Re: Southeast MI public land hunting
I'm mostly private land and occasionally in St. Clair County, will haul up to the thumb for rifle opener weekend to spend deer camp with some family, then back to SCC for the rest of the season.
I have 4 private parcels I can hunt currently. I am working on getting access to another very close to me. The private land is OK - nothing stellar, but it's the best I have access to currently. I have hunted the Pt. Huron SGA a couple of times but I would say that the times I did that deer never had a serious threat on their hands. :lol:
Arguably my best hunting property is an 80 acre farm that is split approx 50 timber/30 AG field. There are some great features there but the property only really holds good deer numbers when there is crop in the field. There is isolated apple and white oak trees in the timber, an old watering hole, and thicker-than-hell bedding area that usually holds 1-2 doe families. I have not located any buck beds on this property, but have seen them cruising towards the bedding on occasion. It is a absolutely fantastic place to turkey hunt year round. The game changer for deer hunting on this property is when the property owner (my uncle) has crop in the field. This year, because of mechanical issues with his tractors and family obligations with my cousin, there is no crop in the field so the property is not holding as many deer.. This may change in another week or two as we near towards the rut and the bedding becomes hot. This property is also a very low pressure property for the area. I am usually the only person hunting it. Although there is some random quad activity from my cousins throughout the year. The landowner hunts up north and also goes out of state to Kansas every year to deer hunt. He told me he, "Got sick of shooting 1.5 year old bucks" lol.
Another private parcel is a 10 acre river bottom with excellent doe bedding. However things have changed for the worse in the last 2 years since I started hunting it 3 years ago. The first year I hunted it I saw deer every time I was on stand - from cruising bucks to multiple doe family groups. What changed the hunting here though were two things which I think absolutely destroyed the potential of this property:
1) The property owner cut a path wide enough to drive his 4x4 chevy down to the river, directly through what I had identified as a primary scrape and a staging area adjacent to doe bedding. He literally cut his path directly through an area where I had previously counted 5 fresh scrapes the last week in October. The other wild card here is that the property owner logs dead timber through the fall months from the area, often driving his lawn tractor and running a chainsaw for hours on end mid-day upto prime time.
2) The property directly to the west was bought by a young "brown-its-down" hunter. This hunter does not practice scent control and, by his own admission, hunts "90 out of 91 days of the season".I have talked to this guy on several occasions and it is clear he has no intention of ever doing anything differently. He has shot multiple young bucks - 2 spikes, and a 4 point, from this property.
It has become clear to me from the few time I sat on this property this year that it is completely 'shut down' in every sense of the word. Unfortunate but the reality of hunting in heavy pressure areas.
The next one is the back 3 acres of a small woodlot and is mostly mature red oaks with a chestnut tree. There is bedding located adjacent to this property but deer movement after Oct. 1 is incredibly difficult to pattern. I will get them moving through the woodlot all summer long but they almost immediately go nocturnal and alter their movements after the first week of October. I have found decent buck rubs back here but they are random to say the least. This property has a neighbor less than 500 yards to the N that hunts from a box blind for a few hours in the morning and in the evening every day of the season from Oct. 1 to Jan 1.
The last one is my 4 acres that I purchased back in June of this year with the intention of building a home on. I discovered some wild fruit trees on the property and my trail cam confirmed they were hit hard while dropping fruit. Unfortunately they are very close to the road and less than 100 yards from the neighboring homes. Still to afford myself more hunting opportunity I brushhogged a path to the back of the property, which is adjacent to High-tension power lines, and setup a pop-up blind. I have admittedly began baiting this location and have a 2 nice doe and a fawn on camera coming in with some regularity at pretty much the exact same time of day. The main reason I began baiting was because I wanted to afford my little girl (4 years old) the opportunity to see some deer. We did sit out today but she only lasted 45 minutes but had fun looking through my binos, blowing the grunt tubes like a trumpet (sounded more like a goose), and rattling with the rattling sticks. I would only consider this a 'meat' deer spot and do not seriously expect to see a buck. In the future I am considering brushhogging more of the brush in the back of the property so long as it is no already bedding and installing some fruit and nut bearing mast trees, although first things first I need to get a house built.
What do I like about these properties? Well, first and foremost they are ultra-convenient. I am less than 15 minutes drive from any of these spots. Adapting to hunting them is challenging. Right now I am adapting by trying to not overhunt any of them. My own property I don't necessarily care how often I am hunting it (it isn't very often) but I have saved what I believed to be my best pre-rut stands for the next few weeks on the 80 acre farm. I will probably only hunt the other locations for a change of scenery.
The biggest challenge for me this year is not adapting to hunting situations but the addition of a 2nd child, along with acquiring land and going through the process of building a home. I also work full-time (M-F, 9-5ish) although my job affords me great benefits like true flex time and generous time off. My wife's schedule of working afternoons and alternating weekends (damn you, Healthcare) is also another big challenge to getting on stand.
I would like to get up and seriously scout some public land near me just for the simple fact that I Would like more hunting opportunity. I also feel that the private parcels I hunt are not seriously attractive parcels for deer, let alone big bucks. However from how little I was able to scout last spring it will certainly be a challenge for the next few years to get out and scout more land.
I guess the reason I began saddle hunting is my 1 and only season with a climber was a nightmare. It was so unbelievably heavy it was almost comical (and I am a rather stout fellow). It became quickly apparent that unless I had the lightest climber on the market I wasn't going to be seriously hunting with it. I had already been considering a saddle since the season prior but wasn't as serious as i've gotten about my hunting since then. It seemed like a saddle was the next logical step up in wanting to be more mobile and have a tactical advantage over other hunters and my quarry. I think you almost need to in states like MI.
Anyway... that was much longer than I anticipated. Would love to hear from you guys too.
Regards,
d_rek
