The Hunting Beast

bump a classic...Still some good information!

Good times! I remember that we got lost and someone started yelling for help.

That was 4 years ago. I'm hoping the mature buck numbers have increased since then. With the tough winters and predators it's still tough in the northwoods no doubt! But every year you see less hunters which I hope is to our advantage.

It's been seven years since the start of this post.

My observations, overall deer population is higher now but mature buck numbers even lower than 2011.

Bookmarked! WOW, what a great thread!!! Good bump TG

Just realized thats Long Hair Dan! That is when I first saw or heard of him and thought he was an Indian or something

Bumping this one... how are things looking in your area Hodag? Any other northern WI hunters notice any changes (for better or worse) in the past few years?

Northern WI hunter here, Have had success and plenty of failures. Just trying to soak it all in each and every time out. The more time I've spent scouting the less time I've spent hunting. I feel like it's not a bad thing either because I've come to realize the way I hunted my whole life was just by the luck of the draw. I would just hunt down sign and find an area that looked like a "good spot." Then just bait and wait for the deer to come to me. Never really had a game plan, played the wind, think about thermals or where the deer would be coming/going to and from. It worked at times but most of my success from years past was all from within the rut time frame. I'd have does and night pictures of bucks but never had the daylight activity up until the rut. Then I would hunt that same area every opportunity I could get. Essentially burning out the spot i had chosen. Always hear that good one liner, "You can't shoot a deer if you're not in the stand." Well you can be hunting as much as you want and wait for that stroke of luck to come by. Or you can try and learn from such a great and vast source of information from the experience of others on here. Great community that is more than willing to help or give information to others. Try to take bits and pieces of the puzzle. Try to make them work for you and your strategies.

In summary I feel like I have so much more confidence in the woods and have the an idea of what i am looking for and why. Only after spending some time thumbing the threads and pulling the trigger on Dans DVDs. Even bigger confidence builder is when you pick out an area that should have sign and you go in an find it. The light bulb effect or the ahhh hhaaa moment they call it on here, its almost euphoric. For that I would like to thank each and every one of you! Its just the beginning of my journey with the beast forum but I look forward to every one of those ah ha moments that are to come.

jhenrich wrote:Bumping this one... how are things looking in your area Hodag? Any other northern WI hunters notice any changes (for better or worse) in the past few years?

Thanks for the bump and sorry for the late reply. Was fun reading this post again!

Ironically I just a built a new home less than a mile from where we mainly scouted that weekend. Our home is on a lake but we have some wooded acreage and it butts up against the miles of public land. The quantity of deer is unbelievably high near the lake homes and these deer mainly bed just inside the public to a spot 1/2 mile away. We see lots of doe, fawns and fair number of 1.5 year old bucks through the season with the older bucks cruising through our strips of private for a few weeks during the rut.

Driving these roads daily and checking trail camera activity the last three seasons back in this area has convinced me the property has no problem holding good numbers of deer but minimal amount of 3.5 and older bucks. It may never get back to the days of the 80's 90s I remember.

My good fishing buddy basically gave up hunting up here and hunts in southern WI. I still fish more than hunt and poke around looking for decant buck . I have lowered my standards and 2.5 year olds dont get a pass like they used too.

The pockets of deer that contain good numbers are almost always near local homes or seasonal cabins.....nothing really new from the last decade of movements these deer have adapted to in the northwoods.

Welcome back hodag hunter!!

Crazinamatese wrote:Welcome back hodag hunter!!

Thanks man, appreciate it.

Snowed this morning on way into work and thought of hunting more than fishing in the boat. Maybe I'll try to hunt a little harder this year.