By: Tom Lounsbury. Probably one of the most daunting tasks for the MDNR, is to get deer hunters to harvest a doe. The last time I checked, only 40% of Michigan deer hunters ever purchase an “antlerless” deer tag, and when you check out the data of the overall annual deer harvest, antlered deer always way 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 therefore never, ever to be shot, … Read More
Using Dogs to Locate Wounded Bear or Deer
By: Jacob VanHouten. “I can’t believe I lost that buck, with a good shot and strong blood trail… I just don’t get it” was the depressing thought swirling around my mind as I recalled events to my family and friends in deer camp. If you are a deer hunter, the loss of a deer has or may happen to you or someone you know during your hunting life. If so, you may want to now consider an underutilized method to increase your odds of recovery by the use of a tracking dog. As of 2019, … Read More
The Hunter, The Dreamer
By: Bob Morgan. There is movement. Rich bronze against a maze of greens The muscled neck swings gracefully upward and intelligent eyes search the difference. Nose raised to the air, a search for unfamiliar scents. A slight snort, sharp hooves paw the earth and the whitetail moves back into the maze of green, completely obscured. I, too, am obscured. From my stand high in a tall oak, I have watched the buck reveal himself, then once again hide. His wariness, his wiliness impress me. I did not move, I could not have been seen or … Read More
Are You Scouting For Success?
By: Gary Morgan. Much has been written about ‘scouting whitetail deer’ causing a pause before I chose to partake in ‘just one more’. Of course, my hunting friendships offering me that phrase have rarely caused me to decline…so I shall embark. My Peeps know where my home range is but for everyone else let’s focus on Michigan …particularly the upper peninsula. I’ll affectionately refer to this land mass as big timber…thus, Big Timber Whitetails. My journey for a different kind of hunt began in the late 90’s when family and work constraints had formed my…”my … Read More
Atlanta Muzzle Loading Adventures
By: Keith Kinyon. For the 2021 muzzleloader season I headed north to Atlanta Michigan, just like I had for the previous two seasons, to hunt with Gary Morgan of Wild Game Dynasty. The 2019 season Gary acquired a new 40 acre piece of property to hunt and what a surprise that turned out to be for me! I shot a nice 9pt. that is the biggest buck I’ve taken during muzzleloader season. The 2020 season is a blur, not having had as much time to go up and hunt, I did not harvest a … Read More
Another U.P. Deer Hunting Experience
By: Bruce Ter Beek. It has been almost ten years ago since I first contacted Gary Morgan at Wild Game Dynasty and scheduled my first hunt with him. In my previous article for Wild Game Dynasty I wrote about my first deer hunt with my dad at age ten. He taught me to be a steward of the land and of our game resources, to hunt ethically, and how to practice conservation. For nearly the next six decades November 15th was our “new years day” as we prepared for the next season. After his passing, … Read More
Michigan’s Deer Seasons Are Fast Approaching
By: Tom Lounsbury. As I write this, August has arrived, which means summer is winding down and fall will soon be easing in. For many Michigan hunters, this is the time to start preparing for the various deer seasons, and there is no question that the whitetail deer has become our state’s most popular big game animal (actually, this is a fact almost nationwide). The “Liberty Hunt”, which will take place September 11th and 12th this year, is a favorite time of mine to look forward to, as I truly enjoy taking a kid deer … Read More
Freelance Hunting – with a plan in hand
By: John Eberhart. Grabbing my bow, backpack and freelance pack I set off through the public land timber to a patch of white oaks I’d hunted the previous season. To my disappointment none of the oaks had acorns, the two scrapes from the previous season were inactive, there were no nearby rubs and the heavily used runways from the previous season were barely noticeable. It was late October and the mature bucks were beginning to break their nocturnal habits in search of early estrus does which I term as the pre-rut and because of that … Read More
The “Vampire Buck” – A rare & very unique trophy
By: Tom Lounsbury. Ken Martin of Cass City truly enjoys hunting local Thumb whitetails, something he has been doing since he was a kid. Having taken his share of deer over the years, he isn’t a trophy hunter, but like many deer hunters, he always has his eye out for the “big one”. Little did he know when he went to his hunting blind on the second morning of the 2020 Michigan Firearms deer Season, he would soon encounter a dandy buck, and actually a real trophy too, in more ways than one. Daylight was … Read More
“Just Play The Wind…?”
By: John Eberhart. Before scent reducing and eliminating products and garments hit the market “just play the wind” was the only number in town. Even today the vast majority of hunters claim there is no way to completely fool a deer’s nose and dismiss wind direction, basically meaning they believe scent control doesn’t work or doesn’t work well enough to negate the wind. To put it bluntly, that is absolutely not true. You can fool a deer’s nose and I’ve done it dozens of times each season for the past 17 years. Please allow me … Read More