DEER SEASON UPDATE

DEER SEASON UPDATE
By: Ray Hansen

I have been trying to sit down to write a report about how the rifle portion of this years deer season has progressed for me, but I have simply run into too many glitches. Computer problems, electrical work here at home and weather have conspired to keep me from journaling as I normally do.

I have been wading through eighteen inches of snow here at home, with some drifts that are two to four feet deep. I spent Saturday morning snowblowing, plowing, and shoveling. Temperatures have gone up enough to cause some daytime melting today (Monday 11-24), however it was two degrees below zero yesterday morning as I drove out to the swamp I hunted that day.

Among the group I hunt with, Larry took a nice nine-point buck Friday as it chased a doe past his stand. The shot was about 75 yards and was a clean, quick kill with his 30-06. His son Shawn took an eight-point buck as it trailed a doe past his stand. The buck was 160 yards out, and Shawn used his .270 with a steady rest to make the shot. When I mention the group I hunt with, I mean that about six of us hunt a 160 acre tract, but we almost never hunt together. Instead, each person hunts when time permits, and according to what type of license he holds.

A friend of the group, Bob, stopped by Sunday to pass along his report. He has two daughters and a son, who all killed bucks, a five-point, a seven-point, and an eight-point. He hunts in various spots around here, and each deer was taken in a different area.

I tagged a doe in October while bowhunting, but have not seen a buck I was willing to shoot yet. I’m waiting for an eight-point or better buck while hunting with my rifle, and the remaining tag I have does not permit me to take anything smaller with a firearm. I can use the tag for another antlerless deer until the end of December with my bow.

Duane and I hunted a large swamp yesterday, and saw about twenty different deer between us. The heavy snowfall made it harder for them to forage, so they have been very active since the temperature has come up a little. The deep snow may have put a damper on rut activity as well. We did not observe any doe chasing, scraping, or cruising bucks Sunday. All the deer were focused on feeding. We both used rut scent and calling to try to convince larger bucks that they should check our areas out, but none responded.

The ride out to the hunting area was very scenic. We use ATV’s for a half-mile or so then walk the final quarter-mile on foot. Pines draped in heavy snow cover made the old logging road look like a Currier and Ives scene. Fresh tracks in the snow told us deer were moving well, and the sheer number we saw while sitting in the woods verified what the tracks stated.

The end of the evening was also something that makes these times so memorable. We met up in Tom’s big pole barn and built a hot fire in the old wood-burning stove. We pulled a few old chairs up around the welcome heat, and cut thick slices of sausage made from a 425 pound black bear Len killed earlier this year. Some bourbon over ice accented the bear meat, and before long we traded a few old deer stories around the fire.

That’s why I hunt…..

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

SNOWSTORM BUCK

Author's note: As a reminder, I'll be in bowhunting camp through next week. I may post an update about mid-week, but no regular blogs will be posted until I return.

By: Ray Hansen

The “rifle season” (now the “centerfire rifle” portion of the firearms hunting season) for whitetail deer in Michigan has been from November 15 – 30 for many years. This means that opening day is often during the week. Other states start their rifle seasons on different dates each year – usually something like “the second Saturday in November”.

This insures that the opening day will always be on a weekend – something that many hunters prefer. If they are working a job that allows only weekends off, they can at least get out for opening day of the deer season each year. This may provide the greatest number of hunters an equal footing in the deer harvest, since by far the greatest number of deer are taken on opening day of the season – no matter what state they are hunted in. After that, the herd wises up fast, and fewer deer are seen.

I remember being somewhat frustrated at occasionally not being able to get out in the woods on opening day while hunting in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In fact one year, I debated about going at all. A new job kept me from getting there for the first weekend. I had only a few days around Thanksgiving to take a last-minute shot at finding a deer.

Well, the holiday came around and the Upper Peninsula was socked with two-feet of heavy, wet snow that fell for two days non-stop. With the truck in four-wheel drive most of the way, I made the drive. Deer were not moving during the blizzard, and all I could do was stick it out in camp to wait for the storm to break. During that time I thought long and hard about where they were holed up and what they might do when the snow quit falling.

I talked to my friend Duane Deno of Gladstone, Michigan – who lived near the hunting area. He said: “they’re holding in the cedar swamps now and will not eat much since snow covers the ground eighteen inches deep or more. When the storm breaks, I think they’ll head for the edges of the old hayfields where weed tops are sticking up out of the snow. When the snow stops you should probably take a stand off one of the fields – maybe a hundred yards or so into the powerline that crosses through the cedar swamp a mile south of here. I’ve seen an eight-pointer in that area. It’s a good buck”.

He was absolutely right. The following morning dawned sunny and without snowfall. I had been watching the powerline for about two hours when the eight-pointer showed up, sneaking along the edge of the cedars, heading for an abandoned field. A single shot from my bolt-action .308 took the deer at forty yards. For all the fretting I had done about missing opening day, and the agonizing wait for the storm to break, this was one of the easier bucks I’d taken!
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008