Howdy all, my first post here. I've been searching the net for info and found this forum, which seems to be a very nice source of info! I have a couple of question, but first I'll introduce myself.

I grew up in Texas. Did a lot of dove hunting, some deer hunting and a ton of bass fishing. About 15 years ago due to a career change I sold all my guns and moved to WI. Now I'm on a bit of a quest to get back into the swing of things. Trying to rebuild my basic firearms library, bought a 9mm handgun and a .22 Ruger Mark II. I also now have a nice Tikka T3 Lite in .270 WIN with a Leupold 2-4x40 on layaway. Up next will be a good shotgun and a lever action .30-30. Long range I hope to acquire a nice 1911 style .45 ACP of some sort.

Anyway, on to my problem(s)...

All my experience with deer hunting came growing up in Texas, and a typical season went like this...

1. Buy license at Walmart
2. Go to friend's 300+ acre ranch.
3. Shoot a couple deer.

Easy right? Now this year I was hoping to do some hunting up here in WI so I start looking for info. After a few hours of reading the DNR website and trying to puzzle out the bazillion laws/rules/regulations/zones/exceptions/etc I had a nice headache brewing.

I don't know anyone with private land, and from everything I can tell I wouldn't be able to afford a guided hunt or to lease some land for a season. That leaves me with hunting public land.

Are there any solid, easy to use sources of info that will spell out everything for me? Anywhere to easily find info on public land, paper company land, a source for lease classifieds, etc?

Basically I need to find a place to hunt that fits a few criteria...

1. Public land
2. Rifle hunting allowed
3. Not overrun with a million other guys? (fat chance, from all that I've read! Hehehe)

Anyone who can provide some guidance and info to this very confused ex-Texan, I'd be very grateful!