WI Earn-a-buck
 

Looks like there is a good chance of earn-a-buck requirements for several WI units next year. Some of the counties on watch including Buffalo county were down in antlerless harvest and up in the number of bucks harvested.

http://www.justinwp.com/post.php?id_blg=30

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/news/rbnews/2005/112905co1.htm

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

Thanks for the update. Perhaps I should take another doe. I'm sure we will be in earn-a-buck. 65% buck harvest in my county from what I heard. Not good, but lots of nice bucks taken.

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

yeah, you can qualify for a buck next year if you shoot a doe this year. might as well take care of that in the late tzone

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

I wish we had EAB here , we're sheitty with does . I'd much rather have EAB than any kind of antler restrictions or one buck rule .

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

same here kevin. just guessing i would say the doe to buck ratio in the places i hunt is easily 9 to 1 pretty rediculous. it may even be more than that. hopefully illinois will realize that 90% of people are trophy hunters and if it were EAB than the population would be reduced. instead, they just open up another gun season which is absolutely worthless IMO.

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

The Wisconsin DNR is nuts! They say we have all these deer and we don't. In the northern part of the state with their stupid Zone T hunts, and from the bear and wolves the deer numbers are way down. Now the DNR wants to threaten us with Earn a Buck next year. Well if they do I am not buying a Wisconsin deer tag, I will go else where and hunt in the U.P.

The deer numbers just are not there any more. This season during the bow and gun season, all I saw was a fawn. Last year I didn't see any deer neither. Also a lot of people I know have not been seeing deer either. When I first moved on my land every night we saw at least 30 deer in our fields, now we hardly see any deer in our fields at night. The DNR is ruining Wisconson deer hunting. No other states have earn a buck or zone T's but our DNR doesn't get it. I think the insurance companies are also involved with this.

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

They say we have all these deer and we don't.

look at the numbers:

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/news/pdf/2005_9_day_table.pdf

the buck harvest was up in most counties while the antlerless harvest was down. statewide the buck kill was up by 11.7% and the antlerless kill was down 2.84% from last year.

this is unhealthy for the herd if the numbers get too lopsided and the earn-a-buck policy is the tool to make sure that does not happen. personally, I saw between 15-25 deer on average through gun season. My father saw 15 different bucks opening day alone...

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

$#%@#$% %^$%^#$%^$%^#$%^#$%^ i hate earn a buck i had to let so many nice bucks walk last year with that bull $h!t

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

you know you can shoot a doe now and be qualified for a buck next year right? why dont you go out in the late tzone and do just that?

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

im prequalified four times over. i shoot does anyway, but i dont like the pressure that it puts on you to get a doe.

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

Wow, I just checked where I hunt, Bayfield County, and the total of deer taken overall wa down 20% !!! Thats what I have always wondered, where are all the deer they keep talking about !

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

does anyone have a list or link to the units that are on watch for EAB next year?

RE: WI Earn-a-buck
 

I'm kinda inclined to think the numbers are off in some areas too. Is it a great surprise the buck kill is up this year, State wide we also had fewer TZones then previous years. Perhaps hunters are now moving to none quota areas.
I hunt alot in Kenosha county, HRZ the past two years and TZone many years before that. As of the end of the nine day gun season the harvest was at an all time low. Either the hunters went north or the deer just aren't here. I gotta tell ya it is hard to find tracks in fresh fallen snow on the 1200 private acres I hunt. The idea even before CWD was to reduce the herd size across the state. At least in my area I think it has been done. They just seen to keep hammering the same areas year after year. I would be curious to hear from other hunters who have seen fewer deer in the areas they hunt also.
Don't get me wrong I'm all for sound managment practices, but what happend to the record kills that took place not to many years ago. They must have all been taken from my county..........