NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


mibowhunter
500 Club
Posts: 562
Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2011 6:21 am
Location: MI
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Unread postby mibowhunter » Sat Jul 11, 2015 7:59 am

And to think... I moved from Wisconsin to Michigan. worst. decision. ever. :angry-banghead: haha


hunter10
500 Club
Posts: 1218
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 5:24 pm
Status: Offline

Re: NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Unread postby hunter10 » Wed Jul 15, 2015 1:19 pm

Iowa is one big food plot.


Never been there but any research ive done on the area makes your quote true in my eyes
User avatar
bones09
Posts: 235
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 7:53 am
Location: wisconsin
Status: Offline

Re: NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Unread postby bones09 » Thu Jul 16, 2015 2:05 am

JoeRE wrote:
Bucky wrote:
I agree with you... there are a bunch of high end trophies in Iowa that never get registered... but in West WI the same is true. Last year I met a group of locals at a social gathering... the racks they brought in were unbelievable. Most just skull plates... no mounts :think: :lol:


Yep, I still maintain the real WORLD RECORD is nailed to a chicken coup somewhere in the rural midwest. Most good old boys are smart enough not to brag about a deer like that if they ever shot one.



I agree with all of the above. These numbers are interesting but i don't look too far into them other than trends. It's good to see so many different areas of the state producing.

I would not be surprised if JoeRe is right about that world record buck. I have a friend that hunts some privileged property on a handshake each year during the gun season. In 2010 he shot a buck so big he was scared to show the landowner what he got.lol It was a main frame 13pt typical with a few extra stickers on the bases. Long story short it rough scored 223ish gross the night he shot it and hasn't been scored since. I'm not saying it's a world record but i wouldn't be surprised if it's a WI record. It's just 1 example of a hunter that doesn't want the attention brought to himself or the land he hunts for free.
JoeRE
500 Club
Posts: 4576
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 5:26 am
Location: IA
Status: Offline

Re: NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Unread postby JoeRE » Fri Jul 17, 2015 3:46 am

hunter10 wrote:
Iowa is one big food plot.


Never been there but any research ive done on the area makes your quote true in my eyes


I agree Iowa certainly is not limited by food. It is limited by cover. Deer won't live out in a picked corn or bean field all winter long. If you throw a dart at a map of Iowa there is about a 50/50 chance you will hit an area that has very few deer because it has very little cover. The half of the state that has cover is where Iowa's reputation comes from.

Lack of cover is a bigger problem than than ever in the last 30 years because I have heard that 20% of Iowa's CRP has been tilled under in the last 10 years and many acres of woodlots and fence rows have been bulldozed too in the name of almighty agribusiness. There are entire counties in central and north central Iowa that have very few deer.

Wisconsin is on the other side of the coin, the north half of the state is more limited by food, cover is not an issue.
User avatar
rizzo999
500 Club
Posts: 594
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:57 pm
Location: Northern IL
Status: Offline

Re: NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Unread postby rizzo999 » Fri Jul 17, 2015 8:15 am

fishlips wrote:Pretty good stats right there. I know WI has a pretty good archery population (not what MI has), so I am sure that helps the #s a bit. That being said, there is a lot of good terrain around here to grow big deer and plenty of food for the most part. It would be interesting to see what would happen to WI if it became a one buck state. Like was mentioned by someone else, a number of those counties were under pretty strict CWD rules that allowed unlimited earn a buck for a number of years. I am sure that did not help more bucks reach maturity.


Based on my experiences the first few years of the earn-a-buck in Iowa county (WI) this was not true. I saw more mature bucks during the CWD EAB years than previous. I can't speak on it now as I have not hunted WI since '13. The "brown-its-down" hunters were not able to take all of those little 1.5 yr olds until they earned their buck thus allowing these little guys to actually grow up during this time. But, then apparently some of the highly intelligent "hunters" began registering road kill and other previously tagged antlerless deer just to acquire the almight buck tag so they could get an arrow or bullet in that monster 1.5 yr old. OK, my rant is over.... :shhh:
dreaming bucks
Status: Offline

Re: NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Unread postby dreaming bucks » Fri Jul 17, 2015 8:22 am

rizzo999 wrote:
fishlips wrote:Pretty good stats right there. I know WI has a pretty good archery population (not what MI has), so I am sure that helps the #s a bit. That being said, there is a lot of good terrain around here to grow big deer and plenty of food for the most part. It would be interesting to see what would happen to WI if it became a one buck state. Like was mentioned by someone else, a number of those counties were under pretty strict CWD rules that allowed unlimited earn a buck for a number of years. I am sure that did not help more bucks reach maturity.


Based on my experiences the first few years of the earn-a-buck in Iowa county (WI) this was not true. I saw more mature bucks during the CWD EAB years than previous. I can't speak on it now as I have not hunted WI since '13. The "brown-its-down" hunters were not able to take all of those little 1.5 yr olds until they earned their buck thus allowing these little guys to actually grow up during this time. But, then apparently some of the highly intelligent "hunters" began registering road kill and other previously tagged antlerless deer just to acquire the almight buck tag so they could get an arrow or bullet in that monster 1.5 yr old. OK, my rant is over.... :shhh:


So very true..... I hunt Sauk county, same thing happened here.
BassBoysLLP
500 Club
Posts: 9756
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2011 11:28 am
Location: Central WI
Status: Offline

Re: NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:01 pm

dreaming bucks wrote:
rizzo999 wrote:
fishlips wrote:Pretty good stats right there. I know WI has a pretty good archery population (not what MI has), so I am sure that helps the #s a bit. That being said, there is a lot of good terrain around here to grow big deer and plenty of food for the most part. It would be interesting to see what would happen to WI if it became a one buck state. Like was mentioned by someone else, a number of those counties were under pretty strict CWD rules that allowed unlimited earn a buck for a number of years. I am sure that did not help more bucks reach maturity.


Based on my experiences the first few years of the earn-a-buck in Iowa county (WI) this was not true. I saw more mature bucks during the CWD EAB years than previous. I can't speak on it now as I have not hunted WI since '13. The "brown-its-down" hunters were not able to take all of those little 1.5 yr olds until they earned their buck thus allowing these little guys to actually grow up during this time. But, then apparently some of the highly intelligent "hunters" began registering road kill and other previously tagged antlerless deer just to acquire the almight buck tag so they could get an arrow or bullet in that monster 1.5 yr old. OK, my rant is over.... :shhh:


So very true..... I hunt Sauk county, same thing happened here.


X3. EAB was awesome in those days.
fishlips
500 Club
Posts: 1282
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2011 5:32 am
Location: South Central WI
Status: Offline

Re: NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Unread postby fishlips » Fri Jul 17, 2015 1:24 pm

rizzo999 wrote:
fishlips wrote:Pretty good stats right there. I know WI has a pretty good archery population (not what MI has), so I am sure that helps the #s a bit. That being said, there is a lot of good terrain around here to grow big deer and plenty of food for the most part. It would be interesting to see what would happen to WI if it became a one buck state. Like was mentioned by someone else, a number of those counties were under pretty strict CWD rules that allowed unlimited earn a buck for a number of years. I am sure that did not help more bucks reach maturity.


Based on my experiences the first few years of the earn-a-buck in Iowa county (WI) this was not true. I saw more mature bucks during the CWD EAB years than previous. I can't speak on it now as I have not hunted WI since '13. The "brown-its-down" hunters were not able to take all of those little 1.5 yr olds until they earned their buck thus allowing these little guys to actually grow up during this time. But, then apparently some of the highly intelligent "hunters" began registering road kill and other previously tagged antlerless deer just to acquire the almight buck tag so they could get an arrow or bullet in that monster 1.5 yr old. OK, my rant is over.... :shhh:


I remember when they started T zone. That was before cwd and there were a lot of deer. Things trended downward for us once the early gun season kicked into gear after they found cwd.

dont dount the multiple registrations/road kills at all. Have heard that one enough.

[ Post made via Android ] Image
User avatar
Rutnstrut
500 Club
Posts: 775
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2010 3:54 pm
Location: West Central Wi.
Status: Offline

Re: NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Unread postby Rutnstrut » Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 am

The map in the article is wrong. Pierce county is NOT a good place to hunt, everyone keep going to Buffalo county. I repeat Pierce county sucks;)
User avatar
bowhunter15
Posts: 2290
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 3:14 pm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/DIY-Spor ... 3136327062
Location: Minneapolis
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: NAW: Best Spots for Bowhunting Wisconsin’s Trophy Bucks

Unread postby bowhunter15 » Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:15 am

Hmm, looks like I should be hunting St. Croix and Piece county less and Polk county more! lol. I'm surprised that Polk had the most out of those 3 counties lined up along the St. Croix river. My guess would have been Pierce followed by St Croix followed by Polk.


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 71 guests