Florence Mining News

Information may not be reliable

Weekend buck registrations up 14 percent over 2009 harvest

Valerie Taylor, right, shot this eight-point buck on opening day. With her is her brother, Kevin Taylor, who got a spike, and her father Doug, who shot a doe. The West Bend family has a camp on Sea Lion Lake and members of the Taylor family have been coming up to Florence County for 40 years.

Hank Murphy

Of the bucks harvested, many showed antler development superior to last year, according to DNR wildlife biologist Jeremy Holtz.
A late start to the growing season in 2009 contributed to poor antler development last year, just as an early spring this year gave deer more nourishment and boosted the size of racks, according to Holtz.
For instance, the average yearling in Unit 50 had 3.1 points in 2009. This year, the average yearling had 4.2 points. In 2009, the average 2-year-old had 5.8 points. This year’s 2-year-olds averaged 7. Last year’s 3-year-olds averaged 6.1 points. This year’s 3-year-olds averaged 8.5, according to aging records assembled by Holtz.

The spirit among hunters who interacted with Holtz was generally high, he said.
“Folks came in with a good positive attitude, they were very pleasant to talk to. They seemed happy to see what they saw. Of course, you always have a few people who are still unhappy and still want more. But overall, the folks were as good as they’ve been in the five years that I’ve been here,” he said.

The 2010 preliminary count was up about 6.3 percent from the opening weekend count of 100,330 from 2009. Preliminary buck harvest statewide in 2010 was 54,263 and preliminary antlerless harvest was 52,141.
“The hunters I talked to opening day were upbeat with most saying they were seeing deer,” said Tom Hauge, director of the DNR wildlife management program “Conditions were especially good in the northwest where they had some snow on the ground, improving both tracking and visibility.”
While the opening weekend is the deer hunting event of the year, “there is still a lot of hunting left,” according to Keith Warnke, DNR big game ecologist.
The department’s license sales office reported 607,926 gun deer licenses sold by the start of shooting hours on Nov. 20. This number was down 3 percent from the comparable day in 2009 but in at least one important category, 10 and 11 year old hunters, sales were up 15 percent from 2009.
There were no fatal shooting incidents recorded during the first two days of the hunt but there were five non-fatal firearms-related incidents, reports DNR Hunter Education Administrator Tim Lawhern.
“We wish a speedy recovery to the victims, but the fact remains that all five could have been prevented if strict firearm safety rules had been observed by the shooters.”
Four incidents occurred on Saturday. In Wood County, a hunter was struck in the chest by a bullet fired at a running deer from more than 600 yards away. In Marquette County, a hunter suffered a grazing surface wound to the head as the victim and the shooter both fired at a moving deer. In Marathon County, a hunter was wounded below the left shoulder. The victim was a stander in a deer drive and the shooter was a member of the drive. In Door County, a hunter was shot through the right thigh. Both victim and shooter were participating in a deer drive. On Sunday, a Douglas County hunter was wounded in the high right shoulder. Both the victim and the shooter were participating in a deer drive.