# Frustrated hunter



## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

After hunting in ND for that last couple weeks, I've been experiencing some great hunting. The deer are moving like crazy, the rut activity has been phnominal.

Well now I'm back to my old stomping grounds of NW WI. The area I hunt is extremely dense woods "aspens, oaks, maples, and spruce trees". I've hunted here every year since I first started 16 years ago. I've always at least seen 1-2 deer every time I take the stand.

This year has been particularly rough. I haven't been seening any deer even at my honey hole. My dads' land is fully wooded and is surrounded by other wooded lots. He has a hidden field behind his parcel and a small field across the road as well. The field across the road is boardered up to state park land that is closed to hunting. In prior years we've watched the deer pour out of the state land and funnel into his property. Well this year there hasn't been visual deer movement during shooting hours.

My dad puts out a 3 gallon bucket of corn out almost every day along the trails through his land. He spreads it out very fine so there's no piles laying around. In the past we found this is better because it makes the deer less wierry and it also takes them longer to eat everything, in hence keeps them around longer.

Well this year we've been doing the same thing and the corn is gone every day but the deer are only moving in the dark hours. This has never really happened before.

We don't hunt his land prior to rifle season, the neighbors on 3 sides don't hunt, my dad just logged off his property 3 years ago (which now the land is full of 10' aspens thicker then snot), and there's deer trails everywhere that look like a steam rollers when down.

My beliefs are the warmer weather, no snow, the amount of cover, and unknown rutting activity are keeping the deer bedding until late dusk.

I've tried rattling, grutting, sitting all day being quiet, using a decoy, and using scents. I have my stand located between a major bedding area and two different feeding areas. My stand is also located on a ridge that the deer sneak around on, and still no success. Unfortunately I've been unable to scout the area prior to this years season. Thus I can't tell what phase of the rut they're in or when they start moving.

My question is: What are your thoughts on why we aren't seeing any deer? :huh:


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

> I've tried rattling, grutting, sitting all day being quiet, using a decoy, and using scents. I have my stand located between a major bedding area and two different feeding areas. My stand is also located on a ridge that the deer sneak around on, and still no success. Unfortunately I've been unable to scout the area prior to this years season. Thus I can't tell what phase of the rut they're in or when they start moving.
> 
> My question is: What are your thoughts on why we aren't seeing any deer?


So your set up in between your trails of bait and there bedding area?

I truly believe baiting gets them on a nocturnal schedule. They know were the food is and dont have to search for it until they feel secure in the darkness. Ive seen countless amounts of deer hold up in cover until darkness then finally came to feed at the piles.

best advice I can give you is to scout your butt off if you know there is deer in your area, set up trail cams and figure out when they actually are traveling, and also try alternative options to baiting. Most** on this board are against that practice up here, at least in ND


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## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

I don't bait by my stand, but my dad has been spreading some by his. He's basically using it to keep the deer around his stand longer, so they don't just pass through. He sprinkles it very lightly to the point where you can barely tell it's there. The main reason he does that is because his trails/shooting lanes are so small and the rest of the wooded are is flooded with small aspens and there's no chance of getting a shot of in there.

I'm set up between the main bedding area and two different food sources. Basically, I have my stand where the main trail leaves the bedding area and splits to head to the feeding areas. Neither of us is still having any luck.


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## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

Wisconsins deer harvest numbers are way down this year. They say it's going to be a brutle winter with a lot of winter kill this year.


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## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

Friend of mine in WI has experenced the same thing. 
But he spends most of his time year around in the woods near him. He says (1. wolves are what he thinks have the deer numbers down.(2. youtes also play a part he thinks and of course (3. all the doe permits handed out when the CWD fear ran wild there.

So bad we no longer drive over to hunt a week with him any more for deer.

 Al


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## Gildog (Jan 30, 2007)

I know the wolves have sure changed things in NW MN...deer numbers are down (probably for various reasons--wolves and cats(?), disease, mgmt tags) but the ones in the area act differently too and we think it's because of the increase in large predators.


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

It was a weird fall.

At least in our area.

Unseasonably wet conditions for three weeks. Lots of rain. Late frost. Early snow in parts. Lots of late standing row crops.

I think this falls weather really messed up the deer.


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## jgat (Oct 27, 2006)

I just spent the last week in NW WI at our deer camp. Numbers were way down from what I saw as well. Most of the does didn't seem to have fawns with them. Very few bucks. I heard a lot of the locals talking about the wolf problem as well. The does we did get were loaded with fat. They are definitely prepared for a rough winter. I suppose things are starting to get back to normal up there. The last ten years or so the population has been sky high and we were used to it.


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## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

I've heard there's a lot of wolves showing up in areas that never seen them before, but we haven't heard about any around where I hunt. I know the bear numbers are really high and they're the number one killer of fawns so that might play a role.

We skun a few does the other day and they were loaded with fat nearly 2" in places. I really believe they're trying to conserve energy for a bad winter to come. They haven't had any reason to move during the day with the warmer temps.

The trail camera pics are showing the deer moving only late at night.

Tried doing some drives w/ no luck. You almost need to step on the to jump them up.


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## Lil Sand Bay (Feb 2, 2005)

Now that the gun season has closed, early reports released today says the harvest for Bayfield Co. and NW Wisc. was down by one third. I don't find that hard to believe as it was pretty slow going. I'm not going to blame the wolves although I see a few on occasion in the area around my home. I've certainly seen more coyote and their tracks then I can remember in recent history, and those two critters are not usually associated with each other. 
This spring I noticed a definate lack of twin fawns, the norm,and I suspect that last years first "normal" winter in the past six knocked down the herd more then originally thought. In any event the DNR got their estimates wrong. The population might be getting to its real carrying capacity after all these years.


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## hlt (Mar 15, 2008)

what? Are u blind or did u not see all the good bucks that got shot from there this year.


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## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

This might factor in too.

Posted on another fourm I belong to on 11-20-08. 
What evil lurks in the North Woods of WI .

Never go into the woods alone---or unarmed-----in Wisconsin

This mountain lion was hit by a car between -Eagle - River -and 
Woodruff, Wi. 
Dept. of Natural Resources had to come and put him down. 
He charged the DNR warden in the process. Look at those PAWs!



















So how do they (DNR) explain this.

 Al


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## nmubowyer (Sep 11, 2007)

good question on how they will explain the cat, their was a confirmed track in northern mi this past summer, lots of people have reported sightings around here, but the dnr wont admit anything...sometimes i wonder who theyre lookin out for :evil:


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## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

Sorry I was just informed that this cat has been around for some time.
"alleyyooper.. another cat that has been run over all over the country. Again, it did not happen in Wisconsin. December 2007 in northern Arizona and the cat weighed 200-220 pounds. That is the warden that shot him, posing with the cat. He is a taxidermist as well."

 Al


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## 308 (Jul 10, 2007)

I got the same pictures and it said that it was shot near Parksburgh, WV.

So who knows what to believe :beer:


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## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

hlt,

Most of those big boys that you seen were taken in the southern part of the state. The county that I hunt was down 44% this year. It's not a lack of effort, it's just been a tough year.

Can't say for sure that the DNR has it's game to gether up here. They mis-judged the bear dencity by a lot this year and now they are going to give out a lot more tags this coming year. A lot of people aren't happy with the way they are working or doing their research.


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## mike landrich (Jul 5, 2008)

I'm so upset. I thought that cat was killed near me in Western New York State. I even heard that one of my fiend's friends knew the guy in the pic. I haven't been this upset since the pic of the young cat on a porch 20 miles from me turned out to be from Colorado. I can't imagine how that one friend feels, he who sends me all of this stuff.

As for the original poster, we seem to have had a similar situation here. I haven't heard of many big bucks being shot, nor of many kills in general. Oh well, 2 more days of regular firearms, then 9 days of muzzleloading to change my luck.


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## hunter121390 (Nov 7, 2006)

deer numbers are way down all over. weve been having the same problems you guys have. there are still a lot of crops standing yet. all seven of the deer that ive helped butcher these last couple weeks, have had anywhere from 1-2.5 inches of fat on them. i know there calling for 40-50 more inches of snow this winter than we got last winter, and we got 100 inches of snow last winter down here. o well. now we got the rest of muzzleloader, tzone, and another gun deer season yet in the cwd zone.


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## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

Best of luck on the rest of the season. I'm back in ND to finish out my season. The deer in ND are acting way different than back home. It's crazy how a few hours down the road can make such a huge difference.


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## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

Just got word from my dad that the paper had an article on the depressing deer season. He told me that it stated in there the DNR was getting a lot of heat from the locals because the numbers are way down and the DNR is still having multiple rifle seasons. They already messed up big time on their bear counts and admitt to underestimating the population. Well the opposite has happened for the deer count and the are taking a lot of the blame.

Sounds like we need to get some better managers to take care of these issues. WI is such a great hunting state and I'd hate to see it ruined due to lake of effort or to many blunders from the DNR.


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