Lakewood, Townsend, Mountain areas
I encourage everyone to watch the report. I've hunted these parts since the 1980's and have definitely seen a decline in deer. The dnr has every excuse for poor deer numbers under the sun except over harvest of does. It is very clear they dont want a buck only year or years. Steady decline of herd the past three years and they still purpose an upside to setting a doe quota. Per the report towards the end, ANY harvest of does will result in a decrease of deer population!! The goal has been and will still be to increase the herd. I hope the CDAC will bear down and do the right thing. I encourage everyone to prepare statements for the public comment peroid. Trying to stay positive here.
https://dnrmedia.wi.gov/main/Play/68b76fbd4b55460eac335f3925fd7cfc1d?catalog=d8199cb414f345b99ff34fc59139abfd21
lol i have property in Shawano county, Dude.. where it's supposedly the same with our 14 tags between gun and bow. My buddy i own it with and a few others hunted that property and saw some does opening morning and that was it. It was brutal down that way this year for gun from the sounds of it. No doubt I'll take the sightings for up in this area, i was very pleased. There's just some new form of excitement each year going from AG country in Shawano and Waupaca county where i spend loads of time bowhunting, and do see some really nice deer, and changing to the big woods challenge. It's a refreshing feeling when the season begins to become a real grind.
Lol oh no, SK... that's brutal!! I had a good year actually all things considered. Lost my uncle the weekend prior to opener so wasn't able to get out as much as i had originally planned both scouting and hunting. Anyway, made the best of it - saw 11 opening day, 2 small bucks i passed and 9 does. My buddy missed an 8 pointer as well so all in all i'd consider that a success. spent the rest of gun season hanging out with family and friends.
Did anyone have any luck over the firearms season? I ended up passing a young 8 opening day and saw 6 does so I was plenty happy. Checked a camera that was 100 yards from my gun stand while walking out on Opening evening to find that the big guy made an appearance the afternoon before the opener. Haha they know how to get a guy all fired up!!
Spent an hour yesterday making sure the stand was set and found someone's bow hunting honey hole about 200 yards from it... 6 scent wicks hanging from tree limbs... i wish guys would remove their trash after their sit . Hoping to catch one or two coming from some private fields into thicker bedding that I will be set up in between. Good luck everyone!
As I have a cabin in the Townsend area, I follow this thread. I love reading your guy's posts and it is humbling, realizing how little I really know about deer hunting. I hunt small parcels of private land, so it is literally setting up on the areas of those parcels where I see sign. If I had to find deer up in the National Forest, I wouldn't know where to start. Thanks for sharing and I with you gentlemen the best of luck this season!