Still waiting on the final 9 day harvest numbers but it is interesting to compare opening weekend from this year to last year. Overall harvest is up 2.3% from 2019, but 2019 harvest was down 25% from 2018 so not much of an improvement. A disturbing trend in my opinion. Makes me sick to see how many doe tags are still available for purchase.
https://widnr.widen.net/s/2llfwzxjnk
Trouter keep taking what pleases you. If you got that meat doe this year congrats and enjoy them backstraps they are delicious. All that I have to say to WI hunters is that the only way we are going to make the Department happy is to have our harvest drop below 300,000 deer harvested for the year, for multiple years.
As Granpa said the people in charge, not the local biologist, is only giving the CDAC certain rules. This is very obvious from the recorded presentations the biologist gave last spring. Most county presentation, said almost the same thing, the herd is increasing and we need to increase the doe harvest to maintain or decrease the herd.
Merry christmas and Happy New Year
i have my fair share of the those famous 125 inch bucks, But I have a lot more 130 to 150 pounders that taste a lot better than the 125 inch antler. As for taking a doe for meat instead of a small buck you have the same chance the of killing that trophy buck that everyone wants. You are right about those who complain, if you shoot a little buck it is hard to have a nice one around next year, that is also the case if you shoot a lot of big does in your area, you tend to get smaller buck fawns, which in turn takes longer to get to a decent size deer. Buck fever has shut down a lot of areas for the less fortunate.
Anyway enough of about the antlers, remember this the gun harvest for opening day was only up around 2% from last year which they called a very poor harvest. That means this years harvest was not very good either and that we as the hunting public need to make sure to voice that to the CDAC, that we do not want a repeat of 2008. Which is why, they were brought about. No one liked SAK, and the CDAC is going the same way. All that I hear is that the car kills are up (more cars???), crop damage is up(still difficult to get on private) and the kill number keeps going up slightly(hard to argue this one). We as hunters need to take what we are going to use and not be greedy. The DNR is going to want more does shot next year. They are going to offer more tags and as the private land harvest doesn't increase they will keep increasing the public land tags. My county has done this every year for the last 5. Good luck hunting the next year. Hope the next opening day finds you in good graces with the wife and healthy enough to enjoy our God given right to Hunt.
Talked with a guy a few years ago during rifle season. I already knew he had shot three 1.5 year olds with his crew - party hunting of course. He asked me how I get big bucks because he passed up 12 bucks with his bow earlier in the season and was complaining he never sees a big one. Enuff said.
JC- I couldn’t agree more. I am not buck shaming and certain areas produce better racks than others. But it is hard to listen to a guy complaining about never having the opportunity at a buck over 125 inches, but their entire crew fills up on 2 yr old 75-110 inchers every year. Then they wonder why the adjacent property harvests 140-170 inch bucks every year. Not everyone, maybe 1 or 2 people tag the mature deer, the rest eat tags or harvest a doe for the freezer. It’s not magic folks. There are a lot of people that never connect the dots though.
