pdoughertyMU

So i'm already thinkin about bowhunting, and this will be my first year bowhunting. Looking at public land, where are some great places to bow hunt in Wisconsin?

Also, are there any guides out there that you have had good experiences with? I'm not talking the outfitters where you stay there and they feed you and they farm deer, I'm talking more of an independant guide that would act similar to a fishing guide. show good spots/techniques for public land. vilas county or south east wisconsin would be preferred.

Thanks

Patrick Dougherty

YooperMike

PD, if you are looking for Vilas county area, there is so much public land that I think you would be able to do good just by yourself, without a guide-type person like you describe. For deer, those kinds of people are alittle tough to find. I would take a look on the internet and look at the fishing guides (which there are a million of in Vilas) and see if one of them may do some hunting as well. There is sure a lot of land in that area though for you to check out.

BGHUNTER00

Patrick,

Years ago I bow hunted out of a small "town" called Crivitz, WI. There was a small cabin there four of us stayed in for a week which is surrounded by the Nicolet National Forest. We all shot deer while we were there and returned the next year to do the same thing. While we hunted we seen very few other hunters, and almost none during the week. We never killed any huge deer, but we seen deer everytime we went out.

sparks

WDNR website might be a good place to go. They have info on all public lands. I think that they also have maps available.

dabowhunter

You might find that the guides will not want to take a wisconsin resident to their public land spots. Reason being they don't want you using them once and than coming back on your own. But who needs them you can do just as well on your own. I fish vilas county alot and spend time in the woods, there are many nice oak ridges if you look. Other problem with north woods is the baiting situation. Many of the hunters up there bait public land so keep that in mind. If you want to get some good pointers on northern wisconsin go to the Bowsite.com wisconsin forum. The guys there are usually pretty helpful. Dabow

Bloodbro

I used to guide whitetails on public land in S.E. Wisconsin, not any more though because I am getting into making hunting videos and pro-staffing a new hunting TV show. As a matter of fact, our 1st video is going to be about killing trophy bucks on public land and was filmed in S.E. Wisconsin. I think when hunters see the video clips of the Booners we are on to, it will open some eyes. I see worse pressure on the private land around here than the public in most cases. Unfortunatly the editing won't be done on that video for about 1 1/2 months.
I would concentrate on cattail marsh's, and swamps. Those areas hold some great deer that make it to older age because of the diffaculty in gun hunters driving these areas and killing all the bucks before they can reachprime antlerage statis.
If you email me or send me a PM I would be glad to point out some awesome areas.

Kraton

Depends where you want to drive. Straight north of the valley including crivitz and it is not what it used to be. I hunt Nicolet. Best hunting IMO would be Central Wis and South Western.
Navarino is a huge public area that has some good hunting.

bigbuck098

in Iowa cty. there are lots of public hunting land that is hardly hunted now due to cwd. There are great bucks on these public hunting areas. Check out huntingfootage.com and look at my video under bigbuck17058 titled monster buck he was less 100yds from public hunting.

wihunter1388

i actually hunt south of you in rusk county. my uncle has 80 acres but theres alot of public land there. What i like to do is going on websites like WDNR or huntingnet and finding maps and looking for deep hills or funnels. Just remember that the maps posted are like from 10-15 yrs ago so they may be a little off. Just be careful when entering and leaving the stands from unwanted critters-curious bears, lone wolf, hungry coyote. People i know go way back in the middle of sections where there in there 2 miles. They see some giant bucks but drag them out all day. Good luck