Wisconsin Gun Deer Season

[Ringo]

Brothers and buddies are coming up Friday. Gonna have the traditional feast and drinks a few pevas. Its gonna be a cold one this weekend. Single digits at night and teens during the day. 10-20 mph winds. Chance for snow. I plan on sitting all day only to come in to take the dog out. Possibly switch stands. Bow season was tough. Gonna try and make up for it by baggen a big one. The model 70 needs to bark. Saturday night hopefully celebrating by skinning, quartering, having fun and listening to great music. Gun season is the best for comradery with the boys. Good Luck! everyone.

 

[Nick Muche]

I cry every year when this weekend rolls around and I can't make it home... Good times are ahead. Be safe, have fun and pile up the deer!

 

[H'n'F]

Yep, tomorrow marks 22 years of WI openers. Good luck, shoot straight, and don't cut toward yourself! Most of all, have fun!

 

[Nick Muche]

How did it go? The family did pretty well I guess, sure wish I could have been there.

 

[Ringo]

Friday night was kinda tame. As we get older we get wiser. Hangovers aren't great when you wake-up at 3 and sit in a stand all day. We hit the sack at 10. As advertised it is COLD Saturday morning. The wind is fierce. I had 4 layers on, along with cold weather bibs and jacket. I was warm enough, handwarmers were definitely nice to have. Did not hear too much shooting early. I heard one shot that was relatively close. It was hard to hear much though. I was hunting in a poppell thicket and the little bit of snow on the ground really helped picking animals out. Had an unidentified come in early. My brother texted me he just got a small buck about 7:15. I texted him back "Congradulations!" and as I put my phone in my pocket I saw a baldy to my right. Then another unidentified. I'd say about 50 yards out. They started waking away and I scoped the baldy, but couldn't pick up the other. I look to my left and it was walking the opposite direction the baldy, more to my left now in some thick cover. It is a small buck. With the way bow season went I'm thinking its time. Meat is the agenda. I follow him in the scope for a while waiting for him to get in an opening. He stops and I got a shot. I squeeze off a round. He takes off coming straight at me and stops about 30 yards from my stand slightly quartering to me and I give him another one. That one hit good. His body language tells me so. He takes off again. This time I hear him crash and saw a small tree go down too. After waiting 20 minutes or so I get down and find him piled up. He went maybe 40 yards. I didn't see this but he had a broken off beam. Didn't much matter to me though. I was happy with backstraps. I think my first shot was a miss though. It worked out in the end. The second one took out half a lung and his pumper. Me and the brother helped each other with our deer. We were about to start skinning and get a text from the other brother at 3 that he just shot a nice buck. Sweeeeeeeeeeet. Brothers are 3 for 3. We go out to help him. We get out there and he can't find it though. He had initially went to were he heard it crash. Not there. OH. OH. We get on were he shot him and no blood. Follow his tracks for about 30 to 40 yards and he looks up and says, "There he is". It was funny the way he said it too. He was pretty happy when he saw that buck. The reward for sitting in a stand all day like that day is a great feeling. Nice nine point that will get a European mount. He thanks the deer and we take the obligatory pictures. We get back to the house and the other boys are back. We went 3 for 5 on the weekend. That night we did some skinning, quartering, and celebrating. Thank God we get to do such things. The meat those deer provide is a blessing. Thank You Nick for your service to this great country. We drank a dozen extra beers for you. Hopefully you get back to Wisconsin soon and bag a nice buck. I'll put some pictures up hopefully tomorrow.

The deer kill is down this year so far. The weather was really tough.

How did everyone else do?

 

[Ringo]

Here are the pics. My phone takes piss poor pictures. Eric is dedicated. He crosses a stream in hip boots, then puts on his warm boots in the dark in single digit weather. I'll get a better picture of Tims buck.View attachment 12113View attachment 12114View attachment 12115

 

[Nick Muche]

For some reason I cannot see the photos?

Either way, from the sounds of it everything seemed to worked out well for you and your brothers, so that is awesome! Congrats. Did you hear many shots?

I heard from my father that the local radio station was proclaiming that they were only 100 deer or so down from last years opening weekend (statewide), which would mean 1 deer per unit... I doubt that is the case as several of the folks I talked to did not hear many shots at all. I remember years back when the clock struck "shooting" time, you'd litterally hear shots ALL DAY LONG...

 

[Ringo]

I reattached them. Hopefully they show up. I didn't hear too many shots opening morning. It was difficult to hear because of the wind. I heard a lot more deer were shot later in the day when the wind died down a little. There is another picture of a big 10 we got with a bunch of other guys doing a deer drive. We did about a dozen on Friday and Saturday and got 3 bucks and 2 does. The other bucks were a small six and a forker.

 

[digger]

Hey Congrats,,,could you send me some of that cold.Too dam warm here no ducks!

 

[Carlin59]

Congrats on a great season! Really cool to see three brothers enjoying their success together! The DNR just released the numbers from opening weekend, with the harvest down 18% statewide. I hunted Columbia County, and am surprised those numbers were not even lower. Really slow in our area which typically is one of the highest producing in the state. I took a doe and a 2yr old buck for the freezer, but the rest of our party of 8 never pulled a trigger. That makes your group's success even more remarkable!

 

[Nick Muche]

Did you hear about the 200" buck taken in Dodge County, off the Horicon Marsh? Wowzers...

 

[Ringo]

Thanks guys. Congrats to you too. Nick, I looked that buck up online and couldn't find anything. 200", thats a biggen.

 

[Nick Muche]

I could post a picture if you'd like. Some guys I know killed it