Well i got back 2 days ago. fun hunt but saw very few deer??? should have been prime time, too hot first 3 days but just right second trip??? alot less deer than previous trips and same area. hunted 2-4 & 10-15 of Nov hunted mostly on county forest land.
saw only 4 does while hunting ....fair number along road driving back and forth in dark, theonly two does that were heading straight to me were scared off by lopsided spike 50 yards off. biggest buck was very small 6 pt basket buck had 4-5 deer within range drew on 2 one saw me draw and vanished other was 22 yards out broadside...small spike last morning.... peep sight spun wrong .....no arrow launched.
talked with 4 other guys returning to Alaska from hunts at MSP airport and on the plane all saw lots of deer (one was seeing more in first two hours of the day than i saw the whole trip[:@])them and their hunting buddies seemed to all shoot very nice bucks and most were P & Y quality. they were on family farms hunting (Iowa, Wisconsin, Minn., Nebraska)
My hunting partner saw 5 bears one night right at dark, after legal shooting hrs., one single and 4 together ( sow with 3 big cubs) he let two cubs get way too close before he let it known he was there....closest was about 5 yards. they went up trees, mom was < 40 yards away but never reacted.
but he had seen most deer in that area when walking in???
odd year but always fun to travel, visit with long time friend and get into woods.

there is the problem.....PUBLIC LAND is hard to hunt.

yes big woods public land is hard to hunt but should be seeing deer,
not alot of pressure where we were, but a little more this year but this year i was hunting rut usually there a little earlier just before rut

sorry it didn't go well.....hey I would love to see some pics of your traditional kills in AK if you ever get a chance to post them!!!!! stories are good too!!!

actually i have been mostly bowhunting from the "dark side" last 3-4 years, still prefer my recurve to shoot but have not used it as much.
i will try to post a few photos.( or you could go to Alaska outdoor forums and under same user id look at my album there in my profiles). have taken one mediocre 40" moose . 2 caribou ,one very lopsided racked bulland also 3 black bears plus ducks and ptarmigan with my recurve.

Nimrod...what part of WI did you hunt...

I have been thinking about purchasing my first recurve. I know its gotta be hard to hunt with those, but it would be well worth it.

deer hunting in wisconsin just dosent seem like it was years past up north thier are not the deer the dnr say their are.

guess it would be considered nw Wis. between Spooner and Rice Lake.
was sure a puzzle for us where they were.

There are very few deer in the northwoods of Wisconsin anymore. I've lived here my whole life and it's a shame to see. You can beleive what the DNR says, but from someone who spends almost every day in the woods up hereand has most of my life, trust me we have very few deer. I won't speak for the whole state because I think a lot of our state has good deer numbers, just not in the north. Very sad. My $.02.