The season of the year that many of Wisconsin residents look forward to all year long is now here with last Saturday’s opener. The state of Wisconsin sells over 600,000 licenses and a vast majority of these people were out in mass and many in my area of south-central Wisconsin. Deer hunting is still extremely popular in Wisconsin despite the aging of a large portion of the hunting public. Many of the baby-boomers are getting to old to hunt, are losing the land that they hunt on, and many hunting “buddies” are passing away. But, the Wisconsin DNR is promoting hunting and the outdoors and by my account it is working by the number of younger hunters that I see. There also seems to be many younger hunters with the mentor program (ten year olds can now hunt as long as they are within arm’s length of their mentor) that the DNR has introduced and I saw many more women and younger girls taking to the woods with their husbands, boyfriends, and girlfriends. If this past weekend was any indication of the popularity of deer hunting, it’s still a very popular activity in outdoor Wisconsin.
This opening weekend, I worked at the Wilderness Fish and Game store in Sauk City, Wisconsin registering deer and helping the DNR personnel in their work. The infamous CWD is still with us and slowly growing and expanding its range. This fall during the bow season, a deer harvested in Washburn County tested positive for CWD and before this deer most CWD was concentrated in southern and south-west Wisconsin. The DNR is still testing for the fatal disease and Sauk City was one location that tested deer. There is a mandatory testing area centered around Dane County and the other southern counties of the state and the DNR asks other hunters if they may test their deer even though the deer may come from outside the mandatory zone. Hunters have learned to live with CWD and most hunters don’t mind the extra few minutes that it takes to remove the lymph nodes from under the deer’s neck. CWD has been around now for years and most hunters have found that there is little if anything to worry about as long as hunters don’t do anything with the head, brain, and glands. Eating venison is fine and in all these years, I have never heard of any problems with a properly cared for and clened deer. Many hunters also want to have their harvest checked to see if the disease is in their immediate area. This disease is something that people in Wisconsin have learned to live with and been educated to know that eating venison is perfectly fine.
I tried to talk to as many hunters as possible and tried get their opinions on the hunt and opening weekend. The weather was wonderful with temperatures in the 50’s and sunny with some early morning fog. Living near public hunting grounds, I was mildly surprised to see so many hunters out very early getting in their spots and stands as I drove into Sauk City to begin registration. I’ve been helping the DNR for going on two decades and this is the most vehicles that I’ve seen hunting public lands. Wisconsin has thousands and thousands of acres of land for hunting and those that say they have no where to hunt are mistakenly wrong. Some of the largest bucks that I saw and tagged were taken off public lands. If one goes to the DNR website (dnr.wi.gov) you can find the public hunting grounds and also lands that are open to hunting like land in some of the “managed forest” lands. There is always somewhere to hunt if you try hard enough and use the available resources.
The beautiful days over the weekend and the numerous big bucks taken had many hunters in great moods. Many hunters told me that this was one of the best weekends that they’ve ever had in their lives while deer hunting. The stream of traffic to our registration station in Sauk City was busy all day long both Saturday and Sunday. There were few times when we weren’t working and trying to help the DNR biologists and technicians take care of the deer that were brought into the station.
There were more bucks registered than antlerless deer by a margin of about 52 to 48% which is almost even bucks to doe’s. Hunters reported seeing many deer in the numerous conversations I had with them. Yes, there also were hunters who didn’t see many deer and that can happen because the Wisconsin deer herd is not evenly distributed. You’ll find hunters who report seeing deer all day long and then I talked to other hunters who hunted a few farms away and they saw very few deer. This can be caused by pressure on the farm, habitat, and available food. But, the deer herd is well over one million deer and most hunters that have done their scouting and research harvested deer and many BIG bucks. Hunters are happy that the Earn-A-Buck program is gone and the early season that Wisconsin had in October is also a thing of the past. Overall, most hunters like the older and traditional nine-day hunt without so many special hunts and regulations. I haven’t done the final weekend deer counting, but there were over 550 deer registered in Sauk City opening weekend and this is definitely more than I’ve seen in the last few years.
One of the main reasons that hunting was so good is that many bucks were still in rut and trying to breed as many females as possible. During the rut, bucks seem to forget many of the things that they do throughout the year. Instead of being “spooky” and conscious of their surroundings, all that is on their minds is breeding and this leads to many of them getting harvested. The deer have been rutting for over two weeks and I was worried that it would be over by the time that the season opened, but I was wrong. Bucks are still running wild and many of the smaller bucks are now trying to find females that have been with the dominant males so far.
The nature of deer hunting has changed greatly over the last three or four decades with hunters staying closer to home and hunting when they have the chance to get away for a day or a few hours. Hunters are staying closer to home in recent years and the trend continues. The days of going to northern Wisconsin and staying at a deer camp for the season are things that you rarely see these days and are a thing of the past. A large number of deer started moving to the agricultural lands of southern and central Wisconsin in the 1960’s and 1970’s vs. the old growth forests of the northern counties. The deer moved to where the crops and food were instead of the northern forest lands with less food and colder and snowier winters.
Overall, it was a very good opening weekend for the deer hunter with great weather (except for those who like a little snow for tracking) and a good deer population that included many trophy bucks. If it wasn’t for the rut going on I think the deer would be laying low and becoming more nocturnal, but the rut and the large number of hunters in the woods keep moving deer have helped get this season off to a good start. The weather looks very good with temperatures in the 50’s this week and getting a little cooler toward the coming weekend. The worst things that a hunter has to worry about is getting the hide off their deer and cleaning and packaging it as soon as possible with the warm temperatures so that the deer doesn’t spoil.
If you couldn’t get out this past weekend, you still have plenty of time to hunt and harvest a deer. Those of you who have “extra” deer think about donating it to those less fortunate. Fresh venison is a big hit a local food pantries. If you have any questions, go to the DNR website for about anything pertaining to deer and deer hunting. Unfortunately, there have been two deaths with one hunter falling from his tree stand and the other death didn’t report the cause yet. Keep being safe and be patient because there are plenty of deer in the Badger state and what is better than back straps grilled to perfection!
www.garyengbergoutdoors.com
www.dnr.wi.gov
