2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

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Trout
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby Trout » Wed Sep 18, 2019 3:34 am

Spot #1, looks like pure to get into but has a lot of good characteristics for deer to get old in. Bonus is it's in an area that grows some nice deer. When you zoom in it looks like all sorts of nasty, definitely gonna need waders. :lol: con is it is fairly far from good food

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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby Trout » Wed Sep 18, 2019 4:55 am

Spot 2, this one is equally a PIA to access, but private pressure may be a possibility but I anticipate if it's there, it will be concentrated on field edges to the west. Looking at the big island and secondarily at the point coming down from the NE. Gonna definitely want my compass on this hunt!

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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby oldrank » Wed Sep 18, 2019 5:24 am

Looks solid Trout.
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby Locked and Nocked » Wed Sep 18, 2019 6:38 am

I am in. The public I am looking at hunting is 3 hours north of where I live (near some property my parents bought) so I am probably relegated to just the weekend but I haven't been this excited about open day in awhile. Looking forward to hunting some new ground!

Question for you long-time public guys; I have hunted farm country most of my life so food sources were easier to identify. What are you guys looking for in early season as far as food goes? I know oaks are the usual answer but there seems to be a lot of them in this area and it is hard to identify which ones to focus on.

Another question is on clear cuts. I noticed a few while driving around up there. Do you guys concentrate your hunting around them and how do deer usually use them? Do they feed or bed in them.

I was already planning a couple trips north to hunt and fish in October but this gives me even more motivation.
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby Wetfoot » Wed Sep 18, 2019 6:57 am

I've been on the fence a little about doing this as there's been precious little time to prepare for the opener. However, I stepped on a nail last night :shifty: and it went right thru the ball of my foot behind the big toe. So, now I have plenty of time to so some cyber scouting on some new properties! The UP doesnt really qualify as high pressure in most cases, but I'll give her a go. Count me in.
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby The_Real_Jmill » Wed Sep 18, 2019 7:08 am

Locked and Nocked wrote:I am in. The public I am looking at hunting is 3 hours north of where I live (near some property my parents bought) so I am probably relegated to just the weekend but I haven't been this excited about open day in awhile. Looking forward to hunting some new ground!

Question for you long-time public guys; I have hunted farm country most of my life so food sources were easier to identify. What are you guys looking for in early season as far as food goes? I know oaks are the usual answer but there seems to be a lot of them in this area and it is hard to identify which ones to focus on.

Another question is on clear cuts. I noticed a few while driving around up there. Do you guys concentrate your hunting around them and how do deer usually use them? Do they feed or bed in them.

I was already planning a couple trips north to hunt and fish in October but this gives me even more motivation.



If we are talking Northern Mi big woods I have had most of my success focusing on areas were two different terrain types meet and hunt that edge (i.e. big timber that meets river bottom / timber that meets swamp/islands in a swamp).

If focusing on a food source I would scout with a stand on my back ready to setup on fresh sign as you really can't cyber scout that.

I don't have much experience with clear cuts but do know they provide another point were two habitats meet. Deer will feed in the cuts depending on forage and definitely bed if thick and secure enough.
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby Trout » Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:15 am

Locked and Nocked wrote:I am in. The public I am looking at hunting is 3 hours north of where I live (near some property my parents bought) so I am probably relegated to just the weekend but I haven't been this excited about open day in awhile. Looking forward to hunting some new ground!

Question for you long-time public guys; I have hunted farm country most of my life so food sources were easier to identify. What are you guys looking for in early season as far as food goes? I know oaks are the usual answer but there seems to be a lot of them in this area and it is hard to identify which ones to focus on.

Another question is on clear cuts. I noticed a few while driving around up there. Do you guys concentrate your hunting around them and how do deer usually use them? Do they feed or bed in them.

I was already planning a couple trips north to hunt and fish in October but this gives me even more motivation.


Agree with Jmill, but would add that I look for oaks that are directly adjacent to low lying areas such as marsh, cedars, bog, etc. Oaks by Aspen are decent, too, but it seems like does more prefer bedding in the Aspen- not that that's a hard and fast rule. I walk that edge, looking for the trail they're using to hit the food from bedding. Pull up onx and predict where I think they're bedding and get as close as I can.

Lots of variables with clearcuts, is there a lot of regrowth coming up yet, what's their proximity to the road, did they leave the tops, is there cover on the transition, etc? If there is cover, deer will bed in them or on the edge. If not, they wont. If there is regrowth they will bed right out in it, especially does. Do an observation sit on one with less than 6' of regrowth and it's like deer materialize out of nowhere. And they love to eat the regrowth, it's like a deer magnet cause it is full of nutrients and such. From my experience during hunting season, it seems like bucks will enter clearcuts with regrowth the same places they would enter an agricultural field- low spots that collect the falling thermal especially. Saw that both times I did observation sits on a particular cut last year. The other thing I noticed about those two times was those low spots weren't visible from the road. Never seen a buck out in the middle of a clearcut without cover, they will skirt the edges the same way they will skirt farm fields.

I like to circle back to hardwood select cuts where they left the tops during late Archery cause they will be eating and bedding in them for sure, even when the woods seem wide open. You can glass from a distance and see all sorts of bedded deer. Especially with snow on the ground.

When pressure gets high, both does and bucks seem to abandon the younger clearcuts for heavier cover during daylight, but there are exceptions there, too. A guy around here shot a 10 point on the rifle opener last year, late morning, chasing a doe out of the cedars across the center of one. I will never get that lucky :lol:
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby oldrank » Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:50 am

Locked and Nocked wrote:I am in. The public I am looking at hunting is 3 hours north of where I live (near some property my parents bought) so I am probably relegated to just the weekend but I haven't been this excited about open day in awhile. Looking forward to hunting some new ground!

Question for you long-time public guys; I have hunted farm country most of my life so food sources were easier to identify. What are you guys looking for in early season as far as food goes? I know oaks are the usual answer but there seems to be a lot of them in this area and it is hard to identify which ones to focus on.

Another question is on clear cuts. I noticed a few while driving around up there. Do you guys concentrate your hunting around them and how do deer usually use them? Do they feed or bed in them.

I was already planning a couple trips north to hunt and fish in October but this gives me even more motivation.


I'm in farm country. The public I hunt gets planted with corn. I key off of it but can't really hunt the corn specifically most of the season. There will be other hunters trying. It gets alot of pressure. I key on movements around the corn. There are certain days that I can hunt the corn. Super late season is one. There are a few fields that have very secure bedding close. On the nastiest days of the year, after a good 3 or 4 days of continuous bad weather the deer start feeling a little secure and will come into the fields before dark.
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby RookieBeast2019 » Thu Sep 19, 2019 11:58 am

Posting to follow this thread. Can’t wait to see the results.

I hunt the UP but I hunt private land.

Good luck everyone.
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby oldrank » Thu Sep 19, 2019 12:24 pm

I think we need Singing Bridge to bring the victory home for the poor mans Public land challenge. We are the wildcards. Nobody is looking at us. In 2002 no one was looking at Tom Brady and the New England Patriots either. They came out champions.
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby JasonB » Thu Sep 19, 2019 11:43 pm

Sounds like fun, I’m all in!!
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby SwampCritter » Fri Sep 20, 2019 12:46 am

That sounds like a great time I was going to be reading public the season I've done the public close to home so counts me out there on that property but I would be able to hunt Waterloo, Pinckney and Gourdneck I've never set foot in any of those. I have hunted pieces of dancehall but their sections I have not been in what I still be able to hunt some of dansville in those areas I have not stepped in.
Things of concern for me what happens if some of us mess up the hunt for Dan and Joe... Because a lot of us are probably going to be hunting the same way or what happens if we go to a spot they just wanted previously and we have no idea and the area has been blown out? Just kind of thinking out of the box I'm going to be hunting October 1st through the 7th this was my game plan all along before even their challenge was announced trying to get in before pressure gets crazy they're still in some other early season habits..
You go up there in the woods ..... and I'll go down to the swamp... I'll get that buck.. :violin: :whistle:
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby d_rek » Fri Sep 20, 2019 1:32 am

Calling out @dfinley for the challenge.
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby Hawthorne » Fri Sep 20, 2019 1:42 am

SwampCritter wrote:That sounds like a great time I was going to be reading public the season I've done the public close to home so counts me out there on that property but I would be able to hunt Waterloo, Pinckney and Gourdneck I've never set foot in any of those. I have hunted pieces of dancehall but their sections I have not been in what I still be able to hunt some of dansville in those areas I have not stepped in.
Things of concern for me what happens if some of us mess up the hunt for Dan and Joe... Because a lot of us are probably going to be hunting the same way or what happens if we go to a spot they just wanted previously and we have no idea and the area has been blown out? Just kind of thinking out of the box I'm going to be hunting October 1st through the 7th this was my game plan all along before even their challenge was announced trying to get in before pressure gets crazy they're still in some other early season habits..


That’s the reality on public ground around here without dan or joe. You don’t know who has been there doing what because of the traffic. You have to block that out
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Re: 2019 Michigan Public Beast Member Challenge !!

Unread postby SwampCritter » Fri Sep 20, 2019 1:51 am

Hawthorne wrote:
SwampCritter wrote:That sounds like a great time I was going to be reading public the season I've done the public close to home so counts me out there on that property but I would be able to hunt Waterloo, Pinckney and Gourdneck I've never set foot in any of those. I have hunted pieces of dancehall but their sections I have not been in what I still be able to hunt some of dansville in those areas I have not stepped in.
Things of concern for me what happens if some of us mess up the hunt for Dan and Joe... Because a lot of us are probably going to be hunting the same way or what happens if we go to a spot they just wanted previously and we have no idea and the area has been blown out? Just kind of thinking out of the box I'm going to be hunting October 1st through the 7th this was my game plan all along before even their challenge was announced trying to get in before pressure gets crazy they're still in some other early season habits..


That’s the reality on public ground around here without dan or joe. You don’t know who has been there doing what because of the traffic. You have to block that out






Yeah that's very true was just kind of trying to think courteous to them with being new and first-time to the area doing a challenge but I guess it is what it is hopefully none of us mess up their hunt or vice versa LOL
You go up there in the woods ..... and I'll go down to the swamp... I'll get that buck.. :violin: :whistle:


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