Photo by RON SINFELT

Some people think it is almost getting to the point here in Michigan that if you want to kill a trophy-class deer with your bow, you need to be a landowner. To have your own piece of property, you need to have a fair amount of money to purchase it. So many bowhunters settle for small bucks year in and year out.

Matt Sommers from Hillsdale County in heavily populated southern Michigan doesn’t have a lot of money to spend on a parcel of hunting land. He is a hardworking blue-collar American like many of us in Michigan. However, every year he finds himself smiling after arrowing another trophy-class buck. Sommers has over a half-dozen wallhanger whitetails he has taken in the last 10 years -- all from small parcels of private land.

What is his secret to success? You are about to find out.

LANDOWNER BONDING
“Most of my bucks come from pieces of property that are smaller than 100 acres,” Sommers said. “It’s all private property. I take my family in the off-season and drive around to look at different sections of woods and farms. I look for what I think might be good hunting property. I look for natural funnels or swamps. If I find a good piece of property, I simply ask the property owner for permission to hunt.”

Getting permission to hunt on someone’s land isn’t as easy as it used to be. People are naturally leery of anyone asking for permission to hunt. Often, prime hunting land is leased out to the highest bidder. To get permission to hunt, Sommers tries to create relationships with any property owner willing to listen when he asks for permission.

“From the moment I ask for permission, I try to create a friendship with the landowner,” Sommers said. “I let them know I will be the only one hunting on their land and I will follow any rules they may have. If they ask me to park by the barn, I will. I won’t press my luck and park somewhere else. I just try to gain people’s trust. I think bringing my family along when I ask for permission helps because people realize I am a family man, not some hoodlum.”

Gaining permission often requires persistence.

“I’ve been turned down in the past and I keep coming back,” he said. “Sometimes it starts out with getting permission to hunt for a few days or a week, or just for small game. Once people realize I am going to respect them and their property, they allow me to bowhunt all season.”

THE RIGHT PARCELS
Many of the parcels Sommers hunts are only small tracts of land, about 80 acres or so. When looking for areas to hunt, he always looks for swamps and thick cover that bucks can survive in, even if they are small parcels. Sommers spends most of his time hunting in places like this.

“I don’t think a guy needs large tracts of land to kill nice bucks. He just needs the right tract of land. I am always looking for bedding areas, swamps and funnels where bucks will be traveling from one small parcel to the next.”