Sunday, November 22, 2009

End of the Weekend

Opening weekend is over and I haven’t shot a deer yet.  It was a successful hunt in that everyone is safe. 

On opening morning, I saw three deer, but not well enough to see what they were or to take a shot.  The group I hunted with didn’t see much.  A few guys from our group hunted another property in another town and didn’t see anything.  We saw a few where we were.  The neighbors had a light weekend too.  Some of it was the weather (warm with no wind).  Some of it was the crop cycle - there’s still a lot of fields that haven’t been harvested yet, so I suspect a lot of deer are sitting in them.  But it’s obvious to everyone that the herd is way down.  This is the first opening weekend since I started hunting that we didn’t kill a single deer. 

Our group has decided to not shoot anything but big bucks.  It’ll mean less meat to go around, but everyone needs to lay off for a while to let the herd grow back.  How’s the hunt going for any of you hunters out there?

I’ll be out in the woods again in the morning.  Good times!

(7) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1957 hrs
Off-Duty

  1. Why is the herd “way down”?  If I recall correctly, hasn’t there been all kinds of concern about how the deer population was too high? Or was that just last year? I’m not a hunter; just curious.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 22, 2009 at 2111 hrs


  2. The concern for several years has been that the DNR is WAY overestimating the size of the herd.  For example, they don’t factor into their population formula things like deer/car crashes (generally an indicator of the population used in other states, but not in Wisconsin), predators (like the wolves introduced in northern Wisconsin), etc.  Here’s a pretty good story that kind of covers some of the issues involved:

    http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/environment/article_f3bc6dc8-d4a0-11de-9123-001cc4c002e0.html?print=1

    BTW - this is not a partisan issue.  The DNR has been doing this under several administrations.

    Posted by Owen on November 22, 2009 at 2119 hrs


  3. I saw some deer, but not many this year, and most of our party saw less. I did manage to get a nice 8 pointer at the end of opening day, but didn’t see anything after that.
    I also refrained from shooting the does I saw.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 22, 2009 at 2336 hrs


  4. Hunted hard all weekend, saw no deer.  There were only a couple nearby shots.  In the air the sound of shots travels for miles, heard very few.  Slowest opening weekend that I remember.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 23, 2009 at 0630 hrs


  5. Herd way down? 

    Funny.  I didn’t know you were a big game biologist too Owen.

    I think you should be careful about broad generalizations as the deer herd is not distributed evenly across the Wisconsin landscape.

    After breakfast today we’re cutting-up three does.

    All of these deer are murder on young trees.  We shoot does.

    Posted by Swamp Gas on November 23, 2009 at 0908 hrs


  6. For our group of hunters it was one of the better years.  Five people hunting and bagged two deer, one nubber and one doe.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 23, 2009 at 0910 hrs


  7. I hunt near home in northern Washburn county. I haven’t heard much shooting and our crew of 16 have only seen 5 deer since opening morning. We’ve got a 10-pointer and a doe. Thats it. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that the numbers are down. FYI, I am in an area that is the home to wolves as well, although I haven’t seen one in a couple of years. Nonetheless, they’re here.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 23, 2009 at 1820 hrs


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