So long story short, About 2 years ago I came upon this oak island in the middle of this swamp/marsh area on public land here in Michigan. I put up a stand and a trail camera on the island and I can’t quite define what type of area it is or how I should hunt it. Does are common both during day and night. Young bucks between 1-2 years of age are less common but do show up during night and day. But the mature big boys are only seen once or twice during the season and only at night. So am I in a immature buck area and I’m on the outer fringes of the big boys area? Or something beyond what I can come up with? My main goal of course is to fill the freezer but I would love a shot at the big swamp donkeys. Thanks!
Move your camera towards the direction the big boys are coming until you find bedding or higher frequently of pics. Then set an observation stand early season to confirm... Lastly reep benefits and send me jerky. Good luck
Thank you! It seems like a simple solution but it never entered my mind to do that lol. I think I might of been overthinking the whole matter!
So I ended connecting with a bruiser on October 17th, Definitely the biggest buck I’ve ever taken, especially on heavily pressured Michigan public land. Figured I’d update you seeing how you gave me sound advice
Here goes the story, So October 17th fell on a Saturday, a day in which I also had to work. I knew I was going hunting later that afternoon so that made the 5am-1pm straight 8 hour shift go by quick. I was at the parking spot where I hunt within an hour after I left work. I live in the metro-Detroit area and I hunt about an hour west of there. Got dressed and sprayed down by 2:30 and started the roughly half mile walk to my stand. As I stated earlier, I hunt on this oak island in the middle of a wet marsh. The walk to get there is hard, especially after a rain. One wrong step and I’m waist high in muck water. So I have to step on these grassy nodes sticking up out of the marsh to have a solid footing. Anyway I make it to the treestand and notice a new scrape within 10 feet of my stand. That gives me a glimmer of hope. I get up in the stand and the wind starts howling. Maybe 10mph winds coming from the east, I’m facing south and I didn’t think I was going to see anything with that wind. A couple hours go by and nothing, another hour later and I see an all white mink or weasel come out of the marsh to my left, I thought that was weird because I’ve never seen one at that stand, about an hour later from my 10 o’clock position coming up out of the marsh steps a big bodied deer, I can barely see it thru the brush but I get on my feet and get the bow ready, it gets closer and then I see the antlers for a split second, no shot. He moves to the 12 o’clock position and is still in the brush just sniffing around the ground for acorns. He starts to walk to my 3 o’clock position walking north and there’s this ever so small shooting window between these handfuls of oak saplings, I pull back, breathe out and aim directly behind his front shoulder, and as he walks thru that window I let go and he donkey kicks and heads straight north which is directly behind me. At this point I’m shaking and hyperventilating. I don’t hear or see him go down so I wait an hour and get down and check the area where I shot him, and boom, there’s blood, a lot of it. At this point I’m thinking he’s a large 6 or decent 8 because I never really focused on his antlers, I was just watching where he was looking so I wouldn’t spook him. I follow the heavy blood for about 100 yards into this thick head high vegetation. I see a small opening in the vegetation about 10 yards in front of me. My flashlight met the reflectors in his eyes and I almost collapsed, I poked his eye with a stick to check if he was still alive and nothing, I pulled his head out of the grass and looked at his rack and started counting, I get to 8 and I’m still counting, I pass 10 and I’m about to cry like a baby, I stop at 12 and started calling everyone I know, my uncle was the first person I called, growing up with no dad he was the one who took me out hunting, he bought me my first “nice” bow, he took me in and showed me the ropes so it was fitting he hear the news first. Deer like this one doesn’t come around often in my small circle of friends and family. I grew up hunting state land and an 8 point is considered a trophy around here. So this one, this one meant a lot.
Hell yes! Great story brother. And from the pic it was a perfect shot. I hope you stick around and we can help you kill another beast.
Awesome hunt man! And a great shot. I already know the answer, but I got to ask how that drag out thru the marsh was? Lol Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
I called up my cousin that was hunting state land a couple mins away and he came and helped drag the 200lbs of dead weight thru the marsh back to the parking area. It took 3 hours to do it. I killed a couple beers as soon as I got home
