mboettcher

Handles, it's a great thing you do, volunteering your time to help with the deer counts and things. It's much appreciated. However, tosay the hunters are shooting too many does is just wrong. As a member of the DNR you should know what hunters have been told over the years by the DNR. "If you don't kill enough does you will be EAB" "you are now on EAB watch meaning if not enough does are killed you will be forced to kill a doe". You criticize Jesse and others for shooting a doe but they are forced to by the DNR, they don't want to. What the hell are they supposed to do? This lies totally on the DNR and noone else. You're telling people you have to shoot does and when they do you blame them for wiping out the deer.

For those that feel the hunters in Wisconsin are whining and not hunting hard and good enough, take a ride to northeast Wisconsin and put some time in the woods and tell me what you think. Or just travel our roads and maybe shine our feilds.The group I hunt with hunt and scout hard and put all day sits on stands all over their county and honestly see adeer about every 4 or 5 days. Now if that is acceptable hunting, forget everything I saidbecause hunting is not what I thought it was.

TJD

There are a couple of issues here.
[ol][*]Many hunters expect to have a nice buck trot past their stand every gun season, in addition to seeing plenty of deer to help pass the time.[*]The second is the DNR's constant refrain that the deer population is "excessive" or whatever adjective they want to use, along with the encouragement for hunters to shoot at least two or more deer per season. [/ol]
So in effect, the DNR has helped to perpetuate the problem described in point number 1. A lot of hunters continue to expect to see dozens of deer opening day of gun season, including one or two trophy bucks. And the DNR comes out, tells us "there are too many deer out there", encourages us...no, in fact, FORCES US (assuming we want to be able to shoot a buck) to shoot AT LEAST one doe before unloading on a buck. Because...according to their flawed SAK method of counting deer...they are convinced there are too many deer out there now.

I've hunted unit 61 for 16 years. In 1993, you had about a 50/50 chance of being granted a doe tag, due to the fact that we were told the population was at "target levels". Overwinter deer density in the unit was about 23 deer per square mile. The "target was 25 per square mile. In 1996, suddenly we were told that anything over 20 per SM was excessive, so a succession of t-zone hunts began. Then in 2003, suddenly it was decided that 15 deer per SM was the "optimal level", so our unit, which still had something in the range of 20-25 deer per SM. was now overpopulated.

I'm sure similar things have occured across the state, so is in any wonder that few hunters have confidence in the DNR?

PJS

Any way you look at it the DNR of WI has in mind to nearly eliminate the herd of deer in our state. What is sad for all of us is that it will eliminate hunting as well. We already have a problem with an aging hunting population and an anti hunting ideology. With the deer population the way it is and will become many people including myself will simply not hunt deer any more. WHY WOULD I GIVE THE DNR MY MONEY AND THEN HELP THEM EXTINCT THE DEER OF WI AND CALL IT HUNTING????????

PJS

I have an idea...Stop buying licenses!! It is the only language they will understand!!!
Even if people take deer illeagally how can the DNR care... they want all the deer dead anyway!!!

switchback hunter

i agree 100% that the dnr and the weekend warrior i call them are to blame. dnr for keep telling everyone kill more deer and giving you tags till you don,t know where to put them and the weekend warrior is the guys that do zero scouting go sit somewhere and when the brown starts coming by the guns go boom until they are out of tags i hunt public land with my family as this is the only access to land we havetypically with 3 of us out there we will each get a doe and someone will have a chance at a buck i hunt 55 the last 2 seasons we had 4 and this year 7 people in our group i scouted my ass off this year and to show for we came out opening weekend with 2 does and a spike now next year the dnr wants 55 to be a erb there are already no deer left this entire season i saw 4 deer from stand all were doing archery season and all 4 had antlers if that happened next year i will sit all season and not have an opppurtunity to harvest the dnr needs to go back to buck tag and hunters choice i love deer hunting to much to not do it but the guys that are willing to not buy that license are the ones who the dnr will be listening to when the millions of dollars from sales stop.

P.S. THE DNR MADE $15,418,056 JUST ON GUN LICENSE SALES THAT IS NOT INCLUDING BONUS SALES AND ARCHERY SALES WHAT A JOKE

wibucks

Does anybody else get the feeling CWD has something to do with this. I hunt in the CWD zone and know well the initial reaction from hunters in the CWD zones. A lot of guys didn't hunt there or at all and thats a loss of big money for the DNR. I remember the first few years after CWD was found and they were testing every deer registered. Once it spread to SE WI you didn't see any mandatory testing. And if they knew it was already in southern WI, why didn't they do mandatory testing up north. The simple answer is they didn't want to find it and cause another reaction like in the southern part of the state. So they start EAB all over the state that might be a silent CWD herd reduction so no one freaks out about it. I don't know but if I hunted in a zone that is "overpopulated" enough to warrant EAB and didn't see a deer I would look for answers from the DNR. Again this is just a feeling but I don't ever remember the DNR worried about overpopulation pre-CWD. Something to think about.

wis_bow_huntr

Noah you know better than that though. Its not about shooting trophy bucks, Ive never been a trophy buck hunter and dont care if I get a trophy buck, I have in the past and Im thankful for it. But this post has nothing to do with harvesting trophy bucks. My property has held some very large bucks in the past and still has one possible county and one possible state record buck that everyone in my area has seen, including yesterday. Will we be able to get these two bucks, probably not, is the chance there, yes. But to say that everyone should wait till a buck to mature before you shoot it is complete nonsense. If you dont shoot what you see in most areas in the state, the guy across the road will. Found this out earlier this bow season when I let two great 9 pointers walk, one was shot by my neighbor and the other by someone else on the other side of the river. The only thing i can see good about getting a trophy buck is that it gives you bragging rights. Look back to the 40's and 50's and so on, sure there werew tons of great bucks taken, but that isnt what it was all about back then, it was about providing a meal for the family, hunting has gotten blown so far out of proportion its not funny. It seems everyone is out for the kill, not the hunt, who cares what they shoot, but you know, people have to know their limits and should only take what is really truely necessary. 1 deer per family of 4 per year is plenty. Unless that family consumes more. But when I see trailers piled full of does and only 2 hunters in a trucklike I did a few times this year it makes me sick, what the hell are they doing with all these deer? I swear on my gradfathersgood name, opening night a truck rolled into the registration station, 2 guys get out, had9 does and 2 bucks. WTF! is up with that!!!!!!!Now you tell me where the herd is going....when you kill off the does, youre killing the next 2-5 years of hunting. The dnr needs the get their heads out of their azzes and put an end to this slaughter. They accomplished what they wanted along with the harsh winter from lastyear. IT needs to stop now before its too late, if its not already. Go back to the buck only tag and then makeany additional bonus tags for $20.00.

wis_bow_huntr

I dont think CWD is totally to blame but is sure doesnt help matters much and you make a valid point. But I doubt you remember when CWD was first found in WI. Since that was back in 1968. I will see if I can find the article and post it on here or send it to you. But yes I see your point. It appears that it is spreading so they say, now that Wood County has it. But I cant see how they can shut down the entire area or call it a CWD zone now since that deer was taken off a game farm. I blame most of this CWD stuff on the game farms but thats an entire differnet topic. But yes we as Wisconsin Hunters and Sportsman need to get some answers from the DNR before its too late, if its not already too late. I think the damage is done. Look back on this post and others and just see how many hunters said "Where are the deer". I think youll be amazed. This should tell us something. We took it up the azzes like gullable fools and the DNR is sitting there collecting the money while most of us cant provide a meal for our families.

Lanse couche couche

I don't really agree with the, "If i don't shoot it somebody else will," whether it be a doe, spike buck, or trophy buck. If every deer that somebody passed on ended up getting shot by somebody else, then the deer herdwould have been wiped out long ago. If someone really doesnt want to shoot a deer, then don't shoot the thing.

Handles

Here are the facts: Looking at the preliminary results from the 9-day gun hunt (does not include bow,muzzleloader,doe-only,youth,or late season) on the DNR website, we will still harvest more deer than any other year previous to 1989. Add in all of those other hunts and we will still be in the top 10 harvests of all time, and will easily top that 1989 mark, the first year to ever go over 300,000. Many people talk about the good old days. Even in this down year we are blowing the good old days away. Memories fail, and people get spoiled very quickly.