blow up the bridge!!!

[Lloyd Smale]

 Been hunting in the same spot for 20 years or more and went to sit out opening morning and two guys from troll country had put blinds a hundred yards on each side of me. One shot an 8 opening morning and the other shot a ten in the morning and an 8 that evening.  Couldnt say crap to them and even helped one drag out his buck but they acted like it was normal to hunt on top of each other. Sure blew my deer season. Like i said im not the type to get into pissing matches about crap like that. Ive shot my share of deer in my lifetime and its not the end of the world if i dont get a buck but theres two other hunters on the road i hunt on that didnt feel the same. They both told them in not to nice words that they werent welcome there. I dont know whats going on but we were invaded everywhere this year by down state hunters. Its like it was 20 years ago when there were no deer down state. All i can figure is it must be the fact you cant bait down there this year. The roads around here looked like a backroad in west virginia. There was a trailer about every 1/4 mile!!

[spruce]

I hear ya.  Had the same problem in the area I hunt.

Some group came in and basically tried to take over the whole area.  Put up signs, ribbons, took over blinds guys have used for years.  Drove by my parking spot the day before season and there were two big orange "hunter in blind" signs.

Just went to another spot for opener.  Not worth having a confrontation, especially on opening morning.  Talked to a couple of other regulars in the area later on in the season and they also had their spots taken over.  Had to be down-staters - in some areas the two tracks had so many colored ribbons it looked like Christmas decorations in the city.

Hadn't thought about it, but I think you may be right about the baiting ban down state driving a lot of "hunters" up here this year.  Like you said this was the first year it's been crowded in 20 years or more.

[Graybeard]

If it was public land it is open to the PUBLIC and they have equal rights to it as anyone else. If private land then the owner gets to decide who can hunt. I understand folks hate to see other hunters in their favorite spot I've been there myself but on public land none of us have anymore right to a spot than another does.

I had scouted and planned in depth where I'd hunt once in a WMA I frequented at the time. When I got there one morning another vehicle was parked at the end of the road and I asked the guys where they planned to hunt that morning. One described almost the exact spot I had in mind. I politely left and went to an alternate spot I knew of. I was successful that day and got a buck. Would I have at the other location? Dunno but I didn't own that spot and they got there first. I've had many other such situations both where I got there first and when I didn't on public land. I leave if someone else is there first and go elsewhere but stay if I was first. I'd never set up close to someone else intentionally if they get there first.

[Lloyd Smale]

i agree bill leagaly i didnt have a leg to stand on and thats why i didnt get into it with them. They had just as much right to it as i did but some take it to an extreem and set a blind up intentionaly on a runway going into a blind they know is allready there. Leagaly right? yes Moraly right? not in anyones book. Guys up here work hard at getting a spot ready for opening day just to have some ignorant sob set up right next to them or even take there blind over. I guess my biggest complaint isnt even that its that they turns the woods into a trailer park! I had campers within earshot running generators all day and even one that had about an ongoing party going on there. Mostly its the younger people that just dont  understand common courticy. Funny thing is these hunters leave an area they live in that has better hunting then we do. They flood the area more then anything to get away from there wives and party!

[bigbore442001]

Don't forget Lloyd. Many of those guys are probably collecting unemployment benefits. So they are out hunting instead of working. I see that here in Massachusetts as well as northwestern RI.

[petemi]

Lloyd, you're only about an hour away.  You're welcome to come over here any time you want.  I'm hunting alone this year and have 4 permanent tree stands and a nice heated ground blind on my 120 acres.  We can usually drive right to most deer we take.  It'd be nice to have your company.

My neighbor, south and across the road has 160 acres with a 40 on this side of the road running along half of my south line.  This summer, her family came up and built a huge elevated blind 25 yards from my south fence with 3 shooting windows overlooking my alfalfa.  Now that's rude.  I was tempted to take a portable down there and set it up at the fence for opening morning.......but that would have been just as rude.  With 160 acres, why do they have to camp on your doorstep?

A few years ago, I was hearing about all the deer down Menominee way.  I went down there in October and did some scouting on Mead land.  I checked 3 or 4 likely spots and found deer at all of them.  I said "Self, this is where you'll be opening morning."  I was there, and it looked like Times Square on New Year's Eve.  I was home and in my Blind by 10 a.m.

PM me Lloyd if you'd like to come over.  Patty and I would be glad to see you.

Pete

[burntmuch]

It happens south of the bridge as well. We get the walkers down here. Guys start walking about 8am opening morning. Then they sit on a log 75 yards from ya, right after they gave you a wave. Theres slob hunters everywhere. Frustrating trust me I know. 

[Graybeard]

Years ago some other guy and I were both hunting the same general area in CWMA which is over 50,000 acres in size. I cleared trails thru really thick briars and crap back to where I wanted to hunt and set bright eyes tacks as I preferred to get there in the dark and be set up before daylight. The other guy never arrived until light enough to see. He removed my bright eyes tacks as fast as I put them up even tho he didn't use the same trails as me going in. He had flagging tape on his trails.

I could always hear him banging his way thru the woods with his treestand and then hear him climbing up his tree. All the deer could as well. I never heard him shoot the whole couple years we both hunted that area but I sure shot a few from there. His noise made sure they came my way not his. I dunno what some folks are that way but they are. I've had plenty of bad experiences on public land with others I prefer to call slobs not hunters.

[Thebear_78]

There can be some slim pickings for state land dowwn in much of the southern lower peneinsula.  I used to do quite a bit of hunting in the eastern UP and found it was fairly easy to get away from the crouds if you hoofed it in a few hundred yards.  Where my dad hunts in central mchigan its almsot all private land and hunting pressure really wasn't bad this year.  Must have all been up there in the UP.

[longwinters]

It is tough to hunt public land in most areas.  If other "hunters" don't screw things up, the wolves will.  I thought the numbers of hunters would be down again this year, in the U.P, as in my area the out of area hunters have been way down for several years.  Course that is because the wolves have ate or forced out most of the deer. 

Long

[Lloyd Smale]

i really appreciate the offer but to be honest the biggest reason i stick to camp is because the old man loves it there and is getting up there in years and i want to spend the season with him. He signed the camp over to me this year and to be honest when he dies id just as soon sell it and finds something less crouded but then i have other family that hunts there that would want to hang me if i sold it so bottome line is im stuck with what i have.

Lloyd, you're only about an hour away.  You're welcome to come over here any time you want.  I'm hunting alone this year and have 4 permanent tree stands and a nice heated ground blind on my 120 acres.  We can usually drive right to most deer we take.  It'd be nice to have your company.

My neighbor, south and across the road has 160 acres with a 40 on this side of the road running along half of my south line.  This summer, her family came up and built a huge elevated blind 25 yards from my south fence with 3 shooting windows overlooking my alfalfa.  Now that's rude.  I was tempted to take a portable down there and set it up at the fence for opening morning.......but that would have been just as rude.  With 160 acres, why do they have to camp on your doorstep?

A few years ago, I was hearing about all the deer down Menominee way.  I went down there in October and did some scouting on Mead land.  I checked 3 or 4 likely spots and found deer at all of them.  I said "Self, this is where you'll be opening morning."  I was there, and it looked like Times Square on New Year's Eve.  I was home and in my Blind by 10 a.m.

PM me Lloyd if you'd like to come over.  Patty and I would be glad to see you.

Pete

[ms]

Been hunting in the same spot for 20 years or more and went to sit out opening morning and two guys from troll country had put blinds a hundred yards on each side of me. One shot an 8 opening morning and the other shot a ten in the morning and an 8 that evening.  Couldnt say crap to them and even helped one drag out his buck but they acted like it was normal to hunt on top of each other. Sure blew my deer season. Like i said im not the type to get into pissing matches about crap like that. Ive shot my share of deer in my lifetime and its not the end of the world if i dont get a buck but theres two other hunters on the road i hunt on that didnt feel the same. They both told them in not to nice words that they werent welcome there. I dont know whats going on but we were invaded everywhere this year by down state hunters. Its like it was 20 years ago when there were no deer down state. All i can figure is it must be the fact you cant bait down there this year. The roads around here looked like a backroad in west virginia. There was a trailer about every 1/4 mile!!

This is the reason why I got into black powder. I hunt state land a lot but in bp season I have the woods all to my self.   

[hunt-m-up]

This is the reason why I got into black powder. I hunt state land a lot but in bp season I have the woods all to my self.   
[/quote]
I'll second this, it seems that when loading and cleaning the gun becomes more technical you lose a lot of the 2 weekend a year hunters.

[theoldarcher]

I always heard the stories about the mass migration via the ferry that was used before the bridge.  Then guys I knew would tell me about the caravans of hunters headed into the UP after the bridge.  I never gave it much thought until I took a job in the UP to help out a bank that was in trouble with its banking regulators, and I wanted to be closer to my property up there.  Well, that fall, I got to watch the hundreds of vehicles moving along US2 when I went from the town where I was working to my property down by Manistique, and the traffic into every turn off into the woods down by my hunitng property in Alger County.  I was awed at the amount of produce being transported into the UP--truck loads!  I remember thinking, "Good night!  Can the UP really suck up all this traffic?!"  Like many of you, that experience was my first with rude, self-important 'sportsmen' who acted like your investment and taxes, etc., was just for them.  I feel your pain!  I have since sold my properties and live below the bridge, but I still love the UP.  I just don't want to hunt up there today.  Every year I give thanks for the farmer on whose farm I hunt along with his son.  It's nice when two share the same values and respect for each other's hunting areas.

Best of luck to you all.  I hope your wildest 'tirdy-point buck' fantasies come true!
  

Arch

[spruce]

Arch

It's really not that bad.  I've hunted in the same general area of the UP for 25+ years and really never had a problem until this year.  I guess that's why I was so ticked off - I was so surprised at the behavior.  Sadly, it's probably just a reflection of the times we live in.  If you want to see REALLY rude behavior just go into any city this Friday and do some shopping!!!  Kind of puts the occasional unpleasant experience in the woods into perspective.

Good hunting all.

[ihookem]

Aw come on yoopers, the downstaters only want to hunt 100 yds. off the road, the other three miles between the roads is what the yoopers get and that's where ya want to go anyway .   I get the same thing in Price co. Wisconsin.

[petemi]

Actually, things are pretty quiet around Engadine this year.  One day I hunted I heard only one shot all day, and on another day I heard none.  So far this season, I have found no evidence of trespass on my property.  But........the galloping orange horde will be heading this way again tomorrow.

Pete