Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Michigan Hunters, how did you do?

I have been hunting Washtenaw County. Shot a buck back on Oct 8th. Seen several monsters in gun range, but not bow range. Haven't been able to get a big buck in gun range since season opened. Weather isn't helping......

You certainly have the hot spot.

My brother hunts and lives in Saline, and it sounds slow for him and his crew

I have 23 acres near there I could go to but we haven't.

I just may hunt Jackson tomorrow....or this weekend....

I hunted public in the NW corner of the LP for the opener and saw 20 deer; 19 does and one buck not within legal limits. Everyone in our 7-person party saw deer which is awesome. I've never seen so many deer on public land in my entire life!!

Seriously what college wouldn't put those 19 doe to 1 buck odds in their promotional material??

Of course our DNR cut antler less tags to practically zero. I'm really happy for the antler restriction and apparently they thought there was a great deal of winter die off but I didn't see it.

I headed south to a client's place NE of Muskegon where I nearly always see deer except this year when we hunted the entire youth hunt w/o seeing anything. It's in a thick riverine area w/ lots of hardwoods and adjacent farmland w/ standing corn. Spent all day Monday & Wednesday and saw lots of rather nice looking gobblers but no deer.

I did see enough tracks to believe my 9 yo and I can fill his doe tag Saturday though...

Hunted Ingham this afternoon and saw 7 antlerless. BIL saw a 6pt and and 8 pt and a few does.

Weather for Sat and Sun looks bad here, freezing rain turning to showers. Was going to take the kids out but they don't want to go in that stuff.

405wcf

The Soo now has 54" of snow. That's 44" above average. Ironwood had 60" as of yesterday. Some guys hear Marquette had 43" in two days just before gun season. A lot if them said they weren't going to be able to get to their gear until spring. They left blinds, cameras, etc in the woods. A ton of people are snowed into their camps.

No wonder the harvest is down...and two bad winters back to back. The U.P. herd is in trouble...BIG TIME.

Yep, Sad state of affairs...no doubt...

Took this guy today. Spot and stalk.....

I've completely abandoned UP hunting. It's incredubly sad, and I don't think the northern LP is a whole lot better. I go south for archery, barely gun hunt anymore. Here is my 2014 crossbow buck. It'd take a minor miracle for us to grow one like him up here!

Nice bucks boys!!

Nice way to tag out.

yote time now

Hunted in Alcona County near Curran. Worst hunt in 26 years. 9 guys n camp and we all hunted 6 days or more. 56 man days of hunting and not one shooter buck. We have a 6 point rule. Lots of does and yearlings, a few spikes and a couple of fours, no one seems to know where the bucks went.

Took a large doe yesterday moring, the warm up settled the snow down and got the deer moveing, story on the Savage form.

Son got a heavy 7 point. Narrow but at 14 years old, he'll shoot anything and be happy!

Saw bucks every day, does every day. Nothing worth shooting though.

Alright guys, I gotta ask - how has much of the U.P. fallen so far in terms of animals and animal quality? (not so much the farm country but the big woods)

Growing up, my dad and I would travel to the U.P. in a couple of different spots but our group shot some decent bucks in the Bates and Amasa areas. That seemed to peeter out over the years too. And the last place we hunted further east had the biggest oak ridge I've ever encountered (mini mountain with acorns everywhere) and it was devoid of deer the last time we hunted there.

Winters? Lack of logging? The need to kill everything with 3" on top?

From my experience, (much like it is in northern WI) if you took away the 4-wheelers and baiting, a good many would quit hunting.

What say you?

Skane, I am all for taking away baiting and 4 wheelers. I am the oldest guy in camp (67 years young) and I am the only person to walk to the blind. Everyone else drives in the 4x4, some as short as a 600 yard drive. My blind is 3/4 of a mile and I enjoy the walk twice a day, come back to the cabin for lunch. The hunters of the 1950's and 60's were better hunters. They learned the woods and the deer trails. They put in their time and paid their dues to harvest a buck. Shooting over a bait pile is not sport, it is an Ambush!

I do not use 4 wheelers, bait, or sit in a box blind. Never felt the need.

3 of my last 4 bucks were shot offhand, while walking. Including the one above....

I had all of last week off for hunting and except for a couple obligations that got in the way, I hunted nearly the whole time. Basically, I just watched the same few deer move through in different combinations. I must have seen the same little spike about 10 times, including the time I heard him coming and, not knowing it was him, I hit the grunt tube a couple times. He came charging in like his ass was on fire. I had to fight back the laughter at seeing him acting so bad azzed.

I saw a decent fork horn on Thursday evening. I tried everything I could to put a brow tine on him to make him legal, but no go.

I took a stroll through the woods to see where there was movement and found the first scrape I've ever seen on my property. It was on a lightly used deer trail about 75 yards from a stand that I haven't hunted in a few years. I plan to plant myself there before dawn on Thanksgiving morning and see what happens.

I have a doe tag, but doubt that I'll fill it. There just doesn't seem to be as many deer this year and since my son put some venison in the freezer during the youth hunt, there's no point in shooting a doe when the deer numbers are down.

Well Skane, I hate to say it but you are right about baiting and AV's. My area had so much baiting I could see corn kernals all the way down the logging road. Even if there was no snow I could have litterally tracked the kernals to the guys stand. To make matters worse, it is a walking trail and two signs say no motor vehicles allowed. They drive right by the signs. If it wasn't for baiting I am sure I would have heard half the shots I heard this weekend ( 15) as far as the ear could hear, even counted the ones so far away they were just " pooffs" instead of cracks. I wish more than anything they would outlaw baiting so the deer would move on their own. My only strategy is circling where I know there is bait, find tracks coming to and from the corn. I sit upwind of tracks I think will head back to the bait. Very few big bucks will come to bait in daytime so I try to head them off. I have spots to do this but no luck yet. Ban bait and ban all atv's on public land and I think we would have half of Price co. to ourselves.
There was a time the hunting was OK . Since then wolves, bear, doe tags increased and then the perfect storm, a severe winter up there. To encourage my son, I told him this should be the bottom of the bottom for deer hunting. He saw one doe Sunday evening , I saw nothing and we considered one deer sighting a success. Oh well.

Agreed. Add to that the friggn wolves, the DNR's liberal antlerless tags and hunters who feel a need to fill those tags 'cause if we don't shoot them someone else will'. Then sit in the local bars and bitch 'cause they don't see any deer!