PATRICK DURKIN OUTDOORS

As we work deeper into January, I’m reminded of past deer hunts this time of year in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.    Photos and keepsakes from those hunts remind me how much the South’s culture differs from my own. Southerners seem more fascinated with death, superstitions and the afterlife than do most folks of the Upper Great Lakes.    For example, when I arrived at the Long family’s camp in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Bayou in 2012, Mr. Raymond Long said I couldn’t hunt

Vern Hacker has been dead since March 1989, but I recall his smiling face and respect for rough fish whenever someone makes news for catching a huge gar, burbot, sheepshead or another piscatorial pariah.    That’s because Hacker was the Don Quixote of fisheries biologists during his career with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Hacker always encouraged people to eat rough fish instead of burying them to fertilize their gardens or flowers. And he especially despis

Of all the many whitetails roaming and browsing Wisconsin’s forests, farmlands and lowlands, which deer do hunters most cherish and protect?    Some would say it’s the mature adult doe, the species’ noble matriarch. Some gentle-souled hunters still consider it an act of sainthood to never shoot and eat “Mama Doe.” But if they sin, they’ll claim they fired only after verifying the doe was traveling alone, with no fawns depending on her for guidance and nourishment.    Some hun

We didn’t need Sherlock Holmes to identify the feathered victim.    Neither did we need John James Audubon to list the possible killers when finding blood and feathers scattered beneath our bird feeders in late November.    The feathers’ dark undersides were more rosy red than rusty, with streaky orange above the quill’s bare base. Inches away, fluffy tufts of afterfeathers fluttered atop the snow, weighted just enough by bloody tissue to mark where a cardinal, probably a mal

Wisconsin lost its most devoted and enduring conservation watchdog Dec. 10 when prostate cancer killed George Meyer at age 78.    Meyer's list of job titles in five decades of public service grew so long he almost had to unfurl a scroll when introduced at podiums across the state. And man, did Meyer tour Wisconsin. In 1993 alone, he delivered 240 speeches; speaking to just about any group, anywhere.    About that re sumé : Meyer spent over 30 years with the DNR, serving as a

Wisconsin deer hunters once again killed lots of deer during late November’s nine-day firearms season.    More specifically, we killed a big ol’ bunch of bucks with antlers 3 inches or longer, and a slightly bigger bunch of deer without antlers.    That surprised some folks, given how many called Nov. 22-23 the quietest opening weekend they’ve ever heard. But y’know, magazine-emptying fusillades seem a thing of the past. Hunters no longer blaze away at deer like we did 30-som

I took my daughter Leah deer hunting for the first time on opening day of the November 1991 gun season.    She was 6, and sat beside me until about 9 a.m., when she hissed “Deer!” and pointed out a doe and two fawns bounding downhill behind me. The doe paused in the valley after clearing the creek, apparently deciding whether to jump a barbed-wire fence between her and a cut cornfield.    That pause gave me time to fire my 7mm-08 Remington Mountain Rifle. The doe leaped back

Wisconsin long considered its nine-day gun-deer season “the hammer” for managing whitetails, accounting for over 90% of the annual deer kill during the early 1970s, and routinely 85% of it through 1995.    But November’s gun season has lost its clout. Since 2018, four of the past six gun seasons generated less than 60% of the total autumn deer kill. The most recent shortfall was 2024 when November’s gun-hunters registered 190,798 deer, or 58.4% of the total 326,547 gun/archer

Wisconsin deer hunters love quoting “tradition” when talking about bowhunting or November’s nine-day firearms season.    That’s especially common when bowhunters badmouth crossbows, when old-timers yearn for backtags, or when everyone at the bar says the Department of Natural Resources gives away too many antlerless tags.    Whatever the complaint, it's easy to invoke “tradition” too loosely. Heck, some teens think 2010 was “back in the day,” and some old guys can’t distingui

Matt Jefko says he can’t sacrifice the time and money to hunt Western states, so he turns his Wisconsin hunts into hard-earned adventures whenever possible.    But after this Middleton high-school teacher arrowed a buck in southwestern Wisconsin’s Yellowstone Lake State Park, he triggered more adventure than most hunters ever find on the Great Plains or in the Rocky Mountains.    Jefko, 41, wouldn’t wish similar misadventures on anyone.    He’s just grateful he’s still enjoyi

Wisconsin’s bowhunters registered 103,904 deer during 2024’s four-month arrow-flinging season, the fourth highest archery kill in modern times and the fifth in which they’ve killed over 100,000 whitetails.    That success — driven mostly by folks shooting crossbows and compound bows, along with a smattering of “stick-bow” traditionalists toting recurves and longbows — ended a three-year slide in bow-kills from 2021 through 2023. In 2020, when participation increased during th

Wisconsin’s bear hunters bagged 3,724 bruins during the 35-day season, a 16% decline from 4,432 in 2024, according to preliminary data from by the Department of Natural Resources.    Though the overall kill also fell 8.6% short of the DNR’s 4,075-bear harvest target for this year’s season, it was within 2.6% of the 5-year average of 3,824 registered during the 2021 through 2025 seasons.    The DNR issued 13,110 bear tags this year, and hunters recorded a 28% overall success r

While rearranging tools and lawn-care gear in our backyard shed last week, I paused to inspect the duck and goose decoys stacked high and wide along the shed’s south wall.    My hand-crafted decoys aren’t works of art, and I doubt they’d sell for much if dumped at a garage sale. Still, I built 99% of them back in the early 1980s, a time when I counted down the days till duck season with the same zeal I still have for deer season.    Back then, I considered myself an aspiring

Lawmakers have ignored their many harms to Wisconsin’s deer herd since slashing funds to manage chronic wasting disease in 2007, outlawing earn-a-buck rules in 2011, ending in-person deer registration in 2016, and eliminating mandatory carcass tags in 2017.    Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised the Department of Natural Resources failed to manage  deer numbers or slow CWD’s spread with recreational hunting the past 20 years. CWD has now been found in wild deer in 59 of Wisc

Like most hunters, I’ve walked countless miles in darkness before dawn and after dusk.    As those walks eased with headlamps, GPS units,...

Only two of Wisconsin’s nearly 19 boating-related deaths each year happen between October and December, but that doesn’t mean autumn is a...

Whether a bald eagle tears a wriggling fish from an osprey’s talons or an American marten steals elk meat from your cached game bag,...

What do you say to convince yourself to stick with a treestand where you haven’t seen an elk after 11 hunts totaling 50 hours the past 5½...

Given the minuscule mechanical expertise one gains from a journalism degree, I didn’t recognize my truck’s death knell when its engine...

If you spotted an old recurve bow with a twisted limb in your father’s closet, you might think he'd be lucky to sell it for $5 at a...