i was fortunate to shoot a fork and doe opening morning in shawano county but it was quiet all weekend otherwise for my party and others we spoke to. doesnt seem to be alot of guys out after talking to buddies around waupaca and waushara cty they said the same thing.
General Hunting Discussion
how dead was it by you on opener?
Displaying 1 to 15 of 33 posts
its just frustrating because we have private land all around us with only 2 guys hunting it and an 80 of public across the road with 1 maybe 1 guy and i was the only guy that saw and shot 2 deer. i mean all the acorns in our 40 should have kept them coming in but the cam pics showed a drop of about 70% after opener?
I used to hunt 40's like that. They'll be void of deer after opening weekend. Go back later in December and deer will be back again, once the people pressure dies down. I remember one year distinctly where I came home from up north and took a walk on a 40 I bow hunted. Not one track in fresh snow. Came back weeks later for a doe only hunt and saw 10, tracks all over.
I think many places are like that though. My inlaws saw like 20 deer a day on opening weekend and the second weekend they saw 0. Pressure changes things quick.
Fishballs - I read your post and my 1st thought is 40 acres is pretty small and will be vacant of deer with any amount of pressure. Maybe that is not what is going on, but might be a factor.
FWIW - I hunt 160 acres with quite a few open areas that won't hold deer. But in my main 5 stand areas, I make sure I don't hit them hard at all. One spot, after looking at my log, I have only hunted 4 times all year. That is for bowhunting, youth, rifle and muzzleloader. I will only hunt if the wind is right and make sure I don't over pressure the area. Opening Sunday night of rifle, I saw 3 different bucks within 40 yards of the stand. They acted like no one has been there at all - just how I expected.
Juneau county. I heard more shooting on opening morning than ever. I count every shot I hear until 9am, been doing it for years. Only a handful were in my general area. I saw 4 bucks, 3 I could have taken, 2 doe and button buck. It was a great hunt. Sunday I saw nothing. I did not hunt the rest of the week.
i was up in our shawano lease today walking around and studying deer movement in the new snow. the other guys in my group are frustrated by not seeing deer during gun week even though i shot 2 in my stand opening morning they didnt see deer even sitting in my stand. i know their having trouble staying interested in it anymore but i dont know what to do as we cant afford the huge dollar leases in sw wisconsin where theyll see shootable bucks and i really thought being shawano county we'd shoot some bucks. im really amazed at what i saw today though as there were very few tracks in the lease even though acorns are plentiful? were in northern shawano cty and im sure the western part is much better but who knows? i dont know if tigerton leases anymore as they never return calls. my only hope next year is to create food plots and hopefully bring them into our 40.
1Pass, this is my experience. Except for my son , me in our camp, there is another camp of 6 or 8 . There was a time at the end of the road my cabin is on , where public land starts , there were 10 trucks there opening day 25 yrs ago. This yea there were none, last year there were two opening day and none on Sunday , and none opening day 2016. There is about a 75% reduced hunting pressure where I hunt . If you go way back in the woods you will not see a hunter all season. As for Bugletrout , what county? Wisconsin lost 46,000 gun sales this year. I bet of the 46,000 , 30,000 stopped hunting north of HWY 8. Less hunters in S.E. Wisconsin on public , but still plenty.
I could have shot 3 bucks by 7:15 am opening morning. The first was a buck that I thought had future potential so I let him walk. I did toss my hand warmer at him trying to scare him in the direction of one our young hunters. Second and third came through together. Both were little spindly forks. They were headed down a trail to a guy in our camp who hasn’t shot a deer in years. He got both of them so I was happy about that. My wife and I are empty nesters so we didn’t need to fill the freezer this year. I only planned on taking a big buck if the opportunity presented itself. I still have a little meat left from last year’s buck.
Northern Bayfield County Public.
1/10 the hunters there were 10 years ago. Does were moving slowly browsing in heavy cover afraid to come out n get chased by the bucks it seamed. Could not have been because of hunting pressure because there was none.
Girlfriend seen all the bucks. Couple were just huge. Had a booner bust her and another ran by her so fast chasing does she could not get a shot. After that she seen a nicer 8 she didn't shot because it looked small.
Not really, I saw deer 7 of 10 sits with my bow on public. When the drivers come those deer go to the cattails so thick you can't see 10' and dont come out till dark. I sat 2 times now for gun on public and saw nothing . Although, had there been noone driving I may very well not have seen anything anyway cause there are enough hunters in the woods to make them move only at night anyway. Not blaming drivers , just the way public is. Seems if you want to see deer now, you need to find their deer beds, hope none went tromping through and hope the get up and take a walk before dark. We , as hunters really need to check on hunter respect. " It's public!!! " is no excuse. I saw 2 hunter yesterday . They were 300 yds apart . I swear one was looking down and sleeping. I ws 150 yds from either and walked as quiet as I could between them. Had I known they were there I would gladly hunt somewhere else or go way around them . I will do this for everyone. And one day , maybe I will unknowingly do it for someone reading this. You have the same rights to the land as I do and I will respect you for it every time.
I agree with ihookem, the dip sticks hunting public land have absolutely no respect for anyone, when I go out and see someone at a spot I wanna hunt I move o. To the next one and maybe the next one and maybe gotta try 3 more but I dont just go walk in on people and screw up their sit, but I guess it was how I was raised now a days every one is entitled instead of just having respect for someone who beat you to a spot
Yeah its silly. How do they know your relatives were there? Just because you are in a tree doesn't give anyone special rights either. And he could just as easily got a deer from them doing the dirty work. Expect public land to be driven after the first day is my theory on hunting it. If that keeps him from hunting next year, obviously his heart wasn't in it to start with.
Displaying 1 to 15 of 33 posts
