2013 WI deer Report NW WI

Preliminary numbers are in for the 2013 WI Firearms season.

I hunt in Bayfield County in the NW corner and it was the worst season I have experienced since I started hunting there in in 1976. It was the least amount of shots I have ever heard. Most camps had only 1 or 2 deer if any hanging. I was very fortunate to take a old 140lb dry mature doe opening day. It was to be the only deer sighted in 5 days of hunting. It was my 1st deer in 5 years. For the first time no deer were sighted driving to and from hunting areas in the dark either. The registration station I go to only had 254 deer as of 1pm on Sunday down approx 50% from 2012. This year from May till September we saw more bears crossing the road while driving to the cabin than we did deer. It used to be an obstacle course dodging deer driving from Highway 53 over to Barnes every Friday night. Now we go several weeks without sighting a deer. We may see a bear or a wolf instead. Things sure have changed for the worse for the deer hunter up there.

My Mom’s family hunts in Bayfield County. Off of County-A north of Iron River. Had a cabin there for 40+ years. Actually I believe Suzuki on these forums is in the same boat and we’ve had this same conversation regarding the previous years. This is where I learned to deer hunt with my Dad. I have great memories of the deer and the incredibly wild land.

I had to stop going based on better opportunities to hunt further south in the state. It was an incredibly tough decision to leave my Dad behind. He stopped going as well. My Dad did go back up this year just because he had nothing better to do. He and the one other guy that remains at camp combined for seeing 3 deer total opening weekend. They did not try to shoot. The forest herd up there is so mis-managed it makes me sick. Should have been put to lottery many years ago. The fact that they sell thousands of extra doe tags is just….

Its a tough decision for me each year as well. I have not seen a buck while hunting since 2007. That was also the last time I shot a deer until this year. We bought our place Nov of 1970. When I started hunting up there does were sacred and the buck to doe ratio was out of whack. I would see 10 to 20 deer a day but no bucks. Sometimes they would just keep coming by I wondered how many deer could there be. We did lots of deer drives and most years would get 3 to 5 bucks for 10 guys hunting hard Sat till Wed. THe herd then was mismanaged as well it was probably 20 to 1 doe to buck ratio or more. But you saw deer every day and had hope. Now we are losing hope. We also do not do forced army drives of the days of old either and neither do many others. This does have an effect on having less deer movement. But still I am up there nearly 2 weekends a month year round and they are not there. Sad. They are also becoming almost exclusively nocturnal. I assume this is due to all the predators and the huge increase in bow pressure up there. I bow hunt and used to never see anyone. Then a few years ago during primetime there were vehicles parked along the roads just like gun season. The last couple years even that pressure is gone. I do not know what the answer is. Now they are getting hammered by a nice winter storm nothing we can do but sit by the fireplace and wait for spring.

Mwal

Its like that from Spooner all the way up. The state has let that herd be annihilated. They are all IDOTS for letting the slaughter continue year after year. Let me guess. You got a doe tag along with buck with your over the counter license? I volunteered to stop shooting does up there years back. It has to stop. Also too many hunters think they are owed a deer every year. Especially bow guys. That is simply not prudent unless you want to see this kind of thing happen. Lets get back to doe permit drawings and stop shooting all the female deer. I hardly ever see deer while at the cabin anymore. Its disturbing.

Zone 9 was 2200 hundred tags which is mostly Saywer Cty is where I harvested doe you had to purchase whether gun or bow from the pool of 2200. Zone 2 which is mostly Bayfield Douglas had 3,500 or 3600 I think same deal gun or bow license was buck only unless you purchased one of the tags so they did bring down the doe harvest from 9,000 tags for Zone 9 3 or 4 years ago. And archers don’t get free ride either. Just no drawing you need to go online and purchase a license as soon as they go on sale to try to purchase antlerless tag.

Is Dr. Kroll still being utilized by the WI DNR as a resource? I hope you guys are writing him and the DNR. Managing big forests is so very different than the southern portions of the state with so much private land.

I read his report it was a joke. IT really didn’t say anything of substance or offer useful ideas quite disappointing. Look it up link to report http://doa.wi.gov/secy/documents/executive_summary.pdf

Mwal

I never did get the full report read. What I did get was that WI is clearly mis-managing the deer herd.

I’ll have to set away some time to read the full thing.

Seeing is believing. It was not fun watching it happen over the course of many years.

There’s no doubt that the declining deer numbers is dissapointing, however I think we’re at the point of turning our frustration away from the DNR and over to the hunting public. The DNR does not pull the trigger to shoot a deer, they just want us too. If we want this herd to increase we as hunters will need to start managing deer, not the DNR. I’m always amazed by the 10 man crews that used to shoot 15-20 deer every year and then were the first to complain that there were no deer because of the DNR, look in the mirror!

Quote:

---

There’s no doubt that the declining deer numbers is dissapointing, however I think we’re at the point of turning our frustration away from the DNR and over to the hunting public. The DNR does not pull the trigger to shoot a deer, they just want us too. If we want this herd to increase we as hunters will need to start managing deer, not the DNR. I’m always amazed by the 10 man crews that used to shoot 15-20 deer every year and then were the first to complain that there were no deer because of the DNR, look in the mirror!

---

I totally agree but most people by nature are greedy selfish monkeybutts when it comes to harvesting food. That will be a hard change. I think only accomplished by the right game laws.

I can agree with you there as well. “Right game laws”, unfortunately the DNR/Insurance Companies/etc., know that most hunters will buy as many tags and shoot as many deer as possible, I simply don’t see the tags being reduced to where they need to be. I feel very fortunate to hunt with the crew I do, and have area landowners with the same vision.

That sounds like a good setup and the only working solution right now. There are not close to enough deer for humans to sustenance hunt around here on public land. They must be respected as game animals and treated as such or we’ll end up in an up and down situation where hunters lose interest, then the numbers go up, then they get slaughtered back down. etc

This could take decades. They aren’t pheasants.

Quote:

---

That sounds like a good setup and the only working solution right now. There are not close to enough deer for humans to sustenance hunt around here on public land. They must be respected as game animals and treated as such or we’ll end up in an up and down situation where hunters lose interest, then the numbers go up, then they get slaughtered back down. etc
This could take decades. They aren’t pheasants.

---

Spot on man….

I’ll echo the same thoughts as others. Been hunting Ashland County since the 70’s. Mother nature and weather and how much logging activity to provide more browse have always been factors in the population swings. Our group and others in the area have never been doe shooters. The early 80’s deer numbers were sparse but plenty of logging provided feed and we saw an upswing. Alot of that cutting is getting big and numbers have dropped but the predator numbers have increased dramatically. Bear populations are high. The wait for a license in the area is about 7 yrs. DNR Mgmnt? Wolf numbers are up. Public and DNR Mgmnt? It all adds to the impact.
I saw a few deer this year but not huge numbers. Most deer seen were by the guys sitting on bait piles. I saw a couple small bucks but no shooters. Our group of 11 harvested two small bucks by a couple of the youngsters. What I did observe was the least amount of shooting ever, bear tracks in the snow, hearing wolves howling almost every day. Seeing at least 3 different sized wolf tracks. No rabbit tracks and very few grouse. The beaver that were plentiful 5 yrs ago are all gone. Wonder what is eating them all? The last winter had an impact I think on larger deer. They went in weak and it was long and snow got crusty and the grey dogs fed well.
I don’t so much go for the deer as I do for a week of relaxing and BSing with the group. Watching the kids mature. Sometimes that is all that matters. The view from the blind can be beautiful. Or just seeing old friends in the woods that you haven’t seen for a year.

It’s just my opinion but I think the predator numbers have a lot to do with a sudden and dramatic drop in the deer population over the last 7-8 years. We were filling many tags but during the pre-season shining, we’d see TONS of deer. Yep, mostly does but they were everywhere. Next thing I knew, wolves and coyotes started getting seen on a regular basis, whereas it used to be quite rare.

This year, EVERY deer track I saw in snow was accompanied by a wolf or coyote track. I found a carcass right behind the cabin during turkey season last spring. Clearly… wolf tracks on that kill. By the time the DNR decided to make any changes, we had 2-3 seasons of excessive doe tags and we filled a few.

The shining this last fall….. you were lucky to see 5 adult deer in any given field, whereas there used to be 30-40! We’d count 150+ on many nights.

Via the doe tags, the DNR let us slaughter a bunch but once the numbers began to drop, they should’ve made adjustments. For the first time ever, we saw more bucks than does during the gun season! The wolves are killing the adults, the coyotes are slaughtering the fawn crop, and the DNR keeps issuing doe tags.

Perhaps we were a little slow to recognize what was happening in our area but this year, dad and I (who lay the ground rules of the camp) decided that tag or no tag, we’re going to be a “no-doe” camp until things get better again. The other thing we’ve concluded is that have to get after these predators and keep them in check. No fawns = no reproduction. We have to get the fawn killers under control and so far, I’m at a loss on how to get that done. We (I and my nephew) haven’t succeeded in trapping or calling in the last 3 winters. Swamp dwellers…… I don’t know what to do!

I don’t know if I see more predator tracks because they have to hunt harder to find fewer deer or what but ever since we started seeing/hearing them….. Our deer herd has collapsed dramatically.

Kid: You are echoing my observations and thoughts.

I fear what next year will bring. I am guessing the cold temps of opening weekend did play a part on the lower harvest but not as much as the DNR is going to claim. I rifle hunted in the south western part of Price County and the western part of Rusk County and had close to the worst year I have ever had. It reminds me a lot of the early 90’s. The one factor the DNR will forget is the snow on the ground. This is the first year in a while we had snow from day 1 to the end of season. That should have helped numbers. If we didn’t have the snow the numbers would be lower yet. I seen 3 legal bucks. 1 one horn spike, a fork, and a 2 1/2 or 3 1/2yo buck, and 17 doe/fawns. I know for a fact 13 of the baldies were different as I seen them all at the same time. Parts of central Wisconsin are in the same boat. I hunted the last 5 days of muzzle loader from daylight to dark and never seen a deer. 4 of those days were spent still hunting big tracks of choice public land. I walked 13.13 miles and only cut a handful of fresh tracks (I had fresh snow 2 of those 4 days). I would have bet my paycheck I was going to tag out during muzzle loader before season. By the second afternoon I knew I was in trouble. 1 day was spend driving with 3 other guys on a prime 585 acre farm. Other guys did see a couple deer but we never hit double digits total. That is unheard of! The same farm 2 years ago we would have moved a 100+ deer. We still have 50 acres of standing corn and beans to boot! I have put away my tags for the year. I have no place to hunt where I feel the property can spare another deer. I did see plenty of coyote and wolf tracks. I kicked up 1 wolf still hunting who posed for me but I wasn’t fast enough with the camera buried in my inner coat pocket to get a picture. I don’t think the DNR is going to help us bring back the deer herd. I think we are in serious need of policing ourselves. Unless I see numbers change next year, I will not be shooting any does.

Just my observation guys from an out of stater. It seems the wolves, bears and coyotes are the problem. With previous years of high numbers of deer and then within a few years it goes to just a few, it has to be the predators taking them as they have to eat too. I don’t think even 3 years of no hunting deer at all would help much. It sounds like something has to be done with the predators if the deer herd is going to come back up to even half as much as a few years ago, what do you think. Whats more valuable to the hunter, all the bears, coyotes and wolves? it kind of sounds like bounty time for the wolves and coyotes and alot more bear tags should be sold if the deer herds are going to even come close to what they were in the past. I think just about anyone can see whats happened.

Predators for sure. Man, wolf and coyote. Man could have been controlled quite easily by not allowing so many tags.

I received a WI DNR survey in the mail yesterday regarding 2013’s deer harvest. I’m going to include a letter of explanation along with my answers. It may fall on deaf ears but it’s chance to be heard.

If the DNR won’t step up, we’re going to have to. I’m sure everyone hear would just HATE to have to buy a new gun and have another reason to be in the woods!!! If the deer mean enough, it’s high time to get involved with predator hunting as well. I’m focusing this winter on nothing more……. and I may continue into the spring.