I agree with most of the otherws here, the DNR doesn't really know how many deer there are anywhere, just look at the bear issue, first they thought there were about 13000 bear in Wisconsin, now they say they made a mistake and say there are close to 39000 ??? Who's doing the counting ??
I hunt in far Northwest Wisconsin, north of Hayward. 15 years ago, I used to see herds of deer off of my stand, groups of 6 to 10 were not uncommon. Last year in 4 days of hunting I saw 2 deer, both bucks, and they are both in the freezer !!!!
Out of 3 other people I hunt with they saw a total of 5 deer !!!
Signs were few and far between...oh, by the way, I saw my first wolf in all my years of hunting, there were plenty of wolf signs around !!!