End of The Road Deer Processing

05/22/2026

Wisconsin has one of the worst CWD problems in America. So what happened to their deer herd as CWD spread? That’s what caught my attention while reading one of Dr. Christopher Seabury’s papers. In 2008, Wisconsin’s CWD positive rate was about 1.5%. 2024 is running around 11%. Yet according to the Wisconsins DNR population estimates shown in Seabury’s paper, Wisconsin went from roughly 1,002,300 deer after the 2008 season to 1,825,000 after the 2024 season.

Now, I already know the pushback. People are going to say, “That’s statewide. What about the actual CWD counties?” Fair question. I’m digging into that next, because if CWD is destroying deer herds the way hunters have been told, we should be able to see it in the places where CWD is highest. But statewide, this is already hard to ignore. CWD went way up, yet Wisconsin’s DNR deer estimate also went way up.

— Stephen Ziegler
Outdoor writer | Owner, DeLong Lures

05/22/2026

Got a lot of new equipment coming in next year will be another growing year can't wait. Snack sticks galore lol.

04/28/2026

Ole Jackson parish buck killed last year the cape must have been good cuz look at the after pics. Great buck!

04/28/2026

04/28/2026

Tennessee was supposed to be the big gotcha for my 100 million view challenge. “Look at Fayette and Hardeman Counties,” they said, “CWD destroyed those herds.” So I looked and here is what I found. CWD was first detected there in 2018, and today those counties have Tennessee’s highest prevalence, 28.76% in Fayette and 21.27% in Hardeman. Deer harvest numbers do show nearly a 20% decrease over the last 5 years.

So why would deer numbers go down there? Because CWD policies that were built to lower populations. Those counties were put in the CWD management framework. Tennessee added extra earn-a-buck tags, brought in sharp shooters, increased tags, and landowner permits that allow extra deer removal outside of deer season. In other words, once again, I can point directly to policies designed to reduce deer. Once again we see CWD policies hurting deer populations but still not a single area that CWD has caused a collapse in deer numbers. It’s the exact same story all over again. Detect CWD, go in and shoot a bunch of extra deer, blame the lower numbers on CWD. If you are in Tennessee, you can blame the TWRA for damaging your deer herd.

— Stephen Ziegler
Outdoor writer | Owner, DeLong Lures

04/27/2026

04/26/2026

Every time hunters bring up EHD being a bigger problem than CWD, the game agency crowd runs to the same excuse. “They’re not even the same disease.” Okay. Nobody said they were. We all know CWD and EHD are different, spread differently, and work differently. That’s not the point. The point is that we do not have a solution for either one, so pretending the comparison is invalid is just a way to dodge the actual question. If there’s no fix for either disease, then why are we throwing so many resources at CWD while brushing off EHD like it doesn’t matter?

That question is completely fair, because EHD has clearly shown it can hurt deer herds and CWD still has not proven that at the population level. So when agencies act like hunters are confused for even asking it, they’re missing the point on purpose. This is not about whether CWD and EHD are the same. It’s about priorities. If we’re going to spend time, money, and manpower on a disease we can’t solve either way, why are we pouring it into the one that hasn’t proven it’s hurting deer populations instead of the one that actually does?

— Stephen Ziegler
Outdoor writer | Owner, DeLong Lures

02/27/2026

Just got some grass fed steak from Brookshire and wow the difference in taste is unbelievable

02/26/2026

Thank you to my customers we trying to do better.

02/08/2026

I will never back down or back up we go ahead and that's all. We love our country and freedom and will never ever forget the things our military and patriots have secured our freedoms. Love and respect for our military and President.