{"id":9153,"date":"2026-04-07T18:51:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/will-cwd-cripple-wisconsins-booner-buck-status\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T18:51:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:51:36","slug":"will-cwd-cripple-wisconsins-booner-buck-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/will-cwd-cripple-wisconsins-booner-buck-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Will CWD Cripple Wisconsin\u2019s Booner-Buck Status?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You can\u2019t overlook Wisconsin\u2019s No. 1 ranking when scrolling through the Boone and Crockett Club\u2019s 17,465 record-book entries for white-tailed deer in the Lower 48.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to B&C\u2019s \u201cBig Game Records Live\u201d online listings, hunters have entered 2,132 Wisconsin bucks (typicals and nontypicals combined) in \u201cthe book\u201d since its origins in 1888. That\u2019s 12% of all B&C whitetails for the Lower 48. Wisconsin also produced the legendary \u201cJordan Buck,\u201d the No. 2 typical B&C whitetail killed in 1914 by Jim Jordan with a .25-20 Winchester in Burnett County.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Four Wisconsin counties rank among the nation\u2019s top 12 counties. Buffalo County is No. 1 with 165 entries; followed by Vernon County, No. 8 with 65; and Richland and Trempealeau, tied for No. 9 through No. 12 with Illinois\u2019 Fulton County and Iowa\u2019s Warren County, with 63.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Wisconsin built much of its B&C dominance recently. From 1999 through 2024, Wisconsin entered 1,537 (72%) of its B&C bucks, which includes 1,105 typicals and 432 nontypicals. That\u2019s 13% of 11,465 B&C whitetails entered from the Lower 48 those years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Likewise, those top four Wisconsin counties built 78% of their B&C rankings from 1999 to 2024. They also share the same neighborhood in southwestern Wisconsin. The Mississippi River sets the western edges of Buffalo, Trempealeau, and Vernon counties. Just to the southeast, the Wisconsin River forms Richland County\u2019s southern border. If you were a crow and flew from northwestern Buffalo County to the southeastern corner of Richland County, you\u2019d fly 135 miles with one of those four counties beneath your wings for all but 28 miles. And if you hiked that route in summer, you\u2019d seldom leave the shade of oak-dominated woodlands and brushy edges bordering fertile valleys, hillside fields, and stream-fed wetlands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Driftless Area<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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These deer-rich counties help anchor Wisconsin\u2019s portion of the \u201cDriftless Area,\u201d 24,000 square miles of Midwestern magnificence that also include southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois. This region earned its name from the Laurentide Ice Sheet that bypassed it during the most recent glacial period\u2014the Wisconsin glaciation\u201415,000 years ago. That great ice sheet never leveled southwestern Wisconsin\u2019s steep hillsides and limestone ridges, nor plowed its dark loess soils and ancient lake bottoms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Driftless Area remains lightly developed by today\u2019s standards, and covers all or part of 21 Wisconsin counties. That means 31% of Wisconsin geography produced 780 of the state\u2019s 1,537 (50.7%) B&C bucks for 1999-2024. In fact, the Driftless Area contains nine of Wisconsin\u2019s top 10 B&C counties for 1999-2024 and 16 of its top 21 (76%). The top 10\u2019s only outlier \u2014 Polk County, No. 6 with 49 B&C entries \u2014 is just 20 miles north of the region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Driftless Area Dominates in CWD<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Unfortunately, the Driftless Area\u2019s many traits that benefit deer \u2014 undeveloped landscapes, nutrient-rich soils, abundant croplands, and lengthy river corridors \u2014 also helped spread and intensify Wisconsin\u2019s worst outbreaks of chronic wasting disease in the past 25 years. This always-fatal disease kills its victims within 18 to 24 months of contraction. As each case worsens, victims grow increasingly vulnerable to hunting, predation, road-kills, and illnesses like pneumonia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Wisconsin found its first three CWD cases in 2001 in Dane County on the Driftless Area\u2019s southeastern corner. Those were also the first CWD cases east of the Mississippi River, triggering massive statewide testing (40,147 samples) in 2002. Those tests found 205 more cases, mostly in Dane, 94, and neighboring Iowa County, 107. Next-door Sauk County had two cases, and Richland and Walworth counties found one each. Only Walworth is outside the Driftless Area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has since identified nearly 16,200 more CWD cases in wild deer, including at least one case in 51 (71%) of the state\u2019s 72 counties. Most cases came from hunter-volunteered samples, even though Wisconsin hasn\u2019t mandated CWD testing since 2012. A 2019 DNR survey found 70% of hunters have never submitted a deer for testing. And only 5.5% of successful hunters submitted deer for testing the past eight years. DNR data also show only 3.4% (352,635) of the 10.44 million Wisconsin deer registered by hunters since 1999 were tested.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Driftless Area has produced 15,613 (95%) of Wisconsin\u2019s 16,397 CWD cases. During 2025, the region\u2019s 1,820 CWD cases accounted for 89.4% of Wisconsin\u2019s record-setting 2,036 cases. That nearly doubled the 1,064 cases documented only seven years earlier with similar sampling efforts: 17,216 tests in 2018 and 18,262 in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Further, Wisconsin\u2019s top 12 CWD counties are all in the Driftless Area, and three other Driftless counties make the top 20 CWD list. Iowa County leads with 4,720 cases, followed by Richland, 2,904; Sauk, 2,513; and Dane, 2,100. Only two Driftless counties \u2014 Pepin and St. Croix \u2014 haven\u2019t detected CWD, while La Crosse County found its first case in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, hunters in Driftless Area counties also test deer at higher rates than hunters elsewhere, mainly for food-safety reasons. But more tests don\u2019t guarantee more CWD cases. Jefferson County, just east of the Driftless Area, found its first case in 2005, and has since identified 69 CWD deer from 8,476 (0.8%) tests. Meanwhile, Vernon County (Driftless Area) has found nearly 5 times as many cases (334) with 219 fewer tests (8,257), and didn\u2019t find its first case until 2017, 12 years after Jefferson County\u2019s first.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Aggressive-Passive Management<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Wisconsin has taken contradictory approaches to CWD. From 2002 through 2010, the DNR aggressively tried to reduce deer herds across Dane, Iowa, Sauk, Richland and other nearby counties. Those efforts included months-long either-sex gun seasons and earn-a-buck regulation, i.e., register an antlerless deer before shooting an antlered buck.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Those tactics reduced deer herds in Dane, Iowa, Sauk, and Richland counties to an estimated average of 16,740 by late 2011, which kept CWD rates at 4.6% for Dane, 8.6% for Iowa, 3.2% for Sauk, and 1.5% for Richland. But earlier in 2011, state lawmakers outlawed earn-a-buck and forbade gun-hunting before late November\u2019s nine-day firearms season. By 2014, acting on the advice of Gov. Scott Walker\u2019s \u201cdeer trustee\u201d \u2014 Dr. James Kroll of Texas \u2014 \u201cpassive CWD management\u201d became state policy).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Deer populations and CWD boomed in response. By 2020, deer numbers increased 92% in those four counties, peaking on average at an estimated 32,139 deer per county. Similarly, CWD rates hit 17% in Dane, 29% in Iowa, 26% in Sauk and 19.6% in Richland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By 2024, CWD rates flattened to 17% in Dane and 25% in Iowa, but soared to 33% in Sauk and Richland. At those high levels, CWD helped cut deer populations in Dane, Iowa, Sauk and Richland by 13% to 28,035, on average.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Quirky B&C Entries<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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So how does Wisconsin\u2019s Driftless Area keep producing record-book bucks despite record-setting CWD cases? For starters, CWD didn\u2019t reach most of Wisconsin\u2019s 21 Driftless Area counties until 15 or more years after its discovery in 2001 and 2002.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Plus, even where prevalent, CWD and deer \u2014 and hunters \u2014 aren\u2019t evenly distributed. Isolated valleys, woodlots and other pockets of cover can create disease hotspots and deer safe havens. On Dec. 10, 2025, for example, a Dane County hunter, Steven Loomans of Madison, shot a 12-point buck he green-scored at 191-7\/8 inches as a typical and 206-6\/8 inches as a nontypical 18-pointer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Further, even in Wisconsin and even without CWD, Booner whitetails are rare. Bucks must reach ages 4\u00bd to 6\u00bd to reach physical maturity and fully express their genetic antler potential. Wisconsin bucks typically face heavy hunting pressure. In 2011, when hunters killed 150,839 bucks statewide, most (54%) were yearlings (18 months old). Still, when a state-record 159 bucks from 2011 entered B&C\u2019s record book the next year (2012), it represented only 0.10% of Wisconsin\u2019s buck kill. (Bucks usually enter B&C\u2019s book the year after they\u2019re killed.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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They\u2019re even rare in Buffalo County. During its biggest B&C years, its 10 B&C entries in 2000 represented 0.33% of its 3,037 buck kill in 1999. And Buffalo County\u2019s 13 B&C bucks in 2010 were 0.42% of its 3,084 buck kill in 2009.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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B&C entries also vary annually without obvious changes in predation, hunting pressure, food quality, or winter severity. Even though Buffalo County tallied 109 B&C entries for 1999-2024, it had only one entry in 1999; two entries in 2002, 2018, 2019, and 2020; and zero entries in 2013, 2017, 2023, and 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Therefore, at least for now, you\u2019ll find no distinct trends or CWD-driven warnings when expanding the view to analyze 642 B&C entries for 1999-2024 from 14 productive Driftless Area counties in Wisconsin: Pierce, Pepin, Dunn, Buffalo, Trempealeau, La Crosse, Vernon, Crawford, and Grant, which are on or near the Mississippi River; and Columbia, Dane, Iowa, Sauk, and Richland in CWD\u2019s core area north and west of Madison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Those 14 counties\u2019 combined B&C entries ping-ponged annually during 1999-2024 \u2014 ranging as low as 11 and as high as 60 \u2014 even as CWD spread farther across landscapes and more densely within infected herds. Yes, B&C entries for that group fell 11% from 340 in 1999-2011, when CWD was relatively new, to 302 in 2012-2024 entries, when CWD was accelerating. And yes, those counties\u2019 annual B&C totals never fell below 13 (2010) for the 1999-2011 entries, but fell to 12 (2019) and 11 (2024) for the 2012-2024 entries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Those same 14 counties, however, enrolled 105 B&C bucks the last five years (2020-2024), a 15% increase from 91 the first five years (1999-2003), even as gun-hunter numbers statewide fell 14% from 644,460 in 2012 to 553,652 in 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Human Factor<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Bottom line: B&C entries are neither consistent nor predictable. And hunters help make it so. When hunters kill a potential Booner, it\u2019s on them to find a certified scorer to measure the rack, and pay the club its $40 entry fee. Many hunters do neither. Some want to keep things secret. Others care little about antler scores and records.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Shane Indrebo, co-owner of the North American Shed Hunters Club since 2019, knows something about all that. He lives in Buffalo County and grew up helping his parents Tom and Lori operate Bluff Country Outfitters since 1993 from their farm near Cream. Since 2006, Indrebo has also taken studio-quality photos for hunters and their bucks. Each session takes roughly an hour, and one to two hours to edit and organize the images. At $300 per session, Indrebo takes 25 to 30 big-buck portraits during slow years and 50 in good years. That\u2019s over 500 hunters\/bucks the past 20 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Indrebo isn\u2019t surprised when hunters don\u2019t enter lower-end Booners in the book. To qualify for B&C\u2019s all-time records, a whitetail\u2019s rack must net-score 170 inches as a \u201ctypical\u201d or 195 inches as a \u201cnontypical.\u201d Those minimums have been B&C standards since at least 1968.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cA large majority of big bucks never go into the record books, but I also think most elite bucks end up in the books,\u201d Indrebo told MeatEater.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Indrebo said \u201celite\u201d bucks score in the high 180s to low 190s as typicals, and 220s to 230s as nontypicals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cSome bucks get labeled \u2018200\u2019 when they\u2019re shot, but by the time they dry 60 days and get measured, a 189 nontypical won\u2019t get entered,\u201d he said. \u201cSome guys will say, \u2018I don\u2019t want my name in no book.\u2019 But when it\u2019s a 189 typical, they start hearing some crap. When their buddies show interest, they realize it\u2019s special. They feel peer pressure to go to a deer show and get it scored.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Indrebo thinks Buffalo County\u2019s B&C dominance isn\u2019t just habitat, herd size, and limestone bluffs. \u201cYou see similar habitats throughout the Driftless Area,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of the biggest racks and sheds we\u2019ve scored come from Richland County (80 miles to the southeast). But I\u2019m not surprised there\u2019s fewer entries across the (Mississippi) River in Minnesota. A lot of their record-book entries are from before 2000. Things are different there; maybe because their gun season opens during the rut in early November, two weeks before our (gun) season.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A Tradition of B&C<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Dan Storm, the Wisconsin DNR\u2019s deer-research scientist, said B&C entries are as much about people as deer. \u201cThere\u2019s more of a tradition for entering deer in some areas,\u201d Storm told MeatEater. \u201cBuffalo County has twice as many entries as Trempealeau County (109 vs. 52 for 1999-2024), but there\u2019s no way Buffalo County produces twice as many bucks worthy of entry. Those counties border each other, and they\u2019re nearly identical in size and habitat.\u201d (Buffalo County covers 709 square miles, of which 527 (74%) square miles is deer range. Trempealeau County covers 742 square miles, and 514 (69%) is deer range.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In contrast, two Minnesota counties across the Mississippi River registered just over half as many Booners for 1999-2024 as Trempealeau County\u2019s 52. Winona County had 29 B&C entries those years and Wabasha 27. South of there, Houston County had 42 entries. Iowa\u2019s northeastern counties along the Mississippi River differed little. Allamakee County had 39 entries for 1999-2024, followed by Dubuque, 36; and Clayton, 34. Across the river in northwestern Illinois, Jo Daviess County had 35 entries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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All eight of those Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois counties are in the Driftless Area, as are Wisconsin\u2019s eight river-border counties. But of Wisconsin\u2019s eight counties on the Mississippi River, only Pierce, 41 entries; Pepin, 27; and La Crosse, 23; had fewer B&C entries than Houston Counties\u2019 42: Buffalo,109; Vernon, 57; Trempealeau, 52; Crawford, 49; and Grant, 42.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A Matter of Pride?<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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MeatEater\u2019s Spencer Neuharth, host of the MeatEater Trivia podcast, links Wisconsin\u2019s B&C dominance more to pride than deer habitats or genetics. \u201cIt\u2019s anecdotal, but I think Wisconsin has a prouder group of hunters than anywhere else in the country,\u201d Neuharth said. \u201cPart of that pride is entering their names in the record book. I love that. It’s really cool. I\u2019m jealous of it, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The late Charles Kuralt of CBS-TV News made similar comments about Wisconsin in the early 1980s after touring the state for his \u201cOn the Road\u201d reports. Kuralt noted the state\u2019s small-town pride in Hayward, which proclaimed itself the \u201cMusky Capital of the World;\u201d and Fremont, the \u201cWhite Bass Capital of the World;\u201d Monroe, the \u201cSwiss Cheese Capital of the World;\u201d Eau Claire, the \u201cHorseradish Capital of the World;\u201d and Iola, the \u201cBowhunting Capital of the World.\u201d Kuralt finally exclaimed, \u201cWisconsin is the capital of the capitals of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Make no mistake: Neuharth thinks Wisconsin\u2019s B&C entries are legitimate, whether it\u2019s all-time (2,132 Booners) or 1999-2024 (1,537). Still, he doubts Wisconsin hunters killed 32% more Booner-class bucks in 1999-2024 than did Illinois hunters (1,168 entries) or 157% more than Texas hunters (599 entries).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMy argument gets stronger when you look at Boone and Crockett black bear entries,\u201d Neuharth said. \u201cWisconsin kills about as many black bears (3,724 in 2025, and 4,432 in 2024) as any state, but it has over twice as many Booner black-bears (959, all-time) as second-place Pennsylvania (467), and nearly four times as many as Alaska (257).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cBuffalo County also has three black bear entries,\u201d Neuharth continued. \u201cThat\u2019s the same amount as Minnesota\u2019s Lake of the Woods County and more than Montana\u2019s Flathead County (2). Both of those counties are much bigger, and have better bear habitat than Buffalo County. So, all that feels inflated.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Too Soon for Clarity<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Then again, that awareness suggests that if one state could use B&C entries to detect trends in CWD data, it\u2019s Wisconsin. And when it comes to antler size, what\u2019s the alternative? No state wildlife agency maintains systems for scoring antlers and cataloguing big bucks annually, historically or regionally. Nor do states track how many bucks taxidermists handle each year. And even if states tracked taxidermy workloads, how would they account for business fluctuations caused by economic factors, hunting-license sales, hunting and habitat conditions, and perceptions of each taxidermist\u2019s skills or pricing?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If this were all about science, and not wall-worthy antlers, the best method is age-class data. Unfortunately, the Wisconsin DNR hasn\u2019t systematically collected those details since 2015. That\u2019s when it ended mandatory in-person deer registration and switched to mandatory electronic registration. Although the agency could impose temporary in-person check stations to collect data, Wisconsin\u2019s political climate has blocked that option.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Storm, the Wisconsin DNR researcher, thinks CWD is probably reducing big-buck numbers, but he can\u2019t predict or specify how it affects B&C entries. \u201cThat\u2019s a different question,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Wisconsin native Jim Heffelfinger, the wildlife science coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, thinks it\u2019s still too soon to identify CWD\u2019s impacts on B&C entries, or the age structure of Wisconsin bucks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAt this point, the numbers you\u2019re showing are erratic,\u201d Heffelfinger told MeatEater after looking at the 1999-2024 B&C data for southwestern Wisconsin. \u201cIt\u2019s like the saying about measuring with a micrometer, marking with chalk, and cutting with an ax. Those numbers so far lack the resolution to detect anything caused by CWD. It would be better to get all the age-structure data and analyze that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Mike Chamberlain at the University of Georgia\u2019s Warnell School of Forestry made similar comments. Chamberlain helped do a 2021-2024 study of CWD\u2019s impacts on Arkansas\u2019 deer herds. The four-year project documented CWD reduced Arkansas\u2019 deer numbers 17% annually, on average; with buck densities declining 23% annually.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s nothing obvious in (Wisconsin\u2019s 1999-2024 B&C data) at this time, but I think it\u2019s too soon,\u201d Chamberlain told MeatEater. \u201cYou wonder what those numbers will look like in 10 years, or maybe 20 or 30 years. At some point, it seems logical the numbers would have to drop off, given the high CWD prevalence in some Wisconsin counties.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A Complicated Disease<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, CWD rates mostly keep rising in Wisconsin, even though it hasn\u2019t spread at the same rate in every direction, nor does it infect herds equally, no matter their numbers or population densities. In general, CWD in Wisconsin spreads faster in areas with clay-based soils, rural corridors, and areas of connected woodlands, abundant edge cover and high percentages of deer range. On the other hand, it spreads slower in sand-based soils, well developed areas, and open agricultural areas with large cultivated fields.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For example, Madison\u2019s metro area with 700,000 residents has hampered CWD\u2019s spread in eastern Dane County and beyond. Also, a four-lane highway heading west from Madison helps separate northern Iowa County from its southern half. CWD isn\u2019t as prevalent in the relatively open agricultural landscapes south of the highway, which extend into Lafayette County and then Illinois. But CWD prevalence remains high north of that highway in Iowa County\u2019s oak ridges, brushy ravines, and edge-rich valleys.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A recent eight-year DNR study by Storm\u2019s team in northern Iowa County found CWD kills more female deer than do hunters once an area\u2019s infection rate for does hits 29%. That rate has been exceeded across many parts of Dane, Iowa, Sauk and Richland counties. The rates are more obvious at the township level (36 square miles), than at the larger county-level scale. For 2025, Richland County\u2019s CWD rate was 36% overall (both sexes), while CWD rates for its 16 townships ranged from lows of 21% and 23.5% to highs of 44% and 50%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Regional CWD prevalence charts in 2024 also show those differences:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2013Iowa County\u2019s CWD rates in 12 regional charts vary from 25% to 47% for adult bucks, and 20% to 35% in adult females.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2013Sauk County\u2019s CWD rates in 10 regional charts vary from 30% to 58% for adult bucks, and 19% to 38% for adult females.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2013Richland County\u2019s CWD rates in eight regional charts vary from 40% to 55% for adult bucks, and 25% to 30% for adult females;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2013Dane County\u2019s CWD rates in two regional charts range from 25% to 35% for adult bucks, and 22% to 23% for adult females.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2013Northwest Columbia County\u2019s CWD rate was 55% for adult bucks and 35% for adult does.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2013Northeastern Grant County\u2019s CWD rate was 45% for adult bucks and 33% for adult does.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"CWD\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\nPhoto Courtesy of Paul Annear<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Views from the Ground<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, many hunters in Wisconsin\u2019s core CWD counties don\u2019t need B&C data to confirm what they\u2019re seeing firsthand. In Iowa County, buck kills have plummeted since gun-hunters killed a record 4,738 antlered bucks in 1995, and 1,978 bucks in 2011. During November 2024\u2019s nine-day gun season, they registered 916 bucks. And during November 2025\u2019s nine-day gun season, they registered 894 bucks. The last time Iowa County\u2019s buck kill was near or below 900 in back-to-back gun seasons was 1970 and 1971\u201455 years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jason Munz grew up on his family\u2019s farm in Iowa County, which had 33 B&C entries for 1999-2024. Munz arrowed a 12-pointer with an 18-inch spread in November 2023. That\u2019s his biggest buck since he began bowhunting at age 12 in 1993. Even so, Munz said deer hunting grew increasingly difficult as CWD spread death. His family rarely found dead-heads during his youth, but his father found six in Spring 2023 alone, including one scoring 140 inches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhen we see a big buck on our trail cameras, if we don\u2019t shoot him that year, we never see him again,\u201d Munz told MeatEater. \u201cMaybe someone on a nearby farm got him, but we don\u2019t know. They just disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Likewise, Paul Annear grew up bowhunting on his family\u2019s farm in Richland County, which entered 59 B&C bucks for 1999-2024, including eight Booners in 2012, six in 2005, and four in 2011and 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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CWD took roughly 15 years to reach Annear\u2019s land from its original sites 40-plus miles to the southeast, but eight of 11 deer he\u2019s killed since 2019 had the disease. He has no doubt CWD\u2014not hunters or epizootic hemorrhagic disease\u2014decimated his area\u2019s herd the past five to six years. Plus, neither the Annears nor their neighbors changed their buck or doe management those years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2020, Annear had at least one photo of 30 different bucks he estimated to be ages 3.5 or older. But in 2024 and again in 2025, his trail-cameras photographed only eight to 10 bucks in that age class, even with 20 more trail-cameras on his family\u2019s 115-acre property than in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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His trail-cameras also photograph sick, skeletal deer in their fields, woods, or creek. \u201cSo many people claim those sick, skinny deer are EHD victims,\u201d Annear said. \u201cBut deer dying from CWD also go to water, and they live long enough to waste away. EHD kills deer in five to 10 days. That\u2019s too quick for deer to lose much weight.\u201d Further, EHD only strikes sporadically, and only in short outbreaks from late summer through the first frost.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Annear\u2019s experience echoes what brothers Lloyd and Mike Purnell report farther east in Richland County. In 2006, the Purnells\u2019 four properties covering 700 acres were CWD-free. In 2019, they found 10 dead deer. In 2020, they found eight bodies before April, usually just inside the woods near fields with cut corn or other crops. One doe died surrounded by corn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During 2024, the Purnells and their friends shot 20 deer by mid-December. Nine (45%)\u2014all bucks\u2014had CWD. One year their properties\u2019 overall infection rate hit 55%, with roughly half being does. In 2025, eight of 14 bucks (57%) they shot had CWD. \u201cWe had a 140-class buck running around last fall, but that\u2019s the biggest we\u2019ve seen in a while,\u201d Purnell told MeatEater.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Looking to the Future<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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What lies ahead, now that Wisconsin\u2019s CWD detection rates set records the past four years and seven of the past 10?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bryan Richards was the U.S. Geological Survey\u2019s longtime emerging-disease coordinator until retiring recently after decades of CWD work. Richards foresees a \u201cnew equilibrium\u201d for deer herds in CWD-endemic areas. That means high disease rates, lower deer numbers, smaller and younger herds, and few \u201ctrophy\u201d bucks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cAt some point, it\u2019s impossible Wisconsin won\u2019t see fewer (B&C) bucks,\u201d Richards told MeatEater. \u201cHow many bucks can reach age 5\u00bd in counties where young bucks have a 20% chance of having CWD at 18 months, and a 40% chance by age 4\u00bd and 5\u00bd? Not many. A true Boone and Crockett whitetail is really, really rare to start with. With CWD, put a couple more \u2018reallys\u2019 in that phrase. CWD kills every deer that gets it, including half the bucks that must reach maturity to grow huge antlers. \u2018Rare\u2019 is a small number. \u2018None\u2019 is even smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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How will CWD affect Wisconsin\u2019s top five B&C counties, four of which didn\u2019t detect the disease until 2015 or later?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u2013No. 1 Buffalo County\u2019s first CWD case was 2022. It now has 34 cases. Its 2025 detection rate was 4.3%<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2013No. 2 Richland\u2019s first case was 2002. It now has 2,904. Its 2025 detection rate: 36%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u2013No. 3 Vernon\u2019s first case was 2017. It now has 334. Its 2025 detection rate: 14%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u2013No. 4 Trempealeau\u2019s first case was 2023. It now has 22. Its 2025 detection rate: 4.2%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u2013No. 5 Crawford\u2019s first case was 2015. It now has 263. Its 2025 detection rate: 13.2%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Storm said there\u2019s no reason CWD won\u2019t infect Buffalo and Trempealeau counties any differently than it did Richland, Vernon or Crawford. All five of those counties have fertile soils and high percentages of deer habitat. Buffalo County is 74% deer range; and Richland is 81%; Vernon, 71%; Trempealeau, 69%; and Crawford, 81%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Once CWD detection rates hit 5%, the disease is considered \u201cendemic.\u201d That is, it\u2019s not going away. After CWD reached 5% in Sauk, Iowa and Richland counties, it hit 10% to 15% within three years. If Buffalo and Trempealeau\u2019s CWD rates follow suit, their infections would hit 10% by 2028 and 20% by 2031. And if Buffalo and Trempealeau infections mimic Richland\u2019s, CWD rates would surpass 30% around 2035.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Mike Purnell and Paul Annear long feared CWD would hurt Richland County\u2019s deer herd, and now they\u2019re living with its impacts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cDeer numbers are way down, and big bucks are nonexistent,\u201d Mike Purnell said. \u201cIt\u2019s a new world because of CWD.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Annear doesn\u2019t think whitetails will vanish from his area,\u00a0but the average age of \u201cmature\u201d bucks has dropped from 5\u00bd to 6\u00bd to 3\u00bd and 4\u00bd for his area. If he could go back to when CWD first appeared, he would encourage and follow more aggressive deer management.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not too late in many areas of the country to do something,\u201d Annear said. \u201cIgnoring CWD might help short-term hunting opportunities, but it doesn\u2019t protect the future of deer and deer hunting. I doubt there\u2019s a perfect way to manage CWD, but sitting around\u00a0accepting it doesn\u2019t seem right, either.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t overlook Wisconsin\u2019s No. 1 ranking when scrolling through the Boone and Crockett Club\u2019s 17,465 record-book entries for white-tailed deer in the Lower 48. According to B&C\u2019s \u201cBig Game Records Live\u201d online listings, hunters have entered 2,132 Wisconsin bucks (typicals and nontypicals combined) in \u201cthe book\u201d since its origins in 1888. That\u2019s 12% of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.ctfassets.net\/pujs1b1v0165\/676toJAQL44KfldKZZMgzF\/1937bb8aa70fb17aeccb6e8c88a9016d\/CWD_Cover.jpg?fit=fill&w=1200&h=630","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hunting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9155,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9153\/revisions\/9155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}