By: Tom Lounsbury. When the Michigan Natural Resources Commission passed the Limited Firearms Deer Season into law five years ago, it opened up a whole new avenue for southern Michigan deer hunters, allowing an array of straight wall cartridges (.35 caliber are larger, with a minimum case length of 1.16 inches and a maximum case length of 1.80 inches) in rifles during the regular firearms deer season (not to mention the Liberty, and early and late antlerless deer seasons as well). The new law is very well written, easy to understand, and it truly uses … Read More
Find Those Primary Rut Spots Now And Give Thanks To A Gobbler
By: John Eberhart. Proper location preparation can make the difference in whether or not you have success stories to tell. While your on-foot scouting only required the use of maps and or a notebook, location preparation requires specific tools and a great amount of physical labor. I finished drywall for 14 years and like any trade job, the more prepared you are concerning tools, more thorough and expedient the job will be done. The ideal scenario is to be able to pack in and carry the necessary tools to totally prepare a location yet be … Read More
Taming The Beast
By: Tom Lounsbury. Fire is no doubt a living creature of sorts which requires oxygen and fuel to survive. Primitive humans were able to ascend to the top of the food chain primarily due to being able to create and use fire in a constructive manner. There is no question they knew it could easily become a raging beast in its own near mystical might, whenever fire went out of control. Fire would ease humans out of the stone-age, through the various ages of metallurgy and even industry (steam and you name it) which remains … Read More
Plinking: “You’re a Daisy if you do”
By: Tom Lounsbury. The young boy avoided stepping on downed leaves and twigs and quietly eased up to the tree trunk for a steady brace, slowly shouldered his gun, took careful aim at the quarry as he eased off the safety, and then touched the trigger. At the shot, a little green apple lying on the ground several yards away rolled over with a direct hit. The boy re-cocked his little lever-action and shot the apple again to make sure it was down for the count. My 10 year old grandson Orlando and I were … Read More
Scout Now For Upcoming Fall…& Why!
By: John Eberhart. For each of the three instructional whitetail bowhunting books my son Chris and I wrote, my 4 instructional DVD’s, as well as for hunting articles, from 1998 to date we’ve; researched many whitetail studies, tracked bowhunting license sales for each state, found the absolute land mass for each state in square miles, and researched specific data from Pope & Young statistical summary books to compile factual statistics and there was one very important piece of kill data that remained consistent throughout the years. While Pope & Young entries per licensed hunters vary … Read More
Squirrel Dogs…like lightning in a bottle
By: Tom Lounsbury. The first time that I ever hunted with what I would call a “squirrel dog” was back when I was a kid. I was hunting near the Cass River with a friend the same age as me, and we were using his unique hunting dog that was half beagle and half Border collie. This stocky dog weighed about 30 pounds and looked pretty much like a beagle with the black and white markings of a Border collie. Crossbreds for a fact can often be incredible hunters, and this dog was no exception. … Read More
Seasonal And Daily Timing Of Whitetail Deer Hunting
By: John Eberhart. Seasonal and Daily Timing During a couple occasions in most Michigan bowhunter’s lifetimes, being in the right place at the right time of day and right time of season to intercept a trophy buck can likely be attributed to a simple law of averages. During so many hours on stand a collision course with a mature buck is bound to occur. The more consistently successful Michigan bowhunters however, either hunt phenomenal managed properties or for those that hunt heavy consequential hunting pressure (hchp) areas, utilize daily and seasonal timing to their advantage … Read More
Success Despite Heavy Consequential Hunting Pressure
By: John Eberhart. Midday 10 to 3 Shift Before your hunting plan for the upcoming rut phases is put to bed, consider this. How many times during the rut phases have you planned on sitting until noon or later on morning hunts, and if you did, how many were aborted early due to lack of deer sightings and eventual boredom? Well intended plans can change when boredom sets in and if I stated that scenario has never happened to me, it would be a blatant lie. In November 2011, for the first time in over … Read More
Michigan’s Bear Population Fluctuations
By: Richard P. Smith. During 2018, the DNR estimated there were 13,756 black bears in the state that were at least a year old on September 1, 2017. The estimate for the UP was 10,799 and 2,957 of those were in the northern LP. In 2019, the DNR estimated the state’s bear population was only 12,408 animals at least a year old on September 1, 2018, with 9,761 of those living in the UP and 2,647 residing in the northern LP. In other words, the population declined by 1,348 in one year’s time when the … Read More
Have Wolves Destroyed The (Michigan) Deer Population?
By: Carol Stiffler. Lou Bennett owns 20 acres of land east of Newberry and says he’s fed deer herds there for 30 years. It was perfect, he said. The woods offered plenty to eat, and many places for deer to hide. There was no pressure. Each winter, he’d feed between 250 and 300 deer. That began to change a few winters ago, and Bennett saw the herd drop hundreds of animals at a time. “Last year I was down to about 100, 125,” he said. “This year, not one deer came back. Not one.” Bennett … Read More