Michigan deer hunt 2022

[Johnny]

Originally Posted by Boris

``play the scent game,,mock scrapes and doe estrus ,,Bucks rarely eat during the rut but they follow their noses everywhere and you only get one season a year.
I have never been one for baiting even when it was legal but if you really want to be an asshole call the DNR and report them,,they will follow up.
a lady I work with has a daughter who has been a DNR officer for 3 or 4 years now.
the only problem with that is if you have to track one onto adjacent property and you called the Warden on them I doubt they'll give permission to recover and guranteed they'll call the Warden on you if you trespass...which is why I just leave it alone here.
my neighbors bait too but screw em,,I still see deer

Thanks for the info. I'm a novice deer hunter with only one doe to my name. That said, I'm proud to say I actually stalked it to within 50 yards and scored a clean kill with a 12 gauge slug. Last year, however, I failed miserably. My plan is to sit out this year's hunt and concentrate on various construction projects: barn, deck, cabin wood stove installation, etc...

What I'd like to do is build a nice deer stand where I can hunt with a higher degree of comfort and not freeze my ass off. I'm getting older and last year I wouldn't last more than 4 hours sitting still or stalking. I might research scents and see what works around here.

As for poachers, we have both deer and salmon. I haven't caught any on my properties yet. Its always adjacent private land, public roads or state owned land. The DNR and our conservation officers are spread thin, so we've found the best way to deal with most poaching (mostly salmon) is to simply pull up to the place where people are spearing or netting and just watch them. If they don't leave, a polite reminder almost always works. "Hey Sir. I see you have Illinois plates. Just wanted you do know salmon fishing is out of season and the DNR really frowns on that spear you're carrying." A few of our neighbors do the same thing.

A couple years ago my wife caught a couple out-of-state guys spearing. They basically told her to buzz off. She called the DNR and by chance the CO was nearby. Both turds got caught red handed.

We have a creek that runs through our property and is a valuable spawning area. The DNR, US Forest Service and Land Conservancy of West Michigan have an interest in keeping it maintained and unmolested. Poachers would have an easy time in our creek. They could literally just reach down and pick them up. Our plan is to interdict poachers downstream before they make it into our property. So far, it working.

Deer poachers haven't been much of a problem. Only had one guy doing it last year. He was parked along the road obviously waiting for deer to cross. I just walked up to the vehicle, politely asked him if he was broken down. He got the message and drove off.

[Johnny]

My neighbor is a retired DNR officer. I do work for him whenever he needs it. Free, of course. Since we're brothers. Today, he stops by the house and drops off a giant venison roast.

Holy Protein Batman!


I've already decided not to go deer hunting this season. Complete waste of time since everybody (but me) is illegally baiting.

[drh]

Out west we would call that a 4-point

[flashy]

10 yds away with arrow north east pa

[Johnny]

Originally Posted by flashy

10 yds away with arrow north east pa

Congratulations on that nice 8-point! That's quite an accomplishment. Just getting within 10 yards is quite a feat in itself.