Question for Steve B

B

BJE80

Guest
Just curious. What do you do for gun season in Wisconsin? Do you have a traditional deer camp that you attend somewhere? Are you a loner and just hunt your normal spots? Do you work during it with clients? Just curious if someone that does this for a living still has their traditions for enjoyment or is it all about work and killing bucks?


Sorry if I am being too nosy.
 
Interesting question.
 
Hunt around marshfield I hope? I was at a gathering last weekend with a bunch of farmers from there, and they were showing me some slobs. One guy shot 2 150s the last 2 years, very impressive.
 
The only "traditional deer camp" I ever did was when I was young and hunted with cousins and uncles, using one of their dairy farms as the "camp." unfortunately, the uncle whose camp we used has long since died and I've been pretty much a loner (with the exception of with my younger brother some hunting seasons) ever since or hunting with clients.

I've got one REALLY big client in IL that has all sorts of ground. IL 1st shotgun season is the Fri-Sun of WI's opener. For the last 5 years, I've brought people into to help remove management bucks there and had to be there for their firearms seasons to essentially guide them (they aren't paid hunters, but part of the conditions for them to hunt there is that they only do, go and shoot what/where I say...extremely tight controls, as it's my butt if they mess up). It's not a traditional type camp setting at all, but I enjoy it.

The last couple years, I haven't hunted WI's firearm's. Instead, I've come home that Monday and spent the week with the family, only to head back to IL the following week to get ready for their second, 4 day shotgun season and do the guiding thing again with a different group.

Before that, I snuck in a little bit of hunting midweek in WI, but it was as a loner for quite a few years. Truth be told, I've always been a bit envious of those that get to live the true WI firearm's camp experience.
 
Hunt around marshfield I hope? I was at a gathering last weekend with a bunch of farmers from there, and they were showing me some slobs. One guy shot 2 150s the last 2 years, very impressive.

Yeah...Every bit of firearm's hunting I've done in WI for the last 12 years has been around Marshfield (within 40 mins anyway)...Except for 1 year when I had the only lease I've ever had, it's all public ground hunting.
 
Steve- the firearms camp experience is why I am reluctant to fill my tag with a bow. It is just more fun when you have an open tag.
 
Gotcha. Most of us do this for fun. You do it for a living so I was curious how that went for a guy like you.
 
You can shoot a buck with a bow AND with a firearm in WI
Ya, it isn't one buck limit! Now who's got it bad :(
 
Art, I'm envious as @#$% of your situation. When I was a kid, a buddy of mine's father did everything he could to live vicariously through my buddy, pushing him really hard to excel in all the activities the dad enjoyed as a kid. My buddy hated it and everything he was forced to do. I made a rule for myself way back then that I'd never push my kids to do any particular sport or take up any particular hobby (I pushed them to do both, but left it up to them which they wanted to do). Out of my 5 kids (2 through birth, 3 more through marriage), I've hunted with 4 out of the 5, but only my oldest daughter is into it at any level. I wish we'd all get together for firearms, but they just aren't into it.

That said, last year and this coming, I did get my daughter a 2nd season IL firearm's tag for her birthday & Christmas present (they aren't cheap). She's 21 and plenty old to sit by herself, but I sat with her last year and will again this. That's the closest I've ever had to what you get every year, and it was the highlight of my season last year (and I shot my first Booner last year)...REALLY looking forward to it again this year.

P.S. I'm 99.99999999% sure you've read every book I've done. The daughter I'm referring to is the one I wrote about in the Bow Hunting Tactics book in the last chapter about taking turkey hunting when he was 6 and us laughing the entire time until our sides ached as she tried calling turkeys. Still to this day my favorite hunt ever.
 
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