I bowhunt a lot of private land, but I grew up hunting large tracts of public land in Northern Wisconsin. In my personal opinion there is nothing more rewarding than finding an old public land buck and killing him. This area is about 2,000 acres of hardwoods, thick swamps, ridges, and clear cuts. I have ran cameras in this area for the past 4 years and found this buck in 2013. It's pretty easy keeping tabs on a particular buck up there because there aren't that many deer. Most of the bucks have a huge range, I have gotten pictures of the same buck and 3 hours later I had him a mile away. I found this buck in 2013 and estimated him at 3.5 at the time. There were 3 3.5 year old bucks within a 80 acre chunk that year and I ended up killing his summer running mate in November. In 2014 I got him in the same swamp through the entire year. In 2015 I pinned him in the same spot, and it seemed like his core area was really small. I know he feels safe in that swamp because I am pretty sure I am the only hunter that ever is back that far. I have never seen him on the hoof and didn't really hunt him last year. Last week I was up in the area scouting and I was bound to find his bed. I found a point that flattens out and extends into a small lake. I knew this area was really thick and assumed he bedded on this point. I walked out there and sure enough I found a bed that looks like he uses frequently, I am assuming he beds there on a west wind. This season I am thinking he is going to be 6.5 or maybe even older. There are some great funnels in the area I think I could catch him in during the rut. There is a large oak ridge directly to the west of his bed. The problem is getting in there without blowing him out of his bed. He is basically covered from all wind directions. I might only run a camera or two in his area in August to confirm that it is him and pull my cameras after that. I am thinking my best chance to see him would be a rare East wind set up on the outskirts of his bed. Or sit back in a funnel about 500 yards from his bed on a West wind and try to catch him cruising. If I get some 2016 pics this summer I'll post them on here. Any suggestions are welcome! Nothing beats trying to kill one of these old brutes deep in the North Woods!
I could make some suggestions but I have a few questions first. Do you hunt mornings/afternoons, both? Do you do run and gun setups where you pack your sticks and stand and find a tree in a funnel? Do the oaks produce acorns? Is there any clearcuts in your area, if so how old are they? Any Cedar lines in your area? Can you easily find rub lines?
Send me the GPS co-ordinates and I'll be glad to "help" you out!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd stay out of his bedroom but I would set out trail cameras around it and see if he has a regular schedule and then get in his way.
I hunt both mornings and evenings but up there in those big swamps I tend to see a lot of midday movement. I typically don't run and gun up there because I want to be as noise efficient as possible, but I have done it before. There are about a dozen old oaks on the ridge to the West that produce acorns. There is a 2 year old clear cut about 1,000 yards to the west. If he hits that clear cut I'm guessing it's in the middle of the night because it's near a few traveled logging roads that get pressured. The entire swamp he lives in is cedars, the swamp bumps up to a beaver runway that is about 6 feet deep. It looks like if he ever gets bumped from his bed he crosses that beaver runway which funnels into about a 20 acre patch of thick thorny brush. There are not many rubs in his area, but I typically don't find many rubs in the area even the years when I had a good amount of bucks in the area. I didn't see one rub in the entire area, but when I found his bed on the point there were about 6 rubs right in his bed.
Sounds like a bigwoods buck paradise. In my experience, hunting big woods deer is extremely difficult. They literally can bed anywhere and browse on the move wherever they go. In your map pictures can you draw some lines of the routes you would take walking in and out?
Wow good luck, for me that's what makes hunting so fun. This deer is got you going stir crazy and I hope you get him I can just imagine how that's going to feel afterwards. If you don't then the animal won and that's kinda cool also. That's why they call it hunting and not killing
That is a beauty of a buck I think the best options would be find that oak tree that is producing and use the topography of the land to your advantage, you know his core area so you know the likely places he is gonna go i always keep in mind deer are lazy and will generally take the path of least resistance, find that spot set up on a good wind and don't miss Good luck!! Hope you get him!!
It is a little difficult to see on the maps i posted, but I would be approaching from the logging road from the west and then make my way south down the creek bed. I realistically would only be able to hunt him with any variation of a south wind.
make sure mid October you move to the does before he does then hopefully he'll be showing up. knowing where the doe bedding areas are is one of the most important since he will be checking there later.
There are so many hunters out there that are always complaining and feeling sorry for themselves that they either can't afford, or don't have access to the whitetail paradises they see on tv. We constantly see shows where guys are passing 150" bucks and can really manage a deer heard that consistently produces mature bucks. It's starting to get really old hearing guys saying "well try and kill a buck like that on public land", or "try being a real hunter and hunt public." I can almost guarantee if those individuals had the opportunity to own and manage large amounts of private land they would. If those hunters would take a step back and realize that in the majority of the country there is some really great public land which has the potential to grow old bucks. I love hunting my private spots and watching bucks grow with age but there is nothing comparable to having every piece in order to kill an old buck on public ground. The amount of variables in a public hunt is probably 5x as much as private land but that's why the challenge and the reward is so much higher in my opinion.
