General Facts

We have over 60 ground blinds, tower stands and ladder stands and we doubled our soybean distribution this year and added 3-4 acres of corn as well (which is now up to 7 feet tall!!) We also have now planted our fall forage which includes rye, wheat, oats, winter peas, turnips, rape and probably a couple others that will do well!! On the 2nd day, our rape & turnip was already 1/4 inch high! After a week, our oats were 6 inches!! It is going to be a great season!!

For 2009:

79% of our hunters either shot and missed or had an opportunity to shoot a QDM buck up to and including several P&Y bucks and at least a few B&C bucks with 25% of our hunters taking home their buck!!

For 2008:

100% of our hunters observed bucks and does during their hunts!!

67% of our hunters had an opportunity to shoot a "shooter" buck (8-pointer or larger AND outside the ears)!!

67% of our hunters observed 140" or larger!!

63% of our hunters observed 150" or larger!!

Note: This was prior to any benefits to the QDM Guidelines!! The bucks currently at the 2008 Photos are bucks that were observed on only between 160-200 acres of our property (still leaving over 300 to be monitored!)

Within our 540 acres, we have three 160-acre sections that have been developed with QDM guidelines (15-20 acres of foodplots, 14 ponds and several deer sanctuaries- including one 30 acres and one 40 acres). With a maximum of only 6 hunters at a time and a period of rest between groups, we are able to keep the hunting pressure very low!

We have also contracted with Reed & Hoppe's Wildlife Food Plots (www.foodplotting.com) to professionally oversee our food plots. We have a 365-Day Plan to provide an outstanding food source year-round as we don't want the big ones to leave when hunting is over!! With their experience and expertice, we are very excited to see the results of all the work!!

In addition, we are working with a tree company to add 8-foot apple trees to our QDM areas and this will be an on-going project to enhance the entire area in addition to the food plots. We are also  going to be adding Wildlife packages that supplement our deer, as well as the turkey, pheasant and quail. The third project that we are coordinating with this company is to come in and up-root and replant fifty to sixty 12-15-foot white oak trees strategically placed throughout the property!

 Just some interesting facts about our area and about Wisconsin deer hunting:

Out of the top 20 counties for Trophy Bucks, Buffalo County was first and Trempealeau County was third. Jackson County joins Trempealeau County and Trempealeau County joins Buffalo County which directly connects us to the best recorded Deer hunting in the entire state!! Wisconsin deer hunting ranked second in the top ten states for B & C bucks and was only behind the top rated state (Illinois) by 20 entries!! In 2007, the two top DMU (Deer Management Units) were 61 and 59C which are "essentially in the counties of Buffalo, Trempeleau and Jackson. These two DMUs were also the top two for the past several years." "The top producing counties in 2007 were Marathon, Clark and Polk (Jackson was 6th in the top 20!) and Clark is 2 miles North of our property. You can see why Wisconsin deer hunting, even in general, is so outstanding!!

We are not high-fenced and we do not have several different portions of our land leased or borrowed or county land, etc., etc., etc. We own all of our land and none is cropfields (besides our strategically-place food plots through-out the property). It is 100% wooded and the best deer (and other wildlife) habitat available!! In addition to that, we have three 160-acre square sections of a four-section mile, approx. 40 acres that surround our own private 7-acre lake that is connected to one of the 160-acre sections (see our general website at www.cottagesatserenitylake.com and go to the Trail Map link to see a drawing of our lay-out). The original 200 acres was logged two years ago and has many mature oak trees, as well as pines and various deciduous trees that provide ample cover, bedding and food. In this 200 acres, besides the lake, there is also a spring-fed creek going through the property and several ponds. The remaining 320 acres has 280 acres that was clear-cut back in 1997-98 and now provides outstanding bedding and cover for the deer (as well as other wildlife habitat). There is a remaining 40 acres (within the 320 acres that is due to be logged and is thick with pines and deciduous trees (including many oak trees producing lots of acorns!!) We have added several food plots through-out the property and will be adding to the food plots for next year and, in addition to the wetland area, the spring-fed creek and our private lake, we have 14 ponds, most of them connected to the food plots!!. With the QDM guidelines, we are now providing EVERYTHING the deer want for their ultimate security (water, food, excellent bedding and travel cover!!). We are in the heart of deer country!!

According to the August 2008 Whitetail Journal, "Bucks will spend their lives in the general area where they were born unless environmental factors such as habitat degradation force them to go elsewhere. Bucks don't need much space, providing that food, cover and does are readily available in their immediate area. But bucks will travel outside their core area during the rut 'if necessary'". After "all passion is spent, they return to their familiar quarters that typically comprise only a few dozen acres." It also mentions that in the West, those traveling areas become much larger due to much less deer populations. But, according to the QDM guidelines, without the food plots, we can and probably have managed approx. 54 deer. With the current food plots we have already developed, we can now and will be able to manage just over 100 deer!! With an additional 5-10 acres developed into food plots this following spring, summer and fall, that will could ultimately put us around 160 deer!! This is how many deer we can and will be able to manage and supply all their needs for by next season and, with limiting our bucks to at least 8 points (and after next year, solely mature bucks!), will surely provide outstanding opportunities for excellent bucks! As we continue to work to get the buck-doe ratio closer to 1/1, that will help two things: first, even with approximately 100 deer (as a more conservative number) means approximately 50 of them will be bucks!! Second, with the 1/1 ratio, the bucks that will remain on the property will be the dominant ones as they will be much more competitive for the does and will run off the smaller ones so that will increase the number of dominant bucks that stay on the property!! Now you can see why Wisconsin deer hunting is so phenominal!!

According to an article in Whitetail Tactics 2008, entitled, "Bagging Big-Woods Bucks", while discussing general deer movement, it stated that though "deer can freely move throughout these heavily wooded areas", they often "develop small home ranges, centered on available food sources and safe bedding areas." In other words, if they have the 4 important items: food, water, bedding and does; which gives them everything they need to provide them the fifth item which wraps up the first four: Security. In this article, it also stated that in areas that logging operations have been done (remember our 200 original acres were logged two years ago!), "saplings and a variety of green plant life immediately pop up after a logging operation. In the absence of a tree canopy, the previously shaded forest floor transforms into an all-you-can-eat buffet for whitetails." Add this to our developed food plots and imagine how many deer are being supported!! And we are in Wisconsin so the deer hunting is only going to to be the best with these additional benefits!!

You can now experience complete privacy while hunting in 540 acres of private land, for outstanding Wisconsin deer hunting and turkey hunting, that we are now making available in the Black River Falls area of Central Wisconsin. We knew Wisconsin's reputation for outstanding deer hunting and is the reason we bought this land to retire on. The majority of it is in woods and dense brush which is ideal habitat for all kinds of wildlife. Jackson County has been known as the Deer Capital of Wisconsin for Wisconsin deer hunting for over 50 years and with great reason! Our regular clients that visit our cabins see so many deer that we stopped putting corn out for them! It just wasn't necessary. In June, 2007, we had three separate fawns confirmed born close to our cabins, including one within 20 feet!! (See website www.cottagesatserenitylake.com for more information and photos of the property, including interior photos of the cottages).

 Stay in our Tall Pines Lodge (or equivalent cottage), in a room, located on a private lake and we will transport you to your favorite spot. Each cottage includes a fire place, hot tub, fire pit and its' own shoreline. From the Southeast corner, the property extends one mile North and one mile West and the perimeter alone is over four miles!! Whether you are a deer hunter, turkey hunter, bow or rifle, this property is perfect for you and your hunting party.

This year we will have a minimum of 8 points or higher that will be allowed to be taken (next year, we will probably be utilizing B & C scoring). We are also harvesting extra does (after the rut as we want as many in-heat does as possible during the rut season!!) and will even find persons willing to take them if you are not interested in keeping them. We are now working with 4 experts to guide us to setting up an excellent hunting area and we are looking forward to this fall!! (Again, check out our current photos!!) We have several motion cameras and have identified several different deer families living in different areas of the property which would be interesting to know how many separate families of deer we have been supporting without the food plots and preparing the property for QDM! We'll keep you posted as we get more photos.