[Hans1944]

would like to hunt small game, a place to camp as well probably private land if anyone knows of and private land or anything at all. im new to hunting any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Located in michigan


Hans

[ACP230]

Michigan is a big state.
Where are you located?

If you can make it to the Upper Peninsula there's a lot of state and National Forest land that is open for hunting.

[Geno]

ACP is right. We are a huge state, Hans? Where you located? I'm in S.E. Michigan. We have a lot of state land here too. We'll find you a hunting partner, but need to know where you are located.

Doc2005

[Jst1mr]

+1 to the UP...as a former "yooper" (Newberry area), I was always astounded at the amount of public land available. Timberlands owned by paper companies are also sometimes available as public hunting areas.

[Hans1944]

i live in ypsilanti mi south east

Hans

[kumma]

Go to Waterloo or Island lake rec areas. I highly doubt anyone is going to let you on private land to hunt small game 10 days before Bow season. Check out http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/index.html for more local info.

[homers]

former "yooper" (Newberry area).

Were you released or did you escape?

[Wildfire]

you live just east of some of the best deer hunting ground there is.
Ted Nugents land is over that way too.
I am not sure who would let you hunt but can say it is all good hunting over there. I am west of you. And north of Ka Zoo. Most of what we hunt is private farm land but there is some very , very good state land even over here . Alleagan state forest has soem good hunting and a few years ago 2 extremely nice buck came out of there.
Small game is every where too. Most of that ground is marked hunting or no hunting and is not that hard to find. Yankee Springs area is also fair state land hunting. A good map search should show these spots. I know there is camping in that area also.
The Jakson area is very good deer ground. Some of the states largest deer come from there.
It can be a lot of work to find the right spot but well worth it when you do.

[Geno]

Hans:

There is great hunting available just north of Jackson, MI...state land. It's about 25 minutes from you.

Doc2005

[Jst1mr]

Were you released or did you escape?

I snuck out while everyone was consulting their hymnals for the third verse of "the turty point buck"...slick,eh?

[T.R.]

I was stationed in Michigan back in 1970's with USAF. My favorite place to hunt was Manistee Nat'l Forest.

Here is what I did:

- rent a canoe in Big Rapids and arrange for pick up downstream

- enter the river near White cloud at the bridge

- head downstream about 40 minutes and make camp along the bank

Hunt to the west and you'll never trespass on private property. Plan to bring out a nice big 6 pointer!

TR

[Wildfire]

Hey There;
Back in the 70s you more then likely could have done that around White Cloud. But This is 2008. There are bait piles every 50 yards and more orange in that area then you can shake a stick at.
Stay South of Grand Rapids. CWD has now been reported on a farm (deer Farm) north of GR,.

I too hunted the Manistee Nat. Forest way back. It was good then. Not now.
Most of the deer are tiny . The big ones are Grand Rapids and south. The southern countys are best . Go north for wing shooting . Some snow shoes are still up there. Good squirrel hunting every where. Turkey is an over the counter tag now in Southern Mi. (Fall Hunt) The birds are bigger too.
20 to 23 lb turkeys are common. Our big southern Fox squirrels are being poluted by the smaller Black squirrels and ya end up with Mid sized Grays.

The southern Mich, deer are crop fed. Corn, beans, good hay, etc. The northern deer are not so lucky. Acorns and pine cones. Not a lot of farming north of Grand Rapids.

[pbrktrt]

Wildfire, tis sad but true. i'm blessed to have a friend that lets me hunt his farm in holton. public land hunting in this area is not what it used to be. it seems that if there isn't crops around the deer are pretty scarce & like you said, small. they know what they need to thrive & acorns & pinecones ain't cuttin it.

[Jst1mr]

it seems that if there isn't crops around the deer are pretty scarce & like you said, small.

What you're describing is north-country deer hunting in its natural state, without deer populations held order-of-magnitude high due to "artificial" food sources. Disagree with the "small" part, though, as some real bruisers live under these conditions. It is a different world...go out, pick up a track, and work it - maybe all day. It is not sitting in a stand between farmland woodlots deciding which of the dozen or so 10-pointers are to your liking that day. That IS NOT criticism, just drawing a contrast. There are many ways to enjoy the hunt!

[Wildfire]

Hey There:
My son and I have hunted the western Up and gave it quite a few years.
I used to be able to go up there and see and take nice big bucks. Some of the largest bucks I have seen came from that area. But then we had the big snow year. It took a real toll on the whole heard. Top that off with the much higher then admited Wolf population now and we just plain gave up on the Up hunting. It was so bad that we got to the point where we saw few if any deer in very good hunting ground. Yep, No corn fields. Yet there were very large deer. Were !!!!!!!! They are gone... we have people up there that we stay in contact with. He lets us know what is going on. We rented a cabin from him many years in a row. At the going rate he charged us he could not afford to let us go. He now says all his cabins are empty during the deer seasons. That hurt him and many like him.
I am sure to get some arguement over this but , The tree huggers got their way. The wolves no control the deer population in those parts and there is not much need for us hunters to help out.
Go there and ask any of the locals about this. They have no reason to say anything but what is really going on. The bear hunting is now being effected also. Wolves will have their way. Deer , Bear doesn't really matter to them.
We always used to come home with decent racks hanging out for all to see on our way home. That all ended. To the point of not even seeing a buck.
Guess you'd have to be there to really know. While we would love nothing more then to make our yearly trip up there, it would not be to deer hunt.
the last few years of hunting here at home (SW Mich) has paid off with big deer and decent racks. Corn fed. From farmers fields. nothing wrong with that.
Baiting has been banned now and it's about time. That is not hunting in my oppion. Tracking deer down here is not really going to get you very far. About to the nearest fence that you should not be crossing. Good shooting skills are in order and one must learn to drop em where they stand.
Some bow hunters create problem when their not yet dead deer crosses that fence. There are problems that come with hunting smaller plots of ground. Just the way it is.

[Jst1mr]

With hunting on adjoining private lands and needing to be fence-conscious. I will try hard to get to know adjoining landowners and get pre-approved for tracking wounded deer during bow season here. Tough to argue with the taste of farm country venison! What the wolves have done is add another stress factor to the deer herd in areas like the UP...the huge snowfall, as you mentioned, can be devastating in any given year...the wolves swing the pendulum even farther. Nature does NOT "balance", but tends to swing broadly and continually between extremes when left alone - not the way most of us would like to see game populations managed. Eventually, the deer scarcity will affect the wolves, who will turn to other sources,then to other areas, and finally themselves dwindle..at which point the deer may begin to recover, but these cycles can last lifetimes. I am not anti-wolf, but they need to be managed to very low levels to be tolerable.

[Bud Tugly]

If anybody wants to come to the UP of Michigan to hunt, I'd be glad to give advice. I live right in the middle of the UP (15 miles west of Marquette) and I've hunted this area all my life.

Hardly any land is posted and you can literally drive out into the country and hunt nearly anywhere. There's lots of state and national forest land and all the property owned by paper companies is open to hunting.

I own 80 acres of wooded land just 9 miles north of town that has a small stream and a major deer run passing through it. If someone wanted to hunt on it, I'd consider allowing it as long as the property was treated respectfully.

I still do a little grouse hunting but had to give up deer hunting since I've been in a wheelchair for 8 years and can't tolerate heavy recoil or cold temperatures any more.

[Wildfire]

Hey there:
That is one kind offer. You are very right in that there is so much huntable ground. We hunted the Porkys. And a lot of teh paper ground south of there.

We always stayed at a cabin 1/2 way down Lake Gogebec on the west side.
We also hunted just west of there. As I said before there used to be a lot of deer up there and we had very good hunting . Some of the prettiest ground is in the Porkys. We even used to return for the Muzzle loader seasons.
The last time we went we got to see first hand what a heavy snow and teh Wolves could do to the deer when they were yarded up down on the Lake side. Not a very pretty site. The huge bucks were the first to go. We never shot a deer down there even when seeing huge bucks. They were starving and it was a very serious climb back up the hill.
The Wolves move into those yards and do there thing. Eat what they kill ???? Not.. The wolves would move out when we were around but you could tell they were there. Their tracks would be on top of your tracks when you went back out. Lots of dead deer down there. Big bucks that won't run away , they just stand there with no get up and go left. They are run down from the rut and then the heavy snow hits and it gets very hard for them to even move let alone find food.
That is natures way of dealing with things. Much less humain then hunting for population control.
While I have not seen this yet , a friend says that the Wolves have started in on the Moose now too. I too am not anti wolf. But !!!!!!
No matter the locals will and have been dealing with that problem. Wolves also like to mess with dogs. Some have lost very expensive hunting dogs to the wolves. There is some kind of bill going to get the state to pay for dogs lost to wolves now. The DNR flat out denies that there are any wild mountian lions up there too. But this year the rules and regs say ya can not shoot the big cats. Huh !

[cliffy]

Forget your rifle, and prime your Muzzleloader or load-up your Rifled Slug shotgun, or stack your .22LR magazine for action. Zones 1 and 2 allow your rifle for useage, but not Zone 3. Crane Pond Hunting Preserve near Jones, MI along with the huge Allegan Hunting Preserve are rich in game, but centerfire rifles are verbotten. Zone 1 is the UPPER PENINSULA, see you there, somewhere around upper and lower Taquamenon Falls. Talk about WILDERNESS and treaturous paths! cliffy

[Wildfire]

Hey there.
I live very near to Allegan. It's all good hunting. I use my Encore .50 cal. and have for some time now. All I hunt with are Muzzle loaders for deer.
Allegan area has some big ground for hunting.

[Bud Tugly]

I've got mixed feelings about the reintroduction of wolves in the UP, but I don't think they make that much impact on the deer herd. There are only about 400 or so wolves and the UP deer herd is about 400,000, so I don't think their predation is a big deal.

The DNR estimates that more deer are killed by vehicle accidents here than by wolves, and winter die-off is way higher than that. My biggest concern is about livestock and dogs that have been killed by them, and there have been a couple of those reports.

That said, I saw one in the woods several years ago and I was sure glad I was inside a car. The pure wildness in those eyes was absolutely chilling.

http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/pdfs/WolvesDeerMichigan.pdf

[Wildfire]

Hey there:
I am by no means some expert on this subject. I can say what I have seen.
The DRN has a very different way of counting then many would assume. I am not sure why. But they have never counted deer. They use deer station counts and some other means for counting the deer popuplation. The same is true of the Wolf population. The last count I have was over 450 and that one is a few years old now.The fact that the Wolf has no natural enemies makes for a very high survial rate. Deer and other wild game is just the opposite.
Car deer kills are much higher then all other aspects of the deer kill. At least in Michigan. The DRN has a web site and you may check me out on this.

There are rulings in place for replacement cost of livestock taken by wolves. Not for dogs yet. They are working on it. Bobcats and foxes are listed as being on of the white tail deers natural enemies also. Put in there some wild dogs and there are some and we have a higher then should be kill rate.

one figure I had recieved was over 10,000 deer car kills in Allegan county (SW lower Mich.) That is a lot of car kills. One year....

So how can the DRN give accurate deer counts by the number of deer shown at check stations ? They can't.... They know that.. Numbers are just numbers and have little to do with real life.

A few years ago the DRN stated that the deer kill in the UP was (Snow related) over 100,000.... That seems very hard to believe. If true , seems there would be none left, if there deer count before the snow kill was accurate.

I have been up there during the big snow, When it gets as deep as we saw it no deer can move. It was over waste deep when I was there. I finally saw how snow kills deer. The wolf on the other hand seems to be ok with the deep snow and gets around pretty good. Their numbers are way higher then we are being told. Unless the locals are true liars they have killed off 1/2 of the wolves and we all know that has not happened.

Coyotee are on the rise even down here ,where 10 years ago we had none to speak of. Now we have plenty. They too can be hard on deer about fawn dropping time and in heavy snow. but they are considered pest.