Stories from deer season are as varied as hunters
MONTELLO - Dried and weathered, a few dozen leaves held tight to a white oak and rattled in a stiff breeze.
Beneath the tree, dozens of acorns lay on the ground.
I couldn’t help but see the scene, viewed Sunday just feet from my stand in Marquette County, as an allegory to Wisconsin deer hunting.
Some of us, and our hunting traditions, stubbornly live on as we are buffeted by winds of change.
A few more leaves drop each day and some of the trees succumb to old age or disease.
But some of the healthy oaks produce lots of mast each year, too. How many of the seeds on the sandy soil will germinate and send new growth skyward?
How many new hunters will be recruited? How many new traditions will be formed?
What is the future of deer hunting? Such questions swirl in conversation in deer camps, diners, watering holes and on social media.
Viewed from the broadest perspectives, the general trajectory of hunting is down, according to state license sales data and national surveys.
Americans, including here in the Badger State, are becoming less connected to the land.
But even as fewer people take the field, deer hunting remains a significant cultural, economic and ecological force in Wisconsin. According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates, deer hunting has a $1 billion annual economic impact in the state.
On Tuesday the Department of Natural Resources reported hunters had killed 102,903 deer through the first two days of the 2017 Wisconsin gun deer hunting season, a 12% drop from the same period last year.
The northern region reported an 11% increase, but all other regions were down. The northern deer herd has increased in recent years after three consecutive mild winters and “no doe” rules in many counties.
Sales of hunting licenses dipped, too. The 582,800 gun deer licenses sold through opening weekend of the hunt were down from 587,440 in 2016 and lowest in 41 years.
The DNR is expected to release on Tuesday preliminary deer harvest and license sales figures for the entire nine-day gun season.
The report will likely show yearover-year declines for Wisconsin’s biggest annual hunt.
There are many factors at play, including increasing participation in the crossbow season, changes in hunting tactics (fewer deer drives to move deer), baiting that concentrates deer on certain properties or makes them more nocturnal, relatively poor weather on opening day, a thriving predator population, a general lack of snow cover making deer more difficult to spot and more standing corn than usual.
Recent changes in tagging, license and registration rules also must be considered. How many hunters — especially on private land — opted to not buy a license or register a deer? The new regulations make it easier than ever to sidestep the system.
As the final hours tick away on the 2017 gun hunt, there is at least one story for each of the 582,800 license buyers.
No one — or 10 — can tell the whole tale. But here’s a sampling from the 2017 Wisconsin deer woods, including signs of acorns taking hold.
A season of a lifetime: Tom Romoser, 57, of West Bend is a dedicated deer hunter who spends more than a dozen days on stand each year during the Wisconsin crossbow and rifle seasons.
Hunting on 80 acres in the Town of Stephenson in Marinette County earlier this fall, Romoser shot a buck and a doe with his crossbow. Romoser said he saw more deer this fall than he did in the previous 10 years.
He returned to the private property with his son Aaron Walz, 38, of Janesville for the gun deer season.
At 8:10 a.m. on opening day, Walz scored on a fine buck. At 4:29 p.m. the next day, Romoser shot a big doe.
And what had already Romoser’s best season ever got even better at 3:50 p.m. on Black Friday. A mature buck walked through the exact same spot 45 yards away where last year he missed a huge 11-pointer with his crossbow.
This time his rifle was on the mark. The eight-pointer was Romoser’s biggest buck ever.
A drop in deer sightings: Elsewhere in Marinette County, a different tale emerged this season. Wally Endsley of Sheboygan Falls and his brother Jim Endsley of Minneapolis have owned and hunted on 80 acres near Pembine for 23 years.
When they arrived at camp this year, Wally removed the SD card from a trail camera on the property and checked for images. It held a total of eight.
“And two were of me putting it in and taking it out,” Wally said.
The camera had been set out for six weeks. In a normal year, there would have been “a couple hundred” images of deer on the card over the same time frame, Wally said.
During the season, Wally, Jim and another hunter saw one doe on opening day. On Sunday, Wally shot an eight-point buck, the only deer he saw.
A nine for a nine: The 2017 Wisconsin gun hunt was the first under the state’s modified mentored hunting law. Now, hunters of any age can purchase a license and participate along side an adult. The previous law had a 10 year old minimum age limit.
As such, the season produced some firsts. Taylor Wilkens, a 9-year-old from Port Washington, went afield with his dad, Mike Wilkens. The pair hunted on private property in the Town of Farmington in Washington County.
In preparation for the hunt, Taylor and Mike went to the range, where the youngster put 14 of 15 shots in the bulls-eye.
After a 4:30 a.m. start on opening day, Taylor got his chance at a deer just after 4 p.m. His shot was true and they quickly recovered a fine ninepoint buck. Public land struggles: Justin Hockensmith, 39, of Milwaukee and his group are public-land deer hunters. Their experience has been discouraging,
to say the least.
“Despite attending CDAC meetings and writing state legislators no one understands just how bad public land deer hunting is,” Hockensmith said. “The hunting licenses are not declining because we can’t wear blaze pink or the 5-year-old can’t shoot a deer. It’s because we public land hunters never see a darn thing.”
A deer camp conversion: Dave Bohl, 63, of Milwaukee is a non-hunter who had never understood what made men don blaze orange and take to the woods.
“It wasn’t only their fashion sense that I didn’t fully understand,” Bohl said. “Their annual ritual struck me as primarily about slaying helpless animals and probably as an excuse for drinking, smoking and telling tall tales.”
This year, however, Bohl got a chance to experience firsthand the Wisconsin gun deer season. He was invited by members of the O’Melia deer camp near Three Lakes to join them for opening weekend.
Bohl, to his credit and despite his prejudices, accepted. A life-long nonhunter, he did not carry a gun.
Twenty hunters were in camp this year. The excitement was palpable as the hunters woke at 4:30 a.m. on opening day and prepared for the day, Bohl said. The smell of coffee and bacon filled the cabin.
When Patrick O’Melia shot an eight-point buck on Saturday, Bohl joined the group to help retrieve and haul in the deer. He was genuinely happy for the hunter, he said.
Bohl said the deer camp experience prompted a conversion in him.
“As I drove home from the O’Melia deer camp to Milwaukee I didn’t see a single Christmas tree (on a vehicle), only four deer,” Bohl said. “When I saw each deer a new part of me said, ‘Way to go deer hunter!’ “An experienced view: Through Friday, Scott Zimmerman, 61, of Reeseville had seen four deer all season; all were antlerless.
But he wasn’t discouraged. On Friday he celebrated his birthday in the Wisconsin woods. Just after sunrise, he posted a photo on Facebook of the view from his tree stand.
“My office today,” Zimmerman wrote. “Great day for a birthday.”
For hunters like Zimmerman who treasure the outdoors, decades of experience and knowledge can cultivate an optimism and appreciation that makes every season a success.