Did any of you ever get the hunting surveys from the DNR? The only one I ever got was for spring turkey. I went to the DNR web site to see the results and came across the 2005 and 2006 surveys for all sorts of animals Most notably was the archery deer hunting survey for 2005. Brian Dhuey from the DNR explained that they only do this survey every 4 years so they do not have 2006 results available. The gun deer hunting surveys for 2005 and 2006 (that survey is done every year) are also available. It would be worth your while to check them out. Check out the archery survey at
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/harvest/reports/05bowdeer.pdf and the others hunter surveys are at
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/harvest/harvest.htmIf you are looking for a place to hunt, question 16 would interest you. It gives the number of bowhunters per square mile density based on deer management unit.
4,329 Bowhunters responded from across the state. some of the interesting responses caught my eye. like the age group of the bowhunters. Only 6.8% were 18 years old or younger. That should have all of us concerned.
It was good to see that 150 (3.5%) were women
The two largest age groups of bowhunters was the 0-7 years of experience and the 23-30 years of experience.
Question 5 said that when deer management units become over populated and conventional harvest methods are not enough to bring the herd size back to goal numbers, what method would you most favor for increasing the doe kill. Surprisingly enough, the 2nd most popular reply was a 4 day antlerless hunt in October (and this is from bowhunters) The Dec 4 day doe hunt was number 1.
6. asked how did the 4 day October antlerless hunt affect your archery deer hunting. nearly 25% said had no effect on their bow hunting. 25% said it made the deer nocturnal but what I found odd was that 1066 people chose not to respond to this question. That means that 25% of those surveyed did not want to answer?
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7. asked about the effects of baiting deer during archery seson and 77% said it had either a positive effect or no effect at all. only 22% said it had a negative effect on their hunting.
8. asked what fear bowhunters had about baiting deer and the single largest reply was 40.4% that said they had no fears about the practice. the next largest was 14.3% who feared disease transition.
9. asked that in regard to baiting, which do you favor. 58% said no change from the current rule or to limit it to a 1/2 gallon. Only 1.5% of all the bowhunters said to prohibit the practice all together for bowhunting. Only 1.5% of Bowhunters want a baiting ban for bowhunting.
10. with regard to feeding deer for viewing purposes only (non-hunting) 73% to allow it with the current amount or a reduction to a 1/2 gallon. Of that 70%, 30% said allow it without any limit to amount !!!!!
11. asked about the legalization of crossbows for everybody during archery season. 38% of current bowhunters say yes.
16. showed that there are 14 bowhunters per square mile in zone 77D but only .03 bowhunters per square mile in zone 54B (CWD)
17. showed that 78.5% of bowhunters hunt private land
20. did you hit a deer that you did not recover? 13.5% did
22. showed that 94% of all bowhunters used a Compound followed 2nd by crossbow users 2.8%
23 asked if you used bait. 66.3% did not use this method for bowhunting. I found this interesting. The majority do not hunt using this method yet in all the other questions about baiting duriing bowhunting, the majority approves or has a positive opinion about using it. What this tells me is that the states bowhunter thinks that even if they don't use it, it's fine if another Chooses to hunt that way.
