By Pat Kleppert
(Editors note: Southwest Michigan deer hunter Pat Kleppert has chronicled his hunting season in a region plagued by the EHD virus.)
Pat KleppertThis season has been a struggle. The lack of older bucks and does makes it tough to motivate myself to get up early and climb into a tree every day.
I haven't hunted as much as I had hoped and that is certainly due to the lack of deer here in eastern Cass County. While there are deer being harvested in my area, the numbers are way down. I stopped at Scott's Deer Processing in Jones and he said that his numbers are certainly down from previous years. He did have a few in the cooler and some ready to smoke.
I'm getting a few small bucks on trail cameras along with a few does and fawns but my sits haven't produced much. It kind of reminds me of my days hunting in the UP; you can sit for a few days before you even see a deer. It's been like that around here.
The best day I've had has been a doe with three fawns. I've seen a couple small bucks but that's been about it. Unless a giant buck happens to wander over to my property, I'm not expecting much and my bow season will be over. I'll hunt a few days of gun season but again, unless I'm seeing some activity, it will be difficult to hunt hard for two weeks.
I did have success last week in Iowa. I got on the trail of a really good buck, and although I had a close encounter with him, I didn't get it done and ended up shooting a smaller buck on the last day. I hadn't shot a buck in a couple years with a bow so it was satisfying to put a good shot on one. My goal every year is to shoot a mature buck and I've passed up dozens the past two years. However, given the low numbers in Michigan, there is a primal need to harvest an animal, so shooting that buck in Iowa felt good, even though it wasn't a giant.
I'm going to continue to hunt some around home, but my focus now will be on habitat improvement over the winter and creating food plots in the spring. I want the remaining deer to have food and cover to be as healthy as possible to help them survive.
I encourage other hunters to focus on doing all they can to increase the deer population as quickly as possible. Food and cover will be the first part and selective harvest will be the second.
Good luck to everyone hunting the next few weeks and be safe during the upcoming gun seasons.