What are your thoughts? Pro's an Con's. I know a few people including family that continue to harvest large bucks off public.
Wisconsin Hunting Reports/Discussion
Public vs Private
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Can't beat the diversity of our public grounds, and every deer I have killed has been on public. Every year I have chances at good bucks, and I'm not a bit ashamed to admit I still get excited even when I see does, or that I shoot them. I love to chase whitetails, plain and simple, and I feel bad for anyone who has lost that and is only satisfied with a "booner" but to each their own. That being said I have found most of the public lands I hunt are loaded with deer.....and.....if your not seeing deer or sign move till you do. Might be 50 yards makes the difference, might be gotta go to other side of the property. Might have to go 2 counties over.. and dont be afraid to fail, any time afield is time well spent! or.... dont move and do the same thing over and over and complain about poor results. Either way, public or private, if you are reading this I offer all Wisconsin hunters a sincere "good luck" this coming season and I hope all are safe and successfull.
Wisconsin manages the public land for maximum profit. Does not care about the quality of the hunt only the quantity for the dollars. Hence reason we have all the youth mentor first time whatever hunts.
I spent the first 28 years of my hunting days on public land. Ok results. Normal I would say. Had opportunity to hunt on public land in SD for mule deer and in ND for whitetails. What a difference. Limited tags. Hunters spread out and lots of deer.
10 years ago I bought 80 acres in central Wisconsin farm country. Best decision I ever made. I see more deer and turkeys in one sit than I use to in 10 sits or more on public. Have put two nice bucks on wall with the bow and passed on a lot more. Wife and daughter have started hunting deer and turkeys and now it time for grandkids to start.
Best part about Wisconsin public land is snowmobiling and four wheeling on it. Thankful for that.
I have hunted public land most of my life. I was able to bow hunt private land for several years and to be able to put stands up and leave them was nice. I only gun hunt now and on public land. I hunt in Rusk County on a large public land area. There are less deer than closer to home ( lacrosse county) but the public land isn't crowded there and we usually do well. The option to hunt on a decent size area of private land isn't available to me. I think that there are opportunities for good hunting on public so long as you have the means and time to do so. Our group is able to camp right in the hunting area which is nice but also a little inconvenient. We have to take several weekends to scout before season. Deer in this area seem to change there patterns from year to year. As it is public and there is a fair share of logging areas that we hunt. Some clear cuts and some select cuts. In areas with very large clear cuts it can change a good hunting area to no good for years. If you can't adapt your success will be very limited. With it being a 3 hour drive one and needing a camper that works off grid its not for everyone. It can be very rewarding to figure it out on your own and then have success. Good luck to everyone safe hunts and success.
So I placed wireless cams locked on public land in Waupaca camera. Today two were stolen. I have some pics of people walking near them recently. If you hear of anyone bragging about their new cellular wireless cams, please let me know. I'm hoping the GPS locators indicate where they are. The idiot didn't turn one off and it sent me a pic of his dog. Why do idiots do this! Pic is of one of the guys. Not saying he's the thief, just one of the pics most recently I have.
True Bowguy, there is a lot of logging in my area. So much in fact it is getting hard to find a tree. I had a spot I hunted and got logged. I sat there again this year but it was logged about 8 yrs ago and is going down hill since other places have been logged more recently. As I scout edges of
logging areas I still see very little buck sign. This spring however , same as last year there were a lot of deer in the recently logged area. I dont know where they go in the fall. They are terribly hard to find. This year I am actually going to hunt a clear cut that was done in January if the ATV's dont go riding by me. They are not supposed to be there but always are riding their ATV's in there to bait. Then come gun season they walk in. It really is high time to just hunt somewhere else. A guy I know left the whole county that hunted a little north of me. He hunts Douglass co. now and sais he sees a lot more deer there. He even hunts north of Duluth and likes it better than by me. It is not my imagination. I got so mad this spring that I drove to Delta co. Mich. I picked a spot cold and got out of the car on some public land and walked along a river. Deer tracks and droppings everywhere. I could tell the difference in 100 yds of walking that there was a lot more sign way up in the U.P. However, it may have been a wintering area but there were deer all over. it is getting better in Price co. where my cabin is but it is getting a lot better everywhere else. Your testimony is typical. It could very well be one thing many dont consider. There is hardly any pine or spruce trees in the whole area. In the U.P. there was less food but the pines , spruce and cedar swamps were everywhere and I am sure deer dont get beat up as much form the harsh winters where they can go into thick spruce and cedar swamps . This will also open a can of worms, there is a bunch of hunters in a party that bait like crazy on their big chunk of land and into the public land too. Many wont agree but it has to have an effect on deer movement . Trail cam pics drop of 75% as soon as they start baiting. It has been going on since I had trail cams , year after year, I hardly see a deer during bow or gun.
Ihookem - it’s disappointing to hear of your bleak outlook on the north woods near you. Based on what you’ve said about your scouting, it sure sounds like not seeing deer is not due to a lack of effort.
I’m in Oneida county, and it’s quite the opposite. Plenty of quality fishing opportunities and a healthy and abundant deer herd.
At the risk of opening a can of worms, I’ll share an observation. Similar to your case, there is a tremendous amount of logging going on in the county and state lands around me. When hunted correctly (and with the willingness to adapt), this provides a lot of opportunity on almost endless land. Yet, when talking to most people who deer hunt the area, they complain of not seeing deer. What seems to be lacking (through my observations) is that these people want to hunt the same tree, at the same time, the same way they have hunted it since the 1980’s. They ignore how much the big picture changes and evolves with time, and how deer adapt and thrive in those changes. Certainly not saying you fall in this category- just an opinion I’ve formed on what I’ve seen. It’s a completely different ball game hunting up north, and to do it right on both public and private land, we all have to get out of the mind set of hunting where we want the deer to be. I am indeed guilty of this.
Lakeshiner, as for land for sale, I see the same thing. The For Sale Sign is so old it is laying in the ditch and the realtor wont bother to go there to stand it back up. I hope your fishing's better by you , however I went two times now this year and caught northern about 24" or so . That was the only fish in two times out and about 2 hrs of fishing. The deer numbers however are looking up a bit even after a hard winter. The reason is , they are doing so much logging and the numbers of deer are so low the last few years that even in the clear cuts from 2 to 8 yr clear cuts are hardly even touched. The woods could stand a 100 % gain in deer numbers and it would not hurt the regeneration of trees at all , but there still is so little regeneration of White Pine or spruce, and no Cedars or Hemlock coming up at all . This is good winter cover but very little is left. The old Hemlocks are dying every year and nothing replacing them. The oaks are coming up very well and likely from the turkeys eating acorns and dumping them out somewhere else. They are everywhere and if they get higher than the deer browse they will be putting out acorns in a decade or so . All Bur Oaks too. Good for the deer. As for fishing, smallmouth bass in the river. I have not fished the lakes in 20 yrs. but am going to start cause the river sucks, except for smallmouth, they are over populated to the point that a 14" is a real prize.
Funny you say that about the fishing. I know you are west of me a ways and every time I go fishing, if I don't fish the chain right by us I head north or east, but never west. Definitely far less options that way and if they get pounded too much you get kind of stuck.
Speaking of land prices up there, nothing seems to move by me. Quite a few have been listed for years and years. Even more have signs up but do not show online because the listing expired. Compare to prices around population centers, they are pretty cheap. No one wants to buy them though. I'd buy a little more if it is a super deal. Definitely would not pay hunting land prices.
Big fish is right. Land up north will not go up unless pulp prices do . It's the only thing up there. The hunting sucks, except for grouse and bear, I think fishing sucks too. Most dont like to hear that but there is not much up there . Was a time fishing was better but " up north " got popular for a long time. Now it seems to be dying . Not Eagle River , St Germain, Woodruff but Price co. is in dire straights around me. Heck, the bar near me is closed at 2pm Sundays during bow season . Bad news up there. For sale signs all over . Not as bad as 5 -8 yrs ago but still bad. Even Lake property is not up much.
I just wanted to comment on value of private land. I don't think areas where there are elk in wi will appreciate dramatically because of hunting opportunities. I think 'up north' values may actually diminish in future. Some reasons include drop in new hunters entering sport, cwd, lymes disease, taxes, few job oppurtunities, etc. I think the wolf population keeps the elk population in check also.
Areas close to metro area will still appreciate. I personally feel ag land is at a peak right now, except those areas closer to jobs/ population areas.
hookem - there might not be deer way up north, but there's elk! It's a little far-fetched, but hypothetically lets say the DNR gets this whole elk initiative to really take root and establish an Elk population throughout northern WI. In theory, land value should sky rocket north of 8 if that happened. Just some food for thought, I don't see that ever happening.
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