Hunting & Fishing Public Hunting: WI

[DocRDS]

Moving 'Home' and it has been some time since I have been in touch with hunting in WI.

Where I am currently, there is very little to no public land of any worth hunting

Long story short: Is it worth it to hunt on public land (deer) in WI-- or should I be looking to secure some property.

I also have to 'teach' my son--so that'll be fun as I'm about 25+ years out of date, but that is another story. We all start somewhere.

 

[Ric O'shay]

I don't know shit about deer. But I can help get you on some nice inland brook and brown trout!!
Welcome back to Wisco.

 

[Austan]

I would only be able to speak to the north part of the state but deer are plentiful on public land. If you are below hwy 70 you are out of my range for hunting knowledge. That said, getting your own land is always the right answer.

 

[gopherslayer]

What area? I may be able to help. If you want, PM me.

 

[Stache]

People are always killing Booners on public in WI

 

[gopherslayer]

No they don’t. Everything is a little dink. Everything. Go to IA or KS, they will love you there.

 

[Stache]

No they don’t. Everything is a little dink. Everything. Go to IA or KS, they will love you there.

Southern WI grows big deer on public. I've heard good things about IA and KS though.

 

[Namekagon]

The deer herd in the northern part of the state has a huge problem...wolves. Wolves have pretty much destroyed hunting in northern wisconsin in two ways:

1. They tend to congregate away from people, which means they pack up in the large tracts of public land. While wolves my not make a huge dent in the overall deer herd numbers, they can absolutely devastate it locally on the large tracts of public land.

2. The big bucks in the northwoods are gone. Just gone. We used to regularly know where at least 3-4 bucks lived every year that would score 130-150. They are now so rare that many times we have gone entire seasons without ever finding or seeing a buck we knew was 3 1/2. There is no other explanation for this other than wolves. Our theory is that the older bucks are first to fall to the wolves because they are wore out after the rut, and they hang out in the same sort of areas the wolves do. This is further supported by the observation that almost every decent buck we've seen since 2007 was living within spitting distance of lake-homes. Its gotten so that the deer hang tight to the houses to get away from predators. After the hunting we had in the late 90's up north, its absolutely depressing to see whats happened. It actually makes me feel physically sick. My family has had a hunting camp up north since 1953. The last 15 years have been demoralizing.

 

[Stache]

The deer herd in the northern part of the state has a huge problem...wolves. Wolves have pretty much destroyed hunting in northern wisconsin in two ways:

1. They tend to congregate away from people, which means they pack up in the large tracts of public land. While wolves my not make a huge dent in the overall deer herd numbers, they can absolutely devastate it locally on the large tracts of public land.

2. The big bucks in the northwoods are gone. Just gone. We used to regularly know where at least 3-4 bucks lived every year that would score 130-150. They are now so rare that many times we have gone entire seasons without ever finding or seeing a buck we knew was 3 1/2. There is no other explanation for this other than wolves. Our theory is that the older bucks are first to fall to the wolves because they are wore out after the rut, and they hang out in the same sort of areas the wolves do. This is further supported by the observation that almost every decent buck we've seen since 2007 was living within spitting distance of lake-homes. Its gotten so that the deer hang tight to the houses to get away from predators. After the hunting we had in the late 90's up north, its absolutely depressing to see whats happened. It actually makes me feel physically sick. My family has had a hunting camp up north since 1953. The last 15 years have been demoralizing.

100% agree with this.

 

[gopherslayer]

You left out bears. The DNR counts animals on the Common Core scale. They should hand out bear tags like they do doe tags for private farmland.