2021 Deer season

Edit: I meant to say Gun deer season.

I will be in Shawano county. Weather looks really nice. Very excited as usual. I loves me some opening days.

Anyone hunting MN opener? It's gonna be 60*, glad I didn't plan on it. 

I blame the WDNR first and foremost for lack of deer on public land, not just in the north.  WDNR is hamstrung to get deer killed on private land, so they try to make up for it on public land.  The results speak for themselves.  Now, with the CDACs, that is another animal, but an animal greatly influenced by WDNR.  Stacking the CDACs with anti-deer folks (DOT, Forestry) already creates an uphill battle for those that want more deer.

I also blame WDNR for not controlling the wolf population.  I know liberal judges have been a thorn in the side for wolf management, but when WDNR goes against the very basics of the Wolf Management Plan when seasons have been open, and refuses to follow it, the results speak for themselves.  350 was the goal, but now WDNR lies and says it is a minimum number.  When after hunt populations are over a 1,000 wolves, they have single handedly managed the population based on politics and the beliefs of only a few people in high places.  

I always thought the main factors were logging and spring thaw.  In my area of Price, the hemlocks and such are so thick that no sunlight gets through for new growth.  I tried planting a tree in my yard and its bending toward the light, I struggle to grow grass.  The hemlocks just block all the light.  The last few years they have been logging the national forest areas and that is coming in thick.  I'm happy to see them doing all that, I think it will help the future.  So much of the woods was wide open.  

Snow is pretty deep already for this time of year, deer are almost plowing with their chests.  Hopefully we get a nice early spring again to keep things going in the right direction.  I still think that is the biggest factor of all.  Nothing worse than turkey season starting and having a foot or two of snow yet, like we did back in 2013 and 14.

Ihookem,

North west of Watersmeet. We hunt private and public. I’ve hunted and scouted from marenisco all the way over to southeast of Kenton. Gotta keep moving to stay on deer but it really is a crap shoot every year. The deer in these areas are migrators and who knows if they return to their same summer/fall ranges every year which also plays into things.  I’ve read every article and study I can find on deer migrations to wintering yards and find it fascinating but there’s so much that isn’t known or isn’t studied. 

Outfishin, where is your dee camp in "Da U.P.? and Yamatroller, I see the same thing in Price co. You will not find a baby cedar and if you find a Hemlock in the fall , it will be gone by spring thaw . It will take another 10 yrs of low deer numbers and then maybe we will see some oaks and white pine getting above the browse line. If the old timers would have shot some does 50 yrs ago we would at least have some white oaks above the browse line and by now would be making some acorns for food. In a strange way  it was our fault. There were too many deer in Price co. at one time. 

One thing hunters don't realize is that there are a lot more people depending on logging up north  for jobs then the few bar and resort owners that want a lot of hunters up north. Years ago we got spoiled with the high numbers of deer and the good hunting but all those deer did a lot of damage to the future of the timber industry. The over population of deer over browsed the forest, I remember walking through the woods and seeing every branch and little tree up to the size of my pinky finger chewed right down to nothing. Even now there is not a small cedar or hemlock to be found.  The forest and logging industry would have no future if this was still going on. Lots of land is owned by the timber industry and they want to keep the deer population under control and I guess it is their right. As one member of the Conservation Congress told me years ago when the population was really high " The DNR will never let the deer population in Northern Wisconsin ever get ever get this high again". 

Tons of logging in Vilas county the last few years. Definitely helps. 

In all my experiences in the bigger woods of northern Wisconsin and the U.P., there’s way to many predators, severe winters, etc. but there’s still pockets of deer with some nice bucks every year. A lot of the bucks probably die of old age or at least I believe get to a certain age and get taken out by wolves. People that don’t frequent the areas I frequent don’t realize how quickly wolves can wipe out one of these good pockets of deer. Not saying all the deer get killed, but the deer will move out and relocate if continually pressured from predators.  It makes it very tough from year to year especially when a guy can scout miles and miles of woods without so much as a deer track. It takes a TON of work to get on that next pocket of deer. I enjoy it less and less each year. 

I’ve had areas where we would have 10-12 bucks on camera one year, the wolves moved in and the next year that area was completely void of any and all deer sign. Again, not saying all these deer were killed, but they weren’t in the 5-10 square mile area we had been scouting. We do almost always find evidence of some predator kills. It’s a vicious cycle. If there’s a pocket of deer, there is or will be predators very soon. It’s tough hunting for sure. 

Now in my areas of the U.P.  There’s lots of logging happening all over the Ottawa and there’s miles and miles of heavy select cuts and clear cuts that look like and should be prime deer habitat. Unfortunately most of it is completely devoid of deer. It’s sad because it could really be something special. I encourage anyone to go scout those areas in the western U.P. After a fresh snow and see what you turn up. Again, even these areas will have pockets of deer with some decent bucks but they are so few and far between, it’s extremely tough hunting and changes drastically from year to year because of winters, predators, etc. 

I’m giving my property in the U.P. 1 more year and if it’s a bust again, I’m selling. Between the predators and severe winters, it will never amount to much. Keep saying next year, maybe next year. Well, here I sit in mid December with over 20” of snow pack already, not a good start to a very long and tough winter. 

In my opinion I  wouldn't blame the DNR for the lack of deer on public  land in most of Northern Wisconsin. The biggest problems causing the low deer populations is out of the DNR's control. The biggest problem at least in Forest County is the forest is to mature to support a large deer population. There is hardly any logging going on in the National Forest. Years ago when there was a lot of deer there was logging going on all over. Now areas where we used to hunt haven't been logged in over 40 years. I had talked  to a Forester from the National  Forest Service and he said you will never see logging even close to what used  to happen.  That also is because of the lack  of manpower to prepare logging jobs  and because most logging jobs in the National Forest are also contested by lawsuits.   Next problem is the high wolf population but you can thank the tree huggers lawsuits for that. Yes the bear get a few deer but at least by us there aren't nearly the bears that there used to be around. There haven't hardly been any doe permits up there in 5yrs and the population still can't come back on public land. So there are a few other problems rather than to many does getting shot. 

went to north public land forests.... camp for whole week with son , & brothers. First year my dad didn't come along as he turned 80 this year, decided to stay home & take it easy. We hunt public..... it is very hard work, but there are deer, my son passed up a four point right under him opening day, we took a couple deer this year, first in a few years , as we were looking for some venison.  County did issue a lot of doe tags, quite a bit of shooting opening weekend, very quiet after that. We go for the experience of deer camp, enjoy family time, get away from hustle & bustle for a bit. Can see if not into it, the overall hunting quality is  pretty tough going. Trying to keep the tradition alive, use to live for it growing up, is what it is I guess, I still enjoy getting up there.

That doesn't mean they went up north, the cabins in my area this year were packed, last year most were empty

More licenses were sold in 2020 than 2021.

Half the Hunters in the north woods in 2020 compared this year because of covid, no wonder the kill is up this year

JC  I think your exactly right. The County deer biologist will ask for much higher antlerless quotas. Unless we have a very severe WSI.

If you can’t attend your CDAC meetings in March make sure to comment online. 

"For those of us who hunt the northern forest units it was not all gloom or doom. The buck kill was up 14.9% over last season in the 19 counties that make up this area.  Forest county saw a 38% increase in buck kill over last year. Oneida went up 14.7% in buck kill and Vilas 11.3%. (The counties our group hunts)."

That is indeed great, and shows that the winter of 2019/2020 allowed some deer to survive.  Now what happens?  WDNR plugs this buck kill into their SAK formula, and will strongly recommend to CDACs to increase the antlerless harvest for 2022 and 2023.  Right back to where we started.

For those of us who hunt the northern forest units it was not all gloom or doom. The buck kill was up 14.9% over last season in the 19 counties that make up this area.
Forest county saw a 38% increase in buck kill over last year. Oneida went up 14.7% in buck kill and Vilas 11.3%. (The counties our group hunts).

Yeah we still have a long way to go after years of nearly 45% drop in kills. But it’s getting better, another mild winter would be great.

Heading up to waupaca tomorow after work, was taking my nephew out this weekend to try and get him his first deer, should be intresting with the blizzard and 30 mph winds thru saturday, looks like a nap in and breakfast and hope it clears for a PM hunt we'll see.

Goodhuntin all and stay safe and most importantly enjoy your time outdoors.