Vilas County Deer Season??

We have a camp of 5 to 6 guys and have been hunting Vilas county public for going on 10 years now.   We seem to see more predator tracks than deer sometimes.   It has been several years without a buck sighting.   Get excited when we see a Doe.  At least it is a deer.

We actually had a conversation this year regarding "Deer Camp".  We hunt out of a 16x20 foot Wall Tent, do a little trapping, cards, drinks and good food.  It is a Great time, except for the lack of Deer.   Talks began about looking for new areas with more deer, but it is just so beautiful where we hunt it is hard to even think about hunting someplace else.

Curious to hear how the gun hunt has been for others.

We used to hunt in the National Forest in Forest County in the Laona area. There is no logging at all going on in the National Forest in that area, in fact the area where we had hunted has not been logged since the 80's and early 90's so the forest quite grown and mature. That plus the fact the area is over run with wolves makes it almost impossible to have good numbers of deer. Luckily we hunt on private land up there and it is totally different, no wolves and lots of deer.

Jigrod, there is plenty of logging going on in the NF.  Problem is, there's not enough deer to take advantage of it.  The couple deer left can browse anywhere, no need for fresh cutting.  I've walked through several 1 to 2 year old clear cuts with 3 day old snow with nary a deer track to be found.

Until they start logging the NF its going to be slim pickings. I hunt in Hiles, Forest Cty which isn't that far from Vilas. The big woods north of my place all the way to 70 is mostly void of deer as there is nothing for them to eat. I ended up shooting a nice 6 on my girlfriends property which is surrounded by private. My stand in the NF was useless. 

Yes it seems the closer to houses you get the more deer you see.    We will probably stay where we are for another year and see what happens.   We hunt down a logging road where they logged several years back.   We keep wondering if the forest service will put a burm or gate up once they are done back there.   That would definitely force us to move.

Had previously spent 20+ years hunting farmland.   Then decided to start a deer camp once my sons got older with a friend, up in the big woods west of Boulder Junction. Completely different style of hunting.

The local guys I’ve talked to so far haven’t had much luck. (Some very good hunters that have killed many nice bucks)  I’ve heard numbers are up so we’ll see what the final numbers show for northern forest. I’ve seen some deer on vehicles but not as many as years past. For every 10 guys that say it was good hunting and numbers look good, you’ll have 10 that will say it was piss poor. 

I scout a lot. Year round. All I can say is you gotta move around and find the pockets of deer. The predators and logging or maybe more so, the lack of logging in areas moves deer around a lot. What was good 10-15 years ago might not be much good now. 

Whether or not you keep camp in the same spot is up to you but that would mean possibly getting up earlier in the mornings and driving more and further if hunting in a different area. I would probably move camp once I find some bucks worth pursuing. 

Also, I drive all over Vilas every day for work. Mostly at dawn and dusk and just don’t see the bucks that I use to. I see far more deer, including some nice bucks around  the towns, residential areas, etc. than I do in the bigger woods areas. We use to see many nice bucks on Hwy 70 east towards Forest county and some other bigger woods areas and just not seeing that much anymore. It’s frustrating because the 4 biggest bucks I’ve spotted again this year were damn near right downtown Eagle river and St. germain. 

Hunt in north western Vilas co. Was up all of November, came home today. Saw deer and some bucks, bucks were chasing good the 10 days before gun season and locked down with does all of gun season. The last 5 days of muzzle loader should be good.  You have to stay at it, still some big woods if your up to the challenge..

Hunted public land in the Winchester area of vilas County and only saw one 4 point buck Tuesday night. Lots of does moving around and plenty of signs of deer just wasn't fortunate enough to harvest one. Had plenty of opportunities with does but no tag no shot ! Still was a great time in woods up here looking forward to next year!

Do you go to the same spot every year? Maybe try a different county, scout new areas etc. If you go south where there are more deer, you will also run into more people.