Photo by Ron Sinfelt

When the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources counted the registrations stubs from the 2004 deer archery season, they found 8,161 more than they did at the close of the 2003 season. Another record archery deer kill was in the books.

The combined early- and late-season bowkill for 2004 was 103,571 deer, and it was the first year in Wisconsin hunting history that archers arrowed over 100,000 deer. Most of the deer -- 90 percent -- where killed during the early archery season. While that figure is typical of our archery seasons, there was one unusual thing about the 2004 hunt: The antlerless deer harvest was twice the antlered deer kill. In fact, 33,635 bowkills were antlered and 69,854 were antlerless deer last year. Normally, the kill ratio is closer to even.

Of course, the high antlerless kill is understandable since last year there were 28 earn-a-buck (EAB) deer management units (DMUs), in addition to the chronic wasting disease (CWD) units where hunters were required to shoot an antlerless deer in order to earn their buck tag. EAB tags could be filled either by bow or gun, but it seems many hunters decided to earn their buck during the archery season, which resulted in a high antlerless percentage.

Unfortunately, most hunters did not like the EAB rule, and in March the state Natural Resources Board eliminated proposed earn-a-buck regulations for non-CWD management units, and designated 45 units as Zone-T units for the 2005 deer hunting season. With that concession came a request that deer hunters do all they can to kill antlerless deer this season and help get the herd to post-hunt goals.

CWD TEST RESULTS
Last year, 19,155 deer were tested for CWD; 138 of them tested positive. Of the positive cases, 129 came from the disease eradication zone (DEZ), eight from the herd reduction zone (HRZ) and one from the remainder of the state. The single case found outside the CWD zones was from Unit 76A, which will be a CWD unit this fall.

You can keep up to date on the CWD situation by logging on to the DNR's Web site at www.dnr.wi.gov or by visiting any DNR Service Center. Special regulations govern deer hunting in the CWD eradication and herd reduction zones, and there are extended hunting opportunities in these zones as well.

TOP COUNTIES OF 2004
Our top 10 archery-kill counties last year were Waupaca, Shawano, Marathon, Marinette, Buffalo, Oconto, Bayfield, Clark, Wood and Outagamie. Archers took 32,358 whitetails, or 31 percent, of the state's total 2004 archery kill, in these counties. Five of these counties -- Waupaca, Shawano, Marathon, Marinette and Clark -- were also on the top 10 list in 2003.

Waupaca County hunters registered 5,601 deer to put that county at the top of the list. Of those deer, 1,090 (19 percent) were antlered deer. For comparison, antlered deer were 32 percent of the total bowkill in 2004 and 51 percent in 2003. Nearby Shawano County took second place with 4,232 archery kills, and 808 deer, or 19 percent, were legal bucks. In third place for 2004 is Marathon County with 3,860 deer, of which 1,794 were antlered. That's 46 percent bucks and well above the state average. Next is Marinette County where bowhunters killed 3,084 whitetails and 886, or 29 percent, of these were racked bucks. Buffalo County, which did not make the top 10 county list for 2003, ranked fifth in 2004 with a bow harvest of 3,072, but only 17 percent (521) were registered as antlered deer.