By: Jim Kushner. Soon after buying a cabin in Ontario I learned that a non-resident could legally hunt moose & bear without an outfitter/guide within the game management until that their property was in. It wasn’t long before I had recruited a good friend to help me try and get my first black bear. That summer we fished and we scouted likely spots and we collected bait, mostly old doughnuts that we packaged tightly and froze. It is legal to use barrels etc. to bait bears in Ontario and I happen to have a 35 … Read More
Are We Hunting For A Clean Kill ?
By: Jim Kushner. If you are reading this you are no doubt one of the millions(?) of hunting & fishing enthusiasts who participate and or browse the many Forums available on these subjects and much more. I am far more a browser than a participant in the many forums out there. Typically I am looking for some specific information on a particular firearm or load data etc. I also enjoy reading and seeing the many hunting stories that people post there. Recently I was compelled to start a post of my own after reading countless … Read More
A Crossroads In The Balance
The beginning of each hunting season is in-and-of-itself a fresh start. I look at “this time of year” as a chance to change up my success ratio. A number of years ago I began a quest to do what, perhaps, most hunters do each year…establish a better method for my madness. Before I began my quest I decided to do what every sophomore philosopher would do … look in the rear view mirror to get a better handle on my journey ahead… In the mid eighties I re-ignited my deer hunting with a new bow … Read More
50 Years Of Black Bear Research
By: Richard P. Smith. Dr. Lynn Rogers from Ely, Minnesota has spent most of his life studying black bears. Although much of his bear research has been conducted in Minnesota, he got his start in Michigan. Rogers is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1967, Rogers got a job at the DNR’s Cusino Wildlife Research Station in Shingleton. The late El Harger was doing bear research out of Cusino at the time. “June 20th this year (2017) will be my 50th anniversary of handling bears,” Rogers said. “The first bear I handled was with El … Read More
The Remington Model 141 – Made For A Michigander
By: Jim Kushner. Last year I stopped into a local gun shop because, well because it’s a gun shop. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, the shop has only been open for a little over a year and I had not been inside in a while. As I was chatting with the owner I looked over his shoulder at the rifle rack behind him and noticed what looked like a Remington 14 or 141 pump action rifle. This is one of those deer rifles that were popular with the Michigan cedar swamp hunters when … Read More
The Savage 99 Hunting Rifle – A Classic
By: Jim Kushner. I got my hands on a classic old deer rifle the other day. The Savage 1899 in .300 Savage caliber. As the name indicates, the gun first came out in 1899. As time went by, like every other gunmaker Savage chambered the 99 in several popular cartridges along with their own .300 Savage. When the new mall opened in Saginaw I remember going into the Sears store and looking at a Savage 99 rifle on display there. I was probably 12 or 13 years old. It was chambered in .308 and I … Read More
Dealing With The Whimsies Of Mother Nature
By: Tom Lounsbury. The 2017 firearms deer season was real interesting, not to mention somewhat challenging in regards to weather, at least in my Thumb area. Opening morning although a touch breezy was at least dry, but you could sense wet weather was on the way, which arrived around noon with the increased wind intensity of a typhoon. It didn’t take me long to put boots on the ground, because trying to accurately hit the mark from my weaving ladder-stand, would have been similar to trying to shoot from the back of a galloping horse. … Read More
Wisconsin Example of How Michigan Bears Could be Better Managed
By: Richard P. Smith. Wisconsin is a perfect example of how Michigan could better manage their bear population. During 2016, Wisconsin issued 11,520 bear licenses to hunters in the state and those hunters registered 4,682 bears, according to a report issued by the Wisconsin DNR. Michigan only had 6,896 bear licenses available in 2016, resulting in 1,636 bruins being registered by hunters. Wisconsin hunters harvested almost three times as many bears as Michigan and almost twice as many hunters (1.7x) had the opportunity to hunt bear in Wisconsin than Michigan even though Michigan has more … Read More
Bear Hunting When Conventional Wisdom Ain’t Workin’
Michigan’s bear hunting permit system can challenge anyone’s patience ..including mine. After all, it is managed by the Dept. of Natural Resources. Most of us spent years reading the online results: “try again next year”. For one mid-Michigan hunter, Tony Dodak, he knew his efforts of getting a permit inside of the Red Oak bear management unit (BMU) was a work in progress. Nine years to be exact. He and his (hunting partner) brother, Aaron, began the planning process of unsuccessful permit draws back when the U.S. was in the midst of a financial crisis … Read More