General Hunting Discussion
Forest County Deer Hunting
Yes the 1991 opener was a mess, I saw 2 deer all day and that was on the walk out from my stand at dusk. I don't know what they were because I had my glasses in my pocket because I could not keep them clean. I shot a nice buck the next morning after only being in my stand 5 minutes. I pulled it about halfway out and then had about 5 or 6 helpers for the rest of the way. We put a long rope on it and pulled it single file because of the deep snow. It was 1:30 when we finally goy it to a road and I was spent. I shot another one a few days later and only had to pull that one a few hundred yards.
I only saw 5 deer that year and I thought that was lousy, that's about 3 years worth nowadays......
Remember it well Yamy. Opening day hunting was hampered by a major blizzard. I walked into my stand before light with barely a dusting. Sat all day. Trudged back out at 5 through 16" of snow. Never saw a deer but I got one the second day. We did come back up for the "3rd" weekend. Pushed a few around but no shots. Yes the good old days.
Was just reading the Forest County Newspaper and in their looking back column 25 years ago the DNR extended the deer season because of snow and a lower deer harvest. Deer harvest in Forest County through Monday of 1991 was 1,994 bucks and 4155 antlerless for a total of 6,149 for the first 3 days of season. This year is 840 bucks for the whole season!! Ah yes the GOOD OLD DAYS!!
They go down the list of preferred foods. When they are gone they go to the next. Here is something from the NE.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjH6OnEj9nQAhXIxYMKHZfIDsQQFgglMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.na.fs.fed.us%2Fpubs%2F2014%2FNA-IN-02-14_WhitetailedDeerNEForestsWEB.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHCZMPWomankEQYLm12DIt58Z0G3Q
The state is getting more Federal land to be available for logging through the Good Neighbor Authority. Its a slow start, but should get better. If you look it up, there was a pretty good chunk set up already, about 3600 additional acres this year alone.
The antlerless tags that were highlighted below have some information that has been left out of the discussion...
Each time the tags were issued, it was done in enough advance to publicize that they were made available to the general public for free. They were only valid during open deer seasons and stopped before bucks lost their horns. They can only be used in certain areas, and not every tag that gets issued is filled.
ihookum, looks to me like the deer in your area have a little different menu than the ones in Forest Co...........Reminds me of my nephew when he was a little guy he called tamarack "Golden Spruce" when they turned........
Should not be a surprise to anyone cedar is preferred if available. Look at the shoreline of most lakes and you can see a browse line where the deer feed on cedar on the shoreline ice.........They will even eat cedar next to your house or car if they get hungry.
Here is an example of spruce budworm effects. This in the u.p
On one my favorite trout stream stretches. Sorry, can't divulge exact location??
It is slowly spreading south and perpetuated by mild winters. If you see those little white moths on warm fall afternoons, those aren't gypsy moths, they are spruce budworm.
Ybone, you made some very interesting points . (1) spruce bud disease., I never heard of it . What I can tell you is what the loggers dont cut , mother nature will. I have started to see the the destruction of Emerald Ash Borer in Kettle Moraine S.F. It is going to be devastating in the Price co. hardwoods. About 25-50% of the trees in the hardwoods are mature ash. This is going to bring a lot of sunlight on the floor and should be much like a perfect select cut logging operation. (2) that pic of the maple saplings is exactly what I see all over Price co. It is a very poor regeneration of a hardwoods if you ask me. I see balsams or " flat needled spruce) totally eaten by deer. There is no t single cedar oak, Hemlock, white pine tree under 70 or 80 yrs old. This tells me there have been too many deer in the woods for an awful long time. Now, there are some Hemlock, white pine coming up but will most likely get eaten. The 2' tall oaks are everywhere ( most likely from turkeys) It is looking up some. We need cedars, pine and Hemlock for winter cover and there is little left. What the government won't let the loggers do , the Emerald Ash Borer will do. That is sad. Ash at least makes a decent hardwood floor and pulp. As for me, I see a lot of coyote tracks and get a lot on the cam too. There are a lot of coyotes but I have not seen a wolf track since early May and have not heard them neither. It is to some degree an excuse fro no deer but I see a very poor deer woods in Price/ Sawyer co. that was over browsed for 50 years except for the last five years. Later Ihookem.
In case anybody wants to verify or disprove FNB comments on nuisance tags in Forest county here is a name and number off the DNR site in response to my question.
I would recommend contacting the wildlife biologist that is located in Forest county which would be Noah Balgooyen at 608-635-4090. I am not sure where to find the information for nuisance tags.
