Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Good luck Michigan deer hunters

It was very warm in the south central UP and it negatively effected deer movement. Most people I know here seen nothing. I have one friend here who had both of his sons tag out with bucks out before 830am. Other than that, it sucked completely.

Today is going to be worse. Almost 60 here.

Only saw 6 deer opening morning. 5 bucks and a doe. Shot a nice 8 pt at 7:55 am with the 375 H&H Mag, DRT.
Saw 6 in the evening, small 4 pt and 5 does.
Saw 6 does this morning. I'm tagged out, shot a 10 pt with the x-bow.
Just have 2 doe tags and in no hurry. Especially when it's so warm.
Good luck fellas.

Shot a 6 point opening morning in Rapid River (UP)

Mauser M12 .308 did the trick.

Deer sightings are way way down, as is number of shots heard

Slowest opener in memory here in Western Lower. Very little shooting. Few deer seen. At least it’s not raining. I REALLY hate that.

Wacky weather seems to have them bedded down.

Yesterday morning I saw 3 small bucks yesterday morning, while my guests saw none.

Evening sit got chaotic around dark with deer chasing and passing right in front of me 3 times, but it was too dim to see more than a glance of antlers. A check of my game cameras today showed that one of the deer was decent legal buck - either one of the 6's, or one of 2 different small/medium 8's.

Very warm and gusty right now. Kinda hard to find motivation to hunt in this weather.

Not the biggest but it gave my camp some meat. I seen a dandy this morning but no shot.

This weekend I am going to have to feed around 8 hunters for three days. This deer will help with that.

Cold weather is coming so it should improve hunting conditions.

Wow that picture takes me back when all my male relatives would have their red and black deer uniform on Thanksgiving day. Nice buck!

They weren't moving for us during daylight. Trail camera caught both large and small bucks at 10:30 PM. Winter coats and warm weather doesn't help deer activity.

I sat out all day yesterday on a ridge over some open hardwoods. Only deer I saw all day was one crossing the road when I was driving over to the state land. I counted 47 shots all day yesterday. Today I sat the same spot and heard maybe 15 shots in 12 hours. Warm and windy. Beautiful day to be in the woods though, way more relaxing than work! Should start getting better tomorrow and through Thanksgiving down here. Good luck everyone!

Love that red/black suit

Congratulations on buck

Way to get it done. I remember when all these oldsters used to talk sh*t about you. You grew up just fine.

Congrads RAS, it was to warm for me to wear my red & black wool coat. I took a 11pt. Opening morning. My buddy saw 2 does, I tagged out on bucks but had a doe tag. Saw a button buck that evening and nothing the next day. My crew by home out of 11 hunters so far shot 3 bucks and 2 does, not many deer seen, one nice bear walked by a buddy. Taking a couple of days off but still hope to fill my doe tag. I can't post pics but could text them if someone want to post them. Also my buck was covered with small ticks, didn't see them till on the way home yesterday. I dropped him off at Ebles!

I've had zero for bigger bucks on camera this year, but lots of younger ones, such as a pair of 8's, a pair of nice 6's, a couple lopsided 5's and 2-3 4 pointers and spikes.

I was walking up to the house at 11 AM this morning when one of the 8's appeared, pushing 4 does. When I saw him, I thought he was a new buck because he appeared bigger than he did on camera, so I snapped off a shot at about 45 yards, dropping him. There was a bit of ground shrinkage when compared to my first glance of him, but he's a good bodied deer and will cook up nicely.

Nice work Skut

The opening couple days were tough for keeping the deer moving around us. Here and there small doe groups were kind of bouncing around from browsing locations but seemed like bucks found some brush and laid low. The front that came through on Friday and the cold nights seemed to help. Tonight this one came out in the corner of a field I was watching hoping to get a crack at a big doe. He didn’t appear like he was going to be hanging around long so when he and the doe he was keen on paused before heading into a fence row, I took the shot.

Rangefinder said it was 310yds. He spun back the way he came from and went about 75yds. Was hunting with a 6.5x55 Fieldcraft.

Went up to the house and got my son who was pretty fired up to be my search party.

Congrats, Bruiruin! Big-bodied deer. 👍🏻

Thank you. It was about 142 lbs on my game scale after gutting.

I tagged out tonight on what I thought was the 8 point I'd been getting pictures of this week, but it was getting dim and he was walking with a purpose so I let one fly from my new 6mm ARC. He turned out to be one of the 6 pointers I've also been getting pictures of. While I've shot 9's, 8's and 7's and a bunch of smaller bucks, I've never gotten a 6 pointer, so this is a first for me, plus it means that the 8 point, hopefully, will live to see next season and make a spawn of little clones of himself.


6mmARC Howa mini-


Today's buck-



I'll be sleeping without setting an alarm tonight for the first time in 12 days. 🙂