By Glen Wunderlich

Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association

Michigan deer hunters should do a better job of identifying fawns – especially buck fawns – if ever we are going to balance our herd in terms of bucks versus does.  Although we take a good number of antlerless deer, we really take very few relative to the vast number of hunters afield.  In addition, our take of immature bucks – those 1 ½ years of age – makes up close to half of all buck deer.  Let’s consider some strong possibilities as to the rationale for our lagging results.

First off, the pressure of being a good hunter may stem from the “need” to be viewed as successful.  I recall returning from deer hunting vacations to be asked by others at work if I had gotten my buck – an obvious measurement of success in the casual observer’s eyes.  Since nobody sets out to be a failure, we’d like to respond by saying, “Yes.  Got a spike buck!”  Congratulations!  You just killed the dumbest deer in the woods and have contributed to our dismal state of balance.

If a hunter sees one of these lesser bucks afield and takes the first one presenting itself for a shot, and kills it, is that really success?  It all depends on what one is thinking afield.  However, this approach typically means that this hunter will never see a mature deer that season and certainly, the adolescent deer taken will never grow to maturity.  And, those “monstrous” 4 and 6-pointers are usually yearlings, as well, and accordingly, fall into the same category of immature.

I’m not indicating that we should all become “trophy” hunters, whatever that means in someone’s eyes.  However, we must let the young deer grow to change the makeup of our herd.  In this age of information at our fingertips, there really is no excuse for ignorance, and that brings me to our antlerless strategy that is weak at best overall.

A good friend had taken a mature buck during the archery season and had held off on seeking an additional deer for the freezer until the late antlerless season.  He quickly had a “good size” antlerless deer in front of him, pulled the trigger and came back to camp in a matter-of-fact spirit of accomplishment.  When we tracked it down, we discovered that he killed a buck fawn – one of our No-Nos.

Yes, it was a mistake – but, an avoidable one.  Buck fawns are always larger than their female siblings.  When a group of antlerless deer are together, a good hunter should know to look closer.  Good binoculars can help a hunter to spot the telltale signs of antler nubs, or the square-looking heads, or short noses – even if it’s a lone antlerless deer, which in itself is a good clue as being a male.

If a hunter does not know what to look for, mistakes will continue to happen.  This is how Michigan hunters continue lag far behind other mid-western states when it comes to taking adult deer.  Or, are we collectively that hungry?  I don’t think so.

We’ll never get to balance the herd by taking buck fawns – those deer that have the potential to be wall-hangers.  Although statistics do not reflect how many of our annual antlerless kills are actually buck fawns, we do know that one in five antlerless deer killed each season is a fawn.

With a bit of faith – the belief that we will get another opportunity by exhibiting patience – is an essential ingredient toward success, no matter how we may measure it.

If the shoe fits, wear it.  And, then get educated and work your plan and maybe we can begin to turn this around.

DNR is required by 2011 state law to hold wolf hunt between November and February

Madison, WI – The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), on behalf of Luke Hilgemann and Hunter Nation, filed a lawsuit in Jefferson County Circuit Court against Wisconsin DNR Secretary Preston Cole, the Wisconsin DNR, and the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board, for ignoring a state law requirement to schedule a wolf hunt season this winter. The gray wolf was delisted from the Endangered Species Act on January 4, 2021, triggering a 2011 state law that requires Wisconsin’s DNR to schedule a grey wolf hunting season between November and February. Read more

By Glen Wunderlich

Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association

Condensed from the QDMA 2020 Whitetail Report

Once again, the Quality Deer Management Association has gathered and assembled data from the 2018/2019 season from state and provincial wildlife agencies to provide a “State of the Whitetail” account relative to deer numbers and how hunters are affecting the balance of the collective herd.  Overall, positive trends have been established and we’ll see just how Michigan’s hunters stack up to states across the whitetail range.

Countrywide, yearling (1½) year-old buck harvest rates are at the lowest ever recorded, and the percentage of 3½-year-old and older bucks in the harvest is 37% of the total antlered buck harvest, which is the highest percentage ever recorded. Hunters are clearly reaping the benefits of more naturally balanced age structures in herds across the whitetails’ range. In addition, the antlered buck harvest (those 1½ years or older) is at near record level, and last season’s buck harvest was 5% above the previous 5-year average.

On the contrary, antlerless harvest was down slightly from the prior year, and it was 4% below the 5-year average. The antlerless harvest has now declined nearly 20 percent in the past decade.

Michigan hunters shot the most antlered bucks per square mile (PSM), and Delaware hunters shot the most antlerless deer PSM.

Crossbows, which have been a relatively new option for hunters, exceed the vertical bow harvest in 11 of 25 states (44%). Over half of the wildlife management units east of the Rocky Mountains have deer densities at the established goals, while 23% have densities above goals and 22% have deer densities below goals.

The biggest issues and trends include the continued spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD). Twenty-eight states reported a combined CWD budget of just under $11 million ranging from $500 in Massachusetts to $3 million in Pennsylvania.

Overall, Texas shot the most bucks (508,155) and Rhode Island shot the fewest (994). Michigan, South Carolina and Pennsylvania more than doubled the national average and shot 3.3 to 3.7 bucks per square mile (PSM), while North Dakota shot the fewest (0.3 PSM). Michigan hunters shot nearly 2½ times the national average of bucks PSM, Texas alone shot nearly as many bucks as the entire Northeast region, and the Southeast region dominated the buck harvest per deer hunter category.

*  Top states antlered buck harvest:  Texas 508,155  with a distant toll – yet second place from Michigan of  211,754 .

*  Top states antlered buck harvest per square mile:  Michigan at 3.7  and South Carolina at 3.6.

*  Michigan antlered buck harvest:  211,754 –  down 17 percent.

*  Top states with lowest percentage of yearling bucks taken:  Arkansas at 9 and  Florida and Mississippi at 11.

*  Top states with highest percentage of yearling bucks:  Wisconsin at 53 and Maryland at 42.   Although Michigan’s figures for yearling bucks were not made available, it should be noted that its numbers were right up there (or, down there, if you will) at approximately 47 percent the previous two seasons.

*  Top states with highest percentage of 3½-plus bucks:  Mississippi at a whopping 77, Louisiana at 75 and Arkansas at 72 percent.  Again, Michigan did not report figures for this report but the two previous years show a meager 27 and 22 percent totals.

*  Top states antlerless harvest:  Texas at 375,408 , Pennsylvania 226,940, Wisconsin 175,168 and Michigan 155,898.  Although Michigan’s numbers are comparatively high, our DNR indicates we need to take more bald deer.  To put these figures in perspective, Maryland took 75 antlerless deer per 100 hunters (75 percent), while Michigan posted a mere 27 percent per 100 hundred hunters.

*  Top states with lowest percentage of fawns in antlerless harvest:  Texas at 2 percent, and Louisiana and Mississippi at 7 percent.  Michigan is still taking too many fawn, although down minimally over the past three seasons at 21 percent.

So, there you have it:  the good, bad and ugly of it all.  Michigan’s tallies continue to reflect a huge herd, but with better management by hunters has room for improvement when it comes to balancing the herd for a more natural state of bucks and does.