One you have confidence in and tunes well with your setup. Just remember slapping a mechanical on your arrow does not make your bow magically "tuned". A well tuned bow makes fixed and mechanical heads perform better. That said Grim Reapers with the Trocar tip, 1 3/8 or 1 3/4 depending on your setup. Im nearly at 80#KE so I use both.

 

I'll try to post pics of the rubs I found yesterday. Grim Reaper SST 125 Grain , switched last year after a bad experience on a high angle shot with a Rage .

 

Here is a pic of a new plot I put in this year. Then my brother sent me the last pic of it a week later and the rye/oats are coming in good after one week. I put it in the weekend before memorial. The second pics are of my other stand where I was able to get fill both my tags last year during bow.
The first 3 pics are my new plot the. 4th pic is my normal spot churned up this year and the last pic is a view from last fall.
As far as broadheads, I have used rage since they came out and I haven't had any issues with them yet (knock on wood). I have seen just about every deer I shot go down in sight. They seem to work good for me.

 

Sorry guys the broadhead question was a joke I should have gave you a little hint, but I had to it was too easy...
I'm going to give he 150 gr woodsman broadheads a shot from 3 rivers archery this year.

Nolan your spots look nice I hope the hard work pays off for you!!

 

I kind of figured as that is one of the most asked ? this time of year but maybe it would help someone who is sitting on the fence. 15 days!

 

Ah, here we are. lol
Hurt myself hanging stands this past weekend, back to having to use a cane to help me walk.
Need to learn to let the youngsters hang the stands and to keep my butt out of that swamp.
Walked right up on a nice lil 8 this weekend, actually almost stepped on it, scared the crap out of me when it jumped up. That ever happened to any of you, I actually have stepped on a doe about 30 years ago, an unforgettable experience.
I use the cheap 100 grain 3 blade broadhead's, kill deer every year. Only 8 or 9 $.

 

Looking good Nolan!

Take it easy Alan - we need you healthy out there .

Broadheads are always one of those topics of much discussion aren't they? I went 5 for 5 with the Rage 2 blades (1 doe and 4 mature bucks) but the only complete pass through I got was on a doe. 2 or 3 of the bucks took me on 100-200 yards tracks before I found them. They were pretty easy tracks .... but I just like complete pass throughs when I'm bow hunting. I read a lot of good reviews on the Muzzy Trocars so I switched up to them this year. Time will tell... I have to agree with 454Casull that you should use something you have complete confidence in.

Posting up some pics of some of my food plots and the deer I got with trail cams in them. A lot of them are 2 year olds but there are a couple of 3 year olds that could make the hit list.









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Let's Kick up the Dust!



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some nice looking deer there wildthing, those cooler days this weekend got me all fired up, only 15 days guys

 

Here's a pic of the rubs about 50 yards behind the shed. The three saplings all got hit and a 4th just yards away. Nothing big but always a welcome sight.

 

What's the address to that Lone Oak property again? lol

 

Thanks Littlebuck. I still have to hang some more stands - Im rinning behind on everything this year. Hopefully the trail cams can help me nail down the best options.

Nice to see the rubs already, Anita Dwink (any relation to Elmer Fudd?) . I have not seen any here yet but a couple of the scrape trees i "planted" have been chewed on a little and i did find the first natural scrape on a logging road we affectionately call "Scrape Alley" about 10 days ago.

Can't remember the address Alan ... But if you cross from da troll side of da bridge to da Yooper side of da bridge, turn left and go about 200 miles and you should be purdy close, eh? We are in DMU 122 where we have had mandatory APR's for 10 years or so and it has made a huge difference in the quality of the bucks we grow. We practiced voluntary QDM and antler restrictions on my property for 10 years before that but it really didnt help much until the regulation became mandatory. You guys that hunt the NW lower 12 counties should be beginning to see a definite improvement this year.

 

Dang Alan, don't be hurting yourself! I hope you're feeling well soon! We need you!

Wildthing
Yeah the broadhead topic always cracks me up. Its like Ford, Chevy, and Dodge, they're all great until they break! I was shooting the Rage and just wasn't getting pass through shots so I'm going with a fixed blade and a heavier arrow. I'd rather have the blood draining out of the chest cavity than filling the cavity and coming out of just the entry hole. I hope the heavier arrows and heavier cut on contact tips do the trick! We'll see.

I do have a nutter question doe, at da 200 mile mark will we start to see da high fence??? Jk.. Looking real good, daytime pics to boot! Good luck with those bucks if your chasing them. It looks like you need a stand in the corner of the food plot that lone oak 3 is covering!

Carl
Those rubs are looking promising. I also came across a couple last weekend at my dads property while I was hanging my last stand. two weeks ago I found three scrapes and hung a camera there to find four 1.5 yo bucks visiting the scrapes almost daily.

 

Dang Alan, don't be hurting yourself! I hope you're feeling well soon! We need you!

Wildthing
Yeah the broadhead topic always cracks me up. Its like Ford, Chevy, and Dodge, they're all great until they break! I was shooting the Rage and just wasn't getting pass through shots so I'm going with a fixed blade and a heavier arrow. I'd rather have the blood draining out of the chest cavity than filling the cavity and coming out of just the entry hole. I hope the heavier arrows and heavier cut on contact tips do the trick! We'll see.

Yes, the heavier arrow with the cut on contact should give better penetration than the Rage (assuming you don't lose a whole lot of speed with the heavy arrow). I agree with you - I want an exit hole on the far side leaking for me.

I do have a nutter question doe, at da 200 mile mark will we start to see da high fence??? Jk.. Looking real good, daytime pics to boot! Good luck with those bucks if your chasing them. It looks like you need a stand in the corner of the food plot that lone oak 3 is covering!

Yep - As soon as you see da wife's veggie garden and apple orchard you will see da fence! There is no fence at all around the other 159.5 acres though. Just trigger control and conservative hunting. We go for 8's or better and try not to shoot the 2 1/2 year olds no matter how many points they have. Once in a while one of our guests will shoot a 2 year old thinking it is bigger but the bulk of our buck harvest is 3 and 4 year olds - and the year before last my wife got a 5 year old 8 point on the last weekend of muzzle loader season with a perfect 100 yard shot.

We also have a camp rule that requires the second buck to be bigger than the first so we don't often shoot two bucks in the same season. If your first buck is a 4 year old you may end up passing on 3 year olds before the season is over. It keeps us in the woods hunting through all 3 seasons usually, and it passes a few more bucks into the next age class. We try not be be game hogs.

Camera #3 is in the SW corner of a 3 1/2 acre corn field which is on the north side of a swampy sanctuary. It was a 2 acre field for 20 years but I wanted a couple of bigger fields so I could plant corn and beans so we had a timber sale 2 years ago and opened up 10 more acres for food plots. I bought a used JD 7000 planter and some bean meters and the rest ... is history, as they say. I had a stand in a White Cedar tree very near that corner many years ago. I almost lost it when a screw-in tree step came out while I was climbing. Fortunately I was able to hang on and didn't get hurt but I pulled the stand and never hunted there again. In fact, until last year, we never hunted that field for probably the past 18 years. We just used it to feed the deer. I'm thinking like you though, that I need to find a suitable tree nearby. May just have to go back to that Cedar tree with some climbing sticks this time.

The first hunt in that field last year was over about an acre of rape and turnips and an acre of cereal grains and forage radish, and a 1 1/2 acre clearcut. One of our guests wanted to hunt over it so we set up a box blind on a knoll on the north end of the field where he could shoot the entire field. Opening morning of the firearms season he shot a beautiful 4 1/2 year old 8 point that was sneaking along the edge of the clearcut. We will probably brush-hog a few shooting lanes through the corn on the 12th or 13th of November, but I do expect to be doing some bow hunting up there long before then.

 

Best of luck on your Co-Op arrangement Phil. I know it can work if everyone involved has the same goals. We have 1 or 2 neighbors here that just don't think like the rest of us so it is always a challenge.

That corner where we have Camera #3 gets activity from a lot of other critters too!













When the fur primes up in a few weeks I hope to see some of these critters wearing my steel bracelets! Unfortunately, instead of hunting in the morning I will be checking traps. We are just overrun with coyotes this year - not so many wolves but coyotes galore. I'll bet for every trail camera picture of a fawn I have this year, I have 4 pictures of coyotes. That doesn't bode real well for our future deer hunting. Hopefully we can thin out the predators some this year.

 

Nice pics Wildthing. Got thin them yotes out. The 10 pt I spotted year before last wasn't taken that I know of. We've had a few 10's and a 14 taken nearby by home where I hunt the neighbors 36 acres. I plan to put 2 does in the freezer and hunt for a nice buck after. As long as my health holds up and work doesn't swamp me expect to be on the board quickly.

 

Thanks wildthing, it's a work in progress and it's not going to happen over night so we'll take what we can. "Steel brackets" I love it. Good luck taking care of those coyotes!

Carl a 14 will work! I should be on the board pretty quick with a doe as well. The bucks will fall into place. Hard to belive it's almost here the year had flown by but I'm not complaining.

 

yup those yotes have to go, we had a trail cam set up by a yote den in 2010, they puled 6 different fawn into it from june to september, must be the fawns were getting big enough by then to get away. to say the least we went on a coyote rampage that winter and spring, 13 dogs in all, 10 females, 3 males. only seen 1 since, and it met the wrong end of my 460 last deer season all were taken in a square mile at the farm.

 

planning on an early archery doe as well, my mouth is watering just thinking of fresh backstrap on the grill!

 

Yes - A 14 point would certainly ring up some contest points in a hurry. Good luck on that one Carl.

13 Dogs in one season is great littlebuck. Congrats. I hope I am that successful. Judging by the amount of trail cam pics (on almost every camera) and all the howling we were surrounded by at dusk during maple syrup season, I think we may have that many here. Time will tell...

Our deer numbers here are way down from normal, although they are still much higher than many areas of the U.P. We have had back to back to back just brutal winters and you have seen a glimpse of our predator problems as well. I plan to hold off on filling a doe tag (we have 4 for our camp) and hope to tag two bucks if I can. We used to just buy our doe tags over the counter and generally filled them during muzzle loader season but they have been available only through the drawing the past few years. We had 4 last year as well and elected not to fill any of them because we knew the numbers were low. We did have quite a few deer around during muzzy season and we certainly could have used all of our doe permits, but we knew that many of the December deer we were seeing were migrants and that we would be killing off somebody else's deer herd if we did so we passed. We did get 3 nice bucks though.

This year we have a distinct shortage of yearlings and fawns so unless we get some bucks migrating in from other areas, we are not too optimistic about our deer hunting in the near future. Until we can get some "normal winter weather" (whatever that is) and get the predators somewhat under control, we will exercise discretion in our doe harvest. I'm not saying I won't kill a doe this year, but I don't believe I will be hanging one up too early in the competition. Have patience with me though - I do plan to enter 2 deer for the B N B Team if at all possible. (I just hope I don't have to sit in a tree stand with my bow on Jan 1st to do it!).

 

What counties does everyone hunt in? I will primarily be in Cheboygan. I live in Saginaw and might be able to get access to 5 acres locally (co-workers house), but I am unsure of the odds. I also might be hunting up by Gaylord at my Uncle's property. I would like to fill a doe tag up there during gun or muzzy season since no tags for Cheboygan. If I can get access to the 5 acres, I will definitely be taking a doe ASAP come Oct 1st.

 

i split hunting between clinton and barry counties
wildthing, we found we had to change things up every couple of weeks or we stopped getting any active dogs, we would go from trapping to calling to leaving them alone and then back to trapping again. those furry bastards are smart

 

those furry bastards are smart

They sure are littlebuck! There are a lot of predator hunters calling up here nowadays. The dogs always come in from the downwind side and they are quick to swap ends and retreat if they sense anything is out of place. I did call in a bobcat that came in crosswind a couple of years ago. This will be my first year trapping canines. I've got some leg hold traps ready to go and a friend of mine who lives nearby is going to come out and help me with my first sets. I will keep you posted on my progress.

I hunt in Dickinson County (South-Central UP) on my own property for the most part. My wife and I own 160 acres which we manage for our deer hunting. We bought the first 80 in 1994 - added the 40 to the S of us in 2004, and then bought the 40 to the north of us in 2013. We are only a 40 wide but we are a mile deep and have several different types of habitat from northern hardwood ridges to lower elevation lowlands. We have had 2 timber sales over the years to improve the habitat and open up acreage for food plots. We now have 16 acres of food plots (10%) and have a pond and 7 watering holes throughout the property. Our forester will be coming in soon to mark the new 40 for a timber sale and we will begin habitat work to include a food plot or two, bedding areas and travel corridors on that acreage. In 2000 we built a "log cabin" which turned more into a log home and we do call it home since we moved out here in 2003.

It has been a lot of work, believe me. Especially here, where we have great soils ONCE YOU GET THE ROCKS OUT OF IT. Seems like I have spent half of my life "picking rocks". I will probably never be done with it ... but as they say, "It isn't a destination -it's a journey". Truth be told, I love every minute of it. The habitat work and food plots just seem to extend deer season to a year round endeavor.

We named our property "Lone Oak" because when we bought the original 80 acres there was only one lone oak that the loggers had missed over the years - a large Red Oak. There wasn't a single oak on either of the other two forties we bought either. I set out to change that situation and started planting oak seedings, acorns, etc. My wife said "I don't know why you are wasting your time planting oaks - you will be dead and gone before any of them ever shed an acorn". I said - "Where would we be if Johnny Appleseed had that type of attitude" , and I proved her wrong last year when two of my self-planted oaks produced about a dozen acorns each

Good luck with the salmon this weekend, Carl. Can you see the boat in my avatar? It is a 31' Tiara - "Wild Thing", which my wife and I chartered out of Ludington for 10 years. I was fortunate enough to retire young and my wife works in education so when school was out for the summer, we packed up and moved to Ludington for the summer. We are both Coast Guard licensed Captains so we would hire a First Mate and my wife would run the trips while I came home to plant food plots in mid-July, so it was doable. But ... getting up at 3:30 AM 7 days/week all summer long eventually caught up to me and we sold the boat and business last year. It was a great ride, but I'm happy now to have more time to devote to my "Lone Oak" projects. But ... I would be lying if I said I don't miss the salmon fishing. Catch one for me....

 

Nice job on the dogs littlebuck! I need to learn how to trap to increase our success rate at reducing the numbers in our area as well.

I hunt 40 acres in Jackson co. but don't get super excited the parcel can be tough to hunt especially when the pressure gets out on the surrounding properties. Bow season is my best chance for a buck but I have went 8 years without tagging one. However I'm a more proficient hunter now than I ever was, so time will tell if I can meet up with a buck that fits the criteria that I'm after. I will be after a doe early to the middle of October. I very well might hit some state land, I was able to buy a leftover doe license and found what looks to be a good area for bow season on the south wind days.

 

I hunt Mecosta and Isabella County , my gear is cleaned and ready. Headed to a river to float some skein this weekend probably after the rain and temp drop on Saturday. Fall is such a great time to live in Michigan.

 

Hung some stands and cleared a spot for my climber yesterday. Lots of crops coming down already in the thumb. Navy beans are sprayed and cut on the property, soy beans hopefully will be there for the opener. I think winter wheat is going in where the beans were so that's over 100 acres of WW which should hold the deer. No "look at me" buck sign but wasn't looking for it either. 2 weeks from today!

 

Montcalm, Lake, Benzie, Chippewa, Tuscola...
Heck it would be easier just to say I have never hunted below I-94

At least I'm walking again (limping anyway)

 

Good luck this weekend Carl!

Good to hear Alan Michaels!

I haven't Salmon fished but a couple times when I was young and went on a charter boat last year it was quite a riot reeling in a 20 pound fish.

Since we are talking about fishing I'll throw this offer out there. In the spring I fish the Detroit River for Walleye If anyone is interested I'd be more than happy to take you out. I have all the gear you'll need, just bring yourself!

My dad and I broadcast 175 pounds of rye and oats on one of our soybean fields this afternoon that will come off at the farmers discretion. Just hoping to add a little extra appeal to the parcel once our main food source is harvested. This is the first time doing this technique I've read that it works pretty well, we'll see. I hope we get the rain that has been predicted for tomorrow and Saturday.

 

Since we are talking about fishing I'll throw this offer out there. In the spring I fish the Detroit River for Walleye If anyone is interested I'd be more than happy to take you out. I have all the gear you'll need, just bring yourself!

sounds like we need to swap a couple trips, plenty of room on my boat for 5 guys. I try to get over to saginaw bay or lake erie 2 times a year with my boat but with kids now it hasn't happened the last couple years. I've seen pictures of some monster walleye from the spring runs in the detroit.

 

Heading up tonight after work to finish things up for bow and check cameras. I am hoping plots are coming in real nice, and there are a few prospects on the cameras. I also plan on putting in some rye in another spot we have. It is in a creek lowland area with a lot of thick brush and tall grass. Hoping to make a plot lane about 8 ft wide and 30 yards long in there for our blind. It is about 50-75 yards right behind the cabin, so it is easy to sneak in and out of undetected. I have never planted rye up there this late. I know a guy down the road who planted some Oct 1 one year and he said it still came in. I will share pics Sunday of what everything looks like up there.

 

You will be fine planting your rye this late Nolan. I used to fish through the 2nd or 3rd week in September and then come home and scramble to get my cereal grains planted. They were always late ... but they always came up fine. Rye will continue to grow with temps down to 34 degrees F. Actually, I just planted some rye and oats cover crops yesterday in a few areas where I am starting perennial clover plots, and I've got a few more areas I will be planting in a few days on travel corridors we opened up with a dozer last year. Would have finished that up yesterday as well but it started raining while I was planting. Good luck with it.