Deer concentrations might be lighter in the Upper Peninsula than elsewhere in Michigan, but hunting pressure is low and big bucks are possible. Photo by Mike Searles

Public hunting land in the northern Upper Peninsula offers some of the best whitetail hunting in the state. Deer numbers are not as high in the Lake Superior Watershed as they are in the U.P.'s southern counties, but there are plenty of mature bucks to go around -- and some of trophy proportions. Property open to hunting by the public is easy to find in counties bordering Lake Superior, and hunting pressure is light to nonexistent.

From east to west, the counties bordering Lake Superior are Chippewa, Luce, Alger, Marquette, Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, Ontonagon and Gogebic. To locate state and federal lands in the county you are interested in hunting, refer to color-coded maps in county map books. Those only tell part of the story though. Thousands of acres of land listed under the Commercial Forest Act are also open to public hunting. Refer to a plat book for the county you want to hunt to locate those parcels.

Reduced hunting pressure coupled with at least two mild winters in a row have created a deer-hunting bonanza on public hunting land in the northern U.P. The winters of 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 were mild, allowing for excellent winter survival of whitetails and good fawn production. The fact that supplemental feeding of deer during winter months is legal in the Lake Superior Watershed also helps. Even though the last two winters have been on the rough side, supplemental feeding in the north increased survival, and most whitetails that were at least 1 1/2 years old going into winter were hardy enough to make it without help.

Success experienced by the hunters in my Keweenaw County deer camp over the last five seasons illustrates how good the buck hunting can be on land open to the public in the northern U.P. There were six of us hunting out of a tent camp during 2008, and five of us bagged bucks. All of the bucks were at least 2 1/2 years old.

Besides the five whitetails we hung on the buck pole, we saw three more antlered bucks that we were not able to shoot. Camp members passed up an additional three yearling bucks that had spikes or forks, even though they would have been legal to shoot. Most camp members purchased combination deer licenses before the U.P.'s new antler restrictions took effect. The reason the yearlings were passed last year is the hunters who saw them had already tagged antlered bucks. In the past, we've harvested yearling bucks when they've been the only bucks encountered. Since no antlerless permits are issued for the northern U.P., gun hunters who want venison must shoot a buck.

THE PRESSURE'S OFF
The fact that yearling bucks have ended up on our camp buck pole in the past indicates that mandatory protection of spikes and forks is not necessary to produce older bucks. Hunting pressure is so light on most public hunting land in the northern U.P. that many yearling bucks survive their first year with antlers. A depressed economy combined with high gas prices and an abundance of deer in southern Michigan also factor into the light hunting pressure in these northern U.P. counties. Likewise, many U.P. hunters try their luck in southern counties in the region where deer numbers are highest.