Hunters register lowest deer kill opening in recent history (WI)

Journal Sentinel ^ | 11-25-14

[SJackson]

Hunters registered 90,281 white-tailed deer over the opening weekend of the 2014 Wisconsin gun deer hunting season, an 18% drop from 2013, according to a preliminary harvest report issued Monday by the Department of Natural Resources.

The two-day kill is the lowest in recent history; historical data from the DNR was available only back to 2002.

State wildlife officials attributed the reduced kill to several factors, including a lower deer population in northern Wisconsin, a lower number of antlerless permits statewide and opening weekend weather that included fog and rain.

The report showed hunters registered 48,926 bucks (down 9% from 2013) and 41,355 antlerless deer (down 27%).

The gun deer season began this past Saturday and runs through Sunday.

The opening weekend traditionally accounts for more than half of the kill for the nine-day season. If the 2014 Wisconsin deer harvest follows form, it would be the lowest since 1981 when 166,673 deer were taken by gun hunters.

The opening weekend kill in 2013 was 110,797 (53,865 bucks and 56,932 antlerless) and in 2012 it was 134,772 (71,989 bucks and 62,783 antlerless).

[SJackson]

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THe impact of several years of global cooling and increased snow pack at work. The deer would appreciate a bit of global warming, but the don't vote.

[SamAdams76]

Come to Connecticut. Every morning it seems I have to brake for one crossing the road. They are everywhere.

[llevrok]

Then come to my back yard with a doe tag.

[Reeses]

This is another effect of global warming! How will conservatives keep up their sniper skills?

[gov_bean_ counter]

Our son-in-law got one yesterday...

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Damn hippies are to blame. The leave out stuff like Sylvia Plath for the deer to read and they get so depressed , they off themselves.

[deport]

Dispute over 9-point buck settled with coin flip in Wisconsin

Wisconsin's deer season was just a couple hours old when D.J. Jorgenson says his
11-year-old son, Kameron, wounded the buck in the Town of Oneida.

Jorgenson tells WLUK-TV (http://bit.ly/1uGWtCm ) they tracked it to a neighbor's
property. Neighbor Randy Heyrman shot twice from his stand to finish off the buck.

With the deer dead and the hunters deadlocked over who could keep it, they
flipped a coin.

Kameron called tails. It came up heads. Heryman claimed the buck. All Kameron got
was a photo.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3231640/posts

[Don Corleone]

This time of year Wisconsin resembles conditions during the “Battle of the Bulge’!

[DJ MacWoW]

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[minnesota_bound]

They will have to come up with something like “Top Hunter”
Where people will come to be trained and learn about their adversaries like the bunny wabbit or snipe.

[V K Lee]

Have a few here out back. For over 30 we’ve been told there are deer here....never to be seen by us. Just in the past 2-3 years they have at last been found. Saw 5 outside the back door last week. Young deer, no antlers on any. DH feeds them daily. Joys of country living :^)

[Figment]

A nine day season? Is the deer population that low in WI?

[Hot Tabasco]

I suspect that northern Michigan and the UP will see a similar drop in the deer total. Last winter was brutal with record depts of snow.

A friend of mine who lives in northern Michigan saw deer down in the valley behind his house struggling to cross the field in chest high snow. Along with the adults, it had to have killed off a lot of the first year fawns..........

[mosesdapoet]

It’s the weather conditions and shortened hunt time due to it Jackson. Monday the beginning of the hunting season no snow, warm, hard for tracking any wounded Bambi.Then all of a sudden. Bam ! Blizzard conditions begins with rain, hunters are getting soaked head for watering holes, bars are packed . Deep cold sets in Bambi hunkers down no movement. Hunters contend with getting stuck with 6” or better of heavy wet snow and deer season ending this weekend.

[rabidralph]

That’s just for regular guns. Bow season starts in mid-September and is ongoing through the gun season. Then there’s the blackpowder season that occurs some time after gun. Then there’s an antlerless deer gun season in early December or so.

[BlueMondaySkipper]

Also you need to take into consideration the growing wolf population. Each wold eats the equivalent of 16 deer per year. There are a LOT of wolves in Wisconsin and the packs are growing.

[Figment]

I get that. 9 days for rifle season is awfully short. Rifle season opened the week before thanksgiving here and runs until early Januamy

[SJackson]

Not long, would be nice if it was earlier. But consider this is probably the first year with less than 600,000 hunters since the 1970s and in the last decade a number of years have reported upwards of 400,000 gun kills. Of course at this rate you may be below 200,000 this year for the first time in several decades, but I doubt the problem is the length of the season. As mosesdapoet , Hot Tabasco note, I think the biggest problem was the weather, and as BlueMondaySkipper notes, wolves are becoming a problem. Wolf depredation zones now reach well into central Wisconsin, and I doubt the DNR is being conservative about their range. But there's another week for blackpowder, and has been noted earlier bow season, which I prefer, runs from mid September to early Jan, so there is plenty of opportunity.

[Figment]

The deer population got out of hand in TN. Rifle season runs from 11/22- 1/4, everything in play, bow muzzle all. Can take three bucks total, not more than one in a day. antlerless can be three per day every day