Im not sure how I missed this one. I'm also a landowner north of highway 8. My land is in rusk county in nw wi. It looks like your area is primarily wooded, so food could really draw them in. Can you bulldoze a trail in so you can access your fields to plant more food? Once the gun seasons start, the deer in my area head to the thick swamps to ride out the season. Does your land have any swamps with black spruce, alders or cedars? what kind of luck have you had on your property in the past?
Land Plan Recommendations Needed
- Thread starter Camp 2 Dukes
- Start date
On a side note, I see you have a pointer in your photo next to your name. Do you do much bird hunting up there? I bought my land for deer, but I have more fun hunting just about everything else up there. Grouse, woodcock, duck and bears is great. Deer is so/so. For the birds there are lots of public hunting properties that seem to get very little pressure.
Camp 2 Dukes
5 year old buck +
Hi Ben
We did bring a D9 in and made some trails but I'm sure you know how rough that country is on equipment. The front section is a little low and can be wet. Its always a challenge getting equipment in. We have plans to get a better road in but even hat may not be good enough to get big farm equipment in. Especially to the bigger field. We do have swamp bordering us. It is cattails, tag alder and a small patch of tamaracks. We have owned it since 97 and have taken 5 mature bucks and 5 1-2 yr olds. One of the mature deer field dressed at 239 lbs. Not sure if you have seen the Gidian or Joyner bucks. One was over 200" the other had an outside spread of 32". Those were taken within a couple of miles of where we are. One buck taken off our piece before we bought it had a 27" spread.
Camp 2 Dukes
5 year old buck +
We have not hunted birds on our piece but we see a ton of grouse. We used to have Hungarian Partridge but its been yrs since Ive seen them. Where is your property? Have you guys seen / shot much in the past few years?
I thought your big woods picture looked familiar. I grouse hunt the county land in the NW corner of that picture. My land is 4 1/2 miles straight east of your land, right off Highway A near the intersection of berkeypile road and bass lake road. Mine is 117 acres I bought in 2006. We've killed 4 bucks 4 1/2 years old+, two 2 1/2 year olds and three 1 1/2 year olds there since I've owned it. The hunting was much better early on and there were just a lot more deer in general in our area. This year we never saw a buck during gun season (we haven't shot does the last several years since we think the deer numbers are too low). I did see a nice buck while bowhunting this year, but he didn't come close enough. The last deer we shot on my land was a nice 8 pointer in 2014 that scored 140". I'm cautiously optimistic that the deer numbers are on the rebound, but the deer hunting has been pretty tough for us the past two years.
We have had pretty good luck with bears though. None of us drew a tag this year, but we killed bears in each of the prior 3 seasons. Sometimes I think there are more bears than deer up there.
Camp 2 Dukes
5 year old buck +
Ben
Thats sounds great. I know about where you are. We fish Bass lake. Those 2 tough winters devastated the deer. I saw more deer this year as well. 6 different bucks one nice 10 I had a great opportunity on with my bow. Missed. No excuse just missed. We saw 1 spike during gun season. I saw all 6 bucks the weekend before gun once gun starts they vanish.
Camp 2 Dukes
5 year old buck +
Wiscwhip Im new to the site. Land tours are they pictures? Or videos? What do people include typically? I assume if it is something to upload to the site it has to be pics. Even some of the pics Ive tried to upload were too large. Do people do youtube videos with links?
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
No, land tours are where a landowner invites a group of "local" "habitat guys" from forums like this one to tour their property and show them what you have done and then get suggestions from those like-minded land managers on what they have done to their properties and how to improve your own property. It's kind of like having an on-site evaluation from a habitat "expert", but it only costs you some beers and lunch for the attendees.
EDIT: ^^^^^ Stu beat me to it..........lol!
EDIT: ^^^^^ Stu beat me to it..........lol!
Camp 2 Dukes
5 year old buck +
That sounds really cool. What time of year is best?
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
As to your questions, lots of guys start a "land tour" thread to document the things they have done to their own properties, which includes uploading pics of your place, aerial photos, topos, videos, whatever you want to put in that thread. It is your thread, and this forum is a great resource for getting suggestions to improve your place from a diverse group of like-minded guys. There are lots of them on here, but one that comes to mind is "j-birds place", it is a thread which is a "land tour" type thread, give it a look. Most guys like early spring, as the deer are in a pattern that the disturbance would be minimal and one gets to "see" more of the property without the leaves hiding everything.
I fish bass lake occasionally when I can bring up my boat. It's a pretty cool little lake with nice crappies if you can find them. I fished there every night when my dad was bear hunting. I'd drop him off at his stand on the atv, then jump in the truck and drive one minute to the lake for a few hours of fishing while he hunted. With a west wind I could hear him shoot from the lake. I usually caught just enough for a fish fry after the hunt. The deer hunting isn't the greatest now, but that's still a really cool area. I live 3 hours away in se mn, so I never get up there as much as I like. If you drive to bass lake on county a, my place is the property on the south side of the road with the 9 year old spruce and pine rows around my field for visual screens.
Camp 2 Dukes
5 year old buck +
We planted about 20 apple trees when we 1st bought the property in 97. Only 2 made it. They do give fruit. But not enough. I wish I would have paid more attention to how they were planted and cared for. I was not as involved in the property initially. I had many other places to hunt and this property was more crowded. As of late most partners are gone or have other interests. Now my son and I hunt mostly and I am looking to improve it substantially. I have fruit trees in my plan and about 6000 spruce trees. Did your Dad get a bear? Your neighbor that shot the bucks over apples was that early season?
My neighbor shot his bucks with a bow in October and November. He said he would dump apples daily near his stand 20 yards from the road. He would just hunt once he got pics of a big buck in daylight. My dad shot a nice bear, field dressed at 320 pounds.
I've had lots of problems with sw injury on my apple trees up there, but painting the trunks annually has really helped that issue. Using cold hardy rootstocks also improved my success. Im optimistic that my hunting will improve with my orchard and visual screens. Especially if baiting is banned.
are you planting those spruce trees in your fields? That's a lot of trees, are you using a pull behind tree planter? I've had great luck with white spruce and red pines from the wi dnr nursery.
I've had lots of problems with sw injury on my apple trees up there, but painting the trunks annually has really helped that issue. Using cold hardy rootstocks also improved my success. Im optimistic that my hunting will improve with my orchard and visual screens. Especially if baiting is banned.
are you planting those spruce trees in your fields? That's a lot of trees, are you using a pull behind tree planter? I've had great luck with white spruce and red pines from the wi dnr nursery.
Camp 2 Dukes
5 year old buck +
Camp 2 Dukes
5 year old buck +
Thats a nice bear. I have gotten the trees from the DNR nursery in Hayward in the past. Some of the trees will be planted along a field edge the rest will be planted along an existing wood / field edge. On the prop plan they will be the blue lines.This time I think I'm going to get them from Engels nursery. They sell 18"-24" .30 to .35 ea. What is sw injury? Where did you get your apple trees?
Sw injury is bark damage on the sw side of fruit trees caused by the sun reflecting off the snow in winter. It thaws the bark and makes the juices flow, then freezes and cracks the bark when the sun goes down. If you put white latex paint on the sw side, it really helps. Nearly all of my trees up there were damaged by this until I started painting them a few years ago. I'm fairly sure this was the cause of a lot of my early tree deaths but I just didn't know what to look for back then.
I buy most of my apple trees from st Lawrence nursery in New York, but I've also had good luck with Woodstock nursery in wi.
Have you had any luck bear hunting up there?
I buy most of my apple trees from st Lawrence nursery in New York, but I've also had good luck with Woodstock nursery in wi.
Have you had any luck bear hunting up there?
Camp 2 Dukes
5 year old buck +
I haven't bear hunted up there. I shot one in Ontario back in 91. My neighbors have taken 3 a yr. for the past 3 yrs.
