Got my notice in the mail on Thursday that I will be hunting a cow elk this August and September in Northern MI.
Gonna put the St Joe River Recurve to work! Anyone have any recommendations for the best 150grain screw in broadhead that's at minimum 7/8" in cut diameter?
I've been thinking about the Fred Eichler Signature broadheads to put on my full length Axis 400's...I may just have to stick with that.
Do you have a guide or going on your own? Congrats! :thumbsup:
Congrats! I drew a Michigan "any elk" for December in 2008 but didn't use trad equipment. Had I drawn a fall tag for the rut I would have given it a try with my bow. Are you using a guide or going on your own?
Great ,let us know how it goes
Congrats on your draw!
I would have to reccomend the German Kinetic Silverflame broadhead. They are a little pricey but are as sharp as a scalpel out of the box.
Bisch
You dog!!! How'd you find out so early, I have to wait till tomorrow?? :readit: Just messin'. :D
Congrats dude, hope you arrow a big cow, they taste delicious! :thumbsup:
For 150 grain heads I'd go with Woodsmans or get some Magnus/ Zwickeys 2 blades with an adapter that makes them 150 grains. ACE makes an EVIL tough broadhead!!!!!!!
Muzzy makes a good sharp head but I've had bad luck with the tips coming loose on the ferrul.
Steelforce Phathead 145gr is exactly what you're looking for. #1 in 4 blade on tough hide African game.
You can have them make them any grain weight you want, upon request.
http://www.steelforce.com/products/phatheads.html
I also have a good contact for a great landowner, if your tag is for the Vanderbilt area. Let me know if I can help. My buddy and I got permission from a landowner and he shot a great, heavy beamed 5x6 about 20 minutes after legal shooting time, about 15 years ago. Back then you had to bring in every elk to the DNR to weigh and check, not sure about now, but this bull was like 750, dressed. It was huge and took a forklift. The place we hunted was surrounded with corn fields had elk everywhere.
I think you still have to bring in every animal to be check, flag the gutpile, and in 1994 you had to collect blood samples. The bull I shot was a 6X7 that dressed 826#! If I get another tag I will take my bow!
Congratulations you lucky dog!!!!
Congrats!!! When the time comes, we'd really like it if you could give us a play by play of your prep and also an after action for us Michiganders living vicariously through you!
Congratulations on the draw and I have to say good luck. That will be a throphy of a lifetime here in MI with a recurve. There has never been one taken with Trad equipment yet and I believe last year was the first time one was taken with a compound :clapper:
Congrats Man! That would be so cool, Become one with your bow and get that job done with trad equipment if you can,and you can. I wish you all the best on this cool Michigan Adventure.
I just checked and I am a no-go on my fall bear.
I did get another point though. :D
Good luck the fall.
CTT
Congrats on the draw!! That is awesome.
If your looking for some good heads look into the Abowyers. They are made right here in Michigan and if you go with the Bonehead Light they offer and put that on a 30 grain adapter you'd be at your 150 grains. :thumbsup:
Congrats!
Congrats! :thumbsup:
Congrats, keep us posted! :thumbsup:
gvdochoilday ,congrats ,and i can be of some help if you want to go on your own or with me, let me know ,good luck gib
Congratulations! Should be an exciting hunt.
congrats
when did they start allowing archery hunting for elk last i heard it was firearm only in michigan
Congrats. My father didn't get drawn. Maybe year 8 will be lucky because 7 wasn't for him.
Congrats. I am a HUGE VPA fan for broadheads
Great job there Doc! Congratulations and keep us posted about your hunt! Good luck and shoot 'em straight!
Kenny :archer2:
Thanks guys. I will be doing a self guided hunt, no licensed guides.
I believe I have squired some private land but still waiting for final confirmation.
If any of you know where I can get on a cow elk anywhere outside Pigeon River State forest or NW Montmerency Co then shoot me a line.
You can use any weapon for elk.
Pretty cool to be able to hunt elk in MI. I recommend Stingers. 150s with the bleeders. Shot two bulls both passthru with no problems.
I can help with some Pigeon River areas. I bird hunt and fish there quite a bit. I quit putting in for the elk draw. I did religiously for years until there were guys showing up twice in the draw. Good for you.
That is great! Congrats
jvdocholiday, if you want to spend a day or two ? I can show you your whole hunting area, I see you have some private land you're going to hunt if anyone else has permission to hunt the property the elk will be tough with the bow, the first hunts are the toughest not many elk outside the core area and the guides will be all over the place would love to see you get one with the bow,it's been my dream to get a tag and get one with a stone point ,but i have to draw the permit first 28 years so far and no luck , one of these years though, if you want to hook up let me know ? good luck gib
Awesome. You lucky dog. :thumbsup:
Congrats! That's a real privilege :archer:
Awesome!!! Congrats :)
A fall cow tag is supposedly the hardest Michigan elk hunt there is. In my scouting trips in 2008 I saw many more bulls than cows, especially in the fall.
I would guess you have already done this but just in case, contact the local DNR biologists and CO's to get a line on any properties that they have taken crop damage complaints for. You can also likely get info from them on where previous years successful hunters have taken elk in the fall.
Finally be prepared for a lot of work once you get her on the ground. I'll never forget when we saw a whitetail deer run through a group of elk as we approached during my hunt. That deer looked absolutely tiny compared to the elk.
gvdocholiday sent you a p.m ,gib
Congrats on the tag! I'm still waiting for my tag of once in two lifetimes.
Dan
Good for you! If I were you I'd play the lottery too, as you're luck seems pretty good right now.
Good luck to you.
Congrats, wish you luck. An old friend of mine got to go on a hunt with his dad for a cow. You sit in a room while the dnr tells you all the rules. The back wall is lined with locals who approach you when the meeting is over with pics of bulls and trying to get you to hire them. His dad hired a guy and got his cow. The dnr flys around telling people where they are seeing elk and the locals race you down the 2 tracks "road hunting" and you jump out and shoot em. Sounds like a real rat race and elk being chased like crazy. Hope you dont find it as bad as he described it.
Well i went scouting for elk on Monday of this week sorry we have no pictures, but i'll see if i can relay them too you all in words. First i got woke up to a barking dog at 3.30 am ,and had a small bear in the back yard getting into my bird feeders watched her for about a half an hour eating bird seed, the windows were open in the house and she would get nervous as my dog growled ,and she would make a dash for the woods and return to get more seeds, then she finally got tired of going back and forth and finally left. Well i was excited about going to scout for elk and tossed and turned until gary and his father inlaw arrived at 6.30, another reason for not being able to sleep was this was going to be my first day off in three weeks ,and i needed to get some woods time ,man working twelve hour swing shifts ,the time sure flies, Well we hit the road to travel north from grayling and then head east, about a hour and a half drive to our first destination ,on the way east we were looking into the sun as we are driving and i see a bird circle in the air ,looking into the sun all i can see is a big bird and think it's a raven , another few more yards down the road an eagle swoops down out of the air and grabs an object off the center of the road right in front of us and in it's claw has a piece of an animal or a small animal that was dead in the middle of the road. Well we make it to my friends property and in the food plots we have planted we find fresh elk tracks and droppings ,we also put up a trail camera,and check the place out and talk about hanging tree stands and using the ones that are already there. As we are driving threw the property which is about 500 acres a bear runs accross the trail in front of us,we head to another place on state land and do some walking ,this goes on all day , we pretty much cover the northern hunting zone for gary during the day ,and we see elk also, nine bulls the biggest being a 5x5 most of the bulls were 5x5 also and see a cow and calf as we were walking in the woods. The calf,(last years) comes within sixty yards of us and has no clue we are there. The big cow went the other way. We are going up again on tuesday to check trail cameras and hopefully get an eye ball on some more cows as gary has a cow only tag, His hunt starts the 28th of August for three days and then again in September ,which i hope by then the weather will be cooling down and the bulls will start to become more active and collecting their cows and bugleing ,exciting times which i look foward to every year.The only down side to the day was i ended up haveing 14 ticks on me ,darn i hate those things , does anyone know what repells those things ? I've had 100 percent deet on before and still found them on me. It's still not enough to keep me from the woods though,Well hopefully gary will tell his story on here sometime? Although i know he sure is a busy man also, so stay tuned ,no animals were harmed yet!!! gib
Gib, thanks for the update. Permanone Tick Repellant, for clothes only. Very effective. Hope you find a great spot for Brian to take a big cow. Michigan elk taste yummy!
Congrats,look forward to hearing about the final outcome.
You're right Gib...you're not very good with remembering names. I'm Bryan!! :)
Anyways, I had training at the RAM center yesterday so I decided to take my personal vehicle and meet up with Gib again to do an evening spotting sit and also to check the card on my trail camera that I set up.
It ended up being a beautiful evening as there was no wind whatsoever and the humidity finally died down and the temperature dropped to the point where I was really wishing I had a sweatshirt.
Anyways, Gib saw several deer and I saw only one...no live elk during the sit...but I got into a good book on my Kindel App and that made the time fly.
Well, it was time to check the trail camera to see if anything had gone through the previous 9 days. As soon as we walk up to the camera on the tree I knew something had messed with it, I had it setup overlooking a little opening that would be about 10yds out from the tree I would hope to put a treestand set in for my wife and I. Well, this spot did not disappoint!!!
Elk Trail Cam Pics (http://photobucket.com/GVDocHoliday_ElkScout)
Sounding and looking good Bryan !!!!!!
Gib it a great thing you are doing helping with this :clapper:
I have pics of several bulls and other cows on my other SD card but I swapped that out of my digital camera and put it in my trail cam so I could get these pics posted. I never got around to pulling the pics off the other card so...You'll have to wait for those.
well alright then! I now know you're bryan,but what did you do with gary??? Lol sorry, Bryan
Gib, my wife informs me that you have left a couple of messages on my phone. Unfortunatley my phone is in my wifes car in Grand Rapids...so I'm unable to return calls at the moment.
Looks like you've got a few real nice elk spending plenty of time in the field. Great pics buddy!