Archery
Price County deer hunting
Put a lot of miles on this past weekend scouting different areas out. I personally did not see a lot of deer. However it snowed Friday night, and the amount of fresh tracks I saw in the snow Saturday and Sunday, covering all the miles I put on, there has to be a significant increase in deer numbers from the last couple of years. I could walk these same stretches which are miles long for days in prior years and not see any sign in the snow. There wasn't a stretch that didn't have multiple deer moving within each area. To me that was very encouraging, and have higher hopes for gun season. .
Hunted with my dad the past few days to see if he could get a buck. Saw a spiker and does, nothing with the does at the time. Then on Saturday we were watching the Badger game and my mom went in a ground blind with her camera and got a picture of a 6 pointer following a doe around. Would have been a 14" wide 8 but it didn't have brow tines, I see that quite a bit up there. Probably won't be out up there until gun season now. Couple 10 pointers on my camera but at night yet.
Overall I can't say I see an increase in deer. If anything its status quo from last season. That's just my areas though.
Like everywhere else in the northwoods, Price County deer numbers are up. Like everywhere else in the state, Price County deer are not evenly distributed. The farms I have been on are seeing good numbers of deer feeding on the fields. I have seen some myself- especially in the more agricultural areas. In the primarily forested areas, deer numbers are still low. Scout extensively and choose your spot.
Sure are lots of bear. I have one that keeps knocking my trail cam . There buck ratio is no doubt better than it was. The old ones sure dont move much in the day time but they are there. No sign of timber wolves and almost no wood ticks this year by me and a lot of fawns making it to fall. I still think the wood ticks kill deer. I have see pictures with a hundreds of ticks on a deer and it has to be a detriment.
Lots of coyotes by us as well. I'm going to try my hand at trapping this year to get a few. Being pretty new I expect low success but hopefully I get a couple. During the summer we had one yipping so loud that it sounded like it was inside with us, not the first time that has happened. Almost hit a couple with my truck too.
I first plan to get a camera in one of my main spots this weekend and will probably setup a stand. I'll be up helping my dad the first week of November so he's going to spend a day or two back where I hunt.
Just an observation, I was in Price co. a few weeks ago , back in the big woods. The buck age is better. A few decent bucks that are 2 yrs old and a few more 1 .5 yr bucks. Still shy on numbers but several twins running around. Now for the not so good news, the coyote numbers just seem to be increasing more each year. Now for the Good, the bad and the ugly. The bear numbers sure are on the rise. My cams second last picture had a cub walking on a log and 1 minute later the last pic was taken as the cam hit the dirt. Dang little cub. I had one timber wolf on the cam in May . They seem to be on the rise too.
Seeing a bunch of little bucks should be reason for optimism. I hunt sawyer county forest and we see the same thing, in fact my brother and I both shot spike bucks right away opening morning amongst the several does and fawns. Remember that we were still in the midst of our worst winter in decades at this time three years ago which coincided with some of the lowest deer numbers we've seen in decades. And the previous winter (2012-13) wasn't as bad WSI-wise but we were ice fishing opening day 2013. Anyway, you have a couple years that saw very poor fawn production due to late green ups and severe winters and we are still seeing those effects in a kind of age gap in the bucks. Most northern counties were doe only until this year so most legal bucks that people saw got whacked. Meanwhile, with most doe harvest severely limited and the last two winters being much more mild, fawn production has been much better creating a glut of 1.5 bucks but with few 2.5 and 3.5 from the poor fawn years. Some people can't see it but it is a several year process for things to noticeably improve. This fall should be pretty good with 1.5's coming in from a good fawn year (2015) and the higher number of 2.5s from last fall that made it through.
I agree it's not what it was in the early 2000s especially by us we would drive down the logging road by us and see several deer like around 40 to 50 in a 3 mile radius. But now 15 years after they logged in the same 3 Mike radius I see more 20 to 30 deer which large portion of those deer are coming from trail cams with corn in front of them. The problem I have is I don't get nearly the mature bucks that I should. These year we had maybe three eight pointers that were decent at best. A bunch of little buck, like 8-10. Nothing really exciting. Lakeshiner that one buck is really nice. Haven't had to many bucks like that around by me at all. Also hookem where exactly is ur cabin in price county?
I agree its not good, but I would keep moving. Maybe take a ride to a different section, that type of thing. I've found the deer to be in pockets. You'll drive 5 miles and hardly see a track in the snow, then all of a sudden you'll see a bunch. I've tried a number of areas around me trying to locate those pockets. A few years were really bad, as in didn't see a deer during gun season. If anything, hopefully the deer start to disperse more from these pockets, but I'm sure wolves and everything else gets a say in that. I actually only saw one wolf track last year, which seemed like a record low. That's probably why I had more deer around. Next year a pack will probably move through again.....
Quite a few pics were one and done, they move a ton up here during the rut. Only a few were actually in the area regularly. Like even right by my cabin, there were 2 little bucks most of the fall, but once the rut kicked in I saw 5 or 6 more as they came through to breed does. Once that was over they were gone again. I only had maybe 2 does around but they seemed to bring in every buck in the county. Once that was over, it was back to reality.
This was one of the better ones I had on camera. Previous pic was a doe walking by. During gun season, but at night. I like the pic because it shows the body size difference.
