ALBANY - Hunter orange dotted the area this weekend, as deer hunters took to the wooded areas Saturday, Nov. 17 for the start of the traditional nine-day firearm deer season. Wooded areas are about all they have left to hunt this year; corn fields were fully harvested weeks ago.
Successful hunters began rolling into County E Lockers, north of Albany, at 8 a.m., said Ann Patchen, part-owner of the family business, to get their deer weighed, registered, tested for chronic wasting disease and processed.
"It's been steady all morning," she said as the noon hour approached.
Patchen said the deer population seems to be low this year, compared to recent past years when hunters lined the driveway to get deer registered. But hunters getting their tags filled weren't grumbling.
One smiling hunter, Colton Brugger, 20, rural Monroe, was doubly successful before 10 a.m., taking down two deer with one shot.
Brugger said he has hunted deer for about 12 years, with both guns and bow.
"I enjoy being out in the woods," he said. "It's relaxing."
But he admits his dual kill this year was more luck than skill.
"The smaller one was behind the big one," he said.
The clean shot hit the 130-pound doe in the chest, according to Brugger, but it also struck the second doe. Both died almost instantly. He didn't realize he had hit the second one, until he found it near his kill, he added.
The second doe earns him a second buck tag, and he was headed out to use them.
"Now, I'll wait for the big one," he said, revealing his desire for a buck with antlers.
Brugger, like most hunters coming into the locker Saturday morning, was keeping the meat from his deer. For Brugger, the venison, from which he will get ring bologna and landjaeger, means not slaughtering a hog for this winter, he said.
Another successful hunter, Larry Evans from rural Verona, rolled in with his doe about 11 a.m., intending to go back out for his buck. Patchen noted his kill, as he got out of his vehicle. He smiled and nodded.
"A little less hungry this winter," he told her.
Patchen said the number of hunters opting to donate their deer meat to the state Wildlife Damage Deer Donation program has gone down in the past two year.
"More people are keeping it for themselves," she said.
Since the venison donation program began in 2000, hunters have donated more than 80,000 deer, which has been processed into more than 3.6 million pounds of ground venison to help feed Wisconsin's needy. In the network of programs, Target Hunger handles venison donations from the chronic wasting disease management zone in the southwestern part of the state.
Decreased donations could be caused by the lower number of deer and deer kills, but Patchen expressed skepticism of that explanation; many hunters used to give away their required doe kill, because they really just wanted the buck tag. Now they are keeping both.
"It's this economy," she speculated. "I think people are hurting."
The scare of CWD-infected deer may have subsided also. CWD testing process is easier for the locker this year, Patchen sad. They simply take the glands from the deer's neck, not the entire head.
Since the state Department of Natural Resources has had deer tested for CWD, County E Locker has never had one test positive, Patchen said.
According to the DNR, at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, the total number of deer gun licenses sold so far this year, more than 614,000, was up by 10,500 licenses, or 1.7 percent, compared to the same point in 2011. About 26,000 new license buyers - both residents and non-resident - are the main reason for the increase, easily offsetting the 16,000 lost repeat buyers.
A ten-day muzzleloader-only hunt runs Nov. 26-Dec. 5, and a late firearm season, antlerless only, runs Dec. 6-9. The holiday firearm season begins Dec. 24 and runs through Jan. 6.
Successful hunters began rolling into County E Lockers, north of Albany, at 8 a.m., said Ann Patchen, part-owner of the family business, to get their deer weighed, registered, tested for chronic wasting disease and processed.
"It's been steady all morning," she said as the noon hour approached.
Patchen said the deer population seems to be low this year, compared to recent past years when hunters lined the driveway to get deer registered. But hunters getting their tags filled weren't grumbling.
One smiling hunter, Colton Brugger, 20, rural Monroe, was doubly successful before 10 a.m., taking down two deer with one shot.
Brugger said he has hunted deer for about 12 years, with both guns and bow.
"I enjoy being out in the woods," he said. "It's relaxing."
But he admits his dual kill this year was more luck than skill.
"The smaller one was behind the big one," he said.
The clean shot hit the 130-pound doe in the chest, according to Brugger, but it also struck the second doe. Both died almost instantly. He didn't realize he had hit the second one, until he found it near his kill, he added.
The second doe earns him a second buck tag, and he was headed out to use them.
"Now, I'll wait for the big one," he said, revealing his desire for a buck with antlers.
Brugger, like most hunters coming into the locker Saturday morning, was keeping the meat from his deer. For Brugger, the venison, from which he will get ring bologna and landjaeger, means not slaughtering a hog for this winter, he said.
Another successful hunter, Larry Evans from rural Verona, rolled in with his doe about 11 a.m., intending to go back out for his buck. Patchen noted his kill, as he got out of his vehicle. He smiled and nodded.
"A little less hungry this winter," he told her.
Patchen said the number of hunters opting to donate their deer meat to the state Wildlife Damage Deer Donation program has gone down in the past two year.
"More people are keeping it for themselves," she said.
Since the venison donation program began in 2000, hunters have donated more than 80,000 deer, which has been processed into more than 3.6 million pounds of ground venison to help feed Wisconsin's needy. In the network of programs, Target Hunger handles venison donations from the chronic wasting disease management zone in the southwestern part of the state.
Decreased donations could be caused by the lower number of deer and deer kills, but Patchen expressed skepticism of that explanation; many hunters used to give away their required doe kill, because they really just wanted the buck tag. Now they are keeping both.
"It's this economy," she speculated. "I think people are hurting."
The scare of CWD-infected deer may have subsided also. CWD testing process is easier for the locker this year, Patchen sad. They simply take the glands from the deer's neck, not the entire head.
Since the state Department of Natural Resources has had deer tested for CWD, County E Locker has never had one test positive, Patchen said.
According to the DNR, at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, the total number of deer gun licenses sold so far this year, more than 614,000, was up by 10,500 licenses, or 1.7 percent, compared to the same point in 2011. About 26,000 new license buyers - both residents and non-resident - are the main reason for the increase, easily offsetting the 16,000 lost repeat buyers.
A ten-day muzzleloader-only hunt runs Nov. 26-Dec. 5, and a late firearm season, antlerless only, runs Dec. 6-9. The holiday firearm season begins Dec. 24 and runs through Jan. 6.