West Michigan here. I’m so ready for the season I can’t wait

 

Do you fall turkey hunt? Season opens on the 15th of September and I got my lottery draw tag for our property and a leftover tag for around home. Both seasons overlap come October 1st and more than once I have been intentionally hunting one species, only to encounter the other and bring one home instead.

Where do you typically hunt in west MI?

 

South Central here but will be in Illinois as well. All public. Only 1 cam up at this point, I'm not big on putting them before the fall shift. It's fun but it's not often the bucks you see throughout summer are there come season especially on public. Got a few that I'd shoot in Michigan but maybe not in Illinois.

 

Can't wait for the season. Mid west michigan here. Heading to Wisconsin last week of September. Nothing consistent on camera at this time. Few random fliers that look good.

 

Northern LP-
Looking forward to my first Hunt Since Retiring. Spending a good amount of time getting my Property Ready. With fewer Hunters or so the State tells us might be more Game for the rest of Us?
Good Hunting!
LFM

 

Getting excited as I’m wrapping up the Sparta Hunt and Fish Bowhunter warmup league. Just need some finalized touches on some equipment.

 

West Michigan here went out to one of my spots this morning. It's in a big swamp 160 acres federal land. Man it's dry out there farmers corn next to it is doing well though. Don't fall turkey hunt, but took a nice one opening day of last spring hunt.

 

Is that swamp spot in Oceana County with you?? I'm in Kent County, but if that area is on my side of Muskegon, I'd love to tromp around in it!

 

Got a few shooters on camera. Getting excited for Oct 1. My bow is dialed in with broadheads and ready for action.

 

SE and thumb area here! Can't to be in a tree!

 

Any Michiganders put in a plot this summer? I hand raked a couple areas on our property and put in a mix of cereal rye and clover in one in mid-July and Antler King "No Sweat" in the other. I'm working towards establishing an ongoing clover plot near the center to offer wildlife some extra nutrients. My old Gen 1 Reveal cell cam has been sending photos of various deer, turkeys, raccoons and such since I put the "No Sweat" in mid-August. We got a dry spell and I was getting worried the turkeys were going to eat all the bare seed before it had a chance to germinate.

On some friend's 25 acres very near our home, I put in two small cereal rye plots in the woods to see if it would grow and likewise draw in turkeys and deer. Hoping to get over there this morning in the cool weather to see how it is going and check my SD card for evidence of activity.

 

checking in from SE MI...

bow is good. i shoot year round. put down the tournament bow a month ago and dusted off the hunting bow. after shooting the verdict all summer, and shooting it well, i cant get over the fact that my frankensteined V37 that i hunt with just feels like home. i already sold the verdict and am building a carbon copy frankenbow for indoor season this winter. while the verdict is a great bow, and a better bow on paper, i just shoot this bow effortlessly. why fight it?

i think my plan this year is just to shoot any decently sized deer, bounce as many spots as i can, explore and have fun. every time i get invested in a spot or a deer i get burnt out and dont enjoy it.

i had intentions of doing a poor mans plot on a small piece of private i have permission on. i threw in the towel after a couple hours with hand tools and realizing the scope of the work without machinery. i got better things to do. but maybe for the best, we havent had much rain since i made that decision. i did reposition 2 presets on that property and was reminded why i converted to the saddle, what a freaking workout. i have cameras over there, but havent really checked them. just let them soak... the pictures will be there whenever i get around to it. that was a month ago.

starting to make it out and get some scouting on the public. thats where i have the most fun... not that im good at killing deer. i just like to wander. checking out a new place, i found stands and cell cams in all the obvious spots you could point at on a map. looking at the secondary options and how deer would reroute around that, i found a lot more sign. red oaks are starting to drop, i think the white oaks are still holding. much of the green browse has signs of feeding. some big tracks makes me think there may be a buck or two in the different areas, velvet should be coming off soon. i got a couple pins on new spots to sit. access calls for a bit of route pattern to get in the cleanest, but all are reasonably less than 800 yards from the road on a strait shot. i can handle that drag solo.

found some chicken of the woods on the last scouting outing. will probably go back to that pin and pluck some more tomorrow. should be a nice cool day, ill do a couple miles while the kids are napping.

 

I very much agree with the amount of work it takes to do a plot by manual labor using hand tools. A friend at church is a tractor guy and offered me an old harrow he has in his barn, which I hope will work with my Honda Foreman 500 next spring on the bigger area for putting in more clover seed.

Also agree that moving pre-sets is a pain in the back side. That was also a significant factor in my shift to saddle hunting. I've been selling off my fixed stand 'inventory' and have no immediate plans to replace any of them. The most I am doing this fall is pre-setting a couple sets of sticks so I can walk in for a morning hunt with my saddle and only have to set a platform in the dark. If I found a source of TL Mission platofrms cheap, I would have them in the woods on every private spot I hunt.

After hunting several small private spots, I fully understand the desire to get to some big public spots and just wander. It is definitely enjoyabel to hike, scout and still-hunt without worrying about blowing up a spot for the rest of the season. Good post, Robert!

 

idk if it’s a natural progression or my own unique conundrum… but I have this internal conflict on private vs public, and what I’m willing to invest in a deer.

I can appreciate the work and dedication people put into chasing deer. I think a lot of them make decision that allow them to follow their passion. So I am by no means poo pooing on the sacrifices those hunters make.

But where I start to lose interest when I have to manufacture a setting to be successful. I don’t want to be a farmer and cultivate a landscape that makes my dirt more appealing than the neighbors. I want to go out into the “wild” and hunt, become a steward of the land.

Idk… I’m by no means a purist. And don’t look down on someone doing it differently. But that’s what tickles my pickle.

 

Got up in a tree to check my angle cuts from precision cut. After shooting an NFAA field event with some long uphill/downhill shots a while ago I lost faith in my range finder’s angle comp. I have found precision cut to be far more accurate for tape building and cut charts.

a yard different at 25 yards at 20 degrees isn’t enough to cost a deer. But it could mean misses points in a tournament setting. I put my hunting bow cut chart (downhill only) right on my rangefinder.

 

Fall turkey opened this past Sunday and I have two tags, but weekends are busy and temps have been in the upper 80's......unseasonably hot the past week. Hopefully this southern air pattern shifts and we get more normal mitten temps in the near future. It has been cool in the morning, but I haven't had opportunity to get out yet. Maybe tomorrow??

Thoughts on the youth hunt weekend? The newly adopted regs from summer of '24 make this the last year kids can shoot bucks with firearms a couple weeks prior to archery opener.....antlerless only next year unless some of the verbal push-back going on gains traction. I have mixed feelings.....

 

good luck. Will you bow hunt for turkey?

I think the public land early season firearm doe is a crazy change.

Let the kids shoot bucks or does in my opinion.

 

I am undecided about the doe only for early youth hunting. I had a friend in Mid Michigan that had a lease area and his grandsons would take deer that would be easy 140-150+. In my opinion it just spoiled them. Most of us have hunted for years without having an opportunity to harvest a buck like that. Obviously lease land does make a difference, but it could be setting them up for disappointment. I have a beef with the Liberty hunt, I know and respect the hunt as being for veterans but allowing baiting to be used is my issue. Baiting is illegal and has been for a few years now and the reasoning is CWD and other diseases. so if the spread of the disease is the issue what difference does it make whose in the blind, baiting spreads the disease. find other ways to make harvesting a deer for veterans easy, like maybe arranging hunts on established farms where patterning deer is easier. JMO

 

Isn’t baiting completely legal in the UP now though?

 

to my knowledge it is still legal to bait in the up ,but only limited amounts, cant remember exact amount i think 2 1/2 to 5 gal at a time and it must be spread to a 10x10 area. and you cant bring in that amount everyday. you can never exceed the legal amount on the ground at anytime. I think they consider the deer herd being separated by the Mackinaw straits protects it from transmitting the disease. but it has happened that deer have crossed the ice in the winter. as soon as a deer in the UP is found with cwd, Baiting will end up there as well. We share a land border with Wisconsin so I think it is only a matter of time

 

I don't want to take opportunities away from anyone. I have been a public land hunter my whole life. In Michigan according to the DNR we have a doe problem and I think we need to educate the future hunters about the importance or necessity to harvest does and let younger bucks survive another year. As far as the baiting, the DNR took that right away from the majority of hunters based on the notion that it will spread diseases. If that is valid then why would you allow anyone to use bait. if baiting spreads disease it doesn't matter who is hunting over it. We all hear about the over population of does and I usually think about missed opportunities to reduce that part of the deer heard because private property holds a large population that is not accessible. The State has in the past allowed tax breaks for landowners for one reason or another and they can work a deal for veterans and 1 weekend a year. All of this is just my opinion base on how I see Michigan hunting rules. I have hunted for nearly 50 years in this great state and have accomplished most of my goals. I now hunt mainly to be in the woods if I get the opportunity to put meat in the freezer I do.

 

Mid Michigan here. Always dialed in. BUT! been cleaning up after line of wind and thunderstorms took down a massive silver maple in my backyard on Aug 27th. Been at it for the last 3 weekends. Hopefully done before Oct 1st.

Public land for me. I have no camera or stand setup this year. Going to wing it and do a lot of moving.

 

Picked up some SEVRs to try this year. Traditionally always been a fixed blade guy. Currently shooting QAD Exodus. But the SEVRs showed up so I threw them on, freaking easy mode… they are far less sensitive to torque on the big end, 50+ yards. Not that I’ll shoot a deer that far, but a follow up isn’t out of the question.

wind forecast keeps shifting tomorrow. I’ll probably look at the weather in the morning and figure out where to go.

 

Good luck to those participating in early for this weekend!

 

Southeastern michigan here have some good buck on camera ready for the opening day,got bows all turned up and ready to go

 

nice looking deer

 

I'm not hunting the early antlerless weekend.....just too much going on. Best wishes to those who head out.....it is going to be really foggy this morning in my area.

Mid-week I got some cell cam photos from my local spot, so I went over and pre-set some sticks to be ready for a quick platform setup come October 1st. All I will have to do is climb up, set my saddle platform, hook up my gear hanger, haul up my bow and get to hunting. After reading and hearing a lot about them, I ordered a pack of G5 Deadmeat BH's to test out. I mostly shoot mechanicals at turkeys, but sometimes use them for deer in specific situations. This local spot is only 25 acres, so I want to put a deer down quickly.

 

Morning sit was pretty… took walking trail 1.6 mile into a piece of public, then dove off a narrow ridge to the head of swampy point. I found the spot a week or two ago with decent size tracks in it. Owls were hooting. Turkeys were gobbling. Seen 2 fork horns, one looked like Elliot from open season. Could’ve dropped him sub 20 yards. Nice and cool until the fog burnt off. Sit was as much observation as it was a hunt. Leisurely stroll out.

went to a permission spot in the afternoon to check cams and, again, observe. Had one small deer trot by early. Not sure what the reason was. The strip of maples i was in gets dark quick. So I snuck out early to get to my CRP and glass the neighboring fields. Of course a 100” 8 point came working in on a string. Had him dead a 30 yards broadside. Went through the motions to see what I could get away with, pretending to draw the bow and aim. I let him finally know something was up at 25 yards.

that’s it for my weekend. We are doing an extended weekend up north the first weekend in October. Don’t think I’ve hunted up there in 5 years. So I’m curious to take my new skill set and mentality up there.

 

New gear rundown…

• cable aiders got a touch of boot squeak. Probably not enough for me to do anything about it.
• versa aider plus cable aider is a great way to get that first stick high, out of sight, and with nothing blowing in the wind. Stretch the rest of them as much or as little as ya need. I like the flexibility.
• CGM cobra is a nice saddle. Still working on the comfort and reducing the fiddle factor and loose ends. Significant upgrade from my latitude method 2 last year.
• I curious to see what a larger platform would offer for foot comfort. I use the X wing for mass reduction. But really got my eye on the LWCG ranger hybrid for when I pull my IA tag and decide to spend all day above sea level.
• I’m probably going to sell my puffies I used when traditional stand hunting and sew up some sort of saddle woobie. Not that I needed it today. Lol.

 

Interested in your take on aiders. I have Amsteel singles for my sticks, but don't care for how 'floppy' they are...especially coming down. Same with my two-step webbing Ultimaider from EWO.....I only have used it on the bottom stick and reaching my feet down to something that is wiggly and shifts around if not perfect makes me edgy. I like the concept of cable aiders, but then they are 'there'.....not folded up nice and quiet.

Interested to hear your in-season updates on the CGM Cobra, which I believe is the same as an Ape Canyon Pioneer. Been hearing good things about them since they came out. I have an Overwatch dual-panel that is very comfortable and my go-to for longer hunts. Over the winter I picked up a lightly used Wood saddle that is lighter weight for early season or quick hunts. It is a single panel design that Ape Canyon also picked up from the original owner/builder. Not quite as comfortable as the Overwatch due to no real adjustability, but definitely worth what I paid.

I bought a Trophyline EDP last fall and liked it a lot. VERY solid on the tree with no wiggle or sound. Over the winter I purchased a used Tethrd Predator, dolled it up with sponge painting and then decided to resell it for the larger TL Mission. From pre-season practice sessions, I found it is very similar to the EDP....plus larger for longer hunts. My plan is to use it with pre-set sticks on private land where it is the only extra gear I am carrying. At some point, an extra pound for extra comfort is worth it overall.

 

Good post

 

He came in with that 8, who looked more impressive in person!