Buck kill up in county; overall numbers steady compared to 2020

OPENING WEEKEND UPDATE

Taylor County hunters registered virtually the same number of deer on opening weekend of the 2021 nineday gun season as they did last year. More of them had antlers this year.

Overall, hunters registered 1,384 deer as Taylor County kills through the first two days of the season, up nine animals or 0.7% from last year. Of that total, 769 were antlered bucks, up from 703 (9.4%) at this point a year ago. The antlerless total is down from 672 a year ago to 615 this year, a drop of 8.5% That figure will be worth watching when the preliminary nine-day total is released next Tuesday. There were 10,000 private-land antlerless harvest authorizations made available in the county this year, up from 8,350 a year ago, while public-land tags went up from 1,000 a year ago to 1,200 this year.

As of noon on Tuesday, there were still 2,321 unsold private-land tags.

New this year, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released a comparison of this year’s opening weekend totals to the five-year average for each county in the state. Taylor County’s 2021 opening weekend registration totals are below that five-year average by 17.6% for bucks, above the average by 7.2% for antlerless deer and down 8.1% overall.

The average buck kill for the weekend in the 2016-20 time frame is 933, while the antlerless average is 574, while it should be noted that antlerless permit levels were also low in some of those years. The five-year average total harvest from 2016-20 is 1,507 deer.

Overall, hunters in the 19-county Northern Forest Zone did well over the weekend, increasing its buck kill by 13.1% over last year with 10,605 animals harvested. The doe kill in the zone is up slightly at 2.1%, creating an overall upward tick of 9.3% with 15,694 deer registered.

Surprisingly, the Central Farmland Zone is down 16% overall from a year ago and the Southern Farmland Zone is down 24.1%. The Central Forest Zone is down 4.7%.

Add it all up and the statewide registration total through two days is 47,529 bucks, down 7.2%; 38,331 antlerless deer, down 21.1% from a year ago, and 85,860 deer overall, down 14% from 2020.

In a briefing with statewide media Tuesday morning, DNR officials said it’s too early to have any strong reactions to the numbers. Some factors they said to keep in mind were that Saturday was extremely comfortable weather-wise, which may have led many hunters to stay in stationary stands or blinds. Sunday, however, turned blustery when a cold front swept through the state and also brought some snow and sleet to northern Wisconsin.

“We had really nice conditions on opening day. Very comfortable,” said Jeffrey Pritzl, the DNR’s Deer Program Specialist. “A lot of people commented that it was a nice day to sit in the stand. So the upside is that people were out there hunting and enjoying the conditions. But one of the trends we’ve seen with gun season is that as more hunters’ strategy is to be stationary, we don’t move deer in our own activities. We’re more reliant on natural deer movement to see deer. A lot of the comments opening day were also that deer activity did not seem to be that high on opening day, even though the conditions were definitely nice for hunting.

“On Sunday those conditions deteriorated quite a bit across the state as the storm front went through,” Pritzl added. “As is always the case on opening weekend, that may have had an influence as well on what we’re seeing for numbers.”

Nicolas Sperl (r.) shot this 12-point buck Nov. 18th in Clark County. The 12-pointer’s rack had a 16-inch inside spread.

When asked about the increased registration numbers in the north, Pritzl offered a couple of theories.

“I think it’s a combination of we may have seen a bit of a return to the north. Some people may have taken a year off last year,” he said. “From a population standpoint, the Northern Forest herd went from a mild winter last year. We had good conditions on Saturday. We didn’t have snow until mid-morning on Sunday. Although the conditions really deteriorated from a wind perspective along with the arrival of the snow, it may have in certain circumstances given people a little bit of a chance where it worked in someone’s favor, either from a sighting standpoint or maybe they changed strategies.”

Pritzl said he noticed antlerless harvests have actually been lagging statewide through the archery and crossbow seasons as well and he’ll be curious to see if they spike at all in the second half of the season.

As for the slow registration in the Farmland Zones, DNR officials had no early answers.

“I hunted in the Central Farmland in Wood County,” said Eric Lobner, the DNR’s Wildlife Management Program director. “It’s premature to speculate a whole lot. But just casual observations from what I saw, there were a lot of hunters out at various locations on public and private land. We had good participation. I think the conditions were generally to a point where you could almost sit all day if you really wanted to. That can be both a plus and a minus.”

The season runs through Sunday, Nov. 28. It will be followed by a 10-day muzzleloader season and crossbow and archery seasons are still open and will continue through Jan. 9. The statewide antlerless-only season is Dec. 9-12

License sales

Preliminary figures indicate that the number of deer hunters in Wisconsin decreased compared to 2020.

As of midnight Sunday, sales for gun, bow, crossbow, sports and patron licenses reached 795,039. Of that total, 551,809 were for gun privileges only, including gun, patron and sports licenses. The year-to-date sales for all deer licenses are down 1.5% from the same time last year.

The number of non-resident licenses increased this year by about 2,000, according to Lobner, or about 3.8%.

Of the total licenses sold, 60% were sold online, and 40% were sold by DNR license agents, which includes private businesses across the state.

Three accidents

During the media briefing Tuesday, DNR Recreational Safety and Outdoor Skills Section Chief Capt. April Dombrowski reported three firearm-involved hunting incidents during the opening weekend, but no fatalities.

  On Saturday in Brussel Township of Door County at approximately 6:45 a.m., a 40-year-old male suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the hand. The victim had placed his hand on the muzzle after pulling the hammer back on his firearm. The victim believed he pulled the trigger, and the bullet struck his left pinky. He sought medical attention, was treated and released.

  On Sunday near Sturgeon Bay in Door County at approximately 7 a.m., a 10-year-old male was the victim of a gunshot wound. A 45-year-old male shooter was hunting from his residence when he shot at a deer. The shooter attempted to unload his firearm, at which time it discharged inside of the house and struck the victim. The victim was transported to a hospital and treated.

  On Sunday in Ottawa Township of Waukesha County at approximately 6:21 a.m., a 30-year-old male suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the leg. The victim was in a tree stand when he tried to hang the gun on a hanger. The gun discharged, striking him in the right leg. The victim was transported to a hospital and treated.

Wisconsin’s 10-year average is approximately six hunting incidents for the nine-day gun deer hunt. The decline in incidents is the direct result of hunter safety education given by Wisconsin’s volunteer instructors and conservation wardens.

Wardens remind all hunters to use the four firearm safety rules as a cornerstone for safe and successful outings: T - Treat every Firearm as if it is loaded A - Always Point the muzzle in a safe direction B - Be certain of your target, what’s before it, and what’s beyond it K - Keep your finger outside your trigger guard until you are safe to shoot.