Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Mi gun season.

Good luck to Michigan deer hunters tomorrow. I live in firearm restricted zone so I'm hunting with my 444 Marlin with modified ammo, what are you guys hunting with?

Lee

Good luck out there. EG in 300 for me. 303 for my oldest son and 44 mag in a Marlin lever for my youngest. St Hubert grant me a buck so big that when recounting the tale, even I will have no need to exaggerate. Amen.

Good luck boys.

Pictures or it never happened.

How are you modifying the 444 ammo. Loading it down? I'm working on a 444 Rimless.

I’m hunting with my 45-70 in between Grand Rapids and Muskegon. Shortened case , full powder charge. Stupidest thing I ever heard !!

How are you modifying the 444 ammo. Loading it down? I'm working on a 444 Rimless.[/quote]


Joe, the restrictions only allow for rifles using a straight wall case no longer than 1.8 inches. I shorten the case and seat the bullet shallow to keep the same basic cartridge over all length and powder capacity. So I'm not loading down, I get 2300 fps with a 265 gr bullet.

I make my reloads a bit shorter than factory rounds because the factory FTX loads don't feed reliably in my old Marlin.


Lee

Good luck to all ye Michiganders.

All set to go, going to bed soon. Going to use a 50 Beowulf ,at least a day or two. Than a 300 T good Hunting to All.

I be using your buddy’s 45-70 barrel.

Joe, the restrictions only allow for rifles using a straight wall case no longer than 1.8 inches. I shorten the case and seat the bullet shallow to keep the same basic cartridge over all length and powder capacity. So I'm not loading down, I get 2300 fps with a 265 gr bullet.

I make my reloads a bit shorter than factory rounds because the factory FTX loads don't feed reliably in my old Marlin.


Lee[/quote]


Fascinating, thanks.

Best of luck everyone!!

Joe, the restrictions only allow for rifles using a straight wall case no longer than 1.8 inches. I shorten the case and seat the bullet shallow to keep the same basic cartridge over all length and powder capacity. So I'm not loading down, I get 2300 fps with a 265 gr bullet.

I make my reloads a bit shorter than factory rounds because the factory FTX loads don't feed reliably in my old Marlin.


Lee[/quote]
Gotcha. When MD went straight wall they didn’t put a case limit on them. If I can get these to work in my 99C, they will be legal in MD, but 30-30 isn't. Yep stupid laws out there. Guess we take what we can get?

The legalities of which you speak, Joe, only pertain to the old "shotgun only", densely populated/flat portions of the state. In the "good" areas we've enjoyed sensible unhindered cartridge selection all along.

I've been trying to call oldotter all morning to wish him luck. I guess he's sitting in the woods with his phone turned off. Silly man. On the other hand maybe he's too busy dragging one out.

Saddlering on the other hand is probably perched in a tree with a knife clenched in his teeth, waiting to pounce on a deer and wrestle it mano-a-mano.

Those Michigan hunters don't mess around.

Feeling 112 right now! The big wulf, came thru for me at 2:30 big 8 chased 2 does out of the thick stuff! He went 60 yards back in the thick stuff and died. Had a couple of inches of tracking snow, snowed all day! I found him ,and tagged and gutted him. Good rack but big deer, draged him 160 yrds 50 up hill. A buddy came to help me drag him in the sled the 200 yards to where I could drive to him. 1/4 mile walk to the Jeep tho! Buddy's side by side is in the shop.

Congrats!

Didn't happen with no pics, tho.

Need some pictures please!

I'm not able to post pics! Didn't get any with me and the deer, just a few with the deer and rifle!

Congrats!

Lee

Congrats John. I don't need pics to believe you......

Way to go, John!!

What reason did the the legislators give you for creating the State law that says you can only use a straight walled case ?

Good for you John. On the other hand, NO MI deer hunters really hunt. They sit in little cabins with wood stoves and watch over their bait. Been there by invitation and done that. On the other other hand, I give John the benefit of the doubt. Glad you got your buck John.

Thanks fellows, I did hunt in a box blind, over a small food plot, no dam heater tho! Had several younger buds up in tree stands all day in the wet snow, one saw one deer the other nothing. Rest of the season I'll be out in the woods still hunting and stalking. Taking the morning off as I'm sorry, be out this afternoon.

Congrats John!!

congratulations, pic of deer and rifle is better than no pic. email it to me and I will post it on the kill page.

Good job John!!!! Can't wait to see photos of your deer!

I thought he said he was in a straight wall “Zone”. I took for granted that when I said MD went straight wall, others understood it was in previous shotgun “Zones”. Until a month ago I could snipe deer off the kids play tower in the back yard with my 250. They just logged the woods behind me and started digging basements. Now I have to drive over to Doc’s farm.

I’m not sure, it started in other states. I read about it, and as usual it didn’t make sense to me, so I didn’t pay attention. I think in most states that have done it they refer to basically straight wall pistol cartridges and them being more accurate, than slug guns, resulting in more ethical kills. Others can elaborate on that. My cousins Son in Law owns several hundred acres on the Eastern shore where they hunt over soy fields and he has a tuned Savage 220, 20 gauge he hunts to 300 yards. The new slug guns are not our fathers and grand fathers “Punkin Ballers”.

Such laws are written by folks who have zero comprehension of ballistics and/or are operating on old wive's tales that maybe had a smidgen of veracity 80 years ago.

The guy we're overlooking is oldotter. His silence tells me he's either busy dragging deer after deer out of the Michigan woods or he's spending every waking hour stalking Bambi, with his phone tucked away out of hearing back in his flivver. That, or he's passed out on the floor of some Michigan roadhouse with a belly full of rotgut.

Come out come out wherever you are, oldotter!

Talked to oldotter opening night and no luck then. I’m sure he’s spending has much time as he can stalking Bambi. Plus he’s with someone who hasn’t hunted before and is showing him the ropes.

Thanx for the comback Joe , Sounds like your politicians ain't no dummer than ours.
Old Totter should have his hands full alright especially if his student has vivid bush imagination and everything looks like an animal or goose or any general bush object that needs in any split second to be gotten ready to shoot at but not actually plugged.

I was hiding in the woods for the last couple of days up in Wolverine, just 40 minutes shy of the upper. Spent 2 1/2 days in the blind and only 2 sightings. Weather phycos were calling for 10-12 inches of the white stuff......so I bailed and came back home. Be Hunting in Kingston tomorrow with my trusty Savage 220 20ga deer slayer. And yes, my phone gets pretty much ignored, hence the radio silence. Still have till the 30th to deflate a freezer filler. John, congratulations, but you gotta find closer to the truck location to set up a blind.

Phew. I was ready to call out the National Guard to find you.

Is the lower half of Michigan still shotgun-only or may you employ a rifle using a straight walled cartridge? If the latter, I would have cheerfully loaned you my Martini Cadet .357 Maximum!

Just spoke to someone somewhere in MI, foot of snow on the ground and still snowing.

I have to apologize to our friend saddlering. He sent me the photos to post for him but between a really f'd up phone and hospital time I can't get it done. Can someone help him out?

Yes we got hammered, it’s still snowing and blowing.

The "mitten" as Michiganders refer to the lower peninsula is shotgun only in the lower half, or recently changed to straight wall cartridge's (restrictions apply) also. In the top half can use centerfires at will. The trick is to first lay your peepers on em!

Thats why I bailed from up north. Was in the belly of the beast, turned yeller and ran south.

Don't blame you. The older I get the less I like snow. It could never snow again and it'll be too soon for me! Hooray for global warming!

I love winter and snow, provided I'm sitting in my Big and Tall Lazy Boy recliner with a jigger of CC and don't have to drive 275 miles in it.

We have over a foot here and still snowing, sposed to snow all weekend and high winds tommorow! Hoping to get out Sunday evening and Monday. I have trouble getting around in the snowy woods, if we get much. Little feeling in my left foot, tend to fall alot. Don't care much for Snow anymore myself. Having a small surgery on Tuesday doc says no deer hunting for at least a week don't want me to year the stitches out, inner and outer. Jerry Happy Hunting go em!

saddlering, can you believe it, i got it! Here's your deer photo.

Yahooey! That Beowulf knocked him ass-over-tincups, huh?!

Roy, I can't believe you shot that poor little deer with a machine gun. The Democrats say those monsters are only for killing people.

Not me, I don't even own a machine gun. That's our friend John/saddlerings deer! He's a stone cold killer.

Thanks Roy! The 50 Beowulf, is a modern 50-70, kick is more of a shove! Have had alot of fun with this one this summer.

Is that a savage?

Been extremely slow up here in Michigans U.P. I live in the country in Western Delta County. Half a dozen deer camps on my dead end road. ZERO bucks on buck poles after first 3 days of hunt. Michigan DNR with their liberal regulations (2 buck lics. for years) and wolves have about knocked the herd way down. Low buck to doe ratio and just about zero older age class bucks. They say we need to kill more does to up the buck to doe ratio. I don't think so!! We need to raise the buck numbers to improve the ratio by get rid of the 2 buck lic. and have a 1 buck per year lic, instead.

If no one has killed a buck On your road this gun season than going form one to two bucks probably won’t make a difference. I do agree one buck is enough.

The dear little wolves are the problem. The elk here are really skittish. We can't get near them. I've seen wolf tracks mixed in with the elk tracks. It used to be that the elk would break up into small groups making it easier to get one. Fewer eyes in the herd plus wider distribution. They stay bunched up now in large herds for protection against the wolves.
Game and Fish want some of the cows thinned out in the feed ground areas so they don't have so many to feed. I'll keep after it until season ends Nov 30 but I'm not feeling too optimistic.

I'm not sure wolves are the problem for deer ( no idea about elk ). I believe Northern Minnesota has the highest wolf population in the continental US and there are plenty of deer up here.

No wolves where I hunt, but coyotes are definitely making their presence felt, especially in the springtime when they'll pull down baby deer. A cousin of mine arrow shot a once in a lifetime trophy in northern PA a couple years ago, and by the time he trailed it to its final resting spot a pack of coyotes had ripped all the goodies off of it.

We still have plenty of elk. It's just harder to get to them due to harassment from the wolves. Saw some this morning but it was too early to tell whether they had antlers. It's cow only now. I've heard that the elk population in Yellow stone is greatly reduced due to wolves. But that is probably mostly due to Spring harassment against the calves.

The Yellowstone elk herd is at about 30% of it's peak.

Yellowstone wolf population broke 100 in 1998, climbed to 175 by 2003, dropped below 100 again by 2009 when food got scarce.

Have I mentioned that the wolves introduced here are non-native gray wolves. The native wolves here were timber wolves, smaller and less aggressive than gray wolves. Funny how some people want to do away with non native species but will introduce non natives if it fits their agenda.

Years ago I did a lot of population biology work concentrating on wolves in Yellowstone. They were mainly listed as gray wolves. Then some data had them listed as northern rocky mountain wolves or some sort of timber wolves, which if I recall correctly both are considered subspecies of gray wolves but different than the eastern timber wolf we have in MN. The timber wolves we have here I think are subspecies of gray wolves arising from hybridization with coyotes. Seems to be a giant cluster [bleep] and clear as thick mud. No idea what is going on so I gave up paying much attention. We apparently have gray wolves in MN as well as timber wolves ( apparently debatable). I know a wolf when I rarely see one but I couldn't tell the difference to save my life.

I guess we have wolves working their way in around here now. Can't wait to smoke all of them I see.

I was being serious. I'm not familiar with guns currently offered by Savage.

I don't mind the wolves, as long as they aren't attacking me.

Sorry not a Savage, Anderson lower, Bear Creek upper. If I find one of those savage pins, like Joe has on the orange, I'll install it! Wanted to take a deer with a AR before they get banned! And I used a 4 round Mag.

Nice shot! Always fun to make a first kill with a new rifle 👍

No wolves here, but a LOT of coyotes, and far less deer than I used to see. I think that has more to do with dunderheads chopping down every last tree they can see around here (and there weren't that many to start with) vs the yotes, but I am sure the coyotes don't help, either.

Very slow opener here... sat all 3 days and saw A deer, well out of range. I did take a crack at a yote Sunday morning, but I grossly underestimated the distance and hit short. 😒 Heard a grand total of 5 shots, not counting the one I took.

My other buddy John, has an AR in 450 Bushmaster and he is 5 for 5 with it.