Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

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Marauder
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Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby Marauder » Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:38 am

Hey Everyone,

I know I'm new to this site so I'll try not to sound too much like a novice. I grew up hunting public land, however our ways are pretty common to a lot of hunters. We walked in the woods normally without a lot of scouting, set up a stand and put out a bait pile of corn. I'll admit this got boring as a 12 year old kid. It didn't always work, in fact it rarely works. You would get an opportunity at mostly younger deer. Never the case with a mature buck. Well now with the advancement of technology you can set up trail cams and see what in fact is in the area. Normally you would get a decent buck on camera but always at night. This always puzzled and frustrated me. How can you figure out this buck without enticing him with a bait pile? Well this year I think will be my last year with corn. I've invested in an XOP setup and silenced it the best I can. Now is the hard part. The scouting. I've read many books by Greg Miller and Steve Bartylla and now some of Dan's articles. I've tried imagined what was always going through their heads when they write their book/articles and then try to apply it to how I hunt. Not always the easiest.

I love scouting but not all that good at getting on big bucks. The biggest buck I've seen is a 10 point 110 inch buck last season. I pasted up a lousy shot and didn't get him. I'd like to get a chance at seeing more big deer. I already shot a 7 point this season so I'm already thinking on my next move. I plan on doing some scouting and test the waters. If anyone has any tips or suggestions please let me know.

Thanks in advance,

Tim


Bucky
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby Bucky » Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:40 am

Where do you live

How far will you travel

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"When a hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values, with the proper hunting ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is 20 feet closer to God." Fred Bear
Marauder
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby Marauder » Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:42 am

Bucky wrote:Where do you live

How far will you travel

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I live in Northcentral Wisconsin (Tomahawk). I prefer to hunt within 45 minutes of me. However if it's worth my while I would travel further.
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headgear
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby headgear » Wed Nov 02, 2016 9:11 am

Dan has some great dvds that really take you step by step how to hunt swamps, marshes and hills. Those are going to be the shortest learning curve to older bucks. Then it's just a matter of hitting the woods, scouting and hunting hard and letting the chips fall where they may.
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby kripp53 » Wed Nov 02, 2016 9:22 am

I would also suggest the DVD's, they are a great resource. This won't help you this year but if you can make it to one of Dan's spring/winter scouting workshops. Those workshops will open your eyes to bed scouting.
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby Marauder » Wed Nov 02, 2016 9:50 am

timberwolf311 wrote:Not trying to sound rude!!!! One of the biggest steps hunters have to make, imo, is passing up deer. This isn't bc they will be bigger next year. It is bc until that happens you are not hunting mature deer. You are scouting them, planning entry's and exits for them, but not truly hunting them until that's all you will shoot. I grew up around hunter with the same mantaility you did. Damn I loved those guys but they couldn't kill a mature deer unless it ran by during rifle. I don't think there is one little thing wrong with shooting whatever makes you happy. I have been on hunts where an immature animal made me happy but rarely have ever killed a mature animal when willing to setttle for an immature one. So step one be able to pass everything but what you want!!

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That is good advice. I'm still working on that one. I shot my smaller mediocre buck a couple Saturdays ago for a few reasons. Not justifying it or regretting it. I was anticipating leaving this property soon. I had a feeling the owner was going to ask me to leave his property. Which in fact did happen this week. Also we didn't have a lot of Does on this property so I gave them a pass. We were also running out of meat. He was also the biggest I've had on camera. I made the quick decision to shoot and I'm okay with it. Just want to move on and invest some time to get better and see a mature buck.
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby Marauder » Wed Nov 02, 2016 10:07 am

This is some of the land that I'm going to be scouting. Any suggestions? :D

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Jonny
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby Jonny » Wed Nov 02, 2016 10:18 am

Without a topo or aerial it will be hard to get a helpful response. Since I am in college and have access to free printing, I print alot of maps. Then I go, and highlight all the roads one color, hiking and logging trails another. Do this to cut down on area to scout. I hunted north of tomahawk near the willow flowage, great land but no deer. However the hunters were predictable. Use the scale on your map, and anything within a half mile of a road or a quarter mile of the logging road or trail has a good chance to see people. I generally just cross off that area. From there use topos and aerials and boots to find areas to hunt. My best luck in seeing better deer has been to get away from people. I am still new to all of this but thats my experience. Of course there are lots of exceptions but thats just my advice.
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby Marauder » Thu Nov 03, 2016 2:54 am

Jonny wrote:Without a topo or aerial it will be hard to get a helpful response. Since I am in college and have access to free printing, I print alot of maps. Then I go, and highlight all the roads one color, hiking and logging trails another. Do this to cut down on area to scout. I hunted north of tomahawk near the willow flowage, great land but no deer. However the hunters were predictable. Use the scale on your map, and anything within a half mile of a road or a quarter mile of the logging road or trail has a good chance to see people. I generally just cross off that area. From there use topos and aerials and boots to find areas to hunt. My best luck in seeing better deer has been to get away from people. I am still new to all of this but thats my experience. Of course there are lots of exceptions but thats just my advice.


I do have access to printing out maps. I printed off a copy of versions. Also a couple of my friends attempt to hunt the willow flowage. A lot of hunters/wolves in that area. You're not wrong about no deer.
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby Jonny » Thu Nov 03, 2016 2:59 am

Marauder wrote:
Jonny wrote:Without a topo or aerial it will be hard to get a helpful response. Since I am in college and have access to free printing, I print alot of maps. Then I go, and highlight all the roads one color, hiking and logging trails another. Do this to cut down on area to scout. I hunted north of tomahawk near the willow flowage, great land but no deer. However the hunters were predictable. Use the scale on your map, and anything within a half mile of a road or a quarter mile of the logging road or trail has a good chance to see people. I generally just cross off that area. From there use topos and aerials and boots to find areas to hunt. My best luck in seeing better deer has been to get away from people. I am still new to all of this but thats my experience. Of course there are lots of exceptions but thats just my advice.


I do have access to printing out maps. I printed off a copy of versions. Also a couple of my friends attempt to hunt the willow flowage. A lot of hunters/wolves in that area. You're not wrong about no deer.


I have friends that used to shoot lots of big deer out of that area. Some years everybody was tagged out by noon opening day. Its terrible what happened up there. You know its getting bad when a warden told us to shoot any wolf we saw
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby justin84 » Thu Nov 03, 2016 3:31 am

I hunt a fair amount of time about 30 minutes north of there. In laws live in St Germain. Hodag Hunter, KLEMZ, Dewey, and Steve Heiting (read his book) come to mind as members who have shared tons of info on hunting the northwoods. I would recommend doing some searches and finding some of those great threads. Dan and Hodag scouted up there a few years back and that thread is a great one. Magicman has a thread about "staying on the edge" that was super helpful. I'll see if I can find more. I think it was 2012 when we had a brutal winter up there and it really put a dent in the population from everything I've heard. We had walkable ice in November that year. A few mild winters and things are looking better. My father in law is telling me scrapes and rubs are popping up like crazy, and he has some nice bucks on camera. Trouble is finding them during the day. Bed hunting is harder up there; after some discussions with some members I've decided focusing on the transitions is more productive. I passed a number of spikes and forks last season up there. The deer travel like crazy, food is abundant, and they are just so tough to nail down to a particular location. I have learned so much about hunting the big woods on here and I'm sure you will too.

Looking quickly at those maps, you have some good hills and tons of swamp edge to start with. Just like up by where I hunt. These guys on here have taught me to look at the map and eliminate 90% of it before putting boots on the ground. So for me I'd do that by focusing on the edges of swamps, and walking the hills, identifying some of the topo features that might be good for rut hunting and/or bedding. A hill facing water is also a good place to start. Just thinking as I type here...
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby Marauder » Thu Nov 03, 2016 5:57 am

justin84 wrote:I hunt a fair amount of time about 30 minutes north of there. In laws live in St Germain. Hodag Hunter, KLEMZ, Dewey, and Steve Heiting (read his book) come to mind as members who have shared tons of info on hunting the northwoods. I would recommend doing some searches and finding some of those great threads. Dan and Hodag scouted up there a few years back and that thread is a great one. Magicman has a thread about "staying on the edge" that was super helpful. I'll see if I can find more. I think it was 2012 when we had a brutal winter up there and it really put a dent in the population from everything I've heard. We had walkable ice in November that year. A few mild winters and things are looking better. My father in law is telling me scrapes and rubs are popping up like crazy, and he has some nice bucks on camera. Trouble is finding them during the day. Bed hunting is harder up there; after some discussions with some members I've decided focusing on the transitions is more productive. I passed a number of spikes and forks last season up there. The deer travel like crazy, food is abundant, and they are just so tough to nail down to a particular location. I have learned so much about hunting the big woods on here and I'm sure you will too.

Looking quickly at those maps, you have some good hills and tons of swamp edge to start with. Just like up by where I hunt. These guys on here have taught me to look at the map and eliminate 90% of it before putting boots on the ground. So for me I'd do that by focusing on the edges of swamps, and walking the hills, identifying some of the topo features that might be good for rut hunting and/or bedding. A hill facing water is also a good place to start. Just thinking as I type here...


Thanks for the response! I'll do some searching to find some of those helpful threads! :D
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby ihookem » Mon Nov 07, 2016 3:14 pm

The biggest problem you will have is there are not many mature bucks up there. I hunt 50 mi. west and 10 mi. north Tomahawk. The winter of 2013 - 14 was so severe it killed almost all the fawns and older bucks. Those bucks have to run themselves half to death to find a doe. By the time deer season of 2013 happened they were all in bad shape. Then 3' of snow came and long periods of cold. My thermometer at my cabin said the low was -35 F for the winter and it stayed cold a long time. Half the deer died that winter including many reproducing does. This came at a time the numbers were already very low from the spring of 2013 when it snowed 7" on opening day of fishing season and had a late spring . No doubt some fawns died cause I have seen fawn tracks along the river opening day of fishing. You will find very few bucks 3.5 or older, but we have been getting a few on the cam. Most are 1.5. In a few yrs with the low hunting pressure it will even out if we have another easy winter, and that seems to be on the way already. I would look for older big scrapes from years gone by and a good chance there will be big bucks using those bedding areas again in a yr or two. It is hard to tell where to hunt on a topo. I noticed the N.W. corner of section 28 had some humps there. Sometimes those hold deer especially if it is thick with tall grass in there. There is line heading south of those humps. It may be a very slight high ridge, just enough to keep it dry. It may be used by the deer if it is just a few ft. higher going through the swamp. Maybe , maybe not . Up in Price co. 2 days ago we found deer beds and all were in the higher grass. We think we found a buck bed too. You are in sandy country and grass may not do as well as in west Price co.
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Re: Hunting Wisconsin Public Land

Unread postby Marauder » Tue Nov 08, 2016 1:29 pm

^^^^That is some good advice, thanks!! You are most likely spot on about our rough winters.

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