browningbolt

Has your area been overharvested thanks to EAB.What do you think happens when you shoot doe fawns and nubbies.

PY Antlers

If you were seeing deer early and now there gone Id say you have wolves running around. Happens all the time around Mather. One week youll see deer, then all of a sudden there gone. It's the wolves! They need to be thinned down a bunch in the Meadow Valley area. I own and hunt land south of there where we have managed it on our own. Taking bucks no less than 4 on a side and trying to keep the buck to doe ratio 2:1. I see deer all the time. I understand the public property issues, but if people are complaining about land they own, then it's there own fault.

wis_rifle_hunter

all us wisconsin hunters have tried but nothing seems to affect the dnr. i wish i could go to the dnr offices and have a talk with all the people there and give them a piece of my mind

downbuck014

Last Year, In NW Wisconsin, Near Oliver it was horrible. I own 365 acres and we have 5 hunters, in the 2008 season only a total of 7 does and 3 bucks were seen throughout the whole November gun season, each day was hunted hard.. sun-up to sun-down. I don't know whats going on but the deer herd in wisconsin has drastically changed. For the worse. If the DNR doesn't get their head out of their asses, there isnt going to be a damned hunter in the state that wants to buy a license.

UPHunter08

I'm going to have call 'BS' on this one. Unless you own thousands of acres or a game farm, most landowners have very little control individually over the deer herd in their area. Contrary to what some people seem to believe, deer aren't restricted to your 40-acre parcel. That 1 1/2 year old buck that you let pass may get taken out by the hunter on the property 1/2 mile away.

It falls upon the game management agency, the WI-DNR in this case, to formulate a policy that meets the needs of most of their constituents. This means enacting policies that result in deer numbers and doe-to-buck ratios in line with their goals. In my experience, the MI-DNR totally f**ked this up in the Upper Peninsula. In reaction to low deer numbers, they virtually eliminated doe permits in most areas of the western UP, and the long term result is a ratio of 5:1 or even 10:1 (in my personal experience).

Unfortunately, WI seems to be going down a similar road. The ratio is much better here, but overall numbers seem to be much lower. To make matters worse, there seems to be very little restrictions on allowing large landowners to fence in huge areas to create game farms. That just takes valuable habitat out of production to the average citizen...I'd be incredibly irate if I bought 80 acres, only to have the adjacent 1,500 acres fenced off (as has happened here recently). It's pretty sad when I look forward to hunting the poor deer herd in the UP because I see more deer there than in WI...although there are far fewer big bucks up there, at least I regularly see a lot of deer!

It's all part of the same problem IMO: terrible management on the part of the WI-DNR. If I did my job the way they're doing theirs, I'd have been fired already. The problem we have as sportsmen, is that the gov't bureaucrats in the DNR are not responsible to the average citizen; they only listen to the politicians and special interests (e.g. agriculture lobby).

wisbowhunter2009

Whoever above said that its our "hunters" fault they can get the hek out of this thread, they dont know what there talking about... I live in Northern Wisconsin, as wis bow huntr knows, things arent looking good up here... I went to scout a chunk of property yesterday, seen over 30 wolves within a mile.... And they are different ones, now you tell me whats wrong in this picture!!! DNR is BULL**** i say screw the dnr.... As tony knows, im NOT going to be buying another Wisconsin license till this gets better... I will buy a illinois and Minnesota license though. So good luck all, i will be checking in on the website here... have a good and safe season...

blakefrautschi

to tell you the truth ive been seeing lots of deer this year.

UPHunter08

Naturally...you're down near Madison (DNR HQ).

In all seriousness, you don't have wolves, are surrounded by agriculture, and have a milder winter than northern WI. Totally different situation in the southern half of the state IMO.

WIbuckchaser

I hunt both public and private in Chippewa county and have seen quite a few deer this yr. I have hunted the private more than public. The private land I hunt is mostly cropland surrounded by large tracts of woods. Most of these landowners are out for big bucks and don't shoot many does so that helps a ton. The land that I hunt the owner doesn't hunt. Another good thing about this area is the fact there is quite a bit of swamp so they can hide and stay alive when the gun fire starts. I haven't heard of an wolves around here yet, but we do have oodles of bear.

W9ARcher

I hunt just north of Chippewa County and the wolves are moving south out of the Blue Hills. Should be in Chippewa County in the next couple of years and we won't have to worry about Zone 23 being Herd Control any more.

Unless we take matters into our own hands and stop the expansion