Grade your 2011 Gun Season

[umpiremark]

I thought it might be fun to put a grade on your experiences in the 2011 Wisconsin gun season. Although meaningless in any conclusions, how did the nine-day gun season stack up for you, personally? For grins and giggles, I've made a little scale to even out the scoring between us all, in different parts of the state (perhaps).

On a scale of 1-5 (1 being low, 5 being highest), rate the following:
~ 1) Deer sightings, deer movement;
~ 2) Weather - for the duration of your hunting;
~ 3) Rut activity coinciding with the gun hunt;
~ 4) Commaradre (friends, family in camp; general hunter B.S. after the hunts);
~ 5) Herd health (did you see more, less than years past? More or less antlerless than past? Buck/rack sizes bigger or smaller?);
~ 6) Personal Hunter/Hunting experiences afield (Trespassers, neighbors driving other properties, Wild shots or early/late shots nearby, other factors affecting the success or failure of your hunt).

With 6 categories, a great 2011 hunt would be worth 30 points, a poor hunt worth 6 points and everything else in between.

Share your thoughts! Thanks, MARK

[umpiremark]

For our part, my son (31) and I only hunted opening weekend and the Monday after. Work commitments and family/holiday commitments shortened our season to only 3 days. For the most part, my ratings (on my scale above, no less {hahahahah}) would stack up like this:

1) My son saw 7 does/fawns and I saw zip on my stand. We hunted sunup to sundown every day, on stand. I would rate this factor a 1.
2) For the 3 days afield, the weather was cooperative. Saturday's rains were warded off by my newest "great buy" in a tree stand umbrella. Sunday was cold and crisp and Monday was very comfortable. For my "3-day season," the weather was a 4.
3) For some reason - that has baffled me for 15 years now - the does and bucks leave our property and breed somewhere else. Where? I wish I knew. As the bow season heads towards Nov 1st, we see less and less daytime deer activity and less and less pictures on trail cams. It is the one piece of the puzzle I have yet to figure out on our property. For rut activity during the gun hunt, I have to assign a 1.
4) Camp commeradre had to be a 5. Petey - my buddy and close friend - was back in camp after a two year absence. At 64, Petey Rabbit is still a chipper, funny guy and breaks up the camp with his dry, wry humor. having Petey back in the fold again, was definately a 5.
5) On camera (during the bow season) and sightings in the field, we saw more does with twins - and one big doe my son shot in early October - with triplets. The bucks we had on camera (and two I saw from the stand, bowhunting) had taller, thicker racks than the "baskets" we often see on the property. Even though gun season was a wash as far as shots fired, I give the herd health in our area an optimistic 4. Now if I just knew what bar the deer were hanging out in for breeding ... ...
6) Usually the group to our south makes big drives through the swamps, but for what ever reason this year, they didn't. The buck on my avatar ran through and past one of these drives onto our property in 2009 and is now above the bar in the "Man Cave." There was little shooting in our area all weekend (Necedah) so I assume little movement by hunters, pushing deer. Because of a lack of sightings, the neighbors not pushing and very few area-wide shots and/or havesting, I would rate the overall experience a 2.

My total score for the 2011 gun season was a 17 out of 30, a little more than half. Maybe a C+ then, I would say.

[pgchambers]

5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 1 = 25

[Jimbo]

Using the provided scale I came up with a 21.

Based on just results (I shot a nice adult doe and a big 10 pointer) the hunt was a 30.

But, deer movement during the day was down, although the snow cover and trail cams revealed plenty of deer activity after hours.

The weather was pretty good in our area, but I would have preferred colder temperatures.

Jimbo

[Gafrage]

1-3-1-4-1-1 = 11

Absoluetly the worst season since one of my last up in Marinette County.

[deojee1414]

1 - 4 - 1 - 5 - 1 - 3 = 15

weather was decent, camp is always great. shot a buck which would have made the last one a 5 normally, but several instances of inconsiderate hunters throughout the week brought the hunting experience down to a 3. Still my week was much better than several guys i hunt with. 1 saw no deer, 3 saw 1 deer each. Group of 11 guys saw a total of 5 deer on opener, w/1 being a buck. 3 bucks shot total over the week. Another bad sign, our group is shrinking. used to be 14, then 13 now 11 this year. Some guys just deciding to use vacation time on other things since deer herd is down so much in our area.

[highview]

Deer Sightings - 1 Saw 2 deer
Weather - 4 Would have been a 5 if not for the last 2 days
Rut Activity - 3 The two deer I did see were a buck following a doe but I was the only person in camp to see any rut activity
Camaraderie -5 Deer camp is always the best regardless of how many deer we see
Herd Health -2 Even with another season with 0 doe tags available in our unit, the deer population in our area is still incredibly low. I scored it a 2 ONLY because for the first time in years our group actually saw a few fawns. In the last few years if we saw deer it was either a small buck or a mature doe.....no fawns at all.
My Experience -3 Poor hunting but no stands stolen, blinds wrecked, or similar issues. I only had 1 instance where 2 hunters taking a walk thru the woods came directly toward me from a distance of about 200 yds. They obviously saw me but instead of being considerate and going back or going around me at a wide distance they came banging thru the woods right past my stand . Gotta love public land.

Total score : 18

[Dan Salmon]

I thought it might be fun to put a grade on your experiences in the 2011 Wisconsin gun season. Although meaningless in any conclusions, how did the nine-day gun season stack up for you, personally? For grins and giggles, I've made a little scale to even out the scoring between us all, in different parts of the state (perhaps).

On a scale of 1-5 (1 being low, 5 being highest), rate the following:
~ 1) Deer sightings, deer movement;
~ 2) Weather - for the duration of your hunting;
~ 3) Rut activity coinciding with the gun hunt;
~ 4) Commaradre (friends, family in camp; general hunter B.S. after the hunts);
~ 5) Herd health (did you see more, less than years past? More or less antlerless than past? Buck/rack sizes bigger or smaller?);
~ 6) Personal Hunter/Hunting experiences afield (Trespassers, neighbors driving other properties, Wild shots or early/late shots nearby, other factors affecting the success or failure of your hunt).

With 6 categories, a great 2011 hunt would be worth 30 points, a poor hunt worth 6 points and everything else in between.

Share your thoughts! Thanks, MARK

1. 2: No sightings will stand hunting, our only sightings were on drives. Deer movement is non-existent in Marinette Cty. My theory is that it is related to baiting. We had over 60 pics each night the first 4 days of the season, not a single photo during hunting hours.
2. 3: It was warm. This is the first year I can remember not wearing Pac Boots while stand hunting. Most of the time I was wearing a rain jacket for outer wear.
3. 1: No activity period.
4. 5: Deer Camp is the one time of year that I can honestly say that I don't have any arguments with people.
5. 2: We saw more deer last year when our zone was Buck Only. It should have been again this year. The big buck pool at the local tavern was being won by a 3 pointer as of 5:00pm Saturday night. I hope someone was able to shoot a forkhorn on Sunday!
6. 4: Nothing really directly affected my hunt, other than missing the first 4 days due to pregnant wife's flu. There are less and less hunters in the woods to get into problems with!

17 ~ Just a little better than half.

[bullwinkle]

Deer observations and the number of bucks I passed doubled/tripled. Overall antler size was reduced. The improvements I made to my property was an A+. Lots and lots of small deer. Multiple does with triplets. We had some kids new to hunting shoot some does and let all bucks live for next year. Didn't pull a trigger, no bucks I had shots at made my knees weak. Had a ball

30, Deer hunting in Waupaca/Shawano county is wonderful

[kellory]

Three day hunt (short by a day), five hunters (average 5-9 hunters, the best of the group showed. ) high winds, rain, and very poor deer showing. Two shots fired, One small deer.dawn to dusk, five serious hunters. After dark, the best of friends. 1,3,1,5,1,1= 12