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View Full Version : Rifle season has poor start



Knimrod
11-25-2005, 11:28 PM
Rifle season has poor start
Wednesday, November 23, 2005 2:47 PM EST
George Rowe, Petoskey News-Review
http://www.petoskeynews.com/content/articles/2005/11/23/features/outdoor/outdoors01.jpg
The deer season around Northwest Michigan got off to a poor start last Tuesday.

Almost every day has been marked by some sort of weather problem including big winds, rain and heavy snow. Any of those weather situations will cause the deer to lay low, seeking their day beds early or remaining in them in heavy cover during the day and even at night.

Those deer that were up and moving got thoroughly spooked as usual during the first day or two and then they retired to the thick stuff and their beds. This means, of course, that there are still a lot of deer in the woods, but the heavy hunting pressure is gone and won't return.

There will be quite a few hunters in the woods between Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and Sunday, but the pressure will be way down from opening day.

To get a feel for the way various hunters reacted to the poor weather and how they fared, we interviewed a number of experienced deer hunters. While the results have no significance, statistically, they do provide some insight into the early season.

Dave Stepanovich of Alanson hunted with his usual gang in a Manistee County swamp. They usually score something like two bucks for the nine hunters, but this year they shot six bucks for the nine hunters including one for Dave and one for his son.


They had their deer by 11:30 a.m. on opening day, which was lovely down there. The last time they did that well was in 1981. In this case, the weather actually helped the hunters since the wind and snow drove the deer down from the ridges into the swamp they were hunting. The buck drawing at Young's has attracted 235 hunters signing up, but only 47 deer are registered so far. Dave says that represents more registrations, but perhaps fewer deer. The deer are somewhat larger than usual with more six-points and larger among those brought in this year.

Bryan Lindfors of Charlevoix hunted for a couple of days downstate with his father in Isabella County. The weather on opening day was so bad (rain) that they didn't hunt in the afternoon. He saw only a few does and fawns, but his dad scored a nice six-point. Returning to home in Charlevoix County, he spent two hours leaning on a tree on a farm woodlot with his two young sons along and shot a doe and then five minutes later a four-point buck.

Hedge and Larry from Pat and Gary's in Indian River both hunted in Cheboygan County and saw only a few deer with neither of them bagging a buck. Their buck pole was just fair, according to Brenda at the store, with 45 deer on it compared to 69 at the same time last year. The deer were definitely not bigger with the largest at just 162 pounds.

The buck pole sponsored by the Boyne River Bait Company in Boyne City drew just 23 deer, about the same as last year but down from 42 two years ago and 90 three years ago. The deer weights ran between 115-140 pounds, thought to be a little heavier than last year. There were only a few good racks. The first prize went to Josh Bush of Boyne City with second prize going to Tom Durecki of Bay Shore.

Ken Kline and son, John, hunted on their land in the East Jordan area and had indifferent luck, seeing only a few does and fawns. John did take a doe and they are still hopeful and still hunting.

Ron Svoboda of Charlevoix hunted in Alpena County on farmland and reported seeing eight to 10 deer every day over three days. They had a nice snow cover over there, but the weather was poor otherwise. They usually see more deer. In spite of that, Ron managed to take a nice six-point. The Department of Natural Resources check station in Alpena reported the deer harvest was way down on opening day.

I hunted with my nephew on the same Marion Township land I have been hunting for 23 years. During the first five days I saw only four deer and every one of them was spooked and hurrying along. We both passed up yearling bucks early and the nephew is having some regrets on that score now. We failed to hunt on Wednesday and Monday because of the inclement weather.

Tom Durecki of Bay Shore hunted at the family camp near Atlanta for part of the week including the opener. Their camp rule is that bucks have to have three points on one side. On Thursday, the eight hunters in camp saw 14 bucks, mostly yearlings, and took one eight-pointer. Tom came back to Charlevoix County and took a nice 10-point on a farm woodlot, winning a free mount in the Boyne City contest. Tom characterizes the pressure as low with hunters reporting seeing few deer.

Photo: Bryan Lindfors came out of the woods on his ATV with a doe on the front and a buck on the back, after taking the two deer within five minutes.

Link to story (http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2005/11/23/features/outdoor/outdoors01.txt)