Weekend hunt proceeds safely

By Brian D. Bridgeford, Capital Newspapers

There were no reported accidents and only minor violations as deer hunters hit the woods of Sauk County this weekend for the beginning of the nine-day gun season.

At the Gander Mountain store in West Baraboo, 14-year-old Gemma Pillsbury of Baraboo stood amid a mob of orange-clad family and friends after registering her first deer, a doe. She shot the animal near Rock Springs.

Pillsbury said she tried unsuccessfully to take a deer during the youth hunt in October. Now, she is excited to have one under her belt.

"I really like the meat, it's really good," Pillsbury said. "And friends, it's fun to like get together."

Her father, Brian Pillsbury of Baraboo, said it was his first time hunting. He felt pride his daughter shot her first deer even before he did.

Brian Pillsbury said there is no tradition of hunting in his family, so it was good to have the support of friends for his first effort. "I just always wanted to do it and never have the opportunity," he said. "My parents didn't do it, my dad didn't do it."

His daughter earned her buck sticker, so the duo planned to go out and try for a buck later.

Andrew Olsen of Orfordville said he wasn't particularly lucky in his first try of the season, taking only a small fawn. He was hunting near Devil's Lake State Park, where he said there was little in the way of game or other hunters.

"I was the first shot about 7:30 a.m., quarter to 8 a.m.," he said. "I don't think there was another shot after 9 a.m."

Olsen said he hunts because he enjoys the tradition and his family eats venison. He expected to take the buck tag he earned shooting the fawn and try for his trophy further north near Necedah.

At Viking Express Market in Baraboo, hunter Rick Hinz of Baraboo watched as Department of Natural Resources workers cut a lymph node from the neck of the buck he shot. He shot the animal along Freedom Road near North Freedom.

"I shot it at 7 o'clock this morning, right away," he said. "This is the only one I saw. They were hiding."

Hinz said he has been hunting for 38 years, primarily because his family likes to eat venison. However, he said he does try to shoot trophy bucks sometimes.

His son, Clay Hinz, 14, said he had been hunting with his dad and enjoyed sharing the experience. He has been going on hunting expeditions since he was 5 years old and shot his first deer at age 12 during a DNR youth hunt.

Clay Hinz said hunting is fun, and with a laugh admitted it was good to be out with his father.

"Even if we don't shoot something we still have fun," Rick Hinz said.

Like many Wisconsin hunters, Rick Hinz said he is somewhat uncomfortable with the DNR's efforts to control CWD. But he is inclined to cooperate with the effort by having his deer tested for the illness.

A comprehensive tally of the number of deer registered with the DNR and sampled for CWD across Sauk County was not available Sunday evening.

At Viking Express, DNR staff member Tom Gilles said workers had registered 323 deer at the end of Sunday evening.

They had take samples for CWD testing from 125 deer at the Viking Express location alone. During the weekend, the DNR was also sampling at the Lakeside Country Store near Merrimac, Gander Mountain in West Baraboo and Woody's, LLC in rural Spring Green.

The Gander Mountain Store will continue registering deer, taking CWD samples and accepting deer for distribution to food pantries through the end of the gun deer season next Sunday.

Gilles said he expects the DNR will get at least the 300 deer samples agency biologists want from the Baraboo Bluffs monitoring area east and south of Baraboo. This is the northernmost location where CWD has been detected in wild deer in Wisconsin and the DNR is trying to determine the extent of the disease's spread in the herd. "I think we're pretty close, I know there is another site that has been collecting samples as well," he said. "For the most part (hunters) have been very cooperative and patient if we've had a backup. It's gone very well."

Reedsburg-based Warden Dave Horzewski said he issued three tickets over the weekend for minor issues such as having an uncased gun in a car and shooting from the roadway. He had no reports of hunters injured in Sauk County.

Working in northwest Sauk County, Horzewski said he saw a "quite a few hunters" and a substantial number of deer being taken.

"It was a safe, quiet weekend in the Sauk County area," Horzewski said. "(He had) a few minor citations and a lot of warnings, other than that everybody is abiding by the law."