[MinScout]

My brother in law and I were traveling through LaCrosse/Winona area this week. He's thinking of relocating to that area. I was wondering what the deer and small game hunting was like down there. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

[bclark1]

My family's got a house and some acreage about 30 miles from LaCrosse (mailing address is in Blair even though we're not in the town). The hunting is good, I enjoy the terrain as it's considerably more hilly than what we get in Illinois. Around us, the hunting pressure is pretty heavy - most of the land around us was bought by hunters, many of whom (my family included) allow farmers to plant on the reasonably flat sections of property. They get some extra corn at a nominal lease price, and our game animals are well-fed. I've hunted deer up there for the last two years. Two seasons ago, I saw a tremendous number of deer, I stopped counting at 40-something in the first couple hours of opening morning. It's a nice area because it's a herd reduction unit. Earn-a-buck is in effect, and antlerless bonus tags go for $2 a pop. This year it was a little tougher on my property, some flakey people moved in nearby and they must've had a small army of people hunting, and a lot of the guys that own adjacent property to us had more friends than usual too, so the deer were hunkered down. I'm fairly new to deer hunting, so the trophies tend to elude me - I've seen some pretty nice bucks but the one's I've seen while I'm out hunting don't present me with good shots. I say "I'll get 'em next year," but I think someone else usually does. The neighbors who are serious about hunting always get monsters though. My one neighbor and his son have each taken two bucks a season apiece on their property since I started hunting up there, neither smaller than 9 points. Another guy got two of the biggest bucks I've probably ever been in any kind of proximity to, one during bow and one during gun, this year.
So it's great deer territory. I see some big turkeys too, although the past couple years I've gone down to Southern Illinois for spring turkey. Now I'm in Ohio so I don't know what I'm going to do. But I know my neighbors do fine with them as well. I've seen some other game birds around, but not in any real quantities. I've only been bird hunting a couple times though, so there's a good chance I just might not have the eyes for it. Grouse here and there. You'll occasionally see a pheasant a little off the road on some of the highways. There are coyotes, but I've never caught up with one, some nights it'll sound like they're at the back door and then you won't hear them for weeks. There are occasionally rumors of a bear or two or a big cat, I've never seen one but some folks swear they have. The Wisconsin DNR also has warnings out to watch for feral pigs in that area (shoot on sight) but I've never seen anything that would indicate they're around either, at least on our property. Lots of squirrels, some raccoons and rabbits, the usual on that stuff. Fair amount of fishing in the area too, although that's most of WI/MN. Just don't get a speeding ticket up there, I just got screwed out of $550 for going 72 because I didn't realize it'd gone from a 65 to a 50 in a bend, and they cranked up the fine when I went to court in return for changing it to a non-moving violation. Saves on the insurance but ouch. Wisconsin... >:O

[darkknight]

Im not sure theirs any bad hunting in wisconsin considering the size of the herd. I go to schollo out here and i rarely hear of friends get skunked and if they did it was cause they were to drunk but thats a diffrent story