Your Wisconsin Outdoor Community

Wisconsin's state Bowhunting org , Wisconsin Bowhunters Association (WBH) this week unveiled its new website.

http://www.wisconsinbowhunters.org/

For several years it has maintained a members only forum.

http://wibowhunters.proboards.com/

One year ago, WBH kicked off its Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wiscon...4322626?ref=ts

Over the weekend, WBH began its Twitter account.

http://twitter.com/WBH_Association

Although 70 years old, WBH understands the need to reach the younger, tech savvy sportmen and looks forward to broader outreach beyond just its members. The above cyber outlets allow the org to provide a service to Wisconsin's many bowhunters by reaching more of them as well as gun hunters and all deer, bear, turkey and small game hunters which combined, number around 1 million in number. As matters arise that are of concern to WI sportsmen including deer herd issues, season structures, etc. WBH will now be better positioned to reach a far larger group of sportsmen beyond just member bowhunters to inform them in the fastest, most modern and cost effective ways possible.

Wisconsin Bowhunters Associaton formed in 1941and is the nations oldest and largest state Bowhunting organization and. Its mission is to foster and promote the sport of hunting with the bow and arrow.

The Department needs your assistance in gaining access to private lands and capturing deer for their research project.  Private land access will be crucial to the success of this program, so please review the maps and contact your friends and family in these areas and get the citizenry involved with the management of their deer herd.  The sign up is on the website below, or you can call Keith Warnke at 264-6023.   This is a great opportunity for the Congress to step up and partner with the Department in their deer management efforts.  Thanks in advance for your assistance with this.

Hunters can work with their friends, contacts, hunting camps, media and anyone else to help out.  Any willing volunteers can go to this website to sign up

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/es/science/wildlife/deer/ or contact Keith.

Thursday Oct. 28th

I worked a half day and then headed up North for a 5 day Bowhunting trip. I have a lot of vacation and planned to work only 2 days a week during the month of November.  Each year I save the bulk of my vacation for bow hunting. I got to my stand at 3:45. It was still very windy from the tail end of the big wind storm on Tuesday and Wednesday. There was a steady wind from the West. This was the first time I was hunting this ladder stand. I was facing due North.

At 4:45, I spotted movement to the North. I could see two deer milling around one of my other ladder stands. I could see both were bucks working their way along the river. I rattled a bit and before I could give a grunt, both bucks (That were up wind of me) took off like I lit a firecracker under their feet. Both were small and I only hoped to draw them in closer to video. One was the fork I saw opening morning and the other was a small six.

A few minutes later I rattled again and gave a couple blows on the grunt tube and then sat swaying in the wind. The hemlock I am in is only 10 inches across at my level but its the only good tree for the trails I was watching. At 5:10 I again saw movement in the same place the two small bucks were earlier. I could see this buck had a bigger rack. I gave a few loud grunts (because it was windy) and the buck headed my way. He stopped when he got to a scrape under a old apple tree that is more dead than alive. He gave 3 long raking scrapes with his front foot to clear the ground and then tangled with some overhead branches. I was hemming and hawing over taking him so I pulled out the camera and took a very brief video of him. Then I zoomed the camera a bit more to take another video.. I began the 2nd  video but he started to walk up the trail in a direction that would put him in a opening exactly 35 yards from my ladder and at that point I decided that I was going to try and take this buck. I stitched the two videos together. You can see them below.



I pocketed the camera and grabbed my bow and clipped on the release. He stopped mostly broadside (only slightly quartering towards) at 35 yards. I have never shot a deer further than 18 yards in all 34 years of bow hunting. Not because I can't make the longer shots but because I like to see how close I can get to deer because I find that challenging. I only have a 35 yard pin on my bow because of the WBH Ultimate Broadhead challenge novelty shoot where archers have to put a broadhead tipped arrow through a 3.5 inch hole in a plywood target at 35 yards. I have made that shot in the past at the WBH shoot and I practice out to 50 yards in my back yard so I felt very confident in my ability to make the shot on a calm deer. I placed the 35 yard pin half way up and right above the front leg. The deer was facing to my left and a strong wind was blowing in his face from my left. When I released, the deer was not at all aware of my shot and did not duck or move at all. The strong wind did however push my arrow back (to the right) a bit and I hit a few inches behind the point I was aiming at.

The Rage head makes a very loud noise when it hits a deer and the blades deploy but by then its too late for the deer. At 35 yards I heard the loud crack of smashing through ribs. The arrow passed through both sides of the deer but did not exit the buck. As he turned and ran straight away from me I could see the bright white fletch and crest sticking out of his left side and the shiny Rage head and some shaft sticking out the other side. It was a good solid hit even if it was a few inches back from where I aimed. As the buck ran straight away his legs were wide and his rear end was low. He busted out of there on a dead run. I watched him cover about a 100 yards toward the river and then disappear into the tall river grass. I marked the time on my watch (5:15)

During the time I videoed him and made the shot, I was cooler than the other side of the pillow but as soon as he was out of sight, the wind must have picked up because the tree started shaking and I needed to sit down. After 15 minutes I placed a call to my wife to let her know I had hit a good buck. Then I called a friend that was on his way up North on vacation for a few days and would be hunting a mile or so away from my location. I told him the tale and he wished me well and said to check back when I had the deer. I needed to kill time to keep me from taking up the track.

At 5:45 I got down and very quietly walked to where the buck stood. I could see the deep track where he made his turn to run and a few feet from there I found a pile of hair shaved off by the Rage head. To keep from taking up the trail I inspected the scrape the buck worked.







I had not brought a flashlight with me but I did have a small LED on my key chain. It was still light enough out to see but the little LED made the blood a bit easier to see. I had a steady blood trail to the tall river grass where I lost sight of him but the little light was not going to cut it anymore in the swampy hemlocks and cedars. Not wanting to rush it and jump the deer, I left a marker at the last blood and headed back to the farm house. My Sister, her husband and their 11 year old son had just came in from Bowhunting and the boy was eager to tag along and trail the buck.

My friend arrived shortly after and we headed back to the woods to take up the trail. 2.5 hours had elapsed from when I had made the shot. I took them to where the deer stood so the youngling could take up the track. 4 good flashlights showed even more blood that I had seen with my little bulb. When we reached my marker, we put the youngling in the lead and began tracking. The yellow grass gave up the blood very well. Small saplings were coated red 3 feet high. Larger trees were splashed and the bloody leaves on the ground made it easy to follow. The buck took us out to the edge of the woods where he must have stood in a large mud puddle because the water was red. He was bleeding out both sides. A few feet ahead, I shined my light into the grass along the edge of the field road and picked up the sight of an antler tine. We let the young tracker take us to the downed deer. He was quite pleased with himself. This is what we found. The shot was not as far back as I had thought.





The Rage head had done a great job.





Live weight (estimated) 205 Lbs. Dressed weight almost 24 hours later was 175 Lbs. Organs hit, Lung, diaphragm, liver. I had planned most of the month of November off to bow hunt and tagged out in the first hour and a half of day one. Now I can start working on getting my dad a deer.

Friday, Sept. 17

It's been many year since I hunted the opening weekend of the archery deer season but this year I got a thermacell and the itch to hunt the opener. I have not harvested an antlerless deer with a bow since 2006 and since then I have only taken one other deer (a buck with my homemade bow). I set my goal as a nice fat doe and hopefully a buck.

I drove up to my parents house on Friday night the 17th of Sept. Road construction delayed me a bit but I was in no real hurry. By the time I hit Stevens Point, it was raining. With all the rain they have had this summer, this is the last thing I wanted to see.

Saturday Sept. 18

The alarm went off at 5:00 and after dressing, I was out the door. It was a windy morning but at least it wasn't raining. I was in the stand at 6:17. The morning only produced a few grey squirrels. At 8:30, a light rain started and by 9:15, I was on my way out of the woods.

The rain didn?t last and after a late breakfast, I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on my Dad?s pontoon boat and trolling motor. At 3:30 I got dressed in camo and headed back to the woods. Last year, I was contacted by a friend who is making and marketing an attractant scent for deer and bear. I was not able to use it last year because I got it when the rut was already on and I was using the can call and rattling instead of scents but I looked forward to using it in the early season of this year. I had taken a piece of cheese cloth and tied a string to it and saturated the pad with the scent and hung it from the rough bark of a tree about 15 yards from my stand. I left the ziploc bag to the right of the tree, under a fallen branch.
 


At 4:00, I caught a bit of motion to my left which is surprising since the river is 30 yards to my left and in the evening, the deer tend to come from my right. The Movement was from a small fork horn buck.



He passed under my stand at only 10 yards. He was not the buck I was looking for so I shot him with my video camera instead. He was walking along and nibbling on whatever greenery caught his eye. He was up wind of me so he did not catch my scent or the scent of the attractant. Click the picture below to start the video.



Here is a perfect shot opportunity. He was looking away, broadside and upwind. Too bad he was not about 3 years older. Click the picture below to start the video.



He was so interested in what was on the other side of the river, I was able to switch between video and still photography to snap this picture of his head gear. No brow times and small forks.



It wasn't until I looked closely at the photos that I noticed the remnant of fawn spots on his back. I have seen this on other deer. It is very noticeable after skinning and with the hide laid flat.



The whole time I was in my stand, there were 2 red squirrels throwing stuff at me or actually dropping things on me. My stand is in a big hemlock and there two hard workers spent their time nipping off parts of the tree and dropping them to the ground, then they would climb down to gather and bury their treasures.








at about 5:15, I saw movement in the distance. I could see the legs of another deer approaching from straight down wind. I expected to hear the typical snort/blow sound of a deer that catches human scent. Instead, this deer would approach and stop and take a few more steps and stop. When it was about 70 yards away, I could see it was a lone doe. She would come forward a few steps and then turn and go back and come towards me and then turn and take a few steps back. It was like she was making a figure 6 pattern as she approached, each time getting a little closer. Each time, she would stick her nose high into the air. I was certain she was winding my but she kept approaching. I had my bow in hand because this was exactly the type of freezer trophy I was looking for.

This is a complete hunch on my part but it seemed as though she was smelling me but was drawn to the attractant with more pull than my scent was deterring her. She was clearly cautious but drawn towards the scent pad between her and I. When she reached the scent pad, her head was briefly behind the small tree with the pad which gave me little time to come to full draw. she stepped out along side the tree and was standing over the ziploc bag I left on the ground after hanging the scent pad.

She was 16 yards away and slightly quartering towards me. I settled the pin behind the shoulder and released. Because, she was alert, she dropped a bit so my arrow hit higher than I would have liked. I was using a Rage Broadhead and when the arrow struck her side, I made the distinctive sound of a good solid hit.

Here is a poor quality rendering of where she stood.




She bolted and as she ran, I could see her until she hit some very thick river bottom. When I lost sight of her, I could hear a great deal of crashing and brush breaking and then it was quiet. The total run time was about 10 seconds.  I checked my watch and then gave her ten minutes before climbing down to find my arrow. It was still quite early and I would be nice to have daylight to track and drag and get her out of the woods. I carried the arrow out to the open grass to take a photo. The O-ring from the Rage head was slid back nearly to the fletching.



This is the first deer I have taken with a rage head and I was curious to see what sort of blood trail I would get. I was pleased with the heavy blood trail through the tall grass and small brush. At times, I would walk parallel to the clearly visible trail to prevent being blood soaked. This was a blood trail that could be seen and followed far ahead of my position without having to search for blood. The word that best describes the blood trail is "Spectacular". The trail ended 60 yards from where I found my arrow.  This image shows the exit wound side.



I flipped her over to tag her and get a picture of the entrance wound.



After gutting and washing, My Father helped me hang her to cool. The night was around 40 Degrees. 



On Sunday, I packed up and headed home to butcher and wrap her for the freezer (all expect the tenderlions. Those will be supper on Monday night).  While processing, I took these photos.

This is a photo of the skin side of the entrance hole



The internal view shows a rib was completely severed by the blade.



This is a photo of the skin side of the exit hole.



The internal view shows another  rib was completely severed by the blade.



My bow is set at 61 pounds and shoots 275 FPS and develops 55 ft/Lbs of KE. I am impressed with the rage head. Upon inspection of the wound after we hung the deer, my Father said.

"That's too much damage. You don't need that big of a head."


P.S., the scent I was using is called Butternut and is a food based attractant that smells good enough to eat. Development of Butternut was based on a research study by the University of Michigan regarding the dietary selection process of the whitetail deer. Study results showed that the whitetails number one food source trigger was not affected by region but rather by the food source  itself. The Food source which was rated #1 for the whitetail is the core essence of Butternut.

Here is a link.

http://www.butternutlures.com/

From the EAB FAQ document

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/hunt/deer/eabfaq.pdf

U.S. armed forces members stationed outside Wisconsin and who are Wisconsin residents or were Wisconsin residents when they entered active service may use their one ?Gun Buck Deer Carcass Tag? to tag a buck during any gun deer season (including the October and December antlerless-only hunts) without being required to tag an antlerless deer first. This situation only applies if the armed forces member is officially on furlough or leave from duty while stationed outside of the state.

From Page 11 of the 2010 hunting regulations.

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/regs/Deer10regs4-16.pdf

Armed Forces members are entitled to the following:

While on furlough or leave, may harvest one deer of either sex with a firearm from any Deer Management Unit (including CWD Earn-A-Buck Units) during any firearm season established by the department (including any antlerless only hunts) with use of his or her Gun Buck Deer Carcass Tag, and may purchase bonus antlerless deer carcass tags in units with a quota, even if the unit is sold out.

-------------------------

Currently these exemptions from EAB for active service persons on leave are allowed only for the firearms deer season. Because a soldier's leave "furlough" may not take place during the gun deer season but may take place during a portion of the archery deer season, would you support a change to the law related to bowhunting that would extend this same EAB exemption to active military personnel on leave during the archery deer season?

A new archery dealership, range, sports bar has opened in Dousman, WI (Waukesha County) The establishment is called Whale Tales archery and is a joint venture by Father and Son team of Tom and Kyle Krischan. Both Tom and Kyle are Members of Wisconsin Bowhunters Association.



Kyle was a Montana Elk guide who has moved back to WI with the idea of opening Whale Tales.



The focal spot of the business is their 50 yard indoor range which features two levels for practice from ground level and elevated positions.









Adjacent to the indoor (air conditioned) archery range is the pro shop and an area to relax with a sport bar atmosphere where patrons can enjoy a beer or soda.















While they are just now in the process of opening the range, they are building their inventory and have a few lines of bows like Elite, Martin, Rytera and Quest with more to follow. As a way to kick off the opening, they are offering a 7 week indoor league that begins on July 20th and run until Aug. 26th with the opportunity to shoot on either Tuesday or Thursday evenings.


 Kyle has a passion for bowfishing and plans to carry plenty of bowfishing gear as well as get involved bowfishing charters.

 
The address of Whale Tales is 109 N. Main Street Dousman, WI 5318. (5 miles South of I-94) The phone is 262-965-2826. Whale Tales hours are Mon-Fri,  12 (noon) to 9 pm. Sat - Sun, 9 am to 5 pm

If you're interested in joining their league, go to this link

http://www.whaletalesarchery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=2

 

You can visit Whale Tales online at their new website at

http://www.whaletalesarchery.com/

Or on Facebook at

http://www.facebook.com/whaletales.archery

Good reasons why crossbows are bad for WI

A perfect example of what some of us have been saying all along. From this issue of WIsconsin Outdoor News.


Adding crossbows (and the harvest they will bring) will cause losses for bowhunters. We are already seeing calls for a shortening of the archery deer season and reducing bowhunters tags and that is happening without crossbows. This retired WI Wildlife Biologist explains how further increases in bowhunters harvest will mean nothing good for bowhunting. Couple this with the fact that bowhunters numbers in WI are strong (no problems with recruitment) because nobody in WI is excluded from bowhunting and the depressed deer herd and you can see that adding crossbows will hurt the archery deer season in WI.

Gun hunters are already upset with bowhunters and the deer we take and every time bowhunters are asked about full intrusion of crossbows, they oppose the idea.