I am curious who all hunts private land and who all hunts public land? How many acres do you hunt on? Do you do hunt both, stay on private land, or stay on public land, or possibly a combination of the both when your property backs up to public land?
Big Game Hunting
Public Land Vs Private Land
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Actually, I own 7 ac. I dont even hunt it. I cross the Flambeau River and likely have hundreds of acres to myself. I dont really go there to see deer. I go there , ,, well, , , cause I have a cabin there and have owned the land for almost 32 yrs. I went down to Chitcago and bought the 7ac. with 300' of S. Fork Flambeau River frontage for $3,000. As much as 3k was when I was 25 yrs old. I knew very well that it was a deal I will never regret. That summer , all of us carpenters went up to build a 24x24' cabin in a weekend. I still have it. The taxes are whopping $252 this year. WTH, they went up $18 !! . " Come on man" . The deer hunting was ok, but that is all I can give the deer hunting was "ok". Now , it is downright dismal. There is a bunch of cabins down the road that bait and bait and bait. They get deer and I rarely see a buck . Have not see one in 11 yrs during the gun season. And no , I am not a crappy hunter. I can sit in Washington co. public in Nov. and see a buck every other sit, so it's not me, honest. Yes, I know JC like to bait . Honestly we could ban bait and hunt them like we used to . I dont see the harm in it at all. They would have to moove more , that is for sure. LakeShiner, I am sure your area is better than mine , but I have some down the road that shoot every little buck and bait opening of bow and dont stop till Thanksgiving. By the time I gun hunt there , most of the bucks are at freezer camp. They would not be doing so well if they had to hunt without bait.
Trouter- How can you say a wolf hunt with a harvest of 260 wolves will not help the deer population? Current population estimate is ~1000 wolves. So a 25% reduction is certainly a step in the right direction.
It is estimated one wolf kills 20 deer per year. So 260 x 20 = 5200 more deer after year one. After several years of 'compounding', it will certainly help.
I was joking, I know he dislikes baiters from past posts. Its a big county, the southern half is a lot of agriculture. I wish they divided it personally into north and south zones. Would help with the doe tags. Where I am we didn't have doe tags for 6 years I think. Then we go to county zones and magically tags every year. That's when I saw the numbers go down more. Gun season comes, guys go near the cabins and dump corn and shoot the does. Of course again, that is just what I see by me.
"I don't think a food plot would be worth the effort and cost in Bait County....I mean Price County. "
I beg to differ. I hunt in a Bait County. Food plots work awesome, and even better than bait because bait runs out quickly. However, if he is stuck on 7 acres there are other issues of not seeing many deer, and greatly limits food plot potential.
I agree it probably won't do much. Before they were hesitant to go all out and get them to the numbers they wanted because they had to play the politics game and not completely freak out the anti's. I assume the same thing will happen again with the first couple hunts. Then they'll give a bunch of tags to the natives that they won't fill.
During the 2014 wolf hunt, 154 wolves were harvested. In 2013, it was 257. In 2013, it was 243.
If the next hunt is consistent with the previous 3 hunts, harvest will be likely less than 260.
This percent of harvest will have minimal impact on wolf/human conflicts or the deer population.
A hunt does not fix any wolf problem. Not with the 25 farms that reported predation of livestock, not on the deer population.
Did dogs lost to wolves stop after the last 3 hunts ? Did wolf predation of livestock stop after the last 3 hunts ? Did the deer population explode after the last 3 wolf hunts ??
Not at all.
Lakeshiner, I also had more nicer bucks on the cam than I had in 10 yrs. I had a real bruiser 2 times that would make Buffalo co, proud. Where he went , I likely will never know. Find his sheds and we will know. It has been a long time since I was not disapointed in the buck numbers. Does are still about the same. This year was ok, last year was bad and 2018 was really looking up till the stupid late winter came and put 3' snow on the ground. Even buried the trail cam for a month.
I think lakeshiner hit it on the head. The deer of the Northwoods are not the deer of the Central and Southern part of the state. The vastness of cover the Northwoods provides, I found, is the biggest hurdle to overcome with the deer there, especially in cases of heavy predation. Deer's agility and adaptation to be able to move through cover that more resembles portals to hell than woodland tracts is what they rely on most heavily to avoid wolves (I can't tell you how envious I was of this ability more than once this gun season). They seem to abandon instinctual tendencies of transient deer to move in sections of cover through open areas with favorable wind, and instead just stick to the thickest possible cover they can find, and they move through it with ease.
Wolves are more efficient predators than humans because of the advantages they have of being on equal plane of physical capability with deer (more efficient, but not near as lethal, unless someone gets a little heavy in the scotch the night before). As humans, we are entering these territories, clumsy and two legged, and trying to be competitors in this game between wolf and deer in some of the harshest terrain in Wisconsin.
Deer numbers aside, as I'm sure the wolves have still had considerable impact on herd sizes, I think this is one of the primary reasons for barren woods. The deer are there, just nowhere near nonchalant enough to come face to face with a hunter.
In some other areas of the state, if you shoot and miss a deer, ehhh, that's okay. Just sit tight in some cover and wait for half an hour and they'll be right back for another go-round, lol.
I don't think a food plot would be worth the effort and cost in Bait County....I mean Price County. Not unless you had a larger tract of land. I'm kind of in the same boat, I have about 7 acres but am really close to the federal land.
I try to hunt more pinch points. Hunting up there all depends on the day you go. This year I didn't get one during archery, but there were 4 different days on my camera that a nice buck walked past my stand. I just wasn't there. Had I been and shot one, I'd have thought it was a good year. Can sit day after day looking at trees to get that chance, but it can be hard to keep going sometimes.
I actually feel like its slowly coming back. I did see more wolves this year than ever before, but the size of bucks I had on camera improved from the past few years. Still not the number of big bucks like we had prior to 2014 or whenever those bad winters were, but it looked better than the past few years in my area anyways. I realize that's one dot on the map. If you do look at average snowfalls, Iron is the worst and it dips into northern Price where I am. I used to think northern counties were about the same, but in reality they are not. That all slows down the recovery. But like I said, the buck size at least improved for me this year. Doe numbers didn't seem to change, but we did see fawns this year so that is new LOL. Cabin deer numbers are still lowest I've seen in 12 years or so. That is what I refer to the half-tame ones hanging around the buildings.
Now compare that to public land around my house in central WI and its completely different. There I see more deer and more people. That's why I kind of laugh when people label their spots 'public'. It varies drastically throughout this state, I think that's why guys tend to not agree. Talking apples to oranges many times but using the same word.
I only have 7 acres, so I use my 1/4 ac. yard as a food plot. I plant clover every other year and that helps. However, I dont hunt my land a lot cause its only 7 ac . and dont care much to go on other owners land to get a deer. Therefore, I go hunt the big public land all around. I never said " there is truly no deer" . I have made it clear they are scarce. You will not get every deer in the area with a food plot . When deer concentrate too much , the wolves figure it out real fast when they come through.
I hook- you ever think of planting some food plots?? If they have cover and food they should bounce back just fine! The other nice thing about a food plot is if there is truly no other food you should have every deer in the county on your plots! If u build it they will come!!
The wolves should have moved on by now if there truly is no deer so you should be good there! Also there having a wolf hunt next year which should help! Good luck next year
Four of us hunt public land smack dab in the middle of Oneida county. I have gone three years without even seeing a deer. We have harvested a couple of does in the last two years. Shooting a doe on public land where we hunt is equivalent to shooting a 10 point buck that almost seem to be tied up to a tree on the private hunting lands of central and southern WI. Big buck harvesting is a rich mans sport.
I am not only considering game species so i can shoot them. I am considering land that should be growing trees that are useful to wildlife that should be there but are not. I mentioned there is no regeneration of cedars . I have never seen a small cedar tree there in 40 yrs. NONE!. I do see some small Hemlocks in the fall that are about 1 yr old. By spring they are gone. I see a few White Pines but very few at all and when I do see them they are very chewed up. The reason for this may seem that there are too many deer, but this is not the case. There is so little for them to eat that they eat White Pine. I have even seen that they have eaten my Spruce trees. However, I have not seem them eat my spruces in over 10 yrs. ( you can thank the wolves)That is a starvation food according to my a forester I know. I am however glad to see the White Oak trees coming up by the thousands the last 5 yrs or so. This is good . Some day there will be acorns for them to eat if they get above the deer browse. I also mentioned the fact that almost all the swamps are tag alder. I dont think they eat Tag Alder buds. However, it still is a very poor wintering area for deer . Compare Tag Alder swamps in the winter to Cedar swamps and it is easy to see the cedars have more value. So, it is not that I am just looking through the scope to shoot something like you imply. I am looking at the whole system and wonder what is wrong with the land. If there is something wrong with the land , there will not be much for wildlife. There is no doubt almost everyone here that hunts north of HWY 8 on public land knows very well what I am talking about when you can walk a mile in 3 day snow in the 1st week of November and cant even cut a dozen deer tracks , there is something wrong with the ecological system. Look at the deer harvest in Price co. It is not so good, and most come from private land , and almost all the deer are shot over bait. I hunt the public and never bait and that is a very tough hunt . about half the years I dont even see a deer , even in 4 days .
No , it is not a stretch to call it that. If you disagree with someone without a valid reason, then your opinion is not worth anything. Please explain why it is not an ecological desert. Mind you , I have had land up there since 1989 and have been going up there for over 40 yrs now. The west side of Price county and the Flambeau River State Forest is some very poor land. If it is not an ecological desert , then common sense says there should be a healthy wildlife population. The only thing worth mentioning is grouse and bear numbers. The land has mostly tagalder for swamps and has little value to deer in winter compared to cedar swamps. The high land in the state forest is way over mature, and there is no regeneration of cedars or hemlocks for winter cover. There is almost no regeneration of white pines and the few young White Pines that are there get nipped to death by the deer. There are White Oaks coming up all over and glad to see it but almost all of them are less than 3' tall and are not above the deer browse . There is " brush " growing all over and seems useless to the deer. I'm not sure what much of it is. I see what I call Ironwood and some other trees that dont grow to be anything at all. Thankfully grass grows in the summer right in the woods , otherwise there would be almost nothing for the deer to eat. I have not seen a snowshoe hare since 2006. I have not seen a buck in gun season since 2009 and gun hunt there every year.
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