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Dean Bortz

Dean Bortz: The challenge of trying to make heads or tails out of Wisconsin deer hunting

Discussions, Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Opinion, Wisconsin /

So, if you’ve been following along in this space for a few years, you likely know that when it comes to deer hunting, my friends and hunting party members have been struggling to see and shoot deer in northern Wisconsin for, oh, right around 15 years. Lots of possible factors play into that situation, I know. I get it.

Dean Bortz: The challenge of trying to make heads or tails out of Wisconsin deer hunting Read More »

State Roundup: Is now a better time to push for an earlier Wisconsin gun season for deer?

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Opinion, Wisconsin /

I can’t believe we’ve nearly reached the end of another year of enjoying Wisconsin’s great outdoors, with a wonderful Thanksgiving still close in the rearview mirror and Christmas just around the corner.
We have more snow than we might care to have right now, but at least it didn’t fall on newly forming ice – at least in my neck of the woods. Most of our medium and large lakes in north-central Wisconsin were not sheeted by ice yet when the big snow fell from Nov. 24-27.

State Roundup: Is now a better time to push for an earlier Wisconsin gun season for deer? Read More »

Early tally shows buck kill dips 2.6% from 2024 during Wisconsin gun hunt

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, National News, News, Wisconsin /

Early returns from the 2025 nine-day gun-deer season show Wisconsin hunters registered 182,084 total deer during the 2025 gun deer season, a number that is down 0.8% statewide from the 2024 final registration numbers.
That 182,084 includes 86,068 bucks and 96,016 antlerless deer (does and fawns, including buck fawns). Compared to 2024, the buck kill is down 2.6% and the antlerless harvest up 0.9%. Hunters anticipated a little different picture for the buck kill heading into this season for two main reasons.

Early tally shows buck kill dips 2.6% from 2024 during Wisconsin gun hunt Read More »

Dean Bortz: Deer hunting history from Wisconsin rediscovered … and more news items

Featured, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

I was rumpselling through a couple of closets and cubbies the last few weeks when I found what I’ll call a deer hunting artifact from 20 or so years ago. Maybe longer, judging by the last notation.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, my friend, Tom Coulthurst, taken from this world more than a year ago by Parkinson’s, played a big role in building a very unique vertical log cabin in the Rosholt area of Portage County, Wis.

Dean Bortz: Deer hunting history from Wisconsin rediscovered … and more news items Read More »

State Roundup: Jeff Pritzl, Wisconsin DNR’s deer program leader, to retire in December

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Opinion, Wisconsin /

If Jeff Pritzl’s name sounds familiar to readers, it’s likely because you’ve seen it on these pages fairly often over the past four, five years as Pritzl ran the DNR’s statewide deer program.
Pritzl is going to retire from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) sometime in late December. Pritzl will be missed in that role.

State Roundup: Jeff Pritzl, Wisconsin DNR’s deer program leader, to retire in December Read More »

State Roundup: Wishing you a safe and successful Wisconsin deer season

Featured, Hunting, National Hunting, Opinion, Wisconsin /

The crew here at Wisconsin Outdoor News would like to take just a minute to wish everyone the best of luck on the upcoming 2025 nine-day gun deer season opener that will kick-off with the start of shooting hours on Saturday, Nov. 22.
This is what we wait for, folks. Go out and have fun. Our hunting crew will open the Wisconsin season once again in Ashland County in what used to be Unit 28.

State Roundup: Wishing you a safe and successful Wisconsin deer season Read More »

Dean Bortz: I’d settle for another deer season just like 2021

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

Not being a prophet, nor clairvoyant by any means, I have no way of knowing how the rest of the 2025 hunting seasons will play out. I’ll just hope everyone in our hunting group can have as much fun as we collected in 2021.
That year I hunted in Wyoming with my son, Daniel, who was living in Gillette, Wyo., at the time, and in the South Dakota Black Hills with my grandson, Mason Bortz-Parish, and my daughter and son-in-law, Melissa and Chris.

Dean Bortz: I’d settle for another deer season just like 2021 Read More »

Prime time arrives with Wisconsin’s gun deer opener

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, National News, News, Wisconsin /

Based on the later timing of the gun season opener and the preliminary results of the early archery deer season kill, Wisconsin’s gun deer hunters can probably expect a gun deer season similar to 2024.
The Saturday, Nov. 22, opener may not be the latest possible start date for the gun deer season, but rubs right up against it, so while it’s still possible to see some rutting activity that could put deer in the crosshairs during daylight hours, hunters can’t rely on rut action to produce deer movement.

Prime time arrives with Wisconsin’s gun deer opener Read More »

Dean Bortz: I apparently have an affinity for flat tires

Featured, Features, Fishing, Hunting, Wisconsin /

It seems as though flat tires and blown tires have become the bane of my hunting and fishing existence. It’s been, what, four years in a row now that we’ve dealt with some sort of pneumatic fiasco just in October or November?
That doesn’t include any of the previous roadside disasters that fall under the heading of failed rubber or wheels. Come to think of it, I could probably write a book just on all of my mechanical mishaps that I’ve been blessed with over all of these years.

Dean Bortz: I apparently have an affinity for flat tires Read More »

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