Does anyone know where to find the number of bow, crossbow and gun license sales so far in Wisconsin?
Big Game Hunting
Deer license sales 2018
I hunt Marquette as well. I have 8 doe tags now between my bow and gun licenses. As a group we generally shoot and eat more deer than average, but the amount they give is excessive even for us. I remember back to the late 90's and early 2000's when we couldn't even get a doe tag. There were deer everywhere back then. We still have good numbers in our area, but there's no way we can fill as many tags as we have.
The gun license sales ended up being down almost 12000 which is about2%. As I posted before, a DNR employee once told us the deer population in Northern Wisconsin after a bad winter is only about 10 deer per square mile. A average wolf pack numbers about 5 or 6 wolves and each wolf needs about 20 deer a year to survive. So do the math, until something is done to bring down the wolf population deer hunting is probably not going to get any better up north.
I think you are right Yamatroller. I told my son the other day, I am not hunting Price county next year, no way !. He quietly agreed. I am not sure yet where we will go if he even bothers anymore . Heck I just might hunt Missouri and say to heck with it. It will be 1 week earlier, and 20 degrees warmer.
The DNR is so clueless, or it caress so little that it is hard to tell.
Gun license sales which is gun, sportsmens, and patron is down closer to 20000 from last year. Doesn't surprise me none, I think I know 3 times as many guys who used to gun hunt then who gun hunt any more. People have to realize that deer hunting in Wisconsin is changing,more guys are giving up on gun season and taking up crossbow hunting. Also it is getting to the point that deer hunting in a lot of the northern half of the State isn't hardly worth the effort anymore which is a big reason lots of guys have given up gun hunting.