About the season
The 2008 fee is $24 for an "earn-a-buck" (EAB) tag, which allows a hunter to take a buck after killing an antlerless deer. Green County is in one of the newly-designated DNR Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zones, a combination of all CWD units within a herd reduction zone and a disease eradication zone.
Hunters can get full details in the 2008 Wisconsin deer hunting regulations booklet, available at Woodlands, 2830 County DR just north of Monroe - and then read it at the store, so Potts or Maurer can help decipher it. The store is open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
MONROE - Rain Thursday brought several local construction workers in to Hunting Woodlands Company on County DR to enjoy a little target practice with their compound bows.
The excursion turned into a mission when some of them learned, with surprise, the archery deer season starts Sept. 13, a week earlier than expected.
"I'm not ready, I'm not ready," Derrick Fiez, Monroe, said. His friends noticed a jump in his excitement level.
"But you've been shooting your bow," one of them said.
"Yeah, but I'm not ready," he replied, touching his chest.
Fortunately, Fiez and his friends, Chad Trimble and Steve Meyer, Monroe, were in the best place in Southern Wisconsin to prepare themselves and their equipment for the coming hunting seasons.
Hunting Woodlands, Monroe's newest hunting supply store, open since January, carries a full line of hunting equipment and features a bright and clean, 12-lane, indoor archery range, with leagues on Tuesday evenings. It also has, throughout the building, a large collection of taxidermy displays. Fish, ducks, turkeys, pronghorns, rams and deer are mounted on the walls. And if that isn't enough, a full bear stands in the store's back corner, and two wild hogs, taken from Ted Nugent's Sunrize Acres safaris, grace the range - but are not for target practice.
Owner Joel Potts and seasoned hunter Mike Maurer have made Woodlands the greatest rival in the area to Gander Mountain and Cabela's.
Fiez said they spend time scouting their hunting areas, even to the extent of mounting scouting cameras that record time and temperature with the picture as an animal passes by.
Doesn't that sound like ... cheating?
"Hey, any advantage," Fiez said. "If you get winded by a deer ... they're gone. You'll never see them again. And I mean the rest of the season. Your smell is what'll get 'em."
Maurer put a new sight and string dampener system on Trimble's Martin Maverick 3-D compound bow, and then stood by in the range to make adjustments for him.
Trimble bagged four deer his first year out with a bow, three years ago. Last year, he said he went out a lot, but "just didn't have the opportunity for a good shot at one." His bow's sight gauge limited him to 20 yards; the new sight allows him a shot up to 40.
"I enjoy bowhunting more (than guns)," Trimble said. "I like the camouflage, playing the wind, playing the scent. There's more strategy involved.
"In the end, it's about staying scent free," Trimble continued. "And then if you're fortunate enough to have a deer walk in, you still have to shoot it with a bow and arrow."
"It turns you into more of a hunter," Maurer adds.
Maurer's brother-in-law, Dan Buol, came out to the store Thursday morning also, "just to see if there was anything new."
"They have all the stuff, and you don't have to drive all the way to Madison or Janesville - or to a big store (like Gander Mountain or Cabela's). This is just a couple miles out of town," he said.
Hunting supplies do run the gamut - from Scent-lok clothing and seven varieties of tree stands with full body arrest systems to arrow tips and Alliant Powder 2400 smokeless magnum handgun powder.
"And you can order anything - any brands, any models, in guns or equipment," Buol said.
On this day, Potts unwrapped a special ordered Smith & Wesson Model 500, with a 10.5 inch barrel, that would have made Annie Oakley envious.
Buol, a reloader, said he has compared powder, shot and other reloading supplies with the big stores and claims the prices are much lower.
Besides supplies, Woodlands offer a wide range of services for every hunter, including selling the hunting licenses.
The excursion turned into a mission when some of them learned, with surprise, the archery deer season starts Sept. 13, a week earlier than expected.
"I'm not ready, I'm not ready," Derrick Fiez, Monroe, said. His friends noticed a jump in his excitement level.
"But you've been shooting your bow," one of them said.
"Yeah, but I'm not ready," he replied, touching his chest.
Fortunately, Fiez and his friends, Chad Trimble and Steve Meyer, Monroe, were in the best place in Southern Wisconsin to prepare themselves and their equipment for the coming hunting seasons.
Hunting Woodlands, Monroe's newest hunting supply store, open since January, carries a full line of hunting equipment and features a bright and clean, 12-lane, indoor archery range, with leagues on Tuesday evenings. It also has, throughout the building, a large collection of taxidermy displays. Fish, ducks, turkeys, pronghorns, rams and deer are mounted on the walls. And if that isn't enough, a full bear stands in the store's back corner, and two wild hogs, taken from Ted Nugent's Sunrize Acres safaris, grace the range - but are not for target practice.
Owner Joel Potts and seasoned hunter Mike Maurer have made Woodlands the greatest rival in the area to Gander Mountain and Cabela's.
Fiez said they spend time scouting their hunting areas, even to the extent of mounting scouting cameras that record time and temperature with the picture as an animal passes by.
Doesn't that sound like ... cheating?
"Hey, any advantage," Fiez said. "If you get winded by a deer ... they're gone. You'll never see them again. And I mean the rest of the season. Your smell is what'll get 'em."
Maurer put a new sight and string dampener system on Trimble's Martin Maverick 3-D compound bow, and then stood by in the range to make adjustments for him.
Trimble bagged four deer his first year out with a bow, three years ago. Last year, he said he went out a lot, but "just didn't have the opportunity for a good shot at one." His bow's sight gauge limited him to 20 yards; the new sight allows him a shot up to 40.
"I enjoy bowhunting more (than guns)," Trimble said. "I like the camouflage, playing the wind, playing the scent. There's more strategy involved.
"In the end, it's about staying scent free," Trimble continued. "And then if you're fortunate enough to have a deer walk in, you still have to shoot it with a bow and arrow."
"It turns you into more of a hunter," Maurer adds.
Maurer's brother-in-law, Dan Buol, came out to the store Thursday morning also, "just to see if there was anything new."
"They have all the stuff, and you don't have to drive all the way to Madison or Janesville - or to a big store (like Gander Mountain or Cabela's). This is just a couple miles out of town," he said.
Hunting supplies do run the gamut - from Scent-lok clothing and seven varieties of tree stands with full body arrest systems to arrow tips and Alliant Powder 2400 smokeless magnum handgun powder.
"And you can order anything - any brands, any models, in guns or equipment," Buol said.
On this day, Potts unwrapped a special ordered Smith & Wesson Model 500, with a 10.5 inch barrel, that would have made Annie Oakley envious.
Buol, a reloader, said he has compared powder, shot and other reloading supplies with the big stores and claims the prices are much lower.
Besides supplies, Woodlands offer a wide range of services for every hunter, including selling the hunting licenses.