Anyone know of anywhere to go? Saw nothing this weekend up north and am thinking of trying to find some place closer to home to check out. I can drive some, but the 150 miles up North again is something I am trying to avoid.

I don't know anything about that area, but I bought the 2015 hunting atlas (both north and south versions), it's been great.  It even lists private land enrolled in the public access program.

Hmm interesting. Where do you find one of these?

I bought the Southern atlas at Walmart and the Northern atlas at Fleet Farm.

This subject is relevant to my interests.....   Finding a nice land lease is getting to be impossible - no matter how much I'm willing to pay.  

The public land thing always concerns me...  The hunter behind every tree type thing.  You can't set up a tree stand without at least an attempt or two on somebody stealing it.  I lost a lease after 26 years after the owner died...   and then another one after 3 years when the owner sold.

I may just have to bite the bullet and buy a 40.  Just seems like a waste of money just to use as hunting land.    

Thoughts and experiences are welcome....

This is my public land buck, it's not the biggest deer by any stretch, but for public land I think it's respectable.  It just over 110 inches green scored.

 I did things like kayak into hard to get places, simply referencing public land against private land near crop fields with travel corridors in public land, then I'd simply take a a tally of how many cars were parked in the public land parking area.  If an area was getting pressured I'd move on to an area that wasn't.  I hunted one area that I didn't see another person on until late October and he was hunting the extreme other side of me. I've deer hunted lots of public land and WI has by far the best public land hunting.  I saw a buck almost every time I went hunting and had more than a couple basket 4 points and 6 points within shooting range.  Plenty of does as well.  The atlas I bought was the key to my success.

Nice buck beardog, well done.