37 hunters take to field for 17th special deer hunt at Fort McCoy for people with disabilities

Courtesy Photo | A successful hunter and his helper are shown with his harvested whitetail deer Oct. 7, 2018, during the special deer hunt for people with disabilities at Fort McCoy, Wis. This was the 17th consecutive year the hunt was held at the installation and 37 hunters participated. (Photo courtesy of the Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands.)  

FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

11.07.2018

Story by Scott Sturkol                                                                                         

Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office           

Thirty-seven hunters participated in Fort McCoy’s 2018 special deer hunt for people with disabilities Oct. 6-7.

Every October, Wisconsin holds a nine-day gun deer hunt for people with disabilities. Since 2002, Fort McCoy has participated by holding a two-day hunt the first weekend of the statewide hunt, said Wildlife Program Manager and Biologist David Beckmann with the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.

Seventeen deer were harvested during the hunt for a 46 percent success rate. The hunt drew hunters from throughout Wisconsin, said Julie Steinhoff with the Fort McCoy Permit Sales Office.

“The 37 participants came from 16 counties in Wisconsin and hunted at least one day,” Steinhoff said. “Many of them were returning hunters.”
Steinhoff added that although the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) has many participating land owners for the special hunt throughout the state, most of those land owners can only sponsor one or two participants.

“Fort McCoy does not limit the number of hunters because of the amount of acres open to hunting and the willingness of local volunteers,” Steinhoff said. “The WDNR often will recommend Fort McCoy to hunters who cannot find a location or miss the WDNR application deadline. The Permit Sales office can accommodate disabled hunters up to the Friday before the hunt.”

Hunters are required to have a WDNR Class A, B, C, or D disability permit to participate in the Fort McCoy hunt. A total of 52 applications were received, Steinhoff said.

Each hunter received an antlerless deer harvest authorization (carcass tag) with their Fort McCoy permit, Beckmann said. Hunters had the opportunity to harvest a second deer using their WDNR Gun-Buck or their free WDNR farmland (Zone 2) antlerless harvest authorization. All deer harvested were required to be registered through the WDNR GoWild system.

The Colorado State University (CSU) Center for Environmental Management of Military Wildlife staff, who are under an agreement with Fort McCoy, provided assistance with the GoWild registration.

“The CSU wildlife staff also collected biological data on deer harvested, such as age, weight, fat layer, area shot, and more,” Beckmann said. “This data, along with information from the November gun-deer hunt, is used by the Fort McCoy Wildlife Program to calculate the installation deer population and monitor deer health. Lymph nodes were also collected from 12 adult deer and sent to the WDNR for Chronic Wasting Disease testing.”

It was recommended that all hunters have an assistant to aid them in accessing hunting areas, retrieving and field dressing deer, and providing comradeship, Steinhoff said. A majority of hunters provided an assistant.

Those who could not were aided by local volunteers or the CSU staff. Eighteen people (volunteer and staff) provided assistance to the hunters.
Applications for the hunt are accepted from June through mid-September each year. Applications are submitted through the i-Sportsman website at ftmccoy.isportsman.net.

For more information about application requirements, call the Fort McCoy Permit Sales Office at 608-388-3337.

For more information about how to obtain a disabled hunting license, visit the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources website at dnr.wi.gov/permits/disabled.html.

(The Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch contributed to this article.)

• Date Taken: 11.07.2018
• Date Posted: 11.07.2018 14:17
• Story ID: 299122
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US