d_rek
Well-Known Member
Thursday Nov. 15th found me tucked into a pop-up blind on 80 acres of fairly rugged land in Michigan's North-Central Upper Penninsula, in Marquette County, for the opening day of Michigan's General Firearms season. That Nov. 15th is something of a holiday in Michigan would be an understatement. It's kind of like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter all rolled together. It's a special day, to say the least.
Marquette County is not known for having exceptionally high deer densities, being in the snowbelt part of the U.P. that sees an average snowfall of 220"+ inches a year and severe wintering conditions for wildlife. My expectations were realistic, if not lowered, than what I would typically expect hunting Southeast Michigan farm country and woodlots. So, as I was 3.5 hours into my opening day sit, I was pleasantly surprised when a very healthy looking doe came out of the pines approx. 30 yards to my left moving through a heavily trafficked pathway through the swamp my blind overlooked.
Less than 10 minutes laters I caught more movement and, to my amazement, a cruising buck came in nose to ground right on her trail. After a quick study of his rack I counted only 4 points and had to give him a pass as I did not have a tag for anything less than 3pt on one side or better. After the disappointment set in I decided to experiment with some calling. Having had some success with tending grunts a few hunts prior I grabbed the flexible grunt tube out of my pack and gave a couple soft tending grunts. To say the results were better than expected would be an understatement.
Almost immediately after grunting I saw the shape of a deer hoping back through the swamp towards my location. As it got closer I saw it was the same buck that had just moved through a moment ago. He was literally coming in on a string! As he got within 60 yards I put glass on him only to see that he had a set of browtines on each antler, making him a legal buck for me. I had already made up my mind to shoot the first legal buck that I saw on the 5 day trip we had. The gun was up, my scope on the deer, and I thumbed the hammer on the single action slug shotgun back in a few practised movements. In a few shorts seconds the buck had closed the gap form 60 to 30 yards but now was giving me a hard quartering toward me shot. He hung up for a brief second, only presenting a shoot to his sternum while staring at my blind, but quickly turned broadside and moved to 25 yards directly in front of my blind. A gimme shot if there ever was one.
Except that it wasn't. In the moment, between counting points, preparing for the shot, and watching this deer get within bow distance, my adrenaline dumped hard. My heart was racing, and while I don't recall being unsteady, I do remember flinching badly and punching the trigger, harmlessly putting a slug underneath the buck that gave me what should have been a guaranteed kill. The buck immediately bounded away into the cattails. He stared back at me before giving me a quick snort and running off in the direction the doe went in, never to show himself again for the duration of our hunting trip.
I was bummed to say the least.
It would be the only legal antlered buck our entire hunting party of 6 guys would see over the course of our 5 day trip. The landowner saw two moose (cows), we all kicked up snowshoe hare and grouse, and cut many deer and bobcat tracks in the fresh snow up there. It's a beautiful country and I could see myself easily getting lost in it. The next time I go up there will be whenever I pull a bear tag, as that's something i've wanted to hunt for a while now.
Marquette County is not known for having exceptionally high deer densities, being in the snowbelt part of the U.P. that sees an average snowfall of 220"+ inches a year and severe wintering conditions for wildlife. My expectations were realistic, if not lowered, than what I would typically expect hunting Southeast Michigan farm country and woodlots. So, as I was 3.5 hours into my opening day sit, I was pleasantly surprised when a very healthy looking doe came out of the pines approx. 30 yards to my left moving through a heavily trafficked pathway through the swamp my blind overlooked.
Less than 10 minutes laters I caught more movement and, to my amazement, a cruising buck came in nose to ground right on her trail. After a quick study of his rack I counted only 4 points and had to give him a pass as I did not have a tag for anything less than 3pt on one side or better. After the disappointment set in I decided to experiment with some calling. Having had some success with tending grunts a few hunts prior I grabbed the flexible grunt tube out of my pack and gave a couple soft tending grunts. To say the results were better than expected would be an understatement.
Almost immediately after grunting I saw the shape of a deer hoping back through the swamp towards my location. As it got closer I saw it was the same buck that had just moved through a moment ago. He was literally coming in on a string! As he got within 60 yards I put glass on him only to see that he had a set of browtines on each antler, making him a legal buck for me. I had already made up my mind to shoot the first legal buck that I saw on the 5 day trip we had. The gun was up, my scope on the deer, and I thumbed the hammer on the single action slug shotgun back in a few practised movements. In a few shorts seconds the buck had closed the gap form 60 to 30 yards but now was giving me a hard quartering toward me shot. He hung up for a brief second, only presenting a shoot to his sternum while staring at my blind, but quickly turned broadside and moved to 25 yards directly in front of my blind. A gimme shot if there ever was one.
Except that it wasn't. In the moment, between counting points, preparing for the shot, and watching this deer get within bow distance, my adrenaline dumped hard. My heart was racing, and while I don't recall being unsteady, I do remember flinching badly and punching the trigger, harmlessly putting a slug underneath the buck that gave me what should have been a guaranteed kill. The buck immediately bounded away into the cattails. He stared back at me before giving me a quick snort and running off in the direction the doe went in, never to show himself again for the duration of our hunting trip.
I was bummed to say the least.
It would be the only legal antlered buck our entire hunting party of 6 guys would see over the course of our 5 day trip. The landowner saw two moose (cows), we all kicked up snowshoe hare and grouse, and cut many deer and bobcat tracks in the fresh snow up there. It's a beautiful country and I could see myself easily getting lost in it. The next time I go up there will be whenever I pull a bear tag, as that's something i've wanted to hunt for a while now.
