Who's getting ready for hunting season?

[perchking]

I don't want a monster every year, if I did I would pay for a hunt. I hear often that I hunt for meat for my family and frankly I just dont buy it. In the UP we can bait and yes in spots I do bait. Do the math for that the average hunter spends on a deer hunt (ammo, bait, camp fees, fuel, license, etc) per year and the math doesn't add up. They would be better off to buy a half a steer.

Nice try though, and I have to ask have you ever hunted the UP of Michigan?

[J_D]

I haven't I hunt in area in northern Wisconsin. Big woods and lots of wolves, so similar to your situation. We shoot our fair share of deer each year on public land and work hard for every single one. I hope you can get your monster every year, in the meantime let me shoot what I want.

[perchking]

Wow you are a cheerful fella, good luck feeding your family with the cost of a out of state license, travel and all the time you put in for a 100lb spike...

[J_D]

And the experience of hanging out with friends and family out in the bush, IMO this is the point of hunting and not some crazy fixation on antlers. But to each there own.

[perchking]

Then I guess we have something in common, because that is why I hunt in the UP out of my camp. My whole point to my post was it would be nice to grow a healthy heard, I have seen it decline over the past 20 years and just trying to make sense of it.

[J_D]

I have 22 years in up there, years 1-3 were buck only and we killed 1-2 deer per year. Since then its been up as far as the camp kill so we will see what happens this weekend.

[CrewJones]

Perch King someone has trouble reading, none of us want to shoot a monster every year just saying that the numbers and quality is flat out no there. We hunt for the same reason you do, fun with family and friends. Would just be nice one of these years to see a deer in the 140" range, which is not a MONSTER DEER, I believe according to boone and crocket its the minimum to enter your deer.

99.9% of people that say the hunt for meat are usually not bright enough to understand ROI. They could probably buy double the amount of meat with all the money they spend hunting deer (and time). Especially up in the UP where everyone baits the deer at 20$ a 100lbs of corn.

We are building a house up there on the east side of the lake this summer I am exited to finally have our own place.

[jasonmichalski]

I agree you never said don't shoot young bucks you guys were just stateing your opinion on why you think the deer quality has gone down over the years. I think your right years ago people shot young bucks and some hid in the big woods and lived to be large, and now the few that live get hounded year around by wolves, so there's a lot less that make it to there second year and so on. It's a shame no matter how you look at it's it the perfect storm, throw in a bad winter and it's surprising any wear down from the rut bucks make it at all.