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
My Buck From Dad’s Blind
By: Brian Smith. These trips are not about getting a deer. It’s about the drive up in the truck; leaving at 4am, having breakfast in a small town diner, hearing stories from Grandpa’s past 70 years of hunting in the UP. It’s about sharing a week with guys closest to you, but also having 12 hours a day by yourself sitting, waiting for something to move. 17 years ago, I made my first trip to the UP with my Dad and Grandpa. We stayed in one of the small cabins at the West Shore Resort … Read More
What’s New Is Old … Again?
…reflecting… In today’s society, instant gratification is virtually nonnegotiable. We want it, and we want it now, whether “it” entails grabbing a burger from McDonald’s or speeding down the highway on your way home from work. Simply put, we don’t like to wait around for stuff anymore. If we don’t have to, we won’t. That attitude has trickled down to nearly every aspect of our lives, including deer hunting. Growing up, the U.P. looked to me like a paradigm of the great outdoors. It was brimming with wildlife, a special, almost mythical quality surrounding all … Read More
Speak The Language – Grunt Calls Can Work!
By: Jim Kushner. Years ago I was looking through an archery magazine and saw a photo of a very happy hunter posing with a huge buck he had taken. The caption stated that he had called it in during early bow season. I don’t recall the date but I do remember thinking that I had not heard of a grunt call working during anything but the rut & pre-rut. Sometime later a nice buck walked by my stand in early October. It was clear he was not coming close enough for a shot. I figured … Read More
It Is Why We Hunt
By: Jim Kushner. In my opinion it’s really about the enjoyment of hunting and what really makes it fun for you, not what someone else thinks is fun. In my younger days just seeing a deer while hunting was heart pounding excitement for me. I wanted a buck so bad I could taste it, but my opportunities were few and when they did come I usually messed up ! There were a lot of reasons for that but the lack of success only increased my enthusiasm and drove me to try harder. As the years … Read More
The Future Of ‘Paying It Forward’
By: Tom Lounsbury. Twelve year old Zack Burnette of Cass City sure appreciates the Mentor Hunting License for Michigan which allows kids 9 and under to go hunting with an adult. This allowed him to start sharing quality time at age six with his dad, Don Burnette hunting cottontails with a petite “Cricket” .22 rifle (a great firearm for little kids), and rabbit hunting remains to be a favorite winter pastime. Father and son would continue to share adventures in the outdoors together. Thanks to crossbows being legal for archery deer hunting, Zack was able … Read More
A Wild Experience With My Father
By: Jim Kushner I first went deer hunting with my Dad when I was around 12, it was just a day trip & other than some deer that had been chased across a field we were driving past I don’t remember seeing anything. Over the years Dad & I hunted together a lot. I was with him and a younger brother on the opening day that I shot my first buck. He wasn’t close enough to help with the first field dressing job or dragging it to the truck but he congratulated me and helped … Read More
The illustrious Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
By: Jim Kushner This little semi-auto carbine is easy to carry and fast to get on target. especially if you hunt thick cover or from an enclosed blind where room to move is limited. It is only a little longer overall than a yard stick and weighs about 6 lbs. It has an 18 1/2 inch barrel and holds 4 rounds in a tube magazine that loads from the bottom similar to a pump action shotgun. A friend of mine used one of these successfully from his pop up blinds until his daughter started deer … Read More