Rose Oaks Oakland County Park

Well I have only been out twice in the past two weeks. Work is getting crazy and finding time is getting harder with this new class I'm taking. I hit Rose Oaks County Park with my fiancee last week. We mostly walked around so I could show her the area and how cool it is with all the lakes and trails. We tallied up about 3 miles of walking and finally settled in near a lake but didn't see anything. On the way out we bumped into deer about 6 different times. It was mostly a scouting trip since I have only been in that park one other time in September. I am one of the lucky few who's significant other is willing to enjoy the outdoors with them. She doesn't want to hunt and will not accept me even drawing on anything less than a mature buck but I we have the best time in the woods.

Tonight I hit the same park again this time alone. I got to the empty parking lot at 2:30pm and headed in to investigate the parts of the park I hadn't yet. It was very windy so I took advantage of the extra noise and movement of the environment. I probably saw 18 tree stands and one bait pile. One of the stands had 2x4 boards screwed into the tree about thirty yards away from another guy's stand. Pisses me off when people don't follow the law. Must have pissed off the other guy too because he left a message on one of the steps for the jerk.

I found a gut pile so somebody got lucky this morning.
I put on about 4 miles of scouting. I found two really good spots with awesome rubs on large trees and a few scrapes. I have the spots marked on my GPS so I can bring in a tree stand with me next time. On the way out there were 4 other vehicles in the parking lot. I talked to a guy who said he missed a giant 8 pointer.

My Dad and Brother have been seeing pretty good amounts of deer back in Croswell. My Dad even shot under the biggest buck he's ever shot at. Hopefully I can get there soon and show them how to put them down.

Week One of Bow Season Blows In

As any other Michigan hunters know the opener resembled videos of hurricane devastation rather than October 1st in the Thumb. I headed out in 40-50 mph gusts that seemed to freeze the rain before it stabbed my face. I got into my stand well before daylight. I was soaking wet and freezing even with multiple layers on. I knew as daylight hit that when I could feel the 12 foot around tree trunk I was hanging in moving it was time to go. I rain had not stopped and the wind killed all animal movement. I had a wedding to attend that night so I was not able to hunt opener night.

I did get back into the stand a few days later. I hunted in the morning with my brother in the same spot I tried on the opener. It is an oak/maple/apple tree line about 40 yards wide that runs between a bean field and a crp field. It is filled with acorns and apples but everywhere is right now. The morning started on a bad note as we entered the woods in complete darkness only to hear a deer take off from under our stand. We got into the stand and it was foggy! Raccoons, birds and hundreds of squirrels were very busy and noisy as daylight hit. Apparently we shared our tree with a family of squirrels who were very unhappy with subletting their tree to us.

One squirrel repeatedly tried to climb into our pockets. As he was barking in our faces a flash of brown came crashing into the woods. A hawk had grabbed the squealing squirrel and in seconds pinned him to the ground and ripped him to shreds. It was an amazing sight. We saw no deer while in the stand. As soon as my brother's feet hit the ground to head in I turned to see 5 does running into the bean field behind us. Something had spooked them out. They stopped only for a second to wind us as they came out directly into our wind. They again took off. That was the extent of the deer action for the morning.

In the evening my hunting partner stood me up so I headed out alone. I didn't see anything while in the stand except for our favorite squirrel friends. Somehow the population has boomed even though we hear coyotes in large packs most summer nights. I climbed down a little early to peek into the bean field. I spotted two deer at about 200 yards. I zoomed in with my video camera to find it was two decent bucks fighting. It seemed weird for this time of year. They were going at it pretty hard for about fifteen minutes. That is when a monster buck stepped out. The two bucks who now seemed small took off further into the beans. I watched the large mature buck through the video camera as it tried to fight the oncoming darkness which made zooming and focusing nearly impossible. I don't know how big the deer was but I could tell he was very mature and his ivory rack reflected what was left of the daylight very well.

The best shot I could get of the two bucks fighting.