a deer. I did however see a bear come right under my stand. So close I grabbed the tree cause I thought it was going to hit my ladder.   The deer numbers are up and thought I would hear more shots. Sat. morning about 16, Sat. evening there were 3 , but it was windy. Sunday morning I hear 6 or half a dozen, can't remember .  Sure is sad to hear. Even the public land my be only had about 10 cars in the lots and that is about 4,000 ac. circle of public land today.  I honestly am happy with the hunter numbers down. It is just too bad the DNR can't help but things are all fine out there. My son and I saw no deer. B.I.L. hunted our 23 ac. in Shawano co. and saw no deer in 2 days. Two other inlaws hunted ( grab your seat Farnorth) Florence co. and saw nothing. Another inlaw hunted Washington co. and saw nothing.  Two cousins in Shawano co. got 2 does out of 5 hunters. 

So you mean to tell me that even with the latest gimmick of no minimum age for hunting that the license numbers still went down?  I'm not gonna say I'm shocked.  Take away early youth season, reduced price youth and first time hunter licenses, 10 year old mentored hunting, now no minimum age hunting, free youth antlerless tags, cross gun hunting, etc.  All this trash introduced during the last decade and license sales are still down.  These clowns running this circus really don't have a clue.  Thank god I've got pivate land and half a brain.  I can manage a quality experiene in spite of the DNR, not because of it. 

http://www.weau.com/content/news/Hunting-licenses-sold-in-2017-down-from-last-year-458688443.html