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NEWS!
Bowhunters tally 4th highest buck kill
Madison - Based on early harvest numbers, Wisconsin archers proved they can kill bucks even though the gun buck kill fell 22 percent statewide during the past two hunting seasons.
Preliminary archery deer registration numbers show that bowhunters shot 41,155 bucks during the 2009-10 season - the fourth highest archery buck kill on record.
That's nearly 25 percent of the total gun deer kill of 199,238 bucks, does, and fawns from the nine-day season.
Overall, the DNR tallied a preliminary archery total kill of 85,460 deer after adding in the 44,305 antlerless deer that have been counted so far.
The preliminary total archery kill is nearly half of the nine-day gun deer kill.
How can bowhunters fare so well - especially on bucks - during a year when gun hunters struggled?
"That's a good question. There are a lot of factors that influence buck harvest, with deer population being one of them," said Keith Warnke, DNR deer ecologist. "Deer movement patterns vary at different times of the season, hunter effort perhaps, and the relaxation of earn-a-buck requirements this year meant that bowhunters didn't have to pass up a buck."
Todd Zeuske has been heavily involved in the Wisconsin Bowhunters Association and bowhunting and conservation issues for many years. He was not surprised by the apparent disparity between the bow- and gun-hunting season success this past year.
"I have not researched this, but I do have an educated guess. First off, the population is down, which affects gun hunters more than bowhunters, as bowhunters have more days to find a deer," said Zeuske, who said he was speaking on his own behalf. "Also, earn-a-buck is more of a hindrance to gun hunters than bowhunters. With no EAB outside of CWD zones, I think bowhunters felt unleashed to shoot bucks."
Most hunters and DNR biologists now agree that deer numbers were lower than expected, but Zeuske thinks buck numbers were even lower than they should have been because fawns were shot heavily in EAB units in 2008.
"A lot of bowhunters pass multiple bucks every year, but they probably saw, and passed, fewer bucks in 2009, yet still were able to tag one," Zeuske said. "Bowhunters will more than ever get their share of bucks in the future unless season or equipment changes (are pushed by others)."
He also said archers are better shots than they were five years ago, thanks to better sights, releases, and knowledge shared among archery club members when they shoot together.
"Go to a bow club - there are no longer just a couple of guys who can shoot tight groups. Half of the guys there can shoot the heart out of the targets. Videos have showed them how to do it. Arrows are better and these guys have better form and if they don't know how to tune a bow, they know someone who can," he said.
Zeuske does not blame weather or the lower-than-expected gun kill on opening weekend. Besides the low deer numbers, he said a combination of other factors likely played a role, including when and how the rut ended.
Warnke said the good news is that at least bowhunters had a good season. He said the DNR is working on increasing deer populations in units that are below goal so gun hunters can begin seeing more deer during future hunts. The DNR is still crunching numbers on a unit and county basis. He does not yet know how many deer units will be below goal for 2010.
"We won't know which units are above or below goals until early March," he said.
"It was a good archery season overall,"_Warnke said. "We do know that from the statewide standpoint it was good, but there are areas of the state - the Central Forest Region and north-central and northeast counties - where the archery buck kill was down, as was gun buck kill. Those are clues to look at; if we were down in units in both seasons and they did not have earn-a-buck in prior years, that's telling us something about those populations."
The 2009-10 buck kill total is not yet final. Warnke expects more stubs to trickle in from late season and metro units. He doesn't expect the final kill to hit 90,000 deer, but it could bump 86,000 or go slightly higher.
The record archery buck kill was set in 1999 with 45,562 deer. Next in line is the 45,498 bucks kill in 2003, and 42,010 in 1998.
The overall record archery harvest was set in 2007 with 116,010 deer, but 77,999 of those deer were antlerless deer. The antlerless kill was high in 2007 because of the number of units in EAB status.
In taking a look at the preliminary archery kill, Warnke noted that there were units where the bow and gun buck kill fell last season, but there also were units where the bow buck kill went up from 2008 while the gun buck kill went down. As an example, in units 3, 28, 29A , 35, and 36, both the gun and bow buck kills fell from 2008. The gun buck kill in Unit 35 was down 52 percent and the bow buck kill was down 34 percent.
In units 12, 13, 19, 22, 23, 24, and 25, the bow buck kill was up, and the gun buck kill was down.
In Unit 12, the bow buck kill was up 24 percent, and the gun buck kill down 27 percent. In Unit 13, it was up 12 and down 36, respectively. In all of the other units, it was up 10 to 15 percent (bow) and down 25 to 35 percent (gun). Unit 22 was the exception on the gun buck end of the equation (down 22 percent).
This post is for informational purposes only.
Bowhunters tally 4th highest buck kill
Madison - Based on early harvest numbers, Wisconsin archers proved they can kill bucks even though the gun buck kill fell 22 percent statewide during the past two hunting seasons.
Preliminary archery deer registration numbers show that bowhunters shot 41,155 bucks during the 2009-10 season - the fourth highest archery buck kill on record.
That's nearly 25 percent of the total gun deer kill of 199,238 bucks, does, and fawns from the nine-day season.
Overall, the DNR tallied a preliminary archery total kill of 85,460 deer after adding in the 44,305 antlerless deer that have been counted so far.
The preliminary total archery kill is nearly half of the nine-day gun deer kill.
How can bowhunters fare so well - especially on bucks - during a year when gun hunters struggled?
"That's a good question. There are a lot of factors that influence buck harvest, with deer population being one of them," said Keith Warnke, DNR deer ecologist. "Deer movement patterns vary at different times of the season, hunter effort perhaps, and the relaxation of earn-a-buck requirements this year meant that bowhunters didn't have to pass up a buck."
Todd Zeuske has been heavily involved in the Wisconsin Bowhunters Association and bowhunting and conservation issues for many years. He was not surprised by the apparent disparity between the bow- and gun-hunting season success this past year.
"I have not researched this, but I do have an educated guess. First off, the population is down, which affects gun hunters more than bowhunters, as bowhunters have more days to find a deer," said Zeuske, who said he was speaking on his own behalf. "Also, earn-a-buck is more of a hindrance to gun hunters than bowhunters. With no EAB outside of CWD zones, I think bowhunters felt unleashed to shoot bucks."
Most hunters and DNR biologists now agree that deer numbers were lower than expected, but Zeuske thinks buck numbers were even lower than they should have been because fawns were shot heavily in EAB units in 2008.
"A lot of bowhunters pass multiple bucks every year, but they probably saw, and passed, fewer bucks in 2009, yet still were able to tag one," Zeuske said. "Bowhunters will more than ever get their share of bucks in the future unless season or equipment changes (are pushed by others)."
He also said archers are better shots than they were five years ago, thanks to better sights, releases, and knowledge shared among archery club members when they shoot together.
"Go to a bow club - there are no longer just a couple of guys who can shoot tight groups. Half of the guys there can shoot the heart out of the targets. Videos have showed them how to do it. Arrows are better and these guys have better form and if they don't know how to tune a bow, they know someone who can," he said.
Zeuske does not blame weather or the lower-than-expected gun kill on opening weekend. Besides the low deer numbers, he said a combination of other factors likely played a role, including when and how the rut ended.
Warnke said the good news is that at least bowhunters had a good season. He said the DNR is working on increasing deer populations in units that are below goal so gun hunters can begin seeing more deer during future hunts. The DNR is still crunching numbers on a unit and county basis. He does not yet know how many deer units will be below goal for 2010.
"We won't know which units are above or below goals until early March," he said.
"It was a good archery season overall,"_Warnke said. "We do know that from the statewide standpoint it was good, but there are areas of the state - the Central Forest Region and north-central and northeast counties - where the archery buck kill was down, as was gun buck kill. Those are clues to look at; if we were down in units in both seasons and they did not have earn-a-buck in prior years, that's telling us something about those populations."
The 2009-10 buck kill total is not yet final. Warnke expects more stubs to trickle in from late season and metro units. He doesn't expect the final kill to hit 90,000 deer, but it could bump 86,000 or go slightly higher.
The record archery buck kill was set in 1999 with 45,562 deer. Next in line is the 45,498 bucks kill in 2003, and 42,010 in 1998.
The overall record archery harvest was set in 2007 with 116,010 deer, but 77,999 of those deer were antlerless deer. The antlerless kill was high in 2007 because of the number of units in EAB status.
In taking a look at the preliminary archery kill, Warnke noted that there were units where the bow and gun buck kill fell last season, but there also were units where the bow buck kill went up from 2008 while the gun buck kill went down. As an example, in units 3, 28, 29A , 35, and 36, both the gun and bow buck kills fell from 2008. The gun buck kill in Unit 35 was down 52 percent and the bow buck kill was down 34 percent.
In units 12, 13, 19, 22, 23, 24, and 25, the bow buck kill was up, and the gun buck kill was down.
In Unit 12, the bow buck kill was up 24 percent, and the gun buck kill down 27 percent. In Unit 13, it was up 12 and down 36, respectively. In all of the other units, it was up 10 to 15 percent (bow) and down 25 to 35 percent (gun). Unit 22 was the exception on the gun buck end of the equation (down 22 percent).
This post is for informational purposes only.