Good luck to all and be safe

Good luck to you too!

Not sure what will be the case for our property. Due to 20+% dead mature trees, we are
having all the dead plus a bunch of dog hair stuff removed. They are just finishing up as
we speak and I am sure the deer (what there are left there) will be reacting different than
in the past. The gypsy moths ate so much of the leaves on the oaks and beech for the last
3-4 years that I have not see a nut or a squirrel there for 3 years and damned few deer.
Hopefully the loggers have the two track repaired enough that we can get to the cabin.
Headed up shortly.
Tim

Good luck from da UP!

Good Luck to all!, 9 of us hunting this year! Seems to be some bucks around,!

Currently, waiting for Mr. Big to step out. Supposed to snow all afternoon.

Three of us scored today, 2 big 8 pts. And a big 9 pt. I took one of the 8s saw alot of deer ,4 small bucks, 30 does. The 8 came out of the thick stuff chasing 2 does at 2:30, hoping for more tomorrow! Happy Hunting!

Keep the stories coming! Congrats to all who filled their tags!

Congrats to you and your crew! We saw a few bucks, but no shooters today. Going to keep at it all week.

Nice pic !

Congrats !
Was very slow here in mid Michigan. Lots of my friends and family saw none or just a couple deer all day.

All I had was a doe tag for gun opener, archery killed my 2 bucks !

Thought I would do something special this year. Both my Grandpas have passed on to better hunting grounds. Before he passed, Mom's dad gave me his M77 tang safety ,red pad 300WM.
Its been in the safe,just waiting to hunt. He bought it new in 1984, I believe. The guy he got it from loaded him some ammo which I have also. After some range time ,I decided we was ready.
Next up...
My Dad gave me his Dad's wool hunting suit from 1962. I was going to hang it in my game room for decor,but I decided to try it on last week. I couldn't believe it, I managed to fit into it !

Fast forward to opening day.. My tribute hunt to my grandfathers !
With old wool and a gifted rifle ,I set out to punch a tag.

The morning produced nothing but wind and some wet snow,no deer. A friend offered to take me to one of his spots,we both only had doe tags left. Seen a couple deer right away ,but it was snowing so hard we could barley seen them, let alone tell what they were. Hunting a hay field with corn on 2 sides ,we closed the gap,but got busted. Dang it...
We stood on the edge of the corn while turning into snowmen . Finally 4 deer show up ! I told him to shoot first and I would then swap rifles on the tripod . He shoots and the doe stands straight up on her hind legs and tips over ! My turn, with the other 3 wondering what happened , I got ready and he picked out which one. He called 250 yards ! It's getting to be last light and snowing like mad, I picked a spot and sent one that way. Got a good meat report and a hunched up deer. We headed across the hay field, while we still could see and found both had fallen in the drainage ditch..ahhh crap ! After a messy recovery we had completed a daily double.
Tags filled !


Thanks for reading and..
Here's to all those that passed on the hunting tradition !
Cheers !

Nice

Congrads mibowhunter,, I had my red plaid coat on, with some orange.

Thanks !
I had an orange hat on.

Thanks. This one was about an hour later! 😁

Cool story. Congrats mibowhunter!

Wow..haha !

We must have gotten 2-3 more inches over night here.
Everything is white. Watching deer behind the house,it's like black and white tv. They sure show up well.

Great stories gentlemen.

Brother in law shot this one this morning. We have more decent ones running around. Gonna go back out sat.

Our deer totally changed there habits from last year at this time. Starting to see the effects from having it logged 3 years ago.

Nice Buck Joel.

Heck yes!

He's happy. 2 8 points in bow and his 10 in gun so far.

Tree guys shut down operations Tues and Wed so we could hunt the property.
I took a small buck about 8 am Tues.
My favorite deer for eating are 2 1/2 year old bucks and old dry does.
So the buck will be working his way into the freezer.
Hope the harvesting of wood will trigger better harvesting of deer in next few years.

Good buck in the pic !
Congrats to all !


Logging will help big time !

Tuesday morning found me in my elevated box blind an hour before legal light. As the clock inched closer to hunting time, it started snowing. Cool! I love snow for deer season. Visibility and easy blood trailing are combined with nostalgia make me happy anytime there’s snow for deer hunting.
As it became light enough to see, the sound of large wings and thumping landings meant the local turkeys had been roosting around my blind and across the river. The flock of 12 hens proceeded to forage on the forest floor. It’s always a treat to watch turkeys scratch, back up to search the ground their big feet just cleared.
Watching the pecking order is always funny, with the dominant or most aggressive birds chasing the subordinate ones away from “their spot”.
This went on for 15 minutes or so, till the morning’s first cup of coffee signaled it’s need for relief.
Standing up in the Muddy blind means you can’t see out of the windows, but peeing sitting down ain’t happening. After relieving myself I capped the urinal and sat down. A scan of the woods was interrupted by a new stump about 60 yds away. In due time the stump moved and hey! It’s a buck!
His rack looked small and at first I thought I would pass on him. He was feeding slowly from right to left but him being behind a bunch of light brush there was no clear spot to take a shot. It took about 15 hours, I mean minutes for him to move where there was an opening to shoot. There was enough time to debate with myself over shooting him or not. The saying of “Don’t pass on the first day what you would shoot on the last day” kept running in a loop.
Since last year was a blank due to passing on a spike horn on opening day and not seeing another buck all season, I waited till he stepped into the opening and for some reason took two full steps and his heart was covered by a small sapling on the left side.
I put the crosshairs about 4” behind the elbow and 6” up from the brisket and pressed the trigger on my Bergara Ridge 450 Bushmaster. He launched himself forward and made a big looping turn running away.
The turkeys flushed, ran and skedaddled in every direction.
The snowfall threatened to cover his tracks and any blood, so I got down and followed a very good trail of red for 150 yards till I found him piled up. All I can say is this was the opposite of ground shrinkage. His dinky rack turned out be a 16” wide 8 point with fairly long brow tines. The reason his rack looked small is he's a brute!
After tagging him and hanging my white hanky above him for a visual locator I went to fetch the 4 wheeler and game cart trailer. Enlisting my wife’s help we went back down to the river bottom to fetch him. Laying the game cart on it’s side allowed us to strap the big sumbitch to it. Tipping it upright was difficult bit we made it happen.
We cleared a path through the fallen trees where he fell and pulled the cart to where I could attach the cart to the 4 wheeler. The trip out was fairly uneventful, only having the cart tip over once on the way.
Gutting him was messy since the entrance was almost mid ribs and the exit was 4” behind the last rib. The Hornady 250FTX hit the left lung and liver and either bullet or bone fragments lacerated the stomach. Those FTX’s are just a glorified handgun bullet, and not a good one at that. This isn’t the first time these have disappointed me with their performance. Close range performance is lacking with many bullets coming apart.
Notice in the second pic, he has no tail!

BTW, attaching pics taken with my iPhone, are always turned sideways. Ive futzed around trying to correct it, but I give up at this point. If someone wants to play with them to get them turned upright, be my guest.

Good job man.

Man, I shivered just seein' that picture.

Congrats to ya'!

Good buck for the BIL!

Thanks Joel!

And thanks skeen!

Congrats to Mark and Joel's BIL!

I gave up on that piss poor 250 gr FTX. I load the Barnes 200 gr XPB #30554 for my dad and daughters in the Bushmaster. I load them down to 2200-2300 FPS for reduced recoil. They both shoot Rugers with 1-16 twist and the load is very accurate and produces pass throughs with excellent blood trails.

My 45 Raptor just doesn't like the 200 gr Barnes. I shoot the Bear Creek Ballistics 240 gr HV bullet. Accuracy is very good with pass throughs and lots of expansion.

405wcf

Good read and buck,Mark !

Thank you sir.

This morning I sat in my dining room sipping coffee watching a very tall 7 point tending a hot doe out in the cut cornfield east of the house. He had to interrupt his sniffing and licking her behind in order to chase a small 6 point away.
That 6 point was not to be deterred though, he would get run off, at times almost getting gored in the azz, only to circle around and approach from a different direction.
A couple of attempts to photograph them through the spotting scope were unsuccessful as the window screens and leaves on the branches between us prevented getting the camera to focus.

Congrads on the bucks fellows. A buddy shot a large 6 this morning, I helped him retrieve it! Snowing hard here now we have already 7" with more to come.

Some nice bucks there fellas!

Joel, tell your BIL congrats on a fine MI buck!

Foot and a half of snow and windy in West MI. I stayed home today rather than fight it for the drive over to camp. Maybe tomorrow. Pretty sure my tent blind will be crushed. A little early for this.

I was gonna go out today also but the wind stopped me. Snow and temps I can deal with but that wind makes it terrible.

Becoming a wimp as I get older

Same deal here, about 14 inch's and still snowing and Blowing!

Final weekend of the muzzleloader season. Just got to the hunting camp and got the woodstove going. I’d like to put one more in the freezer. Not sure if I’d shoot a doe tomorrow as we’ve still got a few nice bucks running around. Late doe season runs 12/11 to 1/1 so I could probably get one then. Still, time gets tight around Christmas, and I do like shooting my BP gun. 🤔 We’ll see.

I agree on the Bear Creek Ballistics 285gr
Been using them for years now & have converted several buddies over to them.

I guess now I know what I’d do. Single adult doe came by at 0830. She took a .54 round ball through the chest from my Browning Mountain Rifle. The discussion down in the Muzzleloader forum motivated me to carry that one. It worked. Tags are gone now and meat supply is replenished.

Congratulations on the freezer filler doe taken with your smokepole.