Questions for Wisconsin Bowhunters


ladydiehard

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Are you seeing deer?

If so, what time of day/evening?

Did you/Are you seeing as many as you did last year during Sept and Oct?

If not, any ideas why not?

Myself, I am having a very unusual season. From what has been a very productive stand for years, I have seen nothing. But my apples sure disappear! :mad:

From my next productive stand I've seen only two does in the distance on one occasion.

From my stand near the house (in a totally different area) I've seen a few but got nailed by a wise ole doe early on so I've left it alone for awhile.

My main hunting area is in Waupaca county. My home is in Shawano county. Even by the house I am not seeing as many deer as I did last year. Normally, I pretty much almost take a deer with my vehicle every week...but not this year.

Other years, I've had plenty of shot opportunities by this time. But not this year.

Anyone else having similar issues this year? Your thoughts?

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I'm trying to auction off a WI deer hunt and make some money for Too but, I guess I'll share my season so far with you. :o:D Yes, it's been a weird season so far. I haven't seen near the doe that I normallly see. I don't know what's going on either. The cover is thicker and they have more places to hide than normal by us but, something is goofy. Our neighbor is building a shed and that is messing things up too. I have a youth hunt this weekend I'll see what's going on and get back to you. ;)

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We have been seeing fewer and fewer deer every year. A few years ago I would see deer every night that I went out. Our numbers now are not even close to that. Our trail cams even confirm this in that we will rarely get pictures of does and mature bucks. IMO earn-a-buck and t-zones definately have a lot to do with it.

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Guest MnBOWhntr

I am not in Wisconsin but I am just over the border into Minnesota and where I am hunting I have hunted this land for 20 years and I am not see anywhere near the deer I have seen in past years I can't figure it out the only thing I can think is that it has been pretty warm around my place this fall and I am thinking that deer movement is happening after dark when it is cooler. On the same token though my trail cameras are not picking up any bucks at all I think so far this fall I have pics of 2 or 3 yearling bucks all of my mature bucks and even 2 or 3 year old bucks are not anywhere to be found.

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I've only been able to get out one time this season, but I did see a couple deer.

Our food plots have a ton of tracks in them. If I were to guess, I would say the warm weather has had some effect. Last weekend would have been great for bowhunting, but this weekend it will be back in the 70's for highs. Early season has always seemed a little slow for us.

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I hunt in Lincoln county and our deer numbers have been down quite a bit over the last 5 or so years. Coincidentally enough the numbers have gone down as the wolf population has increased in size. It wasn't too long ago that you could easily see 5-10 deer in a morning or afternoon and now I barely see that many in a weekend. And the deer population isn't at all as high as the DNR thinks it is in my neck of the woods. I can't believe we are a herd control unit again. Oh well, I'll still be in the woods looking for them though.

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I've only been able to get out one time this season, but I did see a couple deer.

Our food plots have a ton of tracks in them. If I were to guess, I would say the warm weather has had some effect. Last weekend would have been great for bowhunting, but this weekend it will be back in the 70's for highs. Early season has always seemed a little slow for us.

I was out last weekend thinking I'd see deer because of the low temps. Nothing. Just turkeys.

I'll be out for the youth hunt this weekend and for the sake of the youth I'm taking, I hope some deer show up.

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Last spring when the snow was just starting to melt and there were a few bare spots in the fields, I took a drive before dark at the hunting land. We have land on two sides of the road and I drove around one of the blocks. Looking off both sides of the road I counted 107 deer that night and, that was only one block!! I know we had a rough winter and I don't know if a few deer had died from the effects of the winter after I counted them?? :confused: I only found one carcass that looked like a fawn.

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We saw NO DEER for the youth hunt! We hunted both areas, Waupaca county on Saturday and northern Shawano County on Sunday.

We did "hear" a deer early Sunday morning. She came in downwind behind the blind and snorted for about 10 min. She couldn't see us but the wind gave us away. Even the best scent elimination measures don't always work unfortunately.

My youth had never heard a deer snort before and she thought it was cool. I hoped the deer would loop around but no such luck. I guess we stunk too bad. :)

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Same thing here too...DNR does NOT know how to count deer!! Does not help with wolf numbers we now have either. Not seeing the older bucks around like usual..and they didnt get shot as far as we know

Exactly, they have no clue what is going on, no need for all these t-zones and earn-a-buck units, it just reduces already small deer numbers. I know what you mean about the mature bucks too. 3 years ago we had 3 bucks that would go in the 140s, one maybe 150. 2 years ago, 1 that would go in the 150s. Last year, one that would go maybe 130 and this year we have maybe 2 that would go over 100. And we know out neighbors pretty well too and none of them have shot any big deer. Kinda sucks:(

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Guest liv2hunt

You can't blame EAB for there being less mature bucks. EAB actually creates MORE mature bucks by making people let bucks walk if they don't have that buck tag earned. I have not been out on my land yet this year and unfortunately will not get to hunt this fall due to some serious medical problems. I also moved to Wyoming in August so I can't monitor my land as I used to. But my buddy that is watching/hunting there says in three sits he is seeing a lot of deer but had to do a little bit of in season scouting and relocating due to the acorns. Also a ton of corn around and he has seen a few good bucks coming out of the corn late. This is in West-Central Wi.

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