Public vs Private Antlerless tags

I attended the spring meetings in Marathon county this year and listened to the biologist present on antlerless goals and tag issuance for this year. This is the first year that there will be public and private antlerless tags. What surprised me was that in Marathon county, 15% of the antlerless tags were set aside for public land. The biologist explained that 12% of the land in the county is public, so 15% of the tags were set aside for this group. I thought the idea was to increase antlerless pressure on private land, but setting aside MORE tags for public would have the opposite effect. I then called the biologist for Portage County (where I own a farm) and asked her the same question. She said she looked at public vs private land harvest in the last 5 years. 7% of antlerless deer were historically killed on public land, so they set aside 15% of the tags for public. THIS IS EVEN WORSE! I own private land in these counties and we don't have a deer shortage on the land we own. I am afraid that with this type of tag issuance we will have too many deer shot off public land, and not enough on private. The Portage county biologist said they did this to make sure that public land hunters get a chance at an antlerless tag- this amazed me.

Yeah, in reality the only person you can control is you. If all of us get on somewhat the same page, a lot of change can occur. The problem that rears its head all the time is the difference in expectation. You want a Booner, I want a deer. You have an entire season to sit and wait and hunt, I have two days. You have developed a goal that requires letting everything walk except a certain size deer, I have had a lifetime (with generations before me) of shooting a deer, any (buck) deer, or I am a failure. That right there makes a huge difference. If a huge buck and a lil forkie walk out into a field together, we all know which one is gonna get shot at (by everybody, ALMOST no exceptions). But if that legal forkie is the first to walk by me, and I have been out there looking for days, or I only have that weekend, or frankly, if nobody in my group has shot one yet, making me first, it just might get shot at. Working with herd dynamics and genetics is not as easy and clear cut as it may sound on the computer blogs. There is a lot involved. As one example. . if we are truly interested in the genetics of the herd, why are we trying to kill the biggest and best ? If we impose a 6 point minimum on rack size, a very real good gene for "survival of the fittest" (remember Darwin) is a fork rack. If a very large portion of the years fawn crop is destined to die anyway. . no matter whether we shoot them or not, due to other predation and winter die off, wouldn't it be a good idea to shoot fawns instead of adult deer so that the adults can go thru winter with less competition for the available forage and cover ? A healthy adult deer is more likely to survive and produce multiple fawns for the next year. Chuck

centralwi, That's the issue I fought with my dad about regarding small bucks when we hunted a relative's land. "If you don't shoot a neighbor will" I always told him if I shoot it IT'S DEAD, if I leave it go a neighbor MIGHT. Since I bought my land abutting the relatives we use to hunt, we've been letting smaller bucks go. Just about kills my 86yo dad when we tell him, "this morning we let an OK 6 and small 8 walk by". How ever in the past several years we've taken nice 8's and a 9, had a BIG 12 on the trail cam, and cousin shot a big 10 last year that ran up into mine to die. It does work, may be better some places then others. But every deer YOU KILL is dead, if you let it walk it might live.

yeah but then you have land like ours we can manage but then it runs accrossed the trail and gets shot on the public. so really there is no point to letting them go.

I would be willing to bet most private is not managed correctly. Those people can choose to fill doe tags or not, I would guess most don't know what they are doing in terms of true management. Sure some guys do and they can be vocal, but many don't have a clue. Have to look at the big picture, don't just count a few guys who do. With public they are trying to manage it for the FIRST time. So you can't possibly have an idea of how it will turn out if its never been done. With public there will always be guys available to fill doe tags within the quota, on private overall...not so much. People not filling doe tags on private land is already a stated problem which is part of the reason separate tags came about in the first place.

Landman, the first part of my reply was a posted quote from someone else's the second part was my reply. Point I was making was it shouldn't matter how many choice permits were issued IF people were smart enough NOT to shoot every deer they had a tag for just because they could. If you're seeing less deer shoot less deer...unfortunately that's not how it works and why I bought land so I don't have to put up with people not smart enough to manage their own future.

County and state need to get out of the real estate business. More private....less public...then it will be managed correctly. Until then public will always be over-hunted and the experience will be minimal at best.

I just want to know how they think that they are going to be able to enforce all this. The hunting regulations are getting bigger and bigger. We may soon each need a retained attorney to tell us what we need to do.

I think next year you will have to choose public or private for those free farmland tags if I heard right, but don't quote me 100% on that. If so I plan to buy my archery license and choose private, then my gun license as public. That way I have a doe tag of each to use for either season (assuming those tags are not weapon specific like herd control was). Buck tags aren't zone or private/public specific I don't believe.

Marinerman- In most farmland areas (especially on private land) THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF DEER. I know this because I get on more farms in a week than most people do in a year. I also go into their woods and see the damage to their fields. That is the idea behind the free antlerless tags-keep the herd in check in areas where there are plenty of deer. I want more antlerless tags on private land in farmland areas.

1. They are all trophies THAT"S THE RIGHT ATTITUDE!!! Enjoy being out there! A trophy is only in the eyes of hunter!! Anyone that needs to be reminded of that. Only needs to look at kid after they have harvested anything!!

"I got two tags with my license again this year! Not private or public antlerless tags. Just farmland zone tags! WHEN WILL THIS STATE LEARN! STOP PRINTING FREE EXTRA TAGS!!!!! " When will the hunters learn NOT to shoot does if they are not seeing many deer. I've hunted privet land for 40 years, we manage how many does we shoot by how many deer we're seeing. Couple years we shot NONE, other years it as as many as we wanted or needed. Report Abuse

"I am not a trophy hunter. I'm a meat hunter I take 1-2 deer a year where the population permits for the freezer not the wall. I'm fine with trophy hunters because we're all supposed to be on the same team, but please don't push your agenda on me because I hunt for food." 1. They are all trophies 2. It is true you can't (easily) eat the antlers, but you can eat the meat from a buck. I know, I've seen me do it.

I am not a trophy hunter. I'm a meat hunter I take 1-2 deer a year where the population permits for the freezer not the wall. I'm fine with trophy hunters because we're all supposed to be on the same team, but please don't push your agenda on me because I hunt for food.

"I can see including state, county, and posted leased land for public hunting but the managed forest lands aren't posted and one half of a persons 40 acres could be mfl and the other half private. So I'd have to buy two different tags for the same property." Or, you could just decide that you're not going to shoot a doe and you won't have to buy any tags except the main buck tag. Makes it pretty simple.

I have have 32 years in the insurance business and have worked with and represented dozens of companies. Not one has ever made any commitment to influencing the deer herd. They have enough to do just figuring out people much less wildlife. Urban legend. If they were going to spend money on influence it would not be on the deer herd. Mrt.