General Hunting Discussion
winter deer kill
I don’t believe I can recall a time when we’ve seen more deer than what we’ve been seeing lately in Vilas county.
Saw around 100+ deer in a field near Sugarcamp.
Near Sayner they are everywhere too. Have around 5 that have been hanging around the cabin too.
Despite the winter, they seem to have stronger numbers than I’ve seen in quite some time.
Deer don't browse in fields, that's grazing. The ice storm we got in early Feb. took down a lot of tree tops providing browse. At this point it has been tough on deer for 3 weeks. If we get a crust on the snow then the wolfs and coyotes will have a field day. At this point they are struggling to move through the snow also.
Im in Oneida county where we have about 38".
Hate to tell you CWS but there were no deer browsing in any fields by us in Forest County since maybe early January. After the ice storm up there the crust was so hard they couldn't get through it and then in the next 10 days they got 30" of snow. We have close to 3' on the ground and more to the NW with a lot of winter left unless we get a big warm up The DNR winter severity index is already to moderate at the end of Feb.
It's not the greatest out there right now but the deer are doing just fine. There are some weak ones dying but that is good. Any deer that is dying already from the winter had predisposed problems that we do not need getting spread. They went into February very healthy as most were still eating in fields. There is plenty of browse which is what they prefer now anyways in the woods. Unless there are wolves the deep snow is just fine, keeps them insulated at night. These rain to ice to snow storms are what I would worry about a heck of a lot more than anything else.
Was up at our cabin in Forest County this past weekend and the snow is about 34" in the hardwoods. Took a 60 mile snowmobile ride seen very little deer sign and where we did they are in the swamps. The few deer we seen are having a very tough time getting around except when on the snowmobile trail. No beaten down trails like years ago so the deer are basically breaking trail most of the time, it doesn't look good.
