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Well how was the opener? out of 9 of us one small 5pt and the 2 that had doe tags got them filled! We had 5-6 of snow this year, that seems to help but not this year. few hunters in the woods tags sold are down 20% and with the baiting ban going to go alot lower, I live at camp so still going to try and fill a tag or two! Happy Hunting!

Where ya' hunting at saddlering? My uncle managed to tag a 5 point in Roscommon county on Friday.

In Wexford Co between Cadillac & Mesick, been a tough year bow hunting too ! too many Bears alot of rain this fall iv passed 2 young 6 pts with Bow, got a 7pt but Coyotes ate alot of him and a Doe in the freezer, need one more tho! Love to eat Vension!

Was a rough year at camp. Manistee county. No tags filled yet. One of our members got a shot at 0730 on the opener, made a bad shot, spent hours wandering about the property. Next day wandered again. 27 hours after the shot I found some blood and a fresh bed, but no deer. I saw a 3 pt., a spike and four does on the opener and no deer the next two days. They went nocturnal fast due to all the screwing around looking for that deer. I figure we’ll find the remains in spring. Disappointing start, but not over yet.

Old70

With the bow hunters not baiting and hammering the herd on public on both sides of us, we had some deer.

By 9:11 opener morning , my son had a 4 pt and me an 8 pt gutted and back in camp.
Friday morning was dead all around us though.

Will go back up to probably fill doe tag sometime later.
Tim

Little slower than last year but our group has hung up a 10, a 7, and 3x 8 points plus s couple does. Loving the no baiting. Lots of deer moving daily here.

Very few hunters this year because of CWD and no bait.

It’s been nice actually not hearing a war atmosphere on opening day.

I’m tagged out thankfully with 2 nice 8 points, heading to ohio after thanksgiving to hunt gun opener.

Every year seems to be less and less interest with my coworkers. Dying sport for sure

I am looking forward to moving to the eaton Rapids area. I bought a Henry steel for the occasion. Now y'all tell me this, bummer 😂

Hunted my brothers property near Prescott. Saw good numbers of deer opening day, a 6 and 5 point taken by our group. Not as much gunfire heard as in years past. Second day fewer deer seen, I took a 6 point mid day and saw another similar size buck in the evening. Very few gunshots heard during the day. Third day only a few deer seen between six of us, could count the shots heard all day on one hand. This mornings hunt 2 deer sighted and one or two shots heard in the distance. On the drive home I saw quite a few vehicles hauling venison though.

Got the hell outta dodge on the 15th and drove 18 hours west. MI hunting doesn’t do it for me anymore. Been traveling since 2006. Never bought a MI tag this year, so add one less tag sold. I bought a single tag last year and went out 2 days during ML.

I live in the U.P. and the bait is discouraging to me. Plus, the age structure is poor at best.

Saw few deer opening day. I hunt private land that smacks up against the state wildlife area at the Big Manistee bayou. I heard five shots total. Almost no hunters in the woods. The snow certainly did not help.

We hunt public land in Benzie County and a buddy shot a nice 8 point opening morning. I saw a bunch of does but didn’t get a clean shot; same buddy shot a doe the day after opener. Everyone saw deer nearly every day. That 8 was a great reminder that APRs seem to be working up there.

I’ll be heading back up to fill (at least) a doe tag.

I don’t really do my traditional Michigan deer camp for the deer as much as for the opportunity to get outside during a gorgeous time of year and hang out with my good friends for a long weekend. Like dooger said I prefer to hunt out of state if I really want to kill stuff.

I hope this year’s decrease in hunter numbers doesn’t develop into a trend. I love the hunting tradition we have here and will do my part to preserve it.

I hunt in Montcalm County, one of three in our party shot a nice 8pt on the opener. Did not see as many deer as normal due to oceans of corn still standing around us. I passed on quite a few nice deer because we are in an area where a good number of us practice QDM (i.e. let them grow).

Every year we hear less and less shooting on opening day, it is very weird, I attribute it partly to the following: youth hunt, special hunts, CWD drama, cross bows being legal now, QDM, and video games.

I am not opposed to the youth or special hunts, cross bows, or QDM, , but I do believe they have an effect on the number of shots one hears on the traditional firearms opener.

I am opposed to video games and cell phones for young kids, when they should be out enjoying the outdoors be it sports or hunting/fishing. Some kids I know would rather shoot deer or zombies on a video game than go out and actually shoot deer.

Strange times we live in.

Good luck, there is a lot of season left.

Very tough year in Alcona County near Curran. Our cabin went 9 for 9 last year on Bucks. This year only 3 bucks shot. One hunter did see a mountain lion, I came by latter in the day and verified the tracks. One Big Cat, he said long tail and golden tan coat. Does the DNR acknowledge that they have made to the lower?.

I hunted Eaton County opening day. We saw quite a few deer. Dad passed on some little bucks and took a doe. Brother in law took an 8pt. I too passed passed on some little bucks and shot a nice doe at the end of the day.

I have never heard so little shooting on opening day. I thought perhaps it was due to a Thursday opener, but Saturday was even more quiet. I suspect Prarie Creek Station's above comments are accurate. I read an online claim (FWIW) that license sales are down 20% this year. Sure sounded that way.

405wcf

I have land in northern Menominee County. The season is 7 days old and I have heard maybe 12 shots since opening day. I shot a small 8-point opening day and was the only successful hunter among the 4 camps nearby until yesterday, when one guy from a nearby camp got a spikehorn and another from a different camp got a 6-point. There are very few hunters visible in the area and no camps on public land like there used to be. I fear that in 25 years or less the sport will be as dead as I will be.

By the way, 405wcf, I shot my deer with a .405 WCF.

Fun way to hunt. Wish I could use mine in the southern lower.

405wcf

Well, if you trim the cases short enough....

Did a walk about yesterday at the property near White Cloud. The deer had been rooting up acorns
all around but I did not see a thing. The moonlight has them feeding mostly at night and I could not
figure out where they were holing up for the day. Tracks crisscrossed all over with little pattern except
for finding the dropped acorns.
I do not need more meat, but may take a doe in Dec if I get a chance.
I hope to be in Baraga area next week for visit and hunt. Hopefully the big bucks will have moved down
by then. Yes they do migrate to winter yards in Michigan.
Tim

Hope you get one up there Tim. Coming across on M-28 west of Newberry where it goes down to the Seney flats, you should see a well worn north/south path as the hardwoods end on the hill. Yes, they do migrate.

We went 2 for 4, 7pt and 8pt east of Manistee Lake. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them. Did see a small spike however. Decent amounts of deer seen. Very little shooting and very few hunters out the first 4 days. Going back up after turkey bird. I've done fairly well up there over the years later in the season. If i don't get one, I'll give muzzleloader season a go closer to home.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I have not shot a deer when visiting Baraga yet after a dozen years or so.
I did pass on a 9 point a few years ago. I think I will shoot one this year
if 8 point or better. But then, why change now. I have meat in the freezer.
Maybe just set back and have another shot of Makers Mark and tell stories
setting by the wood fire.

Here in Gratiot co the number of hunters seems similar to usual. I have no complaints about this season thus far. Of our hunting group only 2 have not tagged bucks but that is due to them holding for something “special”. Lots of chances as there seems to be no shortage of deer here in farm country.

I did see a nice spike this evening! wish it had been a doe tho!

Well I guess I have a different story, Ogemaw county was definitely like a war zone, heard tons of shots.

And a lot of acquaintances shot some big old bruisers here, but maybe I should keep my mouth shut.

I drove fro Virginia, to my buddies farm near Daggett(UP), and shot a nice 10 point within five minutes of first light on the opener! Saw a bunch of does and small bucks on the following four days, but we didn't shoot anything else. Back home now.

Just an observation: I drove home from deer camp the Sunday after the opener and the Sunday after Thanksgiving. 131 south to GR - usually campers are in the slow lane holding up traffic. I never passed one this year...not one. Saw a few trailers with atvs and deer on them, but no campers. Only saw one camp in the woods after 8 days afield. I fear the old ways of deer hunting are dying out in Michigan.

Not a fear, a fact.

Maybe cause there are so many empty deer camps up north you can rent one for less than the gas it takes to pull a camper. I look all the time on the U.P. land for sale and deer camps for sale tha have trees growing on the roofs. Old Bud , or Elmer, Or Norby kicked the bucket one day and the wife had the deer camp up for sale before he was in the ground. Good riddance the wife said. None of the kids hunt anymore since the wolves took over and they have high paying jobs out of state. You can pick up some of these for dirt cheap but you wont see many deer and that old camp is so musty smelling you will be breathing hard before dinner. Sad but true.

Hunted 5 days on presque isle and cheboygan counties. On An 80 and a 187 that I take care of for some older folks. Saw lots of deer nothing older than 2 and didn’t pull the trigger. Onaway buck pole was loaded with 1-2 year olds barely any 3 year olds. 3 years of Hunting up there I’ve seen one 5 or 6 year old deer brought in. I don’t know why everyone burns tags on deer jus tout of there spots- especially when you know you’ll see more of them anyway- what’s the hurry to blast them?

And CWD be damned baiting isn’t going away up there either. I guess that why it’s all small bucks no one wants to hunt 100 yards off the bait pile between it and some bedding area.

I love it though. It’s the only real traditional “deer camp” experience I get and this year it was damn good shot of winter too

Craig 2506 I see in todays paper that Gratiot has been added to the counties with CWD. I hunt private land in Mecosta county and have let several small bucks got and have seen only smallish does. On opener I didn't see a deer until 4pm. A friends son shot a nice 8 point two nights ago and another one in Iron county is tagged out with a nice big 6 and a 9.

I like the no baiting but IMHO Michigan needs to get rid of the youth season at least for bucks and shorten the archery season. Make a deer license $50 with one buck tag and they could stipulate 4 pts on one side wouldn't hurt my feelings and one doe tag. They want the does shot but at $20 per tag I only need one.

If you want to kill deer hunting in the state, your plan is a sure way to do it.

I have hunted 11 days since the opener on the 15th a couple of days all day some morinings and afternoons, Iv seen one Buck a big spike and only 13 does. the deer just are not here like they used to be. I did take a 7pt. and a doe in archery season, and past 2 diffrent 6 pts. we have alot of Bears and coyotes, I think the bears are killing alot of the young Fawns, at least around here! it only takes 14 years to draw a bear tag. I had 11-13 diffrent bears on trail cams in a 5-6 mile area! also a lot less hunters than they used to be. Hope to go out the last day tommorow, the freezeing rain kept me in this afternoon.

Get rid of baiting and you will see the younger bucks much more likely to live a few more years. A 1 yr old buck coming into corn is dumber than a squirrel on a bait pile.

No kidding about the $20 doe tags. Should be $5-10 if they really want me to shoot 10 of them! I love venison but not for those prices.

Yeah, that is outrageous.
Twenty bucks for 40 pounds of meat and you get to go hunting to acquire it.

Interesting. I have seen good sign and good deer but I don’t sit, I still hunt and stalk public land. I walked over six miles on day one and filled my tag. Only one set of coyote tracks and zero wolf. I put on 150+ miles cruising the back woods after that the next day and only seen eight trucks in the woods. Definitely not the people hunting as there was back in the eighties. People don’t make the trip anymore and I honestly don’t blame them. They can take the money they would spend in gas,food,lodging etc and lease a piece of farm land and have almost a sure thing close to home. The UP doesn’t have the deer numbers it once did and yes there’s a wolf or two but , for me, my heart is in the “big woods” and I like getting my deer on my feet and not my ass.

True to form at our place, crockery creek took on the Taliban. Luckily wife took a nice six and bro in law took a nice 8 prior to gun. Think we seen 3 small does all during gun. DNR got there wish, deer are are shot out around us. Hopefully some decent does move in before end of season so I can put one in freezer

I wonder how long it will be before the wolves start taking over below the bridge? DNR has verified their presence but states there isn’t a breeding population. I always wondered what they consider a “breeding population “. In my eyes all that takes is one male and one female of breeding age. Not hard to get that.

I told you the neighbor to the North shoots everything!

I know who you are talking about and wish I could do something about it.

You won't be able to, cuz he don't care and the people he rents his farm to don't care either!

Is he poaching or just taking advantage of the rules?

I am trying to get a handle on exactly what's going on. Help me to understand.

I take it the deer have disappeared. What's caused it?
Nobody's going to camp anymore. Folks dying off? No interest from the new generation?


I've only hunted MI once, many years ago. What I remember was that treestands and bait piles were everywhere on the public land. Every filling station out on the highway was selling carrots and pumpkins and such. I saw lots of deer, but they were always on the run.

In several michigan counties CWD (chronic wasting disease) has been found so in those counties baiting has been eliminated and next year all baiting will be prohibited. I'm fine with it but many of today "deer hunters" sit in a heated shack and watch a pile of bait and shoot a deer. IMHO that is not hunting. Those that know no other way are lost.

Yeah, I am sure fewer hunters will make my hunting more enjoyable.
The only good thing about CWD is the baiting ban.
We will lose 30-40% of our (so called) hunters with the ban.
Another 20% will ignore the rules like they have all along.

I hunted in the U. P. for years and never used bait. I'd go up a few days before season do some scouting and build a brush blind. I always got a deer and back then a buck was a buck but I did get one of my best bucks that way a nice 10 point. IMHO baiting has ruined deer hunting for an entire generation. A good friend from Negaunee shot two nice bucks up by Amasa this year.

Nobody finds themselves in Amasa by accident. You have to try to get there.

Here’s my perspective Shaman and I apologize if it’s been repeated.
You’re right in some of your observations. Hunting is definitely changing and the younger generation doesn’t put out as many hunters as it once did. Hunting is a family tradition passed down and let’s face it, families are more broken and smaller than ever so it’s catching up to the tradition of hunting. Political views towards hunting is less popular and that has its effect as well. As for Michigan it has its own unique issues. The once great hunting ground in the UP has suffered some extraordinarily mis management. The wolves were brought in around 1995 and just as they took a foot hold we had three back to back killer winters losing an estimated 75% of the herd. It never recovered to those previous numbers. Those numbers weren’t healthy either and they actually destroyed much of the cedar that they depended on for winter forage in the deer yards So, with all of that ,many of your deer hunters from the lower peninsula either quit hunting totally or stay below the bridge. The UP is a unique animal in many ways. There isn’t a lot of work so many of the people,myself included, leave for work. I still go back for deer season but live near Grand Rapids. So you end up with a dying population. It’s been that way since the copper boom ended. Given all that it’s not surprising that deer hunting has gone down hill. You have a mismanaged deer herd where a large chunk of public land is located, a change in family tradition and a change in the perception of deer hunting itself then have the disease outbreak where a majority of hunters are now located and a generous topping of predators that aren’t controlled.

Yes I agree. Baiting has ruined deer hunting IMHO as well. My dad who is now 82 has baited deer much of his later years. The old excuse of I’m to old to walk that far comes up. Funny thing was I went hunting with him this year and he just sat in the truck while I went out and put on six miles still hunting. He seen just as many deer sitting in the truck as he had years past over a bait pile.
People don’t recognize natural forage if it jumped up and bit them in the ass. Every old skidder trail is a literal smorgasbord for deer it seems. The clear cuts that people bitch about are a dinner bell for deer. I never bait deer because all you’re doing is baiting wolves and coyotes. They hang by bait piles for easy pickings. Not to mention that it just makes deer suspicious. Think about it. What would you think if you and your family came home and someone broke into your house and made a standing rib roast dinner and had it waiting on the table for you. Would you eat it?
On the other hand I will help out with local Whitetail unlimited clubs during a harsh winter with hay to help the herd. That is because I know that the yards haven’t recovered from years of over browsing.

My father and I used to hunt the Bates/Amasa area. We shot some decent deer back in the day and much of our hunting centered around 2-3 man pushes of swamps that we knew had bait piles in the general vicinities. And we sure created some hurt feelers from the plywood and pile-o-rutabaga crowd. A couple of bad winters and an increase in folks guarding their bait piles to shoot anything with 3" of bone did a number on the buck population.

Sadly, the "U.P. Way" began to creep into northern WI some 15-20 years ago and has pretty much done the same thing for the deer population there albeit not quite to the extent. And the lack of logging sure hasn't helped either.

I continue to hunt in northern MN - no baiting and it's possible to not only see deer, but mature deer. Interestingly enough, MN boasts a greater wolf population than MI and WI yet the hunting is better (only one man's opine) so I can't buy the wolf rationale.

Today, sadly, I see camaraderie being the ONLY reason to justify hunting in Michigan's U.P.

Michigan is in a tough spot. With the declining number of hunters pretty much across the board, total elimination of baiting (U.P.) will be death to license sales and a real hit to the places selling bait.
Outside of a disease disaster, I doubt any politician is going to agree to it and the cycle will continue.

My family had some land up by Mancelona we deer hunted on annually back in the 80s. I remember the neighbors would literally bring in dump trucks of carrots in an attempt to lure any deer off of the surrounding properties. It seemed to work. That memory has always made me a proponent against baiting.

That being said, my retirement plan is leaning heavily towards somewhere around the Grayling area. I hope the Michigan deer herd recovers.

I have place in Channing and do quite a bit of bird hunting around Amasa.

Skeen I wouldn't leave Kansas for Grayling. We had a place near Lovells and I have friends there still. The bird hunting is ok but my buddy hasn't seen a decent buck in years.

I've hunted the U.P. and the MN. season too and I sure like their earlier gun opener which gets the rut activity. WI. gets the post rut and that is tough hunting. Any weekend we would see hunters with an ATV and sacks of corn and apples heading north and it reminded me that lots of people have forgotten how to hunt deer. I took my son to hunters safety meetings and one day the instructor asked the class of young fellas what is the first thing that you should do before deer season? He was looking for something like sight in your rifle, but what he got was a kid telling him how you should check to make sure that your bait pile had plenty of bait for the season. Sad but true. Baiting has turned deer nocturnal and like the U.P, northern WI. turned into who could out bait who. I left, sold my place and hunt the other side of the state where there isn't baiting, poaching and wall to wall ahole hunters.

First off, thanks for the detailed answer.

Let me just give you an opinion from a guy who is currently living through a serious deer boom here in Northern KY. I grew up dreaming of going to MI, and always thought the guys who hunted up there were specially blessed. Of course, that was in the 60's. Times change.

What I can say from my experience hunting Ohio, IN, KY, and 1 season in MI is this: It can and probably will come back around.

1) Habitat changes. Our surge here in the Trans-Bluegrass is mostly due to an ideal circumstance of farms being left to go fallow after the big Tobacco Buyout. Habitat is very transient. MI's big boom was from the timber industry cutting down stuff and letting the light in. Where there is Edge habitat, there will always be deer. Where possible habitat management can pay off tremendously
2) Having the old farts leave is not such a bad thing. Yeah, the culture of deer camp changes, but nothing stays forever. We've got the same thing down here. All the old farts are dying off. In the end, that can mean more deer, or more precisely, a faster bounce back to what it was.
3) I've got very mixed feelings about bait piles. I've got a few people that bait around me. One fellow poured $800 annually into his corn feeder, but he was the first to admit he mostly fed my deer and had little return on his investment. When he stopped last year, we suddenly started seeing 30-some deer out in our fields in the evening where before we'd seen only 1 or 2. Outlawing bait will change things, but I'm not sure it's for the worst.
4) Whatever is happening, it is all transient. We had neighbors poaching for about 3 years and wiped out the local herd. It took 3 years to recover. However, after that, it was better than it had ever been. My point is that at a low point like this, it's hard to think of what's ahead.

Is the UP very flat with few, diffuse funnels?

That would make me want to bait.

Having the old farts leave is not such a bad thing. Yeah, the culture of deer camp changes, but nothing stays forever. We've got the same thing down here. All the old farts are dying off. In the end, that can mean more deer, or more precisely, a faster bounce back to what it was.

Really!

Look maybe I've said that wrong. Let me make another stab at it. My apologies. I'm working with just one eye today instead of the usual complement.

Yes, it's a bummer when the old farts leave. Camps die off because of it. However, it is after all inevitable. I'm the patriarch of my camp. I've done everything to make sure it survives me, but I can't predict the future. On the other hand, a reduction in the overall number of camps and of hunters reduces the number of deer being taken. That will bring back the numbers quicker.

As to the loss of the camps and the old guys in them, I'm a bit bitter about this subject. I started my own camp as soon as I could because I had come of age with 5 wonderful guys who helped me get into shooting and hunting and they're all dead but one, and he hasn't hunted with me since 1985. Bitter? Yes, and jaded too. I've seen a lot of camps go down the tubes over the years and folks whine about it, but they let them go nonetheless. The camp next to me died off three years ago. The patriarch came to me long before complaining that he was getting tired of doing all the maintenance himself. He later had a bad heart attack and was laid up for a long while, but when he got back on his feet he was back out at camp. . . alone.

My point is this: Guys like him, guys like me, guys who start camps and make them work are not infinite resources. I started our camp at 42, I'm 60 now. It's damn hard to get anyone out to help when you need them and nobody wants to work on weekends. I don't mean to pi$$ in the collective bowl of Wheaties, but deer camps are extremely wonderful things, and when they die off, it is not by bad luck.

However, I also will tell you that deer camps are wonderful because they are so carefree for most of the folks that come. Kids show up at camp and think it's the greatest thing in the world. Guys spend their whole lives using Camp as the one place to get away. Folks seldom realize there's just one guy or a couple or maybe a few that are making it happen, and they don't realize how much they sacrifice for the camp and nobody makes provisions for the camp's continuation. Deer Camp is an ephemeral thing. Having gone through its loss and dedicating the past 18 years to making a second one happen, I can tell you. I'm sure my three sons have no freaking clue, even though I've hidden nothing from them. I realize that my deer camp is my big elaborate sand painting, a Mandela. When I go, the monks will scoop it up and throw it out. At some point, a doe will come up and crap on the sand pile and the circle will be complete.

I'm not in the logging business and don't know what pulp wood is selling for currently, but from what I've seen there is much less logging going on in northern Wisconsin and the U.P. than there was a decade or two back. Our softwood forests are growing up and anything over about four feet high is pretty useless to foraging deer. The paper industry is really big here, more specifically the tissue and toilet tissue industry and all you nose blowers and butt wipers prefer the much softer eucalyptus pulp that ships in here from South America. Our best deer hunting counties are way south of where they once were when I was growing up due to better agriculture that turns deer into grazers, milder winters, fewer predators and less poaching.

IIRC, deer and pats utilize clear cuts for chow for about 7 years.

Geographically the east UP is very different from the western UP which has two notably large ranges, the Huron & the Porcupine among others.

The old farts are dying off, but the kids coming up from below to take their place is where the deficit lies--jmho... Most every young man we run into in the big woods (Hurons) in the last 10 yeas are local kids.

Roughly 40 years ago the old boys that showed me how they baited brought in a very small amount of bait--sometimes daily--like maybe a half a bucket or a 10# bag--not a pick-up or dump truck load. The deer were widely spaced out. Hunting a squeeze with a rut line or scrapes was a good idear. You may not see a deer for days.

Doe groups are competitive and greedy. At home here (Muskegon Ribber) I ran of number of comparisons for a number of years on the property and had time to view with easy access. First thing is yes, they associate your scent with bait; "oh yeah, that guy!" The second is that they are as nocturnal as they have to be--that depends on you. The does bed to chew their cud with proximity to the pile with the most successful wranglers being the nearest. They contend with each other and hunters are just another PITA.

Do large bait piles change behavior and concentrate deer? Absolutely, and in larger numbers than you might think. I have counted 40 beds in less than five acres. And if CWD is actually a of a big deal as the DNR says, then they are at risk. The old Yooper dinky style baits simply did not do that. There just wasn't enough chow down to bring in more than a single group. A doe and a fawn would clean it up quickly...but you had indeed changed their route to your bushwhack set-up and a buck has to scent check or go without his nookie quota.

Big to mega-baiting is a perversion of a very old strategy.

I love the north country, am deeply invested in it, and love the north culture prevalent in it in MI WI and MN. Liberal progressives are altering it and it is a shame. Hunting-wise, fwiw, I would not recommend leaving your home state for Michigan currently (this was my 19th year hunting in KS, 20 in MN, so do have some inkling about WT hunting....I hope...)). Have heard good things about TN and KY, but have no experience there.

I was reading an article this morning about not being in the Christmas Spirit. I came across this quote that pretty well sums things up:

“The more noble a thing is in its perfection,” observed the sage Yohanan ben Zakkai, “the more ghastly it is in its decay."

This Next year will be intresting here in Michigan, for sure! the Ban on Baiting will be bad for Bow hunters, but will a good thing for rifle season, im thinking! I see a Big decline in Hunter Numbers, just out of the guys I know 4 have aready saw they were not comeing up for Bow season, they are Not real deer hunters any way, but still Buy Tags and Doe permits. Hunter # are way down in my area, so are the Deer Numbers! No Oak trees around where I hunt and only one farm, and he leases it! For Hunting, and all, private land around it! out for good $$ he told me hes retireing after this next year so, not sure what will happand to the farm. Iv been pondering what to do, Hell I may even Move, been thinking about it! Michigan sure is not the place it used to be anymore!

Some areas are quite hilly. The flat ones tend to have water and swamps that direct deer traffic. In short, there are plenty of funnels.

Yeah, us older hunters are thinning out and the replacements are toooo.
Guess the good old days might as well pass along with the good old guys.

I am happy that the "bait by the truckload" poachers on my neighboring public land
did dwindle down this year and hopefully never to come back. I don't wish them to stop
just for them to start really hunting and hopefully somewhere else. Yes, I guess I do
sound a little selfish. Must be the grumpy old senior citizen surfacing.

Hey Tim:

They sure sold a bunch of bait here. Just like an other year. I hope to see the DNR stick with it and not cave to the farm & squawkers lobby. Maybe after a number of years guys will "learn" to hunt again rather than manage a drive-thru buffet and hunting interest will increase. Maybe more kids will hunt if more actual mobility is involved...:)

I do give the public land big-baiters their space and don't walk up their "set-ups" though--am not an evangelist nor enforcer...not quenching a smoldering wick type of thing. It is still work invested and hunters hoping for a buck, and am thinking/hoping eventually most guys will come around.

We have lived through democrat appointments to bureaucratic positions before, although pragmatism has long left the room. They are enough hunters in MI and interest in hunting to carry considerable weight in Lansing.

***

BTW, to the OP, shot a seven, nothing to write home about (UP). We saw some smaller racked bucks but some of them looked like older deer, not pencil-necked 1 1/2 yr olds. Maybe the antler development was retarded by the "spring" weather in our area. The DNR was worried about a die-off and we didn't see any more than the usual carcass numbers on our look-see scout in the spring. Did see a very large buck with his antlers missing save for a couple inches--maybe he got too close to a a truck early on or something.

Herd in SW MI, pulp is going for around $10/ chord. Waiting for the mill to come in and cut. Hardwoods were selective cut a couple of months ago.

Sitting yesterday morning our local killers had a good morning. Heard 5 shots from there area before 8:15am. As far as can tell, they are staying in the rules but it still pisses me off. Alot of locals are not happy but they don't give 2 [bleep]. I still took a decent doe.

While in graduate school I hunted the LP, both north and south of the rifle line. Up north, the preferred tactic was to heap dump truck loads of carrots and sugar beets. The area was characterized by lots of abandoned farmland in various stages of succession. Lanes were mowed off connected shooting shacks to bait piles. The most sought after locations were typically adjacent poorly drained acreage and strips of timber. The better bait piles were flanked by multiple shooting shacks. Occupants preferred Weatherby Magnums in .284, .308, and .338 varieties. It was like another planet.

I’ve been hunting in MI for 26 years and have never once seen a semi load of bait. I keep hearing about it and I’m sure it happens/happened but in my area farmland is actually farmed and baiting was done but in lesser amounts if at all. Still am glad it was banned and have seen regular deer movement all during daylight hours the last couple months. The baiting ban is the single thing I can agree with our dnr about in regards to deer hunting. I feel too much of their agenda is driven by insurance companies and not based on what’s best for the herd.

This guy is doing okay in Zone 3.

Michigan Bowhunter Kills 227-inch Monster Whitetail Buck

https://www.outdoorlife.com/michiga...um=email&cid=43961&mid=376157121

My guess is bating will NOT be banned in the U.P. Too many dollars at risk. The biologist in charge of the CWD core and zone area in the U.P. said 1400 heads have been tested this season and a big fat ZERO tested positive. I suppose that's good news, but it's also setting up the rescinding of the No Baiting order issued by the commission. Baiting is just too ingrained up there to stop cold turkey. The loss of license sales would really impact the DNR budget.

As a Michigan Hunter Safety instructor, we get a lot of the metrics regarding license sales. The average rifle hunter is between 45-70. The fastest growing area is not the 18-35 men, but the women. Youngsters are not taking up the pastime that our fathers passed to us. Too many distractions with school and other activities. Add to that the internet /computer age where there's instant gratification, these kids think sitting in sub-freezing weather for 5 days waiting for a glimpse of a deer is ridiculous. About all we can hope for is that there's a resurgence of some sort - maybe folks wanting more time outdoors, or maybe wanting healthier free range meat, or maybe it will be something else. But I thing the days of having schools closed and 750,000 hunters in the woods on the opener are long gone.

I remember the '94 or '95 season I saw the biggest deer in person, dead or alive, in my life. Our camp was south of Seney that year and we went to the Tally-Ho in Curtis for a burger and a beer. There was a crowd outside surrounding a 5 x 10 trailer with a magnificent buck in it. The antlers hung out the front of the trailer and it's hind legs hung out the other end. Had to be 250#. The bases were damn near as big as my wrist. I don't remember the points, just the solid mass of the huge, prefect rack. A few weeks later we saw it on Fred Trost's big buck night TV show.

That's the buck I dream about on stand and wonder if there's another roaming the Michigan north woods.

In fairness to the Yoopers, the big bait thing probably started in the LP when the produce truck farms started selling directly to hunters. You could back up under some carrot dispensing apparatus and get a pick-up load of carrots for 10 bucks. I don't know of any facilities like that in the UP. Beets were loaded with a bucket on the front of a tractor.

Am just saying, I don't know for sure--only what I saw.

When I was first married in the mid-seventies and occasionally working, happily shacked up with my bride on the big Croton Pond, pards and I bowhunted the Dungeon Swamp area and that is where I saw my first big bait dump. Some guy with money from Indiana bought an adjoining 80 and had, what we thought at the time, a railcar's worth of carrots on the ground under a stand. He really had nothing to fear from our recurves, but he was pretty dang hostile to company...

As time went on, the dedicated bait-arama places were selling bags of bait. I wonder if they need a license like you do for lemonade? Some guy was running an old dump truck up and down M-37 to supply.

And so there it is--a guy from Indiana started the whole mega thing and it got out of hand from there.

Grinning Charlie.

Am still haunted by a huge, very stiff, buck laying in the back of a pick-up in Sidnaw at a greasy spoon and the buck that got away cleanly from the four of us the day we set the world record for stupid deer hunting in our Iron River camp. Both had to be in the 180 class.