Magazine articles....

[DeerTracker]

I read alot of articles out of the several bowhunting magazines I get, and it seams like they never spend any time talking about deep woods tactics.
So many of them give great tips and advice for hunting nice woodlots and farmland, funnels, more ideal whitetail hunting areas. What about us guys that hunt in areas of Northern WI (and Im sure many many other states) that have nothing but miles and miles of woods with no fields or anything.
I would like to see how they recomend patterning big bucks and scouting with bino's and watching bachelor groups and all of that good stuff when there is no good vantage points or places for the deer to really come together.

My best luck in the big woods is finding an oak ridge in the early season. Either that or try to find a narrow spot in a large swamp where the deer cross, or something like that. Other that that its just looking for trails, rubs, and scraps, trying to determine the best spot. I personally don't think its possible to pattern a large buck in the woods. You would have to have several trail cameras out monitoring different trails.

Im not begging for help or anything, I have decent luck in the big woods, I just would like to see more articles on this type of hunting, rather than always reading about the picture perfect whitetail ambush spots and glassing bucks from affar and hunting natural funnels made by fields, etc. I believe alot of these "professionals" would have a much harder time bagging that bruiser if you stuck them way back in the sticks.

Thats just my opinion.....has anyone seen any articles on hunting the big woods lately that I haven't??

 

[Bullfrog 31581]

I agree. Most hunting magazines seem geared towards a kind of hunting that I have never experienced and that just isn't possible where I live. There are some outdoors magazines in my neck of the woods (Florida Fish and Game, Florida Sportsman, ect.) that will sometimes taylor their articles to hunting Florida habitat, but usually most articles even in these magazines focus on general topics such as hunting the rut or scent control.

 

[recurver67]

I agree too. I've never hunted the big woods but would like too. Even on these outdoor shows they don't hunt them.This is why I like Deer&Deer Hunting the best,they tell alot more about the animals habitat than stories of guys on small farms.

 

[cavey]

DeerTracker


You’ll catch a few articles on hunting the big tracts up in Maine and along the Smokey’s & Appalachian ranges but because less hunters run these areas and magazines are about sponsors/advertisers and entertainment they tend to cater to a different target cliental. Hunting Chequamgon’s and Nicolet’s swamps, slashings and forest blocks takes a lot of time investment to pull a good deer out. Its not as dramatic or picturesque
as flying in, being placed on a stand overlooking a emerald green alfalfa field loaded with whitetails and wacking a 150+ class buck in a couple of days on land you never have been on before.
Hunting the wilderness or BLM lands out west does not even compare to what is takes to hunt the MI’s UP, WI north or central forests, apart from Maine’s back country or that of New Brunswick, hell try and hunt in Ontario once – hope you like roads and slashing's

Hunting national forest deer is less about gizmos (products) and more about technique and long term scouting which doesn’t cost a dime but takes time – boring for magazines and tv shows. Not only that but the volume of deer is less - all added up it makes for a nice article once in awhile but, you just do not see a lot on the topic anymore.
I remember as a kid reading articles about hunting up north, but they were more story then tactical in nature. If you read/see an article on hunting these chunks today they treat it more as a once in a life time “adventure” or as an out of state trip rather than a every other weekend hunt which most of us really do… not every body takes a dream deer on a 3 day hunt. Sometimes we actually have to come back the following weekend and try a little different spot.

DeerTracker is there much huntable land left down by you? The Milwaukee sprawl is really pushing out towards you.
As for up north we have acorns already dropping, it will make bear hunting interesting this year. Deer hunting might be tuff, its pretty dry to the north of us. Not sure how far up you go?

 

[pig guide]

Very true. I personally, never hunt the feilds. I have always harvested beautiful bucks in the hardwoods by focusing on Persimons and White Oak acorns.

That will get the Bucks to you always.

 

[DeerTracker]

Originally posted by cavey@Aug 20 2005, 05:32 PM
DeerTracker


You’ll catch a few articles on hunting the big tracts up in Maine and along the Smokey’s & Appalachian ranges but because less hunters run these areas and magazines are about sponsors/advertisers and entertainment they tend to cater to a different target cliental. Hunting Chequamgon’s and Nicolet’s swamps, slashings and forest blocks takes a lot of time investment to pull a good deer out. Its not as dramatic or picturesque
as flying in, being placed on a stand overlooking a emerald green alfalfa field loaded with whitetails and wacking a 150+ class buck in a couple of days on land you never have been on before.
Hunting the wilderness or BLM lands out west does not even compare to what is takes to hunt the MI’s UP, WI north or central forests, apart from Maine’s back country or that of New Brunswick, hell try and hunt in Ontario once – hope you like roads and slashing's

Hunting national forest deer is less about gizmos (products) and more about technique and long term scouting which doesn’t cost a dime but takes time – boring for magazines and tv shows. Not only that but the volume of deer is less - all added up it makes for a nice article once in awhile but, you just do not see a lot on the topic anymore.
I remember as a kid reading articles about hunting up north, but they were more story then tactical in nature. If you read/see an article on hunting these chunks today they treat it more as a once in a life time “adventure” or as an out of state trip rather than a every other weekend hunt which most of us really do… not every body takes a dream deer on a 3 day hunt. Sometimes we actually have to come back the following weekend and try a little different spot.

DeerTracker is there much huntable land left down by you? The Milwaukee sprawl is really pushing out towards you.
As for up north we have acorns already dropping, it will make bear hunting interesting this year. Deer hunting might be tuff, its pretty dry to the north of us. Not sure how far up you go?

I must have missed this post the other day.

Oh, we are far enough north yet, there is alot of building going on in the area, but there is still alot of farms and I live in the south end of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, so I have a few decent hunting spots yet.

A buddy of mine has a place North East of Ladysmith. We just built a cabin up there this summer. We have been going up every other weekend lately, but this past weekend was our first chance to go in the woods becuase we finished up the cabin. We went to check our oak trees, and I could not believe they were dropping allready! That is going to mess up our opening weekend spots if they drop too early! I hope they slow down a bit. Do you think they will be mostly dropped by the opener?

My buddies family owns 120 acres, but there is thousands and thousands of acres of Plum Creek (sp?) Paper company land across the road that we hunt 99.5% of the time. It is never ending, and we find so many spots it gets overwelming. You don't know where the hell to sit in those big woods.