Brocster

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.

nappy13

Hunters

Hunted in Daggett, Michigan and got a six point buck and two doe opening day. Helped the others in camp so all went home with a deer.

Hunted in Coleman, Wiscsonin and sat opening morning and then went home without seeing a deer. There are deer and i was just pooped from hunting.

nap

What makes you think their going to start to move again?? is it because it will be going into the post rut and their looking more for food?

hunter7198

I don't want to insult anyone on this forum, but quite a few of us are guilty of playing the hunting game by the rules the DNR layed out. ( When I say"we" and "us" I mean hunterssuch as myself and friends/family) When they offered us bonus tags and antlerless tags for our given management areas we took 'em and killed quite a few deer that we normally would have let pass. I remember years when we felt it was a good day to seea deer......ANY deer.... and now-dayswe whack anything brown that walks by.I realize that some of the agricultural areas suffer from excess whitetail population and create a hardship for farmers, thus the more generous availability of tags.What I'm suggesting is a more restrained approach, start hunting bucks again, not deer. For you poor souls in the "earn a buck" areas, it's out of your hands, but for some ofus, we still have a choice in how we hunt and what we kill. Opt out of filling an antlerless tag or bonus tag, maybe it will pay dividends in future years. Just my 2 cents......

Northport buckslayr

I agree totally. I saw three does opening day and it seems like everyone I talk to cant believe I let them walk. I look at it this way, I enjoyed seeing those deer. If I shoot one it has no fawns and and My chances of seeing deer next year are reduced. I am not against shooting does generally but people seem to think they need to shoot anything they have tag for.

Coincidentally I am conflicted on the issue because I have recently started letting 1.5 year oldbucks walk as well. If I let young bucks walk and I let does walk because I believe their are few deer in my area, then I will only shoot older bucks aka I will probably only get a deer at all once every four or five years. So I really dont what to think anymore .

jkcmerg

I shot this guy at 2:15 pm on sunday...Some other hunters pushed this 200 lb 8 pt within 3 yds of my ladder stand...he came in hot and heavy..lol....i'm just glad he stopped when he saw me otherwise i may not have gotten s shot off...
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f254/jkcmerg/11-24-2008013.jpg

jessejmc1979

You are absolutely right hunter7198. I am guilty of shooting does also. But now the dnr has some of us painted into a corner by having areas eab. I totally agree that we should let more does walk. Our hunting group is trying to figure out how to "get around" the eab. Possibly having our party go every other year alternating does and bucks. We will only get to shoot one deer per rifle season but with more does hopefully the population will turn around. I don't remember hearing anybody complaining about hunting when we could only fill one tag per year, but now we have gotten accustomed to that doe tag that comes with the buck. Personally I would rather see a pile of deer and hold out for a nice one than not see anything. Filling my tag is a bonus. I eat alot of vennison but my folks raise beef and pork so I can live without it. I just want my son (who's 15 mo old) to be able to see the numbers of deer I did when I was starting. Also I hope I haven't come across like a conspiracy theory guy but everyone just took for granted that if they were giving us the tags that the herd wouldn't suffer.

Handles

I wonder if some of the reason why people aren't seeing as many deer is that many hunting parties don't do drives anymore, especially on opening day? I think back a few years and when our neighbors and ourselves were doing drives, deer would be running from one place to another. Sure I would see 40 deer, but I think many of them were the same deer more than once.
There is now a fear that deer will get driven onto a neighbor's land, giving them the chance to shoot "Bucky", so we sit. I now see about the same # of deer with my gun as I do/would with my bow. Fewer deer, but they aren't scared out of their wits. That doesn't mean that the deer population is down though. Granted, our neighbors and us never went crazy shooting 4,5,6 doe each for the past 5 years, we used restraint and shot some doe, but not all of them. I know that isn't the case in many parts of the state.

dejager

six deer but realy nothing

Booney160

Had one of my best opening days I've ever had. Saw 22 deer, 4 bucks including anice 10 I missed about an hour before dark which I figured would score in the 130 to 140's. Second day saw 16 including a beautiful 8 which would have scored in the 120's to 130's if he hadn't broken a G2 and G3. Got to watch him for 15 minutes as he passed at 35 yards.