I had to make a short business trip to Milwaukee late last week and just stayed over the weekend to see a bit of the country side. What a beautiful area this time of year. White houses with red barns everywhere. A lot of forest mixed in with the agriculture. A saw a few deer dead on the side of the road and they were whoppers. Dwarfed our Texas variety. I think the residents shoot quite a few deer in that state as well. Just curious if there are quite a few trophy quality deer (+160 B&C ; my definition) in that state?
Just beautiful countryside!

EZ

Oh yes, there are big boys in cheeseland...I'll let my Wis neighbors brag.
Bob

The suburbs around Milwaukee hold some whoppers.The only problem is getting access and it Bowhunting only.The Counties around Milwaukee county produce some huge Bucks.Again because most of the good hunting is private property getting permission to hunt is not easy.i think that just about anywhere in Wisconsin has the potential for Big bucks if they are allowed to get old enough.Buffalo County on The West part of Wi. is noted Nation wide for B&C Bucks.
You can buy tags across the counter so that is one thing to not worry about.Alot of far Northern Wi. has a problem with too many Wolves ,Bears,Yotes and the Wi.DNR sold way too many doe tags so pickins right now are pretty slim.I have 5 food plots and have the same 5 deer hitting all of them.only one is a spike Buck.I am hoping that changes during the Rut.If I can help you in any way give me a holler.OB

quote:

Originally posted by bobgrow:
Oh yes, there are big boys in cheeseland...I'll let my Wis neighbors brag.
Bob

Those FIB Bucks are nothing to sneeze at either.Got any money on Monday night football????

I drove over to Madison on Friday and then north to Tomah. The next day up to Appleton and then up to the top of the Pennisula (Door county) along the shore line. Back down through Green Bay and over to New London and back down to Milwaukee. I all looked like great potential hunting country. Unlimited food source and great cover as well. Just wish I was there a few weeks later to take in the fall colors.

EZ

quote:

Originally posted by OLBIKER:
The suburbs around Milwaukee hold some whoppers.The only problem is getting access and it Bowhunting only.The Counties around Milwaukee county produce some huge Bucks.Again because most of the good hunting is private property getting permission to hunt is not easy.i think that just about anywhere in Wisconsin has the potential for Big bucks if they are allowed to get old enough.Buffalo County on The West part of Wi. is noted Nation wide for B&C Bucks.
You can buy tags across the counter so that is one thing to not worry about.Alot of far Northern Wi. has a problem with too many Wolves ,Bears,Yotes and the Wi.DNR sold way too many doe tags so pickins right now are pretty slim.I have 5 food plots and have the same 5 deer hitting all of them.only one is a spike Buck.I am hoping that changes during the Rut.If I can help you in any way give me a holler.OB

I hunt in the Tomah, Sparta area on a regular basis, good cover, good deer population, and good people. Ft McCoy is good hunting, but opening weekend gets a little busy. LOts of public ground as well.

quote:

Those FIB Bucks are nothing to sneeze at either.Got any money on Monday night football????

Yep, we have some big ones also....some of the biggest are in the Chicago city limits where only the gang bangers hunt.

I'm going with GB tonight....its the only rational choice.
Bob

Buffalo County.

Best hunting is in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. "BEST" includes VAST forests, astronomical deer numbers, BIG deer. negligible competition (but stay away from lower parts of the UP....nutsy hunters from Chicago and other large cities come up there with Weatherby magnums, stand in dense woods 50 yards from each other......and tramp around noisily. It can be a circus! The Yoopers are WONDERFUL people, great wild mushrooming, cheap beer in folksy small bars, fun polka dancing Sat. nights in small towns, Friday night fish frys, good bakeries, abandoned apple orchards everywhere....enjoyed by the deer, the worms and me when I lived there, also great great GREAT fishing. Do I sound like I miss that country??? You bet!
You also must note that Wisconsin's deer season is about 7-10 days, while the UP offers 2 weeks. It is such an event that public schools were closed for opening day.

Our deer season structure is a bit more complicated than conifer states. There is a state-wide gun hunt that lasts nine days, from the Saturday before Thanksgiving through the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but there is also a state-wide youth hunt (guns and bows allowed) the second weekend in October for kids 12-15 accompanied by an adult. In most of the deer management units in the state, where deer populations are 20% above target, there is also an antlerless-only hunt which this year will be Oct 14-17. There is also a muzzle-loader season the first week or so of December. And bow season runs from the second Saturday in September through New Year's weekend.

We shoot a LOT of deer in Wisconsin. The last few years we have taken well over 100,000 deer each year during the archery season and anywhere from 300,000-400,000 during the gun seasons. And there are a lot of big bucks around. The most dense populations are in the southern and central rural areas, where agricultural fields are interspersed with wood lots of various sizes, such as where I live and hunt. Every year I see at least one B&C-sized buck in the neighborhood of the farm where I hunt-- though it seems such sightings never occur when I have a gun, bow or tag in hand! Several years ago my son and I were doing a small push through some dense cover for other guys in our group and came across a recently car-killed buck. I saved the skull, which had a rack with a gross score of nearly 190. Maybe this year I'll get a chance at a live one!