Looking for a different type of hunting trip and could use suggestions

[teddy12b]

This year it looks like my dear sweet wife will be letting me get out of the house for a short week to go do some hunting. The problem is that I'm not really sure where I want to go or what I want to go after. I'm getting tired of going to places to hunt for a week and all I see is the small area around a tree stand in some heavy woods. I'd like to go some to a place where I can hike and walk for miles and look for game that way. Normally every couple of years I'd go either deer hunting or black bear hunting, and as much as I want to go again, I just don't want to go sit in tree or in a blind. I basically don't want to be sitting still anymore.

To be completely honest, I don't even care if I'm hunting after "big game". I'd love to find a place where I could be see plenty of small game and have lots of opportunities to pop something for dinner with a 22lr, compared to waiting all week to take a single shot at something big with a 30-06. If there was a river or pond nearby for a little fishing that wouldn't be an entirely bad thing either. I'm going to have a pickup by this fall so I'd be completely ok if this trip meant living out of a truck and going from place to place for a week too. Nothing too extreme, but something remote where a guy can check out an area and once you've found a spot to hunt, fish, camp etc.

I've never been on a trip like this before and I'd really like to make this happen, but I don't know where to focus my efforts to find a place that could accommodate something like this. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[den57]

Depending on what you are wanting to hunt, if it was me, I'd Go west young man!!!! Between Colorado, Wy, Montana and Idaho, I'm sure one of those states would fit what you are wanting to do. Take a fly rod as well. Plenty of good trout streams.

 

[buckstopshere]

Colorado and New Mexico offer opportunities to hunt elk. My cousin goes every year, New Mexico only now since Colorado sucks, and he says it's a blast. Lots of remote areas, lots of stalking. He bow hunts so you can get in close.

My buddy in New York won a draw hunt in Montana for Buffalo. I'm not sure how that process works but would be worth looking into. If you want to do lots of shooting, you could head to Arizona and do some javelina hunting. Those little stink pigs are everywhere. You could hunt them in Texas too.

Texas also offers Pronghorn Antelope hunting. You could probably combine the stink pig and speed goat hunting in Texas.

 

[HuntMeister]

Ever done a Antelope hunt? Very fun hunt, can be spot and stalk depending on where you go. NE Wyoming has lots of private very large ranches that you could pay a trespass fee. Some of the landowners may let you roam and some not. I believe the Thunder Basin National Grasslands is a public place you could hunt them. Not sure when the application deadline is / was for WY but I do know that many of the hunt areas in especially the NE part of WY never sell out and plenty of leftover tags. Some may disagree with me but the Antelope that I have killed were excellent table fare! IMHO, not as good as Elk but I would take it over a Muley any day. Over a half million Speed Goats in WY, You should have no problem seeing game, enjoying a few stalks and filling a few tags.

 

[tenring]

Do a bunch of homework ahead of time by buying maps that tells you who owns what in a place like Wyoming. There is more acres to hunt on than your feet care to cover that contains tons of Antelope. BLM ground can be camped on and hunted on for no charge or permission. You just have to find out for yourself where to get the different maps of different areas so you can determine just what you want. There are millions of acres of public land to hunt or camp on, but a lot of it is locked up for access due to the "checker board" pattern of ownership from the 1800's. You have to find out for yourself the route to take. It's takes some time but it is worth the home work to do so. I did some home work ahead of time several years ago before going with some friends for deer in NW Colorado out of Rifle. One particular place pinpointed on some maps I got show that if one headed out in a certain direction, you could go for over 20 miles and never get off of BLM ground. It's up to you.

 

[jmiller676]

Ever thought of doing a Spring Snow goose hunt? Always looks fun to me.

 

[teddy12b]

I can't say I have ever thought about a goose hunt. Anytime I've seen the duck or turkey hunting shows I never thought I could sit still and listen to the calling noises without going insane.

 

[jmiller676]

I can't say I have ever thought about a goose hunt. Anytime I've seen the duck or turkey hunting shows I never thought I could sit still and listen to the calling noises without going insane.

It's noisy with snow goose hunting but, if you hit the time right it can be an amazing time. A lot of places allow extended tube mags with no limits (spring conservation season). It's something a little different than standard out west type hunts. Missouri is a good place to hunt snow geese.

 

[teddy12b]

It's noisy with snow goose hunting but, if you hit the time right it can be an amazing time. A lot of places allow extended tube mags with no limits (spring conservation season). It's something a little different than standard out west type hunts. Missouri is a good place to hunt snow geese.

That'd be worth considering. I'll look into it.

 

[Zoub]

I'd like to go some to a place where I can hike and walk for miles and look for game that way. Normally every couple of years I'd go either deer hunting or black bear hunting, and as much as I want to go again, I just don't want to go sit in tree or in a blind. I basically don't want to be sitting still anymore.

My first thoughts were South Dakota Pheasant or Ruffed Grouse here in Wisconsin or Michigan. The Pheasant hunts will be more singular, walk a lot, cover a lot of similar ground, hunt Pheasants. If you don't have a bird dog, go with people who do, join a group and hire guides with dogs. Its typically a good value.

Grouse. I am not a Grouse expert but I live among them and in just one season my Pheasant lovin' dog and I have adapted well to them. Where I live is called the Grouse Capital of the world. It is also referred to as the most geographically isolated area in Wisconsin. People come from as far as the deep south and Europe to hunt these birds here. To say there is an abundance of public land with grouse trails available is an understatement. The trails are covered in clover and are grouse magnets in the dense forest so they flock to them. You can walk the trails and push them up, even without a dog. You may only see half of the birds you hear flush, shoot at even less, and of course hit even less than that. My dog can be 10 yards off the trails from me and I may not be able to see her. The day she hit a porcupine, I never saw it. Rarely do I venture off the main trails, too much work but there are areas I know well now where I can follow the game trails, find birds and not get lost in the swamps in the bogs. The Grouse hunter trails are off limits to everything except foot traffic. No ATV's, tree huggin' bike riders or trucks. You park and you walk, boulders block the trails. Then there are the paper company lands and private lands open to public hunting through DNR programs. Last month I just found an additional 1000 acres to play on that is all privately owned, all 5-10 minutes from my home. They range from 700 to 40 acre tracts.

I could spend a month living out of my truck, never be more than 1/2 hour from home and not see all the trails and areas in that radius. Plenty of public camping areas available as well. This summer we are doing some weekend kayak trips to the same spots, just load up, drive there and camp. I can get in my kayak from my back door go down stream and access tracts between 200 and 700-1000 acres or I can drive to them.

However, I would not plan to live off small game I shot. Carry plenty of water and dehydrated food in the truck, travel light and cover ground, move the truck to the next trail head. That is how I spend my hunting days now, I just sleep at home and it saves wear and tear on the old dog. I even drive the 1/2 mile to one spot I hunt because the dog cant turn her nose off to walk there and back and these days she can only hunt a hard two hours so I don't want to waste 30 minutes of it on walking there and back. So for the cost of gas and maybe some overnight fees at the fancier camp spots, you could do something different and get some self guided quiet time for a week. There are people who snowshoe and ski in the Nicolet and just pop snowshoe hares to eat, which can be shot year round, but I never see any in my area.

FYI Grouse are better eating than any bird, period, except maybe Teal.

Also, as a non resident you can open carry in WI. Do what you want, but because I run a dog I always carry. Look online at pics of 160lb wolves and you will probably want to carry too. I live in a wilderness area and know guys who are born and raised here who live in spots in the Nicolet that make our home look cosmopolitan. These guys are not pussies and they respect the Wolves. It's really not a problem but I don't want to be that guy who failed, you know what I mean. I hunt alone and birdshot only is never enough IMHO.

Of course if you like to fish you can combine fishing with hunting on your trip and then you will have fresh food every day to eat. I do that a lot here. You could mix in bow hunting too.

Also, Grouse like to sleep in, you don't have to hunt them at crack of dawn. Do a hunt, do some more, go fish, hunt some more, drive around and scout. Whatever works for your mood. Hire a guide for a day or two to show you around. Or come up when I am available and I will tag along for a few hours the first weekend showing you spots on the maps.

First link is my general area that I hunt most of the time. Keep in mind, that first link is just to Price county public lands. The population density is like 5 people per square mile and these maps do not include paper company lands or State and Federal lands. All of the links below range from my back door to within 60 minutes of my house.
http://www.co.price.wi.us/government/forestrydepartment/Non Motorized Trails.htm


Price County, Wisconsin » Ruffed Grouse Hunting
Hunting - Park Falls Chamber of Commerce
Recreational Opportunities | City of Park Falls
Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest - Hunting
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/stateforests/flambeauriver/

The other nice thing about bird hunting, you don't have to drag them to get them out. Nice for the solo hunter.

 

[BStarkey 46947]

I have hunted in NE WY (Gillette area) for Mule Deer and Antelope and loved it. 50-60 degree temp. swing from morning to afternoon. Put in for a second round of tags but did not get drawn.

 

[teddy12b]

Zoub,
If you and I met up for some hunting/fishing I bet that'd be a pretty good time. You could see yourself how much I suck with a shotgun, lol.

You sure make Wisconsin sound like heaven on Earth. I'll do some reading on what you mentioned.

 

[UNCLE HARLEY]

Here's what a successful South Dakota phesant hunt looks like. 10 of us shot 29 birds in one day. I was in extreme NW South Dakota & it was a drive & a half to get there but worth every minute of it. Hunted mostly private land but a lot of public land available also. We saw some antelope on the way there but not a lot of them & also some coyotes while we we phesant hunting. I can highly reccomend the trip.

 

[Zoub]

Zoub,
If you and I met up for some hunting/fishing I bet that'd be a pretty good time. You could see yourself how much I suck with a shotgun, lol.

You sure make Wisconsin sound like heaven on Earth. I'll do some reading on what you mentioned.

Good news for you, your misses will look as good as anybody's. Just work on your style and wear a cool Orange hat. I didn't say what my hit ratio was high! Nice thing is short, ugly open choke shotguns work great for this and there is nothing wrong with using 12 over 20 gauge. I missed equally well with both gauges in both semi auto and O/U. One day while I was bent over in the thick stuff and the dog put a bird up behind me that flew right over my head and I never saw the damn thing. I felt it's wing beat on my neck but never saw it.

The area I hunt the most I am usually alone. One day I bumped into two guys from Green Bay that recognized me form the river this summer. One has a cabin nearby. One day while I was Goose hunting instead of Grouse there was a couple from out of State with the guide. West of us around Hayward get the Mud ducks (Minnesotans) and East at Eagle River get the FIB's. We get a mix but no where near as many. Less lakes means less cabins. Up here a cabin may sit on 40 to 240 acres or even more. Many do not seem to be in use much either. I joke and tell people we live on the quite side of the forest, no matter what direction you are coming from. There is a reason land is so cheap here.

North of Hwy 8 is great, East and West of Hwy 13, all the way up to Ashland on the lake.

Half of it is just being able to hunt for hours and never see anyone else, maybe hear a shot in the distance. Stop by a lake and watch Eagles, Ospreys, Loons then go back to hunting. Walk along see deer, turkey, bears. Small game near us is just nonexistent. Since June I have yet to see a single Coon and the other day I saw my first real squirrel, a Gray. We have rare pine martens and I have watched one hunt but I think the problem is the Fishers. I have seen them nearby and they are basically mini Wolverines and eat everything. The guy we rent from was amazed when I told him we had rabbits, even through the winter. We have plenty of Coyotes and Wolves. Bobcats are here but you rarely see them, friend saw one this weekend. A cougar was sighted on our property past few years but not since we moved here, I am good with that. we have a butt load of bears. Just down the road one day about 6 or 7 came out of the same 5-10 acres of still standing corn during a deer drive.

Only bad thing is this winter has been the coldest ever on record. Not record low temp but lowest average temp. I would say for three months even on a rare day above zero, the windchill was below. Coupled with the early deep snow and no melt during the winter, kill rate is high. We are at 121 through end of February, still have snow on the ground today and the last two days have been about -14 for a low. Turkey and Grouse seem to have done OK, deer are hurting. Last season was my first here and all the locals said less deer, more wolf sign.
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/wildlifehabitat/documents/wsi2.pdf

Trips up here doing what you are talking about would also be good practice for taking a trip out West. If your gear and your truck are ready, you basically don't even have to plan this trip, just grab your maps and head out. I use to fish that way down South. Stay at a small motel and decide each morning if I was staying or checking out. Go camp in the swamp, night fish in the boat, no plans, just cash and gas.

 

[rhino]

ELK.​

 

[Zoub]

EliminateLittleKritters.
​

We got a herd fo Elk an hour from here but no hunty allowyed.....yet.

 

[jbell_64]

Could head to north Florida / south Georgia for quail, turkey, and hog. Only be a couple hours to the Gulf of Mexico for fishing.

 

[rhino]

We got a herd fo Elk an hour from here but no hunty allowyed.....yet.

Hurry up! It's not going to take long to eat all of them in Kentucky.

​rhino out!

 

[Zoub]

Hurry up! It's not going to take long to eat all of them in Kentucky.

​rhino out!

Last night I just heard of a Moose being nearby on the river. I find that very interesting. I am gonna need a bigger fork!

 

[teddy12b]

Here's what a successful South Dakota phesant hunt looks like. 10 of us shot 29 birds in one day. I was in extreme NW South Dakota & it was a drive & a half to get there but worth every minute of it. Hunted mostly private land but a lot of public land available also. We saw some antelope on the way there but not a lot of them & also some coyotes while we we phesant hunting. I can highly reccomend the trip.

Were you "self guided"? For me to do a pheasant hunt I'd have to have somebody with me who has a dog. I couldn't do it on my own.