I have hunted deer for a good many years, but always in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. I use either a .308 or a .270. This year my son and I are going to Wisconsin deer hunting and will be taking our .270s. I keep hearing how these Wisconsin deer are as big as the ones in Saskatchewan. We usually use Remington core-lokts, me using 130s and my son using 150s. What bullets would you recommend we use in Wisconsin? Neither of us reload, so it will have to be ammunition off the store shelves.

both of those listed (270/130 and 150) will do just fine. I doubt you will run into a sask buck here. Typical full grown buck here will weigh 210(ish) after being gutted. Does will get up to about 170.

what part of the state will you be hunting ?

I have shot quite a few WI deer. None have been as big as the one's in MN. They're not bullet proof in the least.

Take your .270's or .308's and shoot the heck out of the core-lokts, or whatever other factory ammo you want.

Every WI deer I've ever killed was with a core-lokt. The fastest kill of any deer i've had was in WI with 130gr core-lokt from a .270 Win.


have fun.

Where the heck do you hunt where the typical WI buck is 210 gutted? We hunt in norther Price and Ashland Co. Of the dozens of bucks we've shot in the last 20 years, 1 was over 200# dressed.

I hunt near Mauston. Majority of the bucks we see are 150 to 180. But those are normally not over 2 to 3 yrs old. You get a 5 or 6 yr old and it would almost for certain go over 200. I did say FULL GROWN in the earlier post, and that should be the largest the OP should expect to see, rather than the 250 or 300's of Canada. This one was 208.

Jerry,
C'mon on up - the Core-Lokts are a fine choice for any whitetail we've got.

And, FWIW, we get some nice deer but they pale in comparison to the Canadian strain in terms of body size.

What part of the state will you be hunting?

Digger, went the "kosher" route on that one I see.

haha. not kosher venison here but
that was the exit side and was trimmed to get rid of gut mess for the pic.

Any .270 130 grain or better will do just fine. My choice for WI is 130 grain nosler accubonds.
Most shots in WI woodlands are well under 100 yards so in most cases the bullet will be zipping along at high speed and carry a lot of energy still. My 130's make one heck of a hole at 75 yards in any deer

I use 130's for my 270, or 150's for my 308. May go up to 165's as they seem to tear up less meat. 270's, 30-06 and 308's are the most used up ammo at most of the stores around here. With the exception of 30-30's.

We will be hunting in Buffalo County. I am really looking forward to this. By the sounds of it, you guys use the same thing we use in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. I have tried premium ammo over the years, but they never seemed to put down deer any better than core-lokts. I guess that is what we will go with. Thanks!!

Calling BS here-average weight 210 gutted? Dude, you better check your scale, or quit shooting Old McDonald's cows!

You will probably have the time of your life hunting there. You have a true opportunity at a B&C buck there. Good luck and we expect pictures.

id say for WI the "average" for a mature deer is somewheres in the 180-200 lb range gutted...no diff than a mature deer where your coming from..of all the deer ive hunted and killed when i was living in wi(19 years there), none of them would have been "too big" for a .243 win...best of luck in buffalo county, should be a blast

Jerry-

Are you hunting with Tom Indrebo per chance?

schmalts is a homo....
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just kidding schmaltz

I didn't say average weight... you did.
I said typical FULL GROWN BUCK.
The scale was at the butchers and I doubt he would give me extra meat. Maybe those that shoot monster 150 pound deer need to realize that they aren't full-grown. And as long as Old McDonald's cows grow antlers and have white tails .... I'll continue to shoot them.
Call BS if you like .. I don't really care. In our area we see 200#ers every year, especially if they are shot in bow season before rut.

I concur. Mature deer in WI will generally be on the hefty side of 200lbs. prior to the rut. While that's a rather general statement, the fact of the matter is most people in WI wouldn't know a 200# animal if it ran them over because most people cannot lay off of the dinks.

not saying you don't get them. You said the typical buck you get is 210 gutted. "typical" or "average" pretty much the same thing.

I could win hudreds of dollars each year sitting at the feed mill in Butternut betting guys their, true, mature, trophy bucks DON'T weight 200#.

I watched a grown man throw a tantrum because his "230# buck" ONLY weighed 190# on the scale. It was a beautiful buck, a true trophy pushing 160", and this man was pissed because there's no way a deer like that can ONLY weigh 190#.

WI deer are decievig IMO...they are short in length, and height, but fat ( a lot like me). The big bucks I've shot in MN are long suckers, basketball playin' bucks. The largest buck our crew got in WI was a 168", 209#'er shot in the last week of October. I would have swore up and down it was a 225#+ deer, but when it was in the back of the truck it was short, but damn that thing was as big around as 55 gal. barrel.

This is the last I'll squawk on this tread about it.

Tommy,
Just to clarify, I didn't say that.

I get a kick out of folks that think their 160# is 200# too.

And you're right, Northern MN has the Canadian strain of whitetails, they're far more sturdy than our northern deer.

Tom,

I can't believe you just admitted that !

Paul

I know...I used the "quick reply"

You probably don't know what a 200# buck looks like either. You just shoot them big Canuck bastards.

Yeah, I prolly shouldn't have.

That Tink's 69 works a lot better than a guy would think. And fer Chrissakes....DON'T KEEP IT IN YOUR BACK POCKET!

SKane- We are hunting with Tom Indrebo. That is good I hope....He seems like a pretty straight guy.

Jerry

Oh...THAT'S good. No need to worry. He might even get you on a decent buck

Jerry,
He's the guy that put Buffalo County on the map. You're in good hands.

I hunted at my brother's farm about 30 miles west of Madison. Never seen more deer signs and big rubs. We hunted for a week and he got a 220 8 point and I got a 180lb one

Beautiful hardwoods, acorns and cornfields. Will return again this year

That's some beautiful country and boasts some really good deer - can't imagine why you'd wanna go back.

I used to live in Eau Claire, my great grandfather had a farm south of Gilmanton. We used to hunt there every year on opening weekend. This is back in the late 70's and early 80's. I don't now how it is now, but you could only use shotguns with slugs and it was buck or doe opening weekend. On a drive we used to flush out 1/2 dozen deer out of every valley. We always filled our tags. We ate lots of venison in those days. Great grandpa died in 1986 at the great old age of 96. His son in law had conned him into selling him the farm. No one else knew of it until it was too late. Haven't been back since his funeral. He's buried in Wuamandee. Beautiful country.

Back to deer. Ya, they had a reputation for being "corn fed" and big, but not as many were amazing like Iowa or MN deer, but they all tasted good. I used an Ithica 20 guage model 37 and shot every deer under 50 yards. Brings back memories.

Enjoy your hunt. Buffalo county is nothing like it used to be. Wealth and development has taken over like every other remote beautiful place in the state. Our deer camp fell apart. Now I hunt north by Hayward where deer aren't as plentiful. Shooting a doe should be criminal.

Ahhhh, the good old days.

Thanks for taking me back.

DC,

Most of the deer in northern WI are "corn fed" too - a pile of yellow acorns can appear out of nowhere.

I'd worry more about that G'damned earn a buck than I would about what it takes to put a buck down.

I grew up in Eau Claire. Go Old Abes!

We have a party that hunts near Spooner, big buck there body wise is going to run 170 - 180 lbs, that's a mature deer.

In MN, East Central part of the state our last 6 bucks have went 215, 210, 205, 190 and 185 (2) - that's the last 3 years and all have been 4+ year olds. These are all dressed weights on a fairly accurate scale. For whatever reason they don't grow as big in the part of WI that other members of our party hunt, not sure why (they're racks are better over there!).

They don't have to get as big. Winter is at least a few weeks shorter there. Probably more like a month.

Until this year, I lived near Wausau for the last 11 years. There is a big difference in weather from there to here. (north of the twin cities 25 miles.)

Small world. I'm a mid 80's Old Abe too. Coached by Birkel.

I may be wrong, but I understood that they stopped the earn a buck program.

You guys have got me thinking about hunting in days gone by. I can still remember the first time my dad put me on a deer stand. I was 12 years old and it was about 5:30 in the morning and so dark I could not see my hand in front of my face. After he walked off, I could hear every sound. I shot my first buck on that same stand a few years later. That was in Pennsylvania.

Now I am anxious to hunt Wisconsin. I have wanted to go there for a number of years.

Jerry - 2010 earn-a-buck applied only to deer management units (DMU) that were in a Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) DMU unit. Stay tuned that could change for 2011.

Actually the largest bodied deer on record is from MN and dressed at just over 400lbs. Our state record is from the UP and dressed in the upper 300lb range. I think there was a few WI that were in that range also IIRC. Most obviously don't get close to that, but one of the problems we have here is it's hard to get bucks to maturity due to the volume of hunters. A few years ago some check station data recorded around 2% of bucks coming through were 4.5 and older. I think we'd see a lot more of the 200+ dressed out if they were mature deer instead of a bulk being 1.5 and 2.5 year olds.

At this time, there is still EAB.

You're right, most don't let them get big. I'm guilty as charged for that in WI. In WI i'm usually hunting for the fun of it, not for trophy's. I have only shot a few buck in WI. I go to be at camp, which is what I like the best.

Nothing wrong with that, it's supposed to be fun and those times at the camps are some good times.

Just heard yesterday that earn a buck is no more!!! I don't know about the 210 bucks they're talking about. Yeah you'll see one here and there, but around here in Richland County 180 dressed is a d@mn big deer....

That's good news.

SKane,
In Buffalo County it would seem with so many outfitters leasing land that deer would be an expensive commodity, is dink shooting a big problem in that county?

Mike,

Actually, Buffalo county is one of the few exceptions. (there are some other areas as well) A lot of that ground is managed for big deer and they do a fantastic job of it. The Buffalo county deal was a grass roots effort by Tom Indrebo and a handful of others, neighbors began reaping the benefits of management and it spread from there.

There are also some relatively large tracts of land in that neck of the woods - not the case in so many other parts of the state.

Shoot in dink there and you'll likely be run out on a rail. You won't have problem there. There is a lot of farmland, and big woods all in the same. It gives them room to roam and food to eat.

It will be a great hunt. I'd like to hunt there once in my life. Preferably with a bow, but we'll see.

Tommy,
I have a friend that leases a good chunk of ground out there with two other guys and they shoot some super deer. It's only for three people and he said I'm on deck if something happens to one of the other two.

I'm currently researching the cutting of brake lines or perhaps hiring a hit on one of the other two.

Scott, a rechargeable Dremel is your friend!! Endless supply of ideas!!

Here's a nice WI buck actually my largest taken with a single shot out of my 25-204 using 100gr Partition at 2800fps. Scored 170 wish we would have weighed him but was too warm and had to get him cut up. Check station estimated over 300 dressed.



Taken on public ground north of Hayward.

erich

With a 100lb. bag of lead shot inside of him.

Was it scored using the metric system? Not to piss in your coffee, but that buck is a 130-140" deer weighing a buck 180 dressed.

Next time, you can estimate live weight by measuring the girth right behind the shoulders. There is a conversion for this to get live weight that you can google up, or you can get a tape measure calibrated in pounds from the PA Game and Fish folks for a whopping $1. Kinda handy and interesting.

Available at PA web page?

Can't find the website right off the bat, but if you put these words into google you will get a bunch of stuff, including a look-up table so you can just use an ordinary tape measure and convert

deer weight tape measure

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/deer/11949

Page down to Deer Hunting and click on Deer Weight Chart

Deer weight tape $.94 plus shipping and handling.

I ordered 10 for X-mas gifts

http://www.theoutdoorshop.state.pa....5C771E4CA7A57645C56781E642&catid=MIS

Page down to second item from the bottom

Ever see one where the tape wasn't big enough?

No, is that what I am looking at?

Yep. that spread on that buck is 22".

My leg! my leg! O my leg! - it hurts from all that...

Say, does anyone know of a similar tape or look up table for elk or moose? I looked around at one time and couldn't find anything.

Brent

That's a toad SKane...a magnum whitey. My Dad would like that.....he doesn't give a crap about horns, it's all about meat to him.

I killed a Texas muley buck a couple of years ago that had a 50" girth around his front shoulders, no BS. I've got a pic around here somewhere I'll see if I can find it.
IF that chart is close to being right, he was way over 300lbs. We guessed him at 330 or so anyway.

The biggest bodied mule deer I have ever seen have come out of the area of TX you hunt JG. Its incredible how big they can get

JG, I don't doubt that for a second. Any chance he was huge up front but smallish in the rear? (that's the way the whitetail in the earlier photo was - definitely on the down-side of prime)

I always assumed the buck out west were much larger than those here in good 'ol Pa. The last 4 buck I've shot in archery were between 168 - 196 lbs and I don't believe any were more than 2 1/2 years old. Just how much weight does a buck lose during the rut?




Comparing some of the bucks I've got recently, I think I might have a broken scale because mine don't look anywhere near as big as some posted.


This fella weighed 174lbs.





This one weighed 182 lbs




Neither look anywhere near as big as some posted here.

0


Being from Pennsylvania, I would assume your deer were dressed. I wonder how many of the deer described were live weight. That makes a big difference in the weight.

Hows the deer hunting around Wisconsin Rapids.

Where near Rapids? The Yellow River Bottoms are a good place. Lots of deer....lots, but there are a fair amount of people there to hunt them too. There are some big bucks around, but like usual, most shoot the dinks.

Found a pic of that deer. I'm 6'2" and my lardass goes 240. Granted this buck is hanging 18" or so off the ground, but you get the idea. 26" in circumference behind his ears, 50" girth behind front legs. He's obviously already gutted here...