Swan song for registration stations in Wisconsin

[h2ofwlr]

By Dave Orrick
dorrick@pioneerpress.comPosted: 11/22/2014 12:01:00 AM CST | Updated: about 11 hours ago
Photos: http://www.twincities.com/outdoors/ci_2 ... -wisconsin

BURKHARDT, Wis. -- If you pulled into the Burkhardt Convenience Store on St. Croix County Road A on Saturday and you were wearing orange, you'd better be dropping the gate to your pickup and showing off the deer you shot earlier in the day.

If not, be prepared to explain yourself to those who will peer into the bed.

The convenience store, which sells burgers, New Glarus beer and gasoline under the Cenex brand, is one of six deer registration stations in the county.

Throughout Wisconsin, there are 622 such places, from bars to pizza joints to feed supply stores. Every whitetail killed by a hunter -- nearly 343,000 last year -- must be presented by its taker, in person.

As the state began its nine-day gun season for deer Saturday, these establishments donned their annual crowns as bragging posts, big-buck contest hosts and general whitetail hubs.

For many, this will be the last year in that role -- at least with the guaranteed traffic.

Next year, Wisconsin, as Minnesota and other states have done, will do away with its mandatory in-person-with-bloodied-carcass registration requirement. Hunters in most areas will be able to register their deer via telephone or the Internet. State officials say the current system, as strong a tradition as it may be, is horribly inefficient; paper cards, filled in by the often numb hands of hunters, must be manually entered into state computers so the Department of Natural Resources can track deer populations and hunting's impact.

"It'll be easier for the hunter, but I feel bad for all the gas stations and convenience stores that will lose the business," said Derek Hannula of New Richmond, who came to register a doe he shot. "It's nice to see everyone come in with their deer and tell the stories."

Indeed it is.

Here were some of them from Saturday:

Norman Doyone, age 80, had just about given up deer hunting after a stroke, heart attack and the toll of the years. "I'm an old man," he said.

This year, his son, J.D., built an insulated, heated, wheelchair-accessible blind for Doyone, a Hudson resident.

"Boy, it was warm in there," Norman Doyone said as he stood over his 2-point buck. "That was nice right there. Then this guy came around, but he kept hiding behind two trees. I waited for him to just poke his neck out enough, and I took the shot. If it weren't for J.D. building that blind, I never would have gotten out this year."

Izayah Gamez, age 6, of Hastings went deer hunting for the first time with an old pro, his grandfather, Don Asmus of Prescott, Wis. Grandpa didn't disappoint when a big doe showed itself.

Izayah was the one telling everyone the story.

Jackson Bonnes, 16, of New Richmond shot his first buck, a hefty 10-pointer, in the morning near the Willow River.

"He came into a bleat can (call)," said Bonnes, who was hunting with his adult cousins, Jeremy Green, who also bagged a deer, and Stephanie Smithson. "Looked like he was dogging some does. He came into about 20 yards, and I took him. ... He ended up on the wrong side of the river, so I had to borrow (Green's) hip boots and float him across the river. Otherwise it would have been a long way to drag him.:

When Charlie Brey opened the rear hatch to his minivan, deer limbs and heads seemed to tumble out of the confined space.

Of the two deer, one belonged to hunting partner Greg Krueger of Little Chute, Wis. The other belonged to 14-year-old Chloe Brey of Stillwater. It was the first deer she had ever shot.