RE: How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
Well...I agree that the opening weekend stunk, but with a little different opinon on why. We hunt in Polk county on the NW side of the state. We are avid Bow hunters as well as rifle. This year, up till this weekend, we have seen more big deer than many of the prior years and saw more bucks during bow season than ever before. We saw plenty of "shooters", basically three years old or greater up to this weekend.
However, come Saturday....almost a complete reversal. Perfect weather (cool, cloudy and little wind)but no deer moving. While we don't always get nice deer, we sometimes do and usually see a lot more than we just did. We also heard a LOT less shots around us. We usually joke that Saturday morning is like WWIII. Not this year.
We also talked to the local registration station and they too were off dramatically, close to 40% less deer registered.
I think it had to do with the rut and what stage it is in. I do not believe that the DNR is misleading us, at least not in parts of the states I know well or friends in mine hunt.
Basically, the peak action in our part of the state usually occurs around the 4th - 7th of Nov. This year it was a week later. The main action happened the 14th and 15th. This was also noted by many of the other hunters in our area. With the peak taking place just a week before the gun opener, the timing would be "just right" for bucks to just lie down with does - in essence the peak breeding time.
Thinking about this, and sick of seeing literally no deer where I typically see quite a bit and get a buck opening day (75% of the time), I got out of my stand and still hunted starting 1:00pm Sunday.
I really took my time, probably covering 100 yards an hour. Made as little noise as possible and glassed every nook and cranny over and over and went straight up wind. 3 hours later, I got within 25 yards of 9 bedded deer, including two bucks. I got an 8-pointer and they had almost no idea I was there.
Today, my father-in-law took this tactic in a different part of our land and got a real nice 2 1/2 year old. He said he barley moved 350 yards in 4 hours.
So, I think the deer are simply lying down. It makes sense given what we have seen as well as what we have reas/learned about the phases of the rut.
In WI, this next weekend could be fun as they get up and move again.