Being a native Wisconsinite who has traveled around quite a bit and hunted several states and providences of Canada I’ve stuck up for this state I love passionately. Being a die hard Packers, Brewers, Bucks and college sports fan I’ve continually argued to people how great our state is. But when it comes to deer hunting I’m nearly embarrassed to call Wisconsin my home.

Several years back while in Dunn County on my annual bow deer hunt a fellow hunter friend of mine and I got into a discussion about what we would shoot at this year. Meaning buck, doe, fawn, what size buck and what size doe. Since we had doe permits, we had our choice.

This was the beginning of the Wisconsin DNR’s "shoot the doe" policy. The insurance company’s were giving the state politicians a hard time and farmers were claiming record crop losses. The states deer herd population was climbing because of mild winters along with farming practices.

In our conversation, I expressed my feelings. I would let the small bucks pass and shoot a doe for the tasty venison. But if the big buck showed up I would definitely send an arrow his way. My fellow hunter said he would only shoot a buck bigger than a sixteen inch spread. I asked him why he wouldn’t shoot a doe and why he had a doe tag. He expressed concern of the deer herd dwindling if everyone shot the doe’s. He further told me he put in for a doe tag so one other person wouldn’t be able to shoot a doe, since the permits always ran out in our zone. He said that way he would save one doe.

The nice thing back than was we had a choice. Today we don’t. It’s not easy to eliminate a deer herd in a given area by shooting doe’s. The CWD zones of Wisconsin have more deer now than they did upon discovery of the decease.

People like seeing deer. Especially hunters. The more the merrier. Car deer collisions in Wisconsin are at an all time low. Is it because the DNR’s "SAK" (formula for figuring out deer population) is wrong and the population of deer is really going down, not up. Or are people learning to live with the deer. Maybe people are scanning for deer more now than in the past in areas of high density.

The argument goes on. Shoot deer say’s the DNR, lots of deer. There is no doubt there are a lot of deer in some areas. But there is also no doubt there are few deer in other areas. Is the overall population 1.8 million as the DNR forecasts in 2007?

If there is 1.8 million deer out there, so what. They say the forest is suffering because of over population and over browse. I for one don’t see it. I have hunted in areas all over the state and find little evidence of this barren forest floor. Take a walk in the woods in nearly any part of the state and you’ll see what I mean. There is cover on the forest floor, lots of it.

The deer hunting regulations can’t get much more complicated. Earn a buck zones are about as ridiculous as the soon to return "zone t hunts". How about the "herd reduction zone hunts" or the "eradication CWD zone" hunts. Give me a break.

My kids and I have always scheduled our annual bow hunt the week of Halloween. They, like most kids in the state had a four day weekend that week and we could go on a hunt without them missing any school. We could also fall turkey hunt that weekend. When the zone t hunts started our bow hunt turned ugly. We had to adorn the pumpkin orange suits in our tree stands and because of rifle hunters the pressure quickly sent the deer into nocturnal patterns. We stopped going on our bow hunt until this year. It was nice to finally enjoy the woods but its short lived since the zone t hunt is sure to return.

Our family always enjoys the opener of pheasant hunting on our yearly duck / pheasant hunt on a southern Wisconsin public hunting ground. At least until this year. Usually we duck hunt in the morning and than at noon when the pheasant season opens we switch to pheasants. Enter the "herd reduction deer hunt" on, oh yes opening day of pheasant hunting.

Early in the morning on the opener I crept down a river jump shooting some ducks. As I climbed out of the heavy brush I saw two blaze orange bodies ready to unload on what they thought was a deer approaching. I quickly radioed our hunting group and cancelled the annual outing.

Year before last my son Sean and I quickly shot does because the DNR promised our zone to be earn a buck. We wanted to "pre-qualify" (shoot a doe so we could shoot a buck the next year) . The next year, which was last year turned out wasn’t "earn a buck" so we didn’t need to shoot the two does. Again the DNR threatened us with the "earn a buck" and we thought "yah right". We didn’t shoot a doe to pre qualify and guess what, our zone turned "earn a buck".

Our bow hunt now turned to panic as we needed to quickly fill a doe tag in case a nice buck walked by. Not really the bow hunt we had hoped for. Even though Sean had never arrowed a buck, he had to let several pass. The earn a buck hunt not only prevented my son to shoot his first buck, it also made him take a marginal shot at a doe to try and qualify. I ended up passing up a nice eight and ten pointer and ended up whacking a fawn. The old bow hunt just isn’t the same.

Our gun hunt also was the same story. We passed up a couple bucks before my son finally shot a fawn to qualify and than a couple days later did get a buck. I ended up shooting a doe also and now I’m qualified to shoot a buck next year if the zone is earn a buck. Of coarse I’m sure it won’t be. It is already a promised "zone t".

If anyone not from Wisconsin is reading this they have to be totally confused and will probably never hunt deer in Wisconsin. If you’re a bow deer hunter, duck hunter, turkey hunter, trapper or small game hunter than your probably wondering why you even hunt deer in this state.

I guess I’m spoiled. I want my cake and eat it too. Until this gun deer hunting madness is stopped and we just except that there are a lot of deer in the state the DNR will continue to come up with more ridiculous seasons and more regulations. Take me back to the old tradition of deer hunting. A place where the deer were hunted by choice not by mandates of the DNR geared to shooting every deer you can.