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.
me filling my buck tag with a small buck leaves more big bucks for the guys who are looking for that monster. Everyone wants a chance at that monster, but the monster may be a 4 on one side and a huge spike on the other side, or it may be a unicorn. If someone is proud of the deer they shot, be happy for them it is their trophy, and their story for that hunting season. Some of the areas that I hunt more bucks are hit on the road than I even get a chance to see.
Last night to tell the CDAC what you want done with your county deer herd for the next three years. Increase, Maintain, or Decrease. These three option will tell how many doe tags you will see for the next three years. There are online meetings are starting December 7th.
2020 gun deer season was rough, I hunt heavily harvested areas, with my family. Opening weekend was really good for many people that I have talked to and I know that there are some really happy hunters out there who harvested some dandy bucks opening weekend and through out the season congrats.
Congrats to the hunters who were able to contribute to the 2% increase in the statewide opening day harvest. And to those who are eating that tag soup hopefully the winter is easy and the fawn production is threw the roof next year and we all get a chance in 2021 to decide venison or soup this year.
Yes I have observed wolf deer kills first hand. I know they eat ribs, crush long bones like the femur for the marrow as well as skulls. Antlers have no nutritional value to a wolf, which is why I questioned if dead heads were ever found. I have hunted both Bayfield and Forest counties, but neither of them in the past 10-15 years. I understand the expansiveness of the landscape in those areas. I also know deer will migrate and yard up for thermal cover all winter long. Concentrated deer yards are easy pickings for wolves, but they are also areas shed hunters will target in the spring when the snow gets low enough, so you would think more mature dead heads would be found. We are having wolves show up in the central forest but not in numbers yet to cause a problem. Many of the area counties are 2-3 doe tags per deer license so the food source is here. I think logging practices have changed to more select harvest encouraging regeneration vs clear cuts which has an effect on deer (and grouse) preferred foods/habitat. Deer numbers are estimated per square mile of habitat, not a physical square mile of land. If you are in a forested area of 10-15 deer per sq/mile of preferred habitat, there are a lot of hunters trying to get eyes on not very many animals. For the sake of the conversation, assume a 5:1 doe to buck ratio and you are looking at 2-3 male deer per sq mile of habitat. You can bet at least one, if not all of the bucks in this hypothetical scenario are yearlings. Run the numbers and realize just how difficult it is to see, not even harvest a mature buck from areas of marginal habitat.
Slug , Farnorth is correct a wolf kill has hardly nothing left but hair scattered about. Maybe a few small pieces of bone but that is about all l have ever seen. Also the vast majority of the wooded areas in Northern Wisconsin never have a hunter walk through so most wolf kills are never seen. I walk many miles during gun season and years with snow I see very very few people tracks more than a couple hundred yards off the road. We used to have pictures of lots of big bucks up in Forest County, now most of the few nice bucks left are close to town or cabins.
Hard to find the big buck kills up north unless you are a shed hunter - which is more than looking for a needle in a haystack. Very few people in the woods during December-February, and with such a small percentage of large bucks in these areas to begin with I would have better luck winning the lottery. I have seen pics of dead big bucks from friends of wolf kills, including a giant the day before rifle season this year. Mice and squirrels also remove bone from the landscape quickly here. Bayfield and Ashland counties used to lead the state in B&C entries 30 or so years ago. How many B&C bucks do you hear about coming from those parts now - thick with wolves. I have a gut feeling bucks that run the hardest during the rut are easy pickings by end of December. The most mature bucks seem to roam the most, and immature bucks tend to focus on their home areas more - at least my observations.
How many big bucks do you find dead of CWD?
Just an observation, but if wolves do indeed kill mature bucks disproportionately due to being weak and run down, wouldn’t people be finding a good number of dead heads while tromping around in the woods? I don’t know the answer, but I think that would be the case. I don’t recall hearing about hunters in the northern forest stumbling onto a bone pile with a mature rack while they are hunting. Typically rodents don’t eat dead head antlers like they do shed antlers, so I’d think they would be out there?
