No deer seen on the firearm opener

A buck like the one on the right was my goal today.

Weather-wise, in the northern Lower Peninsula at least, it was a great firearm deer opener. A bit cool, a bit of morning sleet and snow, a fair number of rapid-fire shots that seldom produce, but for me it was nothing special.

I hunted all day, first in a tree stand and then in a one-man pop-up tent, and never saw a deer. People with crop damage permits put the big hurt on some does, and I only heard of one buck being taken from my circle of friends.

Many of us were looking for something a bit larger than a year-and-a-half-old buck. Most favor a buck with substantial bone on their head, and such bucks are in a minority in the counties I hunt -- Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Wexford. Our doe and buck numbers are low in this region, and it shows little chance of getting better.

The northwest corner of the Lower Peninsula has a shortage of deer.

I hunted hard with Old Faithful -- my pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 in .264 Winchester Magnum. It can, and has on countless occasions, delivered an air-mail 140-grain package to a nice buck. That didn’t happen today although 15 more days of firearm season, more bow hunting and a brief muzzleloader season is on tap for next month. There’s still lots of time for a shot.

There are a number of open fields, cut corn fields and the like in my area. My land is mostly heavily wooded, and most of the morning was spent watching a field between two woodlots, and this strategy has paid off in past years but not this time around. The afternoon was spent hunting a high hill overloooking a thick swale and bedding area.

The thick stuff is usually better for a good buck, but today wasn’t the day for any bucks or does me to see. The deer seemed to be on some state land west of us, and that’s where the heaviest pressure was and the most shooting. This flies in the face of the fact that private land has held more deer than public land for two or three decades. So … maybe it’s  the state-land hunter’s turn to see the most deer.

Is a return to limited baiting on tap for next year. It does draw more hunters.

It’s not my style to go looking for something to argue about, but we are entering our third year of a three-year moratorium on baiting, and many people I speak to are adamant in their desire to return to a limited brand of baiting for those who wish to do so. Hunters have switched around from setting for two hours, and then still-hunting in the past decades. Now, most people are setting in coops and elevated blinds, and they don’t move. With no bait and no moving hunters, there isn’t much to keep the deer up and moving about.

Now a one-man pop-up tent doesn’t offer much room, and the funniest thing that happened to me today was a big header. There I was, in my tiny pop-up stand, and I leaned a bit too far to the right to check out  a run-way 40 yards away. I could tell it when I shifted my weight that everything was going down, and the little tent began to lean, and over we went. I cradbled Old Faithful in my arms like a new-born child, and the landing was soft and easy.

I was laughing about it on the short fall to the ground, and the hardest thing about it was extricating my rifle and body from the twisted-up tent. No injuries, no harm to the rifle or tent, and it felt good to chuckle about my own mishap.

But now the hour is getting late, and I’m beginning to nod off at the keyboard, and that’s never a good thing. So, if you’ll excuse me now, it’s time for a bit of shut-eye.

Z-z-z-z-z-z.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors