Trad Gang

The MI general firearm season is over, and while archery is open in December, its a tough tough battle. The season runs concurrently with muzzleloader season Dec 2-18, then later firearm doe season Dec 19-Jan 1. At least that the deal in the part of the state I hunt.

The early season was slow enough, and now its dead! The deer are either very nocturnal, or holding to cover so thick bowhunting in it is impossible. Or both.
If you do see any, they are so jumpy its insane.
Any suggestions?

Same here. Tough hunting for sure.

It's tough hunting for sure. I try to find a food source next to a thick bedding area, then hope they come out just as light is fading. I have taken several this way. Good luck!

You could move to north Louisiana.  We only share the woods with firearms from mid October to mid January.  You also have to pay more to hunt during this period with a bow than with a gun.   :)

I was in my tree stand for three hours yesterday in a snow squall. Wet and cold from the wind, toughed it out but seen nothing. I will be back this evening, the forcast is sunshine and in the 30s. I will take all the days I can, It is a long wait until next October. I really love to hunt whitetails with my bow and my own homemade arrows. Hunting is very tough here in December.  :archer:

I know how you feel... The early archery season is a lot more fun. Guess the number of firearm hunters get the deer all spooked. Can't get within 100 yards of 'em now.

Maybe we'll get some snow here in NY for the late bow season. I dig wearing Predator Fall Grey that time of year.

... mike ...

I hear ya. It's been raining on my days off and when I go back to work it stops. When I do get out I don't see anything.

Same here.

Constant firearms pressure from the week of Thanksgiving through December in WV except for the week before Christmas. Then on again the last week of the year.

The deer are very spooky, of course I would be too!

With the wet weather last week, gun season kills in Ohio were down this year.

What have you heard about MI?

Hunt the food source if you can.  They have to eat sometime.

Normally about now... about a week after...they start to settle down a bit.

Course with the flood of inline muzzle loaders there are a few more hunters out there.

Just keep at it.
More to brag about later

Same here, very slow since the orange army invaded!

Well at least you can hunt, our season here in Calif. has been over for a couple of months. Which makes me wonder how the folks north of here in Oregon have done with their late season archery hunt?

It gets pretty tough post-gun season here in IA as well.  After the shotgunners have pushed them all over the country side the deer get pretty skittish.  If we get enough COLD and SNOW it will put them on a regular pattern looking for food.

Same every year for the most part, but this year was odd I think with spooky deer and mostly nocturnal activity all of early bow season.  I have stayed out of one of my best spots on the farm the end of bow and during gun just to try and have a spot where they can settle down in.  I also have not been in one of my little spots near town since gun started.  They typically don't come in there much after the rut, but some years they pack in to hide out.  I hope one of those spots pan out for a last doe for the year.  I think I will let them set a little longer and maybe wait until next weekend.  

I would love to bow hunt more, but My dad didn't get a deer this year and now fell on the ice and messed up his shoulder so maybe I will get out the smoke pole or shotgun in the late antlerless season to up the odds and try for one for him.

What we need is some tracking snow to see what is going on.  That would help narrow things down a little when I get back in the woods.

QuoteOriginally posted by xtrema312:
.....
What we need is some tracking snow to see what is going on.  That would help narrow things down a little when I get back in the woods.

THAT WOULD BE A NICE BIT OF HELP!

Same thing here in Minnesota. Its like they went underground. -2 degs. this morning. I love to hunt but I'm gettin to old for this!
But its sooooo loooong till Sept. again.

man it was a rough late season for me last year. I didn't see a single hair after our rifle season.

This year I'm taking a different approach to my late season hunting. I've found some pine thickets on the end of two points and I set up 2 feeders within close range of them. I'm going to try baiting until the end of our season as bad as I hate to have to do it, but I want another deer in the freezer and if last years late season was any indication how it usually is, I'm changing my tactics.

There are tracks 15 yds from my stand that I just put up but I don't want to hunt in the rain. I don't know if they are tracks made in the daylight or not.

John,

Here's a few things to try/keep in mind:

1) Try to have late season areas scouted out after this season is winding down. Find out where deer are bedding in the thick stuff and then back track to food source. If the same food source next December, then set up on trails at the edge of the bedding area, but not too close.  You've got to sneak in to that spot whether it's morning (get there one hour early) or evening.  Don't over hunt the spot or deer will pattern you. I know this doesn't help for this year, but this is tip one. If food source is different, then look for sign leading from the same bedding area (usually they've picked that area for a reason) to the new food source.  
2) Hunt middle of the day.  As the weather get's cold, the deer will move when it's warmest out. This is also when most hunters are out of the woods and deer will get used to that.  Best to find a food source close to bedding and in cover for this time of day.  Perhaps some acorns close to thick stuff.  Consider having stands (or at least trees or natural ground) blind set up in advance of December. As noted above, deer will be super alert to any human presence.  
3) Play slow bump of long narrow habitat with your son.  Set up inside one end a little ways from the edge of thick cover that has a trail and have the other start upwind and move SLOWLY through the cover. Just trying to nudge deer sneaking past the waiting hunter.  This is a good tactic to tell you about point number one above. Note the areas you bumped deer from and then this is area to consider for late season normal tactics listed in one above.

4) Try hunting from the ground.  I find you can slip in and out of an area easier than climbing a tree.  The woods are more open and deer can see us getting out of and into trees from a lot farther distance with no leaf cover.

Good luck.

Hunting food sources is out, the field next door is(was) beans that have been gone for 7 weeks now. The corn across the road is down, although they will feed on spillage, the two pieces of woods on the property I hunt where they might hold up efore crossing the road after dark are so thick you can't get in or out without making so much noise to push them out. If you do get in there, you shot better be less that 2 ft, becaues thats about as far as you might shoot without hitting brush. Its nasty stuff.

I got permission on another farm today, its really big. Only a light problem with it, there are about 35 other people hunting it. He lets pretty much anyone hunt it. WOrth looking into, but not any high expectations. Not surewhen I'll get a chance to meet up with the owner so he can show me the boundaries, but even if I get a couple late outings, it will be worth looking at anyway.

I just got back from my stand tonight and what a hard time not moving in the cold. About forty minutes before dark i caught movement behind me and it is a nice big eight point coming my way. I was concerned he might wind me, the wind was out of the north today and my stand faces northwest. But he was coming and I thought i was going to see him come on in, He hung up just twelve yards behind me and just stood there for about ten to fifteen minutes, I had no shot until he would get to my left. He could tell something was not right and was scent checking. He was a good pope and young buck and had all his tines. He went around and just left. I am planning to be up early tommorow and tough out the cold again for maybe a chance encounter again. It's tough standing in the cold but you have to be there for a chance to fill your tag. Good luck guys and I will keep you posted. Mark

QuoteOriginally posted by xtrema312:
Same every year for the most part, but this year was odd I think with spooky deer and mostly nocturnal activity all of early bow season.  

By the time bow season starts in Michigan now, there has already been a youth firearm   AND an early antlerless firearm season.  Couple that with almost unlimited antlerless permits of the past decade, I find it difficult to go thru the effort to hunt deer here at all...it is depressing    :(    

Good luck!

X 2 Steve O!  

Steve, I hear ya. Im planning a couple out of state deer hunts for next year. Still debating on where, Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas. Just gotta work on the particulars.

Post gun in Iowa is sharing the woods with the late season inline shooters. They are not the same crowd as the old cap and ball group. Every piece of standing corn will be surrounded by them and every deer that sticks it head out of cover within 500 yards of them will get shot at. I am hoping to find someplace that they won't be.

I'm just now getting back into the woods after a layoff of the last wk or so of Oct. and all of Nov. due to health problems.

I jumped a deer going in this afternoon at 1:00 and was all I've seen. Problem is I can't yet make it way back in where they are holed up in a big Locust grove ridge. Will try to get back in there tomorrow.

I hunted CT January season one year on property that was hounded by gun hunters. The deer were completely nocturnal and you could not approach the thick bedding area without spooking them out. I decided to bust in there and hang a stand that offered me shots to some of the "open" areas in the very center of it. I lightly trimmed some stuff to make my re-entry a bit easier. I backed out waited 2 weeks and on the last day of season I snuck into my stand, as scent free as possible 2.5 hours before first light and waited.( it was Jan 31st, so it was a cold long wait) I could hear deer moving around me an hour before first light. As the sun started to rise I looked down and spotted a young doe on her feet just 15yds from me. A well placed arrow from my Shrew left a short blood trail. I was kneeling by her side at sunrise!

(http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/skipmaster1/IMG_11161.jpg)

After hunting in Kansas for 10 days in November it is always very depressing to come back to hunt here in michigan.  I always ask myself why do I live and hunt here when there are so many better hunting states may be after I retire.

I'm feeling the pain with the rest of you. I did have 3 deer come through the other day out of range. They were on a steady pace with a mission in mind. I'm still hopefull I'll fill one of these tags but as time passes by I'm getting a bit concerned. I hate to break out the g word late season but may the last week of the year.

John, your deer will come to the picked bean feild and scarf up the beans that are on the ground. Try just before dark.