surplus tags

[Gopherlongbeards]

Well picked up my 1st WI tag today. Grabbed a zone 1 period D (may 2-8). Will be taking my father out for his first turkey hunt near Madison. He managed to get us permission on the farm across the street, and has been watching 5 longbeards in a field on the property for the past month

Will pick up a Zone 2 tomorrow, and probably a final period zone 4 later in the week.

[charlie elk]

That's great news, enjoy your hunt.
My daughter & I got unit 1-C tags, they were sold out about 10:30 for that season. As of 2:00 today it looks like there will plenty of tags left in unit 1 for D,E &F. Unit 1 E&F have not sold out in recent years.

Unit 4 tags usually go really fast due to the population centers in that unit and there are fewer left this year.

[turkey junky]

was finely able to buy my tag on-line this after-noon man what a long wait for such a simple on-line task... lol my father & i were able to get our unit 1 season D tags so i will be hunting cheese land this season after all... will also have the time 2 hopefully get my 2nd tag come saterday i will have all day to get a tag as my NE early archery hunt went in the trash can!!! that when i was going to be leaving for nebraska... oh well

[arrowsonly]

Hey Gopher, No zone 3 ?
I think your missin' out unless you have some private ground in zone 2 . Look at the number of left over tags; years ago before re zoning, in zone 22/23 they issued 30,000 tags alone. That area is wooded with some farms, but east of the Fox Valley it's reverse farms everywere mixed with wood lots ie. field turkeys vs woodland turkeys ?
Oh well you could buy as many tags as you wanted there are so many left overs...

My 2012 season is up in the air like always, I kept my job for now and I am working 50/60 per week! like always in a bike shop it's full on with the nice weather. I hope to get some time in May but the woods will be so thick with early growth who knows, my plan is to hunt with some of the other board members ect during the T &TH hunt mid May.

[Gopherlongbeards]

Kinda tied into what the brother in law wants to do. He wants to stay close to home, so zone 2 it is. Oh well, a dead turkey in a field is better than spending a morning with my mother in law

[charlie elk]

Wow; I am shocked unit 2 tags did not sell out yesterday! 2,444 left for season F.

Is this typical or is the interest in turkey hunting waning in unit 2?

[WillowRidgeCalls]

That is strange that they did't sell out, zone 2 tags usally don't last long. Looking at all the zones there seems to be a lot more tags in each zone this year? I guess most people aren't spending any extra $$ for extra tags this year. A lot more people are back working so they don't have the time to spend in the woods.

[turkey junky]

charlie also mentioned that the WIDNR maid more tags available AKA issued/created more tags after the WIDNR had there little brain fart & forgot to enter thousands of paper applications into the system for the initial lottery draw... that could be why there are all these left-over tags still available???

when i baught my unit 1 season D tag there was 9,000+ tags available at the start by the time i baught my fathers & my tags there was 7,000+ left so they had sold 2,000
tags from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm dont know if thats average or not this is my 1st season hope n across the border to hunt turkey...

[charlie elk]

Maybe anticipating the early spring many are thinking it won't be worth hunting the last season?

If I remember right the WDNR snafu only added a 1000 or so extra tags in units and times that had already been drawn out. Those were immediately awarded so they had no affect on the number of leftover tags.

Preliminary numbers indicated about 15000 fewer hunters bothered to apply in the drawing this year. Resulting in more tags available OTC sale, except in unit 4. The number of turkey hunters appears to be declining again this year. This will not be known until late summer when all license sales are tallied and finalized.

Usually I apply for the next year spring hunt and this year's fall hunt now to make sure I don't forget. However WDNR is not accepting those applications until June 6th.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Yeah there is 27,141 tags still left in zone 3. There have been a few more people dropped turkey hunting and a lot of them have dropped the early draw system with all the OTC tags that they can get.
There is a HUGE difference between TURKEY HUNTERS and people that go TURKEY HUNTING.
With that being said a lot of it has to do with the internet and TV, so many people view this stuff and are convinced that they have to have everything out there to kill a turkey, and with that kind of belief they find they can't afford to be a great turkey hunter, so they give it up. A lot of people are ashamed to ask for advice so they give up. It really doesn't take much to fill a tag, you don't need fancy guns or calls or cloths or shells, yes they help you, but are they needed, NO. A little knowledge and patients will fill more tags than any fancy thing you carry, all you need to know is how to use it. Everybody wants the quick kill can't fail method.