deer in gaylord area?

[ltdave]

have been deer hunting with a friend up at his dads place in wolverine (25-30 miles north of gaylord) for about 4 years now. just got back from bow hunting and saw all of ONE deer between the 2 of us in 3 1/2 days. everyone we talked to (in gaylord and surrounding area) told us there are no deer around there. any truth to that statement? we sure didnt see much. have a distant cousin in indian river who gets like 5 a year on all the licenses and kill tags she and her husband get.

i need some place productive for all the investment i make into this...

thanks
david

[alex-vitek]

We have deer running into cars all over the state. Even have reports coming out of the suburbs next to the state's largest cities. Somehow I just can't imagine that there are no deer in the Gaylord area.

Deer do change their patterns. Where they are found year after year can all of a sudden change and they will start using a whole new set of trails. Just this summer, over a 2 month period, I saw a change in deer trail usage caused by two things. One was a newly created set of food plots and the other reason was the new beaver pond. The food trails and the water source trails changed fast and they will most likely stay on these new trails for a couple of years.

[shoprat]

The snowbelt from Gaylord to Grayling to Kalkaska has seen some pretty tough winters the last few years. My parents live near Kalkaska & their sightings are down also. As soon as the snow flies, the deer yard and they do not see any deer until spring. Indian River is outside the northern edge of the snowbelt so I suspect the winter kill isn't much of a problem.

[karcent]

I have been told that elk and deer are not compatable.
With the Michigan elk herd centered in Gaylord, this may be the reason the deer have left town.

[alex-vitek]

My brother has property northeast of Hillman and there are plenty of deer there and some elk will walk by every now and then. With the food plots in and some of them becoming established I am thinking that the elk will show up a bit more.

The deer and elk do not mingle but never have heard of the elk driving the deer out.

A buddy was hunting up in the Gaylord to Grayling area two weeks ago and I asked him last night. He saw deer, enough that he did not think that there was a problem, but he did not see any that he wanted to take.

It is probably just the luck of the day that you did not see more than one deer during the trip.

[G22]

from Michigan DNR website: week ending 10-23-03

Sgt. Brad Smith received information from a long-time informant regarding a group of Gladwin County residents who had taken eight to ten deer over the previous few nights. Furthermore, two of the illegally taken deer were being processed the night of the complaint. Sgt. Smith and CO Steve Lockwood investigated, finding evidence of the deer which had been removed from a garage 30 minutes prior to the officers' arrival. Follow-up investigation at three different locations led to three illegal deer and two suspects who were charged. The deer had been taken at night with bows and were not tagged.

[alex-vitek]

It is often said that just as many deer are take illegally as are take by legal methods.