Great Article!!!

[GVDocHoliday]

http://www.mdwfp.com/wildlifeissues/articles.asp?vol=6&article=75

Check out this article.

[mich buckmaster]

"Finally, more of us as hunters should be learning the behavior of deer, studying the art of patterning deer, and becoming woodsmen again, rather than deer shooters. Have a great deer season and a safe deer season."

I tend to agree with the guy. Too many people do have it easy when it comes to deer hunting. Thats why a guide from Iowa once told me that a Michigan hunter in Iowa would outhunt most hunters in the entire state!!

[victor mi pro bowhunter]

For me its sleeping in a tent for weeks no heat no bath on state land and just eating sandwich's or small game that we get. Cooked over a fire with wood that we find.

This is the only way i ever hunted and is the only way I would ever want to

[Bob S]

"Supplemental plantings are an excellent method to provide high quality deer forage in late winter. These plantings also provide an opportunity to view and harvest antlerless deer, both of which are critical to some deer managers."

"The disease dangers of feeding or baiting deer are more real today than any time in the past."

Food plots good, baiting bad. Yes, an excellent article.

[PrtyMolusk]

Howdy-

Thanks, GVDH-

Great article with many implications.....

[redwingsdude]

WOW! This is the kind of thing that has been on my mind for the last few years, and had i the skills, I would have written an article exactly like this.

This guy hit the nail on the head!

[safetreehunt]

This article was fairly well done and for the most part the writer is probably correct in the assumption that many hunters don't work too hard at developing their skills. However, there are always two sides to each story.

The use of "box blinds" is a particularly safe way to manage a fairly large number of hunters on a limited private land hunt. I find nothing wrong with the box blind hunters. My family has used this method, primarily during the early firearms season to make sure that we know where everyone is and that we don't have hunters wandering all over disturbing the woods at a critical time.

Usually after the first 2-4 days we abandon those stands and use strategies between several hunters to work the property a little more effectively. This is where the skills come in. We teach our kids the skills both ways. Whether it's sitting quiet for 11.5 hours in a box for a day or two (this drives all of us a little nuts, but it's quite often worth it), or how to move quietly on a stalk or select another sitting spot where you can wait out the deer.

Not everyone in our party of usually 13, or so, on 240 acres can sit all day, but we use many ways of hunting to enjoy ourselves. And isn't this the real reason we all go afield anyway?

[NorthJeff]

That's what I've been trying to illustrate with the huge amount of baiting completed by almost all hunters here in the U.P. It's not that the baiting is bad, neither is the ATV use, shooting houses, food plots, in-line muzzleloaders, etc., but I sure feel bad for you as a hunter and your level of experiences if you only rely on one method to hunt. We've created a culture here in the U.P. where literally a huge number of hunters have only hunted with bait and a shack for the last 20 years. Not bad in itself, but I often think if you put the majority of those guys on the national forest in PA, where you can't have shaks, and you can't bait, they really wouldn't even know where to begin.

Loss of hunting skill and loss of the total hunting experience has got to be bad for the sport.

One thing about the article though is that there is an implication that food plots are the same as baiting....obviously either that could only be implied by someone that hasn't used a food plot, planted a food plot, etc., or someone that doesn't have much experience baiting. Huge differences.

Also, you tell me, what would excite a kid more about hunting....sitting in a blind for hours not seeing any deer, maybe staring at a bait pile, or going to a place that had heated shaks, ag fields, and numerous deer sightings. Just like fishing, the kid has to be involved and have fun, if he or she decides and gets the bug to continue the sport as a life long passion. I don't think it's any strange phenomenon around here in Munising that most young kids don't hunt as much as the same aged kids did 20 years ago.

[safetreehunt]

We have enough box blinds and cheaper stick versions of the same sort of thing around our property to allow the youngers hunters to pick and choose where they'd like to go. The youngest of course must sit with dad so we need a two person blind. The same applies if we move about. There are lots of places in 240 acres and we try to make sure the youngsters get into places where they will always see some deer. My boys are 16 and 20 and I've enjoyed watching them learn about deer hunting with both a bow and gun.

A couple years ago we traded in our bait piles for some food plots and man what a difference that made.

The deer act so much more natural now. The kids noticed it as well.

Anyway, whatever methods or skills you employ to enjoy yourself on your hunt, always try to learn and above all always enjoy yourself.

To those folks that whine about no deer, well, why can't you just have fun anyway or maybe go find another spot?

If you always do what you've always done, and everthing else changes, how can you expect to always get what you've always gotten?