Question : our mid-western bowhunters

[BT]

Now that we have a good collection of you folks....lets hear of some tip and trick for our members

Keep in mind that although this is a worldwide site , which has members from every continent (at last check) , we still have a huge over weighting from the northeast corner of America.

Therefore , tips and tricks tend to be over weighted and partial to that area.
The mid west members need some input to help those of us who are making trips out your way.

[mtshooter]

I had the pleasure to hunt with a couple of my Eastern WE brothers this past fall here in Montana. We hunt WT basically the same way here as they do in PA and MI.

As for Mule Deer and Elk now that is an entirely different story.

This will take a while

Where do you want to start Mule Deer or Elk

[BT]

Mule deer....we have some pretty good elk guys here currently but I don't hear no where near enough about the Mule deer

[mtshooter]

I haven't forgot your question and I promise to get started today. I have a tendency to ramble ;D

[BT]

You and I both

[bow wench]

Here in Southern Michigan we tend to hunt allot of farm country and the edges of croplands. The woods are small and scattered around these farms and fields. So most of our hunting is on the edge of fields and corredores that deer travel from the field to bedding areas. Hunting pressure is extreme and getting permission to hunt is hard. There is little public land and it is hunted heavily. So we are hunting a very wary and harassed population of whitetails. It's challenging but worth it.

[mtshooter]

I have a tendency to be long winded and ramble so please bare with me. ;D I will do this in a few little excerpts as not to get to long. Feel free to jump in and ask questions or add your own 2 cents ;D

Let me give you a little background of where we hunt first. 98% of our hunting is done on public ground, national forest, BLM, and wilderness areas. Most of the private ground is either locked up by the landowner to no hunting or leased to outfitters. There is some private owned land that in enrolled in Block Management ( the landowner will allow hunting by the public through a sign in box or by meeting you and you reserving dates, FWP will pay the landowner on a per hunter per day basis) So the hunting pressure is pretty high on all. You have to get WAY back to get away from most of the people, and the road hunters.

In some areas Mule Deer and Whitetail areas overlap but as a general rule Mule Deer "live" with the Elk. So we head high for the "ghost of the mountain" Also our Archery season starts the first Saturday in Sept and ends the middle of Oct. so hunting the rut is not an option.

We usually head pretty high depending on the moisture we received through out the summer and here lately with the lack of moisture, the fires.

All of our hunts are spot and stalk. We start out by glassing the draws and hillsides. Mulies tend to bed down higher on the ridges to watch the land below. One of the toughest things about Mulies is that they blend in so well. You have to watch for slight movements, ear twitching or a slow turn of their head.

[BT]

justracey said:

Here in Southern Michigan we tend to hunt allot of farm country and the edges of croplands. The woods are small and scattered around these farms and fields. So most of our hunting is on the edge of fields and corredores that deer travel from the field to bedding areas. Hunting pressure is extreme and getting permission to hunt is hard. There is little public land and it is hunted heavily. So we are hunting a very wary and harassed population of whitetails. It's challenging but worth it.

I like the land layout by description but obviously the limited access hurts
Is it improved by traveling west ,north,south?....if so , how far is that road time consisting of in your case?
Is state hopping a solution for some folks?

[BT]

mtshooter said:

Let me give you a little background of where we hunt first. 98% of our hunting is done on public ground, national forest, BLM, and wilderness areas. Most of the private ground is either locked up by the landowner to no hunting or leased to outfitters. There is some private owned land that in enrolled in Block Management ( the landowner will allow hunting by the public through a sign in box or by meeting you and you reserving dates, FWP will pay the landowner on a per hunter per day basis) So the hunting pressure is pretty high on all. You have to get WAY back to get away from most of the people, and the road hunters.

You know something?.....I just happened to think of this
From what you guys are saying and what I have experienced myself while traveling other states....NY is looking better all the time

[mtshooter]

MT has give guaranteed outfitter tags at a premium price for several years, which has allowed them the money to lease way to much private land. We going through several possible changes this coming year in our tags and they are looking at changing the outfitter tags as well.

We do have to travel a ways to get to the areas we hunt, any where from 100 miles one way to 200 miles, but it is well worth it to me. We set up our wall tent camp and then hike out of camp every morning. Most places it is a 2 or 3 hour hike to get back into the elk and deer and away form the human population and other places it's only an hour or so. It just depends on which area we are hunting. The strangest thing is I have see so many "road hunters" during archery season. I just don't see how those two could ever be in the same sentence