Central Forest Zone

[john1984]

Is there any beasts here that hunt in the Central Forest Zone in WI? How was your experience ?

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[PLB]

Is there any beasts here that hunt in the Central Forest Zone in WI? How was your experience ?

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I believe Bassboys does? Maybe he will chime in...

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[adrenalin]

I hunted 4 days during the rut this year on public. It was terrible for me. Only saw 4 does the first morning. I hunted hard moving stands twice a day everyday. I put on 13 miles going to and from stands in 4 days. Hit all of my best spots. My dad had same results. Talked to several other guys who said the herd was way down this year. Thats pretty much exactly what we found. I have killed a 2 or 3 yr old the last 3 years there during the rut but this year the sign just was not their.

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[Kraftd]

We're north central Shawano Co. and the sign and cams were down for bucks this year. Last winter seemed to take a toll. Still good numbers of does and fawns so barring another terrible winter, not expecting it to be down too long. The few older bucks we had on cams had smaller than average headgear. The 1.5's even had very small antlers by and large.

[ttsbuck]

I have hunted Clark county over the years. Over the last few years the hunting seemed a little tougher. Not many people though. Wolves are abundant. I like the area we hunt and know it well, having miles and miles of land to roam really gets in your blood. If I were to start looking for land to hunt there I would concentrate on the public that is closer to areas with more private land.

[BassBoysLLP]

I didn't hunt it this year. I monitored one area on the edge of NW portion of the unit. My observations were consistent with KraftD's sits. Winter took its toll. Population was down slightly and racks were smaller than average.

The southern portion of the unit was a completely different story (Juneau Co). While I didn't personally monitor this area, the trail camera survey/buck photos shared with me suggested no population impact and bigger than average racks. The winter severity index was considered much lower in that area and the deer rebounded well with the wet spring.

[365all_out]

From what I have noticed over the last couple years - the overall deer numbers are down. Quality bucks still exist. I mainly gun hunt over there and noticed this year in our county a lot of hunters moved due to being a no doe zone. I believe it will get better as the forestry program in my mind is doing a great job for habitat with the addition of limited doe harvest.

[Kraftd]

I guess technically we're in the Central Farmland Zone, and only about 5 miles from the Northern Forest Zone, but from my experience our particular area is more consistent with the Central Forest Zone than either of the first two I listed.

[BassBoysLLP]

I guess technically we're in the Central Farmland Zone, and only about 5 miles from the Northern Forest Zone, but from my experience our particular area is more consistent with the Central Forest Zone than either of the first two I listed.

North Central Shawano Co is much farther than 5 miles from the Central Forest

[Kraftd]

That's why I wrote Northern Forest!

Our place is under 5 miles as the crow flies from the Menomonee, which is shown as Northern Forest. My experience has been that we're pretty consistent with the Central Forest area habitat and deer number wise historically. Not quite big woods and getting out of the area that is primarily farms, even though we're quite a ways east of the designated Central Forest.

[BassBoysLLP]

That's why I wrote Northern Forest!

Our place is under 5 miles as the crow flies from the Menomonee, which is shown as Northern Forest. My experience has been that we're pretty consistent with the Central Forest area habitat and deer number wise historically. Not quite big woods and getting out of the area that is primarily farms, even though we're quite a ways east of the designated Central Forest.

My bad. I agree with your assessment though. It is a good barometer.

[P&YBuck1]

I too hunt Shawano County on the very western edge.

I did not get much early bow season in due to other commitments.

I took my son out for Youth hunt and he took a 15.5 inside 8-pointer, plus that same weekend I shinned many big bucks so was expecting a great season.

I saw very, very little rut action and rut sign when hunting and when shinning I never saw any of those big bucks from earlier.

I saw deer but the numbers were definitely way down from years past.

I did shoot a nice 9-pointer with a 19.5 inside spread but that was the only decent buck I saw while hunting and got him weekend before gun start.

Gun hunt was very slow and I did not see horns until I came back for 2nd half of gun, but it was a small 6-pointer which I passed.

Weird year for me since I initially thought it was going to be a better year.... but turned out so so.

[john1984]

Bump. Does anybody else here hunt the CENTRAL forest???

I hunt a big public property inside the Central forest zone but I think it may be different than the BIGWOODS of the Northern forests.

I hear some of you guys describing the Northern forest as JUST big mature timber with no under story and clear cuts that are very old nothing new. Like it may be an area lacking good browse??

The property I hunt I call BIGWOODS because it has ALOT of woods, but a lot of the trees are young. There is a good mixture of tree age and tree species where I hunt. There is also a lot of different age classes of clear cuts or slashings as some call it. Plenty of thick areas around. There ain't much for AG, but there is a lot of good browse to eat in my opinion.

The property I hunt has ALOT of marshy areas also and lots of transitions. But these marshes DONT have a lot of cattails in them for some reason, I don't understand why.

I've explored very little of the Central forest and NEVER the Northern forest. I wonder what the key differences are.

In my area of the CFZ I have noticed an increase in the deer population over the last 2 or 3 years. There have been no doe tags for public land since 2013 which I feel has helped the deer population along with a couple recent mild winters.

So, any thoughts? ????

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[BassBoysLLP]

Central forest is coming back big time. It's incredible deer habitat. Wolves are less of an issue and winters are moderate. Two more years and I expect double digit encounters in this area again. It use to be some of the best public deer hunting in WI since the wolf and the EAB. It's fragile but prolific.

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[hunter_mike]

I am coming to check it out a bit more soon

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