Mauser's Michigan Adventures '17

[freeboro]

Good luck buddy! I'll be keeping an eye on this but if you get bored, shoot me a text!

Shoot straight!

[oldrank]

Get em !!!!

[mauser06]

Got out for an afternoon hunt.

Drove north and decided to hunt a spot south lol. Drove back south and parked.

Geared up and stepped on the dirt road to cross it and saw a flash in the pines 75yds away. Never saw anything else or heard anything else. Figured a bird or something..

Walked up and had running buck tracks...he was just over the edge on the leeward side of the hill... watching me gear up. Lol. I banked on the deer being in a patch of small white pines since it was windy...

That spot is tiny so continued back North. Had a hard used buck trail last season I was gunna watch.

It's being used but not much..

Ended up still hunting. Figured I'd make my way to a big beaver swamp near my spot from yesterday.

Really not much sign around it and another guy has been hunting the other side of it for 2 days now.

Continued still hunting and cans to a spot that just looks good..1/3 of a mile from the truck..so I will wait here till dark.

The guy I know still hunted to the west of our spots this morning and saw a busted up little buck.

Between the 2 of us, we have stacked the deck a bit covering the surrounding areas around our spot.


I'm hopeful Saturdays pressure helps send deer my way..

Not sure what tomorrow brings.


The sign is sparse and spotty. Not sure why. Hard not being from here and not knowing the local deer habits etc. I haven't really came across anything great. Winter was mild and gun season wasn't good here last year... should be a good year..

[mihunter101]

Beautiful land man! I’ve been wanting to get up to northern mi. This spring I’m gonna try for a few days of scouting. I’ve done all my hunting the last 20 years in southern mi in the swamps and ag areas. Started out in northern mi when I was a kid. Good luck I hope you tag one

X2. Been talking about it for a couple of years now. Just need to make the time.

[mauser06]

Definitely scenic and cool territory to hunt which is why I keep fiddling around there.


It's also a wintering ground to the deer and they may have not moved down there just yet...


We'll see. Got at least 3 more days. The hardwoods and hill country seem to be getting pounded which is another reason to stay in the area I am...no doubt those deer will leave due to pressure. The ridges and hardwoods are mostly wide open mature woods..last year I did some poking around and really the sign wasn't any better...


Saturdays weather looks pretty rough again..but still hopeful for some pressured movement.

[mauser06]

Also considering sitting that (suspected) buck bed in the morning.

2 years in a row now I've bumped a suspected buck from there. Maybe get in there early and see if I can catch him slipping back in. Probably a long shot..but always a chance..

[oldrank]

I was just searching Leelanau bucks. There are some slobs up there !!!

[G3s]

Good luck dude. That specific area has been tough this year. Little to no acorns, little sitting activity or sign, lord of pressure during late October. I know there are some good deer left in that area. Hopefully you catch up with one. The dirt rd to The north is getting pounded with people, little pressure back to the west. I'm hoping to get up there Saturday to check a couple spots out.

[mauser06]

Oldrank, there are...I'm just on the struggle bus to finding even a little guy to put the hammer to lol. Maybe my patience and time will be rewarded!


G3s, that's interesting you noticed the lack of sign. The deer obviously aren't just gone. But buck sign specifically seems sparse like for whatever reason they didn't lay it down this year? I've actually found a lot of acorns though lol and thought maybe that was the issue... abundant spread out food..I will send you a PM.

[d_rek]

Mauser,

Do you come from out of state to hunt MI?

This was the first year I ever ran into someone who came from out of state to hunt in Michigan. I hunt the Thumb for firearms opener a few days a year with family.

When I was buying an antlerless tag on the way up there two guys in front of me and one guy behind me in line were all buying non Resident tags. The guy behind me was from Ohio! Said he hunts down there but has family up here so he comes up for a few days to deer camp. Thought that was cool.

Regards,
d_rek

[mauser06]

I live in Western Pennsylvania lol.

Long story short, I worked here for 2 summers. Kicking myself for not shinning or scouting lol.

Longer story short...met a girl.

Getting time off work was tough last year during the PA peak rut in archery season so I took the week after...with plans to hunt Ohio.

Got to looking and realized it'd be gun season in Michigan.

Last year I had a few days to archery hunt/scout.. mostly scouted with my bow in my hand.

Didn't see a buck last year but had a blast. When I got home I requested the same vacation. Might make it an annual trip.

The thing kicking my but is lack of scouting and the foreign landscape. Very different habitat than I'm used to hunting.

I feel like eventually I will find what I'm looking for.

Tomorrow may be a day of still hunting/scouting just to continue learning the area and new ground.

In PA if you walk enough you can usually get a shot at a buck..or at least see deer lol. Along the way I mark beds, rub lines, scrapes etc for the future. Mark enough stuff and you can spend the off season connecting the dots on topos and satellite images...

[mauser06]

Nothing like a brisk mile walk down the Lake Michigan shoreline when it's 28 degrees in the dark.. luckily the 10mph wind wasn't coming off the water.

Setup on a transition. Gunna wait for good light and hopefully the frost to burn off and sneak into some bigger potholes. Can only hunt till 10 or so...then back out around 2.

Cut big buck tracks in the sand...

The lighter it gets the better this spot is looking lol. Cluster of big oaks and looks like maybe a white pine sapling thicket 60yds across the oak flat. Definitely gunna sit here a bit.

[mauser06]

So after it got good and light I snuck my way to the big marshy potholes. Really only wanted to stay another hour or so..so I figured I'd sneak my way to the truck.

A shot rings out. I knew it had to be the guy I met back here. I text him..no reply.

Crossing a spot of land in one of the potholes and I hear splashing. Never saw it but investigated it..buck bed on a little hump of land.

Guy calls...he hit one. Hes not in 100% health so I offer to meet him for the drag. "well I got 100yds of blood and I don't know...".

I jump on the trail with him and immediately find hunks of bone...watery blood. Leg hit any time I've seen that.

150-200yds past that I find a 2-3ft puddle of foam. I've NEVER seen that and not had the deer real close by.

I end up tracking well over half a mile. I loose it...he says he's done. He leaves lol.

I stay... determined to find it...

Pick blood back up and took it a few hundred yards farther. A few little clots and I've totally lost it.

Definitely had to get a piece of a lung. But the majority of the trail was watery muscle blood.


So here I sit...a very long ways from my truck and in the center of this block. Stumbled into a nice looking spot. Don't know what to do now. Could sit here till dark...but it's a long ways out lol. Wind is blowing from the road and I expect a little pressure from that road this evening so might not be a bad sit.. didn't really plan to end up here today lol

[oldrank]

Sounds like he might have been pushing it. Crazy with the lung blood. Maybe clipped a love. U still sitting tight there?

[mauser06]

I'd agree he was being pushed...but usually you can see where they'll stop and wait on you or bed. Besides that 1 bed, he never seemed to stop. Knowing it wasn't guts or liver, I would rather push them...keep them bleeding.

I don't personally know the guy well. It took me a while to get him to slow down..let me track while he gets on a ridge to keep the gun ready..by that time it was too late.

I sat there an hour or so. Wind kicked up and got a bit Westerly which wasn't good for what I was expecting.

Still hunted to my spot...sat another....hour or so. Started really getting nasty..wind and rain lol. Realized that we tracked that buck 100-150yds past my spot and I came in from the back way...figured I'd still hunt my way to the truck...

Bumped 1...didn't look like a buck but it was doing mach 9.

Got out to the edge and was sneaking a hard transition. I saw a white tail go and boy i swore it was a rabbit...all I could find we're fresh buck tracks lol.

Heard a few shots in the area...

Tomorrow looks rough. Gotta play it by ear.


This place is humbling me. Its hard to decipher...I'm nearly convinced there are no consistent bedding areas. I can't find them. Hard to hunt when they can bed a million and 12 places...I have not found a single actual bed. But I've found millions of "yep this would be a good bed.." and old rubs to back my thoughts up.

They like the potholes and swamps. Any clump of ground in them or on the edge has potential.

I think the lack of competition minimizes sign too.

I don't know what to make of it lol.


Will post a pic of the blood later...