Hunting in the US - info for an outsider?

[Rob404]

The weather in Minneapolis has been balmy, mid 60s

 

[Tra3]

The leaves are all still on the trees, so bow hunting has been, as it usually is, very close range. It is hard to see more than 40 yards in the woods.
keep us posted on what it is like to navigate hunting as a new arrival!
A side note, you may get more than one invite to a deer camp. Asking some questions about how each group hunts will give you some valuable insight to the group view of ethics and management. Some folks shoot everything they see, which can be shocking. Make sure you understand the concept of “party hunting” and if you will let another person fill your deer tag.
Also, be prepared to get a nickname.

 

[sgt_zim]

Awesome! The persistence paid off!

Winters in the upper Midwest of the US are a lot more like Scandinavian winters than you may realize.

A European might be tempted, in looking at a world map, to think Wisconsin will have the same sort of winters that southern France and northern Italy have since they are all on the same parallel. Nothing could be further from the truth.

By parallel, much of the US is quite a bit cooler than Europe. One would think that Rome and New York City, or Milan and Boston, would have similar seasons. One would be wrong in thinking that. Only Alaska is further north in the US than London is, yet London's winters are milder than everywhere on the US/Canadian border (either side of it), which are all well south of London.

But as to hunting, a lot of guys have already mentioned this or similar, but in the eastern US (meaning anything east of Interstate 35), most white tail deer tags (or Big Game licenses which permit hunting them) are sold over the counter. I buy an out of state license in Louisiana every year, and it comes with 6 tags (2 buck, 2 doe, 2 either sex).

If you want to hunt The Rockies, figure out what and where you want to hunt at least a year in advance - find an outfitter and have him help you through the tag application process. The west has a much richer variety of game than we have in the east. Many states have only white tail as a native big game species, many eastern states have white tail and black bear as the only native big game species. Elk have been re-introduced in much of the eastern US, but it's hard to draw those tags in most places.

But in the west - white tail and black bear of course, but also elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, American bison, moose, and bighorn sheep. Just a caution on black bear hunting. In north America, bear meat is by far and away the number one source of trichinella (a kind of intestinal roundworm). It's easy to treat with ivermectin, but you will have several very unpleasant gastro-intestinal days if you do get them.

That title used to belong to pork, but it has been eradicated from commercial US swine for decades. Just cook your meat thoroughly. I believe an internal temp of 155º F is sufficient to kill them.

I'm taking my son black bear hunting in Idaho next Spring, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[sgt_zim]

Forgot to mention turkeys. In the eastern US, we have the eastern wild turkey. That's truly a wily critter and generally a great challenge to hunt. Down here in Texas, we have some easterns, but mostly Rio Grande turkeys. Having hunted them both, Rios are much easier to hunt. Out west they have Merriam's turkeys. There are so many in some places they're almost considered vermin.

 

[Opposite Pole]

Just a caution on black bear hunting. In north America, bear meat is by far and away the number one source of trichinella (a kind of intestinal roundworm). It's easy to treat with ivermectin, but you will have several very unpleasant gastro-intestinal days if you do get them.

That title used to belong to pork, but it has been eradicated from commercial US swine for decades. Just cook your meat thoroughly. I believe an internal temp of 155º F is sufficient to kill them.

Trichinosis is also easily killed by freezing, below is the time/temperature chart.

Do note that this applies to trichinosis. There are a number of other parasites some of which ARE NOT freeze sensitive such as the horrible Echinocococcus which is only killed in whereabouts of -80C/-112F. However, the heat does kill it.

 

[SaintPanzer]

Bah.

What is it, 20F for the winter? Days are longer than they are here and snowfall doesn't look too bad. I've hunted in worse. First time I went after Hinds in Scotland I was there a week and it never got above 15F the whole time. Never stopped blowing a gale either. I was still out on the hill every day from dawn till dusk. It's character building!

I think Texas is making you soft Red Leg!

I'm not saying you haven't done your research, but according to the page weather-atlas.com, we see:
"Winters are cold, snowy, and temperatures around -30°F (-34.4°C) are common in the northern counties - in fact, during the coldest month of January the mercury may plummet to -40°F (-40°C). Clouds cover the skies for a significant part of the year in many places. The north, west, and central Wisconsin regions have a short growing season on account of a small freeze-free period compared to the eastern and southern regions that have the warm impact of Lake Michigan."

So you may have dropped a negative sign there. But then again, unlike Scotland, it's a dry cold.

In any case, yes there are some differences. Because more people hunt, management is approached from a different point of view. Unlike, say, Roe in Germany where it's "keep going until we tell you to stop or you get bored", you tend to be limited to a given quantity (hence the tags). The zones are also because the requirements in a given area of the state vary, but the licensing is for the entire state, so it's a convenient way to separate the requirements. And the yearly plan for the number of animals harvested is what will drive tag lotteries for specific species. There are not a lot of bear in Wisconsin, so they only want to take few in a given year. Hence, the lottery will "balance out" who gets the chance to hunt, and the preference points come to play the longer you are trying.

There are other states with bear that are not so limited in opportunities. The more remote, the more likely you are to find guided hunts. For example, fancy a grizzly in Alaska? Easy but expensive. In the lower 48 it's all black bear, and there are places where you really need to know the difference, and the difference is NOT color.

I'll leave it up to you to sort our the firearms piece, but it sounds like you have a handle on that. So go to your safety course and get your hunting license. You will find the process ludicrously simple compared to anywhere in Europe. Joint the hunting/shooting club, and you'll meet like minded souls who will help you. I'm not sure what is near Milwaukee, but rural land is not that far away. The state licensing agency will be able to tell you if there is public land where hunting is welcome for all.

Oh, and one more thing that we've been dancing around because we are so used to it, but is a bit different than the UK: Your license will be for the state of Wisconsin. You can take your firearm anywhere to hunt (and I encourage this!) but you'll need to buy a non-resident license for other states. This is not difficult (but can be considered expensive, in comparison to a resident license), but it's an important point. The way I explain it to my German friends is they don't expect their German license to be good by itself in Austria or Slovakia, so why should Wisconsin be any different? "But it's one country!" they exclaim. Yes, a sovereign country made up of fifty sovereign states. Welcome to federalism. It's a feature, not a bug.

Waidmannsheil!