How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
#21
Fork Horn
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 114
RE: How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
ORIGINAL: cmscat50
No, you get a buck tag VALIDATION for each doe you shoot in EAB units. You still are issued only ONE buck tag for firearm season. The only way you can legally tag 2 bucks is if you also archery hunt.
cmscat50. You get a buck tag for every doe you shoot in EAB areas.
in the CWA zone you can kill more than one buck a year legally.
#23
RE: How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
i saw a total of 5 does and 5 bucks. 3 were forks, one was a spike and the other was decent 8 point. probably would score 110. i passed on all of them. the corns still up here so all the deer are in the corn field. so when we pick this week ill be standing in the corn waiting for the deer to come out
#24
RE: How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
ORIGINAL: cmscat50
No, you get a buck tag VALIDATION for each doe you shoot in EAB units. You still are issued only ONE buck tag for firearm season. The only way you can legally tag 2 bucks is if you also archery hunt.
cmscat50. You get a buck tag for every doe you shoot in EAB areas.
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/regs/deer08.pdf
#25
Fork Horn
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: baraboo, wisconsin
Posts: 231
RE: How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
i am in a cwd zone and you can take as many does and bucks as you want(with buck stickers). I have 5 buck stickers(2 does last year and 3 this year)but havent seen a buck this year yet.
#26
RE: How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
Saturday I seen four deer total, had chance to shoot at two of them, I let them walk because they were a little small. Sunday morning at 6:53 I lured in a small 8pt. with my drag line and bleat can. He is now hanging in my tree. I have to work through Wed. so I might get out again on turkey day. GOOD LUCK TO ALL. HAVE A SAFE HUNT.
#27
Spike
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: MN - hunt Wisconsin
Posts: 88
RE: How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
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.
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.
#28
RE: How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
Thanks for fielding that question or actually a bit of an accusation for me Handles. I DO in fact huntin the CWD Zone of the state, so YES I had 2 buck stickers from last year. I also now have a sticker for next year being I took the doe Sunday morning. It really can be somewhat irritating when someone wants to point fingers when they have no idea what they're talking about.
#29
RE: How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
I read through some of the reports on the DNR website and most of them seemed to be from the middle of the day and claimed the lack of registration was due to the fact that it was cold enough people could afford to let their deer hand and stay in the field. yea right. an article i read today stated numbers were down 22%, thats a significant amount, and where i hunt ( northern part of unit 42) it was -2 degrees out at 5:30 saturday morning, and some people arent prepared to sit in that weather. I put in about 17 hrs on the stand and walking the woods this past weekend and saw 0 deer, as did 6 of the other 7 guys in my camp, one guy was lucky to see 2 deer and he got even luckier and dropped one while it was running. I hope the action picks up later in the week or numbers are gonna be incredibly low throughout the state. good luck to the rest of you and don't get discouraged. hunt safely.
#30
Fork Horn
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: west central WI
Posts: 227
RE: How was your opening Wisconsin gun hunt?
Thanks for fielding that question or actually a bit of an accusation for me Handles. I DO in fact huntin the CWD Zone of the state, so YES I had 2 buck stickers from last year. I also now have a sticker for next year being I took the doe Sunday morning. It really can be somewhat irritating when someone wants to point fingers when they have no idea what they're talking about.