The truth be known, I never bought a Michigan hunting license of any kind until just before the firearms deer season in November 1963. Being a Thumb farm kid back then, a hunting license wasn’t required for hunting small game on your family’s land where you resided, and I had started hunting pheasants, squirrels and cottontails with my granddad’s single-shot .410 at an early age. Yep, folks, I was a bit annoyed when I had to wait until I was 14 years old to go deer hunting. I bought my deer license at the Albee … Read More
A missing dog found while anticipating opening day
Going into a countdown for the November 15 opening day of Michigan’s Firearms Deer season is a tradition of mine, and I was in that mode with only 4 days to go on Tuesday evening. I was in the process of tossing hay to my horses in the pasture with my female GSP shorthair, Zelda, at my side. I’m assuming she spotted a rabbit in our nearby orchard and gave chase while I was looking the other way. All I knew when I turned around, she was gone. What I call my “rabbitat” borders the … Read More
Ladies-only pheasant hunt
A saving grace for the future of hunting is the involvement of women wishing to get involved in outdoor activities. The fact is, women are the fastest growing demographic in hunting and shooting sports today, which truly pleases me to no end. The person who got me interested in hunting and taking me into the field to show how it was done many years ago, was my mother. When in the field with the other pheasant hunters on our farm, she was the only woman and could give a hoot as to what the men … Read More
Rifles for deer hunting are the most popular in southern Michigan today, but don’t sell shotguns short.
The shotgun has played an important role throughout the history of firearms. From matchlock and flintlock “fowlers” to today’s wide array, shotguns can be considered as multitask tools because they can handle a wide variety of shot, including heavy duty buckshot, and even solid projectiles for a heavier and very effective “punch”. This was originally a large lead round ball, but it was usually not consistently accurate at long range. All of this would change when Karl M. Foster, who wished to help American hunters put meat on the table during the Great Depression, developed … Read More
Michigan celebrates 100 years of pheasant hunting
Pheasants were first released in southern Michigan in 1917. The pheasants being released were pen-reared birds of mixed blood known as “ringnecks” which owe their origins to eastern U.S. game farms, that in turn had gotten their original eggs from game farms in England. Those first birds were released into an ideal environment quite unlike what we have today and would readily adapt and propagate. The first official Michigan pheasant hunting season occurred in 1925 and it would be the beginning of a highly popular annual event. It became so popular that small game hunters … Read More
Rutting whitetails and jack-o-lanterns are a timeframe which goes hand in hand
Jack-o-lanterns and whitetail deer have something in common because Halloween is the key timeframe when the whitetail rut in Michigan starts warming up. It is a time when using various deer vocalizations, as well as rattling, can pay dividends for hunters. I’ve been using deer vocalizations and rattling for quite some time, and knowing what call to use, and when, was a trial-and-error learning process. Calling in whitetails remains to be my favorite deer hunting technique, and today there are even how-to DVD’s available along with a wide array of deer calls, and with something … Read More
Crossbow hunting adventures and discovering an ancient and simplistic design made better than ever
Since 2009, crossbows have become quite popular with Michigan deer hunters due to their handling characteristics which are very similar to a rifle. I noticed this right at the get-go the first time I shot one, but there is a learning curve while getting acquainted, such as a crossbow is a crossbow, and not a rifle. In my opinion, it is a close-range hunting tool, and I prefer to keep matters at 40 yards or less, and generally less. I’ve taken a couple whitetails near the 40-yard mark, but the majority have been taken, quite … Read More
Putting a focus on targeting prime venison
One of the most daunting tasks for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, is to get deer hunters to harvest a doe and when you check out the data of the overall annual deer harvest, antlered deer always outnumber antlerless deer. It is readily apparent that decades of a hunting tradition passed down through generations of Michigan deer hunters, that a female deer is the “Sacred Doe” of the forest, and making killing a doe in the past a literal taboo in the deer woods. This deeply seated attitude relates to Michigan creating the “Bucks … Read More
Liberty hunt memories – deer camp jokes and paybacks
Ever since the Liberty hunt came into being, I’ve made a point of taking a kid out hunting during it, and I have some fine memories in doing so. It was 8 years ago when 13-year-old Dale Skinner of Akron took a Hunter’s Safety class I was helping with. He was seeking to get a hunting certificate, but having recently lost his father, he had no one to take him hunting, and yep, folks, I gave him an invite. Whenever the occasion occurs, my wife Ginny and I call our home “deer camp”, and during … Read More
A lucky lady and her dandy Michigan bull elk
Due to the odds, drawing a Michigan elk tag is a matter of pure luck. It only took me 36 years (of faithfully applying each year) to finally draw a tag in 2020. Up until then, I had always applied for “bull only”, but getting a bit long in the tooth caused me to apply for “any elk”, and I drew an antlerless-only license, and I was mighty glad and excited to receive it in the mail. I had the early elk season which is divided into three 4-day periods in August, September and October, … Read More