TOO is giving me issues and won’t let me post. Will try to update later.
Northern MI (again)
- Thread starter TinyTucky
- Start date
From 7:30 this morning: Gonna try to keep this long update short. Got up early and hunted a saddle I scouted the day before that I bumped a buck on. There were 4 or 5 deer directly under the tree I had chosen, and let me get super close before they took off, like 10 yards- scared the shit out of me. I got setup super quiet and sat in the dark for 40 minutes. Saw a pair of guys walking in 15 minutes before first shot but they were 350yds away and getting further. Sat till 10 with no action, and only heard around 100 shots in 3 hours. I quietly climbed down and packed all my shit to do some ridge top still hunting. Lugged all my shit around for 1.5 miles and didn’t see another hunter or deer. It rained all morning so it was easy to be sneaky, but it wasn’t forecasted so I was soaked. Went back to camp to swap to some dry layers and grab lunch, naturally my dad was still laying in bed 
I decided to go where my dad has hunted for years and see if I could utilize a TV tower he left up, but this clear cut is not longer cut nor clear so I opted to sit on the ground where I had better visibility. My dad was in the “Pine Stand” 450 yards due NW of me. He had 2 does run by at full sprint with no shot opportunity, then a buck from the opposite direction, but he couldn’t tell if it had brow tines or not so he let it walk (must have at least 3 points on one side to be legal). The last 5 minutes of light I had a spike, almost 4 point come running at me and stop at 50. I had the crosshairs on his head but didn’t think the .350 had the ass to blow off both antlers to make him a legal deer .
I decided to go where my dad has hunted for years and see if I could utilize a TV tower he left up, but this clear cut is not longer cut nor clear so I opted to sit on the ground where I had better visibility. My dad was in the “Pine Stand” 450 yards due NW of me. He had 2 does run by at full sprint with no shot opportunity, then a buck from the opposite direction, but he couldn’t tell if it had brow tines or not so he let it walk (must have at least 3 points on one side to be legal). The last 5 minutes of light I had a spike, almost 4 point come running at me and stop at 50. I had the crosshairs on his head but didn’t think the .350 had the ass to blow off both antlers to make him a legal deer .
(Continued, not sure why it wouldn’t post the whole thing)
We met back at our trucks and went to the buck pole. If you’ve never been to a Northern MI buck pole, I highly recommend it. It is the coolest thing ever, and an awesome tradition that MI keeps going year after year. We got back to camp around 10 and I pretty much went straight to bed to get up this am. Plan is to leave this afternoon, but I’m also considering using a little sick time for tomorrow. I got back to where I sat last night this morning with 20 minutes before legal light. I had a deer come walk into 10 yards of me, but despite it being legal time I could not for the life of me tell if it had 4” spikes or was a doe. Deer busted me and bounded to 30. I pulled out my binos and still couldn’t verify if it was a legal deer or not, but it was behaving like a buck so I’m just gonna tell myself it was so I don’t feel bad for not smoking it at point blank lol. Thankfully it stomped and blew like a motherfucker the whole way out. Gonna put the phone away now, I think I hear more coming. View attachment 201962View attachment 201963View attachment 201964
We met back at our trucks and went to the buck pole. If you’ve never been to a Northern MI buck pole, I highly recommend it. It is the coolest thing ever, and an awesome tradition that MI keeps going year after year. We got back to camp around 10 and I pretty much went straight to bed to get up this am. Plan is to leave this afternoon, but I’m also considering using a little sick time for tomorrow. I got back to where I sat last night this morning with 20 minutes before legal light. I had a deer come walk into 10 yards of me, but despite it being legal time I could not for the life of me tell if it had 4” spikes or was a doe. Deer busted me and bounded to 30. I pulled out my binos and still couldn’t verify if it was a legal deer or not, but it was behaving like a buck so I’m just gonna tell myself it was so I don’t feel bad for not smoking it at point blank lol. Thankfully it stomped and blew like a motherfucker the whole way out. Gonna put the phone away now, I think I hear more coming. View attachment 201962View attachment 201963View attachment 201964
Concordmeadowsfarm
Junior Member
Final update from up north from me. I set an alarm yesterday morning for 4:45 and said fuck that and snoozed it until 5:30 with first shot being 7:01 according to the MI DNR regs. I was out the door by 5:45, walking in by 6:15. It was 7:10 and still super dark when I had the unidentified deer walk into 10 yards before seeing me, which blew my mind because my hide was dog shit lol. Around 8 I heard some crashing and grunting on the hill above me, but couldn’t see anything. I was on the ground between a clear cut from 25 years ago and another from about 10 years ago. The older has better visibility with the maples being taller, but still limited to MAYBE 75 yards, and the newer has maybe 50 yards of visibility with the shorter height of those immature maples. The grunting and crashing stopped, so I did a few grunts and an estrus bleat with no response. It started up again 20 minutes later, and I caught a very fast glimpse of a single doe then nothing. This happened 2 more times with no buck sighting. Around 9:30 a single doe snuck in behind me, and I couldn’t get a clear shooting lane despite her only being at 50 or so yards. She browsed off into a bottom and disappeared. Just shy of 10 I heard some foot steps (very hard to hear with everything being wet) towards where I heard the crashing earlier. I had to do a 180° and spotted a doe at 50 yards slowly walking across. I got my rifle up and put the crosshairs in what would be the next opening. A few seconds went by, and she didn’t show. I pulled away from the scope and saw there were a pile more deer behind her, and a giant doe had some how pegged me at 60 yards, facing directly at me. I swung my rifle over, and put it center of her chest and took the shot. She dropped on the spot, and rolled down the hill a few yards. I saw at least 5 other tails running every other direction, and had no opportunity to shoot another. The deer up north are just not like OH deer. They don’t run 50 yards and stop to see if they’re being pursued. They run 100-200 yards before they even think of slowing down, and after a lot of pressure from opening day, they just change into entirely different animals than what they were even during archery. I called my dad, and he was hanging around camp and offered to drive over and hike the sled back to make dragging easier. I dropped another round into the mag, grabbed my tag and walked over to my doe. I notched my tag, tried to take some pics, got her gutted and drug her up to where I was sitting, and my dad was walking up at about the same time. As we were prepping the sled, a deer ran by in the newer clear cut, but offered no opportunity for a shot. My dad slipped back to the main trail near where we parked before I started dragging and making a ruckus and had no sightings. I made it back to camp and started to pack all my shit while my dad made lunch. I was on the road, and home around 6? Unpacked and got my buck skinned and deboned, and plan to get my doe “grind ready” tomorrow morning when I get off work. My dad said he’ll probably stay until Tuesday before he heads back home, I’ll try to post his updates as he sends them. I already have my time off for next year to do the same trip, and I am already excited for it. Thanks for following along on our trip and all my incessant ramblings. Pics will follow this post.
I will also add, I am using a Ruger AR 5.56 chambered in .350 Legend, shooting Winchester Deer Season XP bullets in 180 grain. I did not have an exit hole, and guts were entirely intact. But she dropped on the spot so it did what it needed to do. When I get her processed tomorrow I’ll see what the extent of the damage/ fragmentation is. Her heart* was about blown in half so the bullet went right where I needed/ wanted it to.
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What a trip! I would love the buck pole! Talk about a party going to the different ones in the area.
