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Channel 5 news out of Green Bay had a news crew at a butcher shop in Crivitz on opening day. They had film of the back of a small SUV that had a plug in hitch type carrier. Piled and bungee corded on the carrier were a spike, an adult doe, and two fawns, piled on top of one another. They interview the two guys who got them. One guy said yes it was a lot fun today. We've hunted up here for years and just haven't been seeing much. But today it was like there were a lot of deer running so I got a few of them. Made me want to puke.

Well looking at the big picture that is something. Wasn't last year one of the lowest kills in many years? So anything less than that is not good at all. On a plus side perhaps it will continue to weed out the less serious hunters.

Then there is Bayfield Co...The number of antlerless killed in Bayfield Co. is completely ridiculous. Thanks CDAC. The antlerless harvest in 2016 was 268 and this year 1,587 were killed. This is an area that was ground zero for extremely severe winters 2012-14 and way too many wolves on the landscape. I'm sure someone will pipe in that the "ag" areas of the county were way over goal. Like Bayfield has any significant ag regions.

Of all counties that probably should not have gone down in harvest numbers is Waupaca Co. with their 80 deer per sq. mile. Surprised to see the kill down from last year. They were threatened with a doe only season a year or two back?!

Notably, hunter participation also was down. The agency sold 588,387 gun licenses, a drop of 10,420 from 2016 and the lowest in 41 years.

It was just the second time since 1976 that fewer than 600,000 licenses were sold for the nine-day season.

Seven non-fatal shooting incidents were reported during the gun hunt, which ran Nov. 18 -26.

The harvest included 98,364 bucks and 97,374 antlerless deer. The buck total was up less than 1% compared to 2016, while the antlerless kill was down by 2%.

All regions reported reduced kills this year except the northern forest, which showed an increase (28%) for the second consecutive year.

Marathon County had the most deer registered (7,317), with Shawano (6,734) and Waupaca (6,377) rounding out the top three counties.

In the last 35 years, the only year with a lower nine-day gun kill was 2014, according to DNR officials. The harvest that year was 192,111.

The 2017 deer kill was down despite a statewide herd that was likely larger this year, according to DNR preseason forecasts.

The northern Wisconsin deer herd, especially, has benefitted from three consecutive mild winters and several years of “buck only” regulations intended to allow more female deer to live and reproduce.

Weather on opening day, which typically accounts for the largest single-day kill, featured breezy conditions in most of the state and precipitation in the southern half.

However, temperatures were above average for most of the season and should have allowed hunters to spend ample time afield.

Like Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports on Facebook for the latest Wisconsin sports updates right in your news feed. Visit JS Sports on Facebook Further, the timing of the season was among the earliest allowable under the traditional format and overlapped with a portion of the rut, or the deer mating period, when the animals are more active than normal during daylight.

Several factors are likely contributing to the trend toward lower gun deer license sales and smaller deer kills during the nine-day season

Registration reaps rewards Register now and get special deals from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel & the USA TODAY NETWORK, invites to events and sweepstakes, and more. Sign Up More hunters are participating in the crossbow season, for example, and may not choose to also buy a gun license. The number of licenses allowing crossbow use have gone from 113,506 in 2014, the first year all hunters were allowed to use the equipment in Wisconsin during the bow season, to 131,293 in 2015 and 149,348 in 2016.

A general decline in hunting, both in Wisconsin and across the nation, has been predicted by sociologists for more than a decade as Americans lead more sedentary lifestyles and spend less time in traditional outdoors activities.

The state Legislature has relaxed deer hunting regulations in recent years, too. Deer no longer need to be tagged or taken to a physical registration station.

Especially on private land, it is now easier than ever in Wisconsin for someone to shoot a deer and not register it.

The nine-day gun season proved to be among the safest on record. Among the seven non-fatal shooting injuries, five were self-inflicted. And none involved a young hunter participating under the state’s new mentored hunting law. A law signed Nov. 11 by Gov. Scott Walker allowed hunters of any age to participate in this year’s gun hunt.

The agency reported license sales to 10 hunters under the age of 1 and 52 to hunters age 5 and under. In all, 1,722 mentored gun hunting licenses were purchased for those 9 and under. It’s not known how many participated in the hunt.

The license sales to the newly eligible youth hunters still fell far short of offsetting the overall decline.

The muzzleloader hunt runs through Dec. 6, a statewide antlerless deer hunt is scheduled Dec. 7-10 and the bow deer seasons run through Jan. 7 in most of the state.

LOL, that makes no sense as if private land hunters are going to not register deer when their pockets are probably stuffed with tags that the DNR keeps irresponsibly passing out. The incentive to not register a deer would be what, especially since it is so simple these days?

It's crap like this that continues strengthening the divide between hunters/landowners and the DNR, sometimes ya gotta wonder if that's what the DNR wants since they do it so well and have been doing it quite a bit in recent years.

I did register my deer, but given the lack of deterent, there's no way that others haven't been compelled to "save" their buck tag.

If anything, people who don't register deer under represent the true harvest and which gives justification to issue even more antlerless tags next year!

Will Bayfield County get more antlerless tags next year...I hope not, some areas of the county have so little deer already, even the wolves go hungry!

the call in, is convenient and easy, and guys I talk too all like it,,,,, it needs to be tweaked for gun season, allowing the registration to go in up to and including the last day,,,,, there are still camps that stay off the grid the whole week

Post-hunting season deer population ranged from 3 to 58 whitetails per square mile of land area, and the average statewide was 25, the DNR said. The Wisconsin DNR was looking for a banner year in 2017, so what really happened? Over population estimates? Weather? Call in registrations? Less hunters? We had the earliest start possible for gun season with the rut still partially in full swing. I'm waiting for the dept to tell us what excuse it'll be this year.

I wonder what they're using now?? How do they go about setting that number. Do they just use what Michigan or other phone-in states use? It's so arbitrary. How would you even set up a study to see what percent of hunters will not comply with registration?

I agree with many here that the traditional registration system held hunters to a higher level of accountability. I really miss the days of going to the registration stations to see what was coming in. Some here claim that the cheaters of the old system will be proportional with the new system. Unfortunately, I believe human nature with many is such that a much greater levels of cheating/noncompliance will result with phone ins.

I also think that the animosity that so many hunters have with the DNR, or CDAC, factors in as well. They don't trust the DNR or the members on their county's CDAC, so why should they comply with their new registration system kind of mentality. Bayfield County's CDAC voted this fall (impacts the next 3 years) to reduce the herd despite public polling showed 3 to 1 favored no reduction, which built even more animosity and distrust in how the deer herd is managed.

Yes, it will be interesting to hear the DNR's take on why the harvest was so low despite most variables being in favor of a big upswing in the 2017 harvest.

If you think that wolves have not seriously impacted the deer population in Bayfield County you obviously haven't spent much time there this year or in the past 20 years.

Even though deer numbers are way down it wouldn't be that difficult to shoot that many does if the corn pilers shoot the one doe they see. In years past they would probably see and pass several does waiting for the big buck but now they might only see one or two and shoot one of them. Les and I are very familiar with the areas we hunt up there and we covered a lot of ground. Les saw 4 deer and he could have easily shot a doe. That does not mean that there are a lot of deer or that the wolves are not killing a lot of them. The closest thing to a live deer that I found was the crunched up fragments of a deer's leg bone with red marrow still in it.

There is no excess of deer in northern Bayfield County. The herd is very slowly recovering from severe winters but the wolves are seriously slowing that recovery. With the number of deer that the wolves kill, there is absolutely no reason for hunters to kill antlerless deer. There is no surplus to harvest, period!

I have passed up more shots than ever before. Could it be that hunters like many here and my self are being more selective on what they shoot?

I think a problem in the northwoods is that hunter/hunters that are used to crowded buck poles and coming back with a trailer full of deer during the 90's and early 2000's are having problems showing restraint now that the population has crashed. I'm not saying that it's illegal or they can't to that, but it is short sighted and not in the best interest of the herd. They are just doing what they are allowed to do because of CDAC's decision to begin liberally harvesting does against the wishes of the majority of the sportsmen/women who enjoy the area.

Adding on to Mike's point concerning deer population in Bayfield Co: With back to back mild winters in the north and no appreciable harvest of does in 2015 and 2016, don't you think the woods would be full of deer given how fast a whitetail population can rebound? But it's not. It isn't too difficult to figure out...predators.

To deny the wolf impact is irresponsible. Instead of telling those of us who have a lot of time and experience in the north and feel a connection with the area that we are wrong about the level of predation, why don't you just tell us that you want deer densities of 10 or less per sq. mile for whatever your agenda is. Those that really know the area know this habitat can support a few more deer.

I think most of the crowd here that has a stake in the northwoods is not anti wolf, but want them managed. We were sold a lie in the beginning of a goal of 300 or so wolves in the state. I understand the lawsuits and the legality issues, but even when there was a small window to manage the wolf with a hunting season, the DNR totally gave in to the friends of the wolves and punched the deer hunter in the gut with quotas that made no sense.

We can do better and deserve better in our experiences in the woods and our representation at the government level.

that area is devastated by wolves. I now see good bucks in the western UP, less people, big area, but the deer have less pressure,,,,, their are wolves, but nothing like NW Wis....

No one in their right mind, would have doe tags for that county

Seems we're outnumbered and that's exactly how the vote went in October. And CDAC's recommendations to reduce herd will be reviewed and approved in December by the Natural Resources Board for the next three years! Amazing...

Like always the herd has high/low areas.. Not every acre is created equal. Private land tends to hold more deer and many land owners complain about too many deer but wont allow others to hunt them or hubt themselves.

GJG- the same reason why a couple guys can see no problem taking a couple of 50" Muskie out of a fragile esox ecosystem and then bitch about no big Muskie in the lake a couple years later.

GJG- the same reason why a couple guys can see no problem taking a couple of 50" Muskie out of a fragile esox ecosystem and then bitch about no big Muskie in the lake a couple years later.

Rut, do you attend the CDAC meetings? Do you encourage your fellow hunters to attend? Hunters have been given a great tool but like any other tool, left in the box, it does nothing.

You and I apparently hang with very different crowds. ;-)

Yes and yes. But after seeing the CDAC's refusal to take the info from landowners and hunters seriously. I doubt I will again. The agenda and outcome is pre-set.

Your point being that people shouldn't have the right to voice their opinion about a subject unless they invested (or wasted however you look at it) their time at meetings that history has shown are pointless anyway?

I feel exactly the same. I've gone to the meetings, have gotten friends to go, I've done their surveys (which fell on deaf ears), gave my take as did others, but always to no avail. I too am probably done going to meetings.

My gun season was pretty good, I shot a very big bodied deer, unfortunately for me his rack was a little smaller when I found him than I thought. Oh well. I'm excited to get some cameras up and see what all made it for next year.

The majority of us do the right thing, however. Thank God.

In 2010: Shoot deer and take to shed. Skin and put in freezer, no registration. In 2017: Shoot deer and take to shed. Skin and put in freezer, no registration.

Looks the same to me.

New way: Shoot a deer, call it in, get registration number, put deer in truck, process, done. If you get checked, provide registration number.

Old way: Shoot a deer, register in person, put deer in truck, process, done. If you get checked, show registration tag.

If you are a poacher

New way: shoot deer, put in garage or barn, cut up, hope to not get caught. Old way: shoot deer, put in garage or barn, cut up, hope to not get caught.

edit: sorry slimm, we posted at about the same time.

CaptMike why all the name calling? I'm not a liar or a law breaker and I don't appreciate being called either. I never said that I'm aware of others that break the law as you stated, I did quote someone else that said they know of people breaking the law but that was clearly in quotations in my post. Possibly if you slow down as you're reading and responding to these threads you won't falsely accuse people of saying things they never said, and as you're calling people names they'll be directed at the correct people.

most people punched their tags, you guys conveniently left this part out. if you punched your tag, got it home and decided to not register it then what did you do? you had to buy a replacement tag claiming you lost it?...which raised a red flag to wardens if you didn't know ... new way...much easier and cheaper to poach.

just pointing out a observation, from people I do not even know in general,,

Ground hunter, these guys who know guys who didn't call in deer, have a responsibility to report violations. If they choose to keep quiet, are almost as guilty. The guys not calling them in, were already violators. This rule did not create more violators. It simply brought out the ugliness of humans who cheat. I must admit, I started skinning my deer this year, and realized I didn't call it in. I stopped, and for 5 hours the online, and call in service was down. I proceeded to butchering my deer, and when the service was available, I then called it in. This rule does not make honest people dishonest. It may have some forgetfulness, but I believe most people are calling in their deer. I just believe in many places, there are less of them. Especially comparing them to the hay days when numbers were clearly over their carrying capacity.

Let me point out we have a reasonable amount of time to register our deer...but guess what? Some people prove that they are as human as the next and forget...NOW WHAT?

Register it anyway - nobody is going to get bent out of shape...no warden will appear at your door!

It's a new system and the WDNR and it's employee's realize this and would rather gather accurate information instead of going on a man hunt to cite you!

Please register your deer!

As far as "freezer checks" Pete is right, they do not go door to door and ask to look in freezers. If they need to check, they will ask for your permission to do so. If not, a warrant to search would be necessary.

Remember, that a LEO does not "always" need a warrant to search areas of interest. All he/she has to do many times, is simply ask and surprisingly many folks permit them to do so.

I like the call in system myself,,,,,, the only tweak they need to do, is change it for the gun season, giving you to the end of season, like it use to be....

I believe though, that a tag, should go on a deer..... One guy told me today, he went to a local processor, and told him, he forgot his tag ID number,,,, was told not to worry about it, things are so screwed up, they just gave him a number for his deer anyway.....

I do my own deer, so I do not know what a processor does,,,,,, with cdac and no tags, I think it is all a mess, if you want good hard data,,,, like my friend said, hey I am an accountant, no way would I run my tax business, like this deer program is run, if you wanted any accuracy and credibility