Photo by Billkenney.com

The outlook for the 2005 firearms deer season, in terms of deer numbers, will be similar to slightly better than last year -- not similar to what was predicted before the season opened, but similar to what hunters actually experienced in the field.

Deer numbers will be highest in Region 3 in the southern Lower Peninsula counties, but hunters who choose their spots wisely in Region 2 in the northern L.P. and the Upper Peninsula's Region 2 still stand a good chance of success without having to compete with a lot of other hunters.

Sometimes filling a deer tag can be easy even when hunting where there are few whitetails. I know from personal experience because that's what happened to me during the 2004 gun season while hunting our state's northernmost county -- Keweenaw.

I tried deer hunting in Keweenaw County for the first time during the 2004 firearms season after being invited to hunt out of an established tent camp by Troy Westcott from Lac La Belle.

The northernmost county in the state has a reputation for having few deer. However, the key to success regardless of where you hunt is being in the right place at the right time, because I was in the land of few deer. I not only got a buck after posting for only an hour, but I got a mature whitetail that was 3 1/2 years old.

Acorns were abundant in the Keweenaw last fall, and I got the chance to scout the area near camp during late October. I saw a couple of deer and also found a fresh scrape under a cedar tree at the base of an oak ridge. A thick swamp bordered the base of the ridge where the scrape was.

The spot looked ideal to me for ambushing a buck, and that was reinforced when I arrived in camp on the morning of Nov. 18. The original scrape had not only been enlarged, but there were at least two other scrapes that had been made under limbs on the opposite side of the leaning cedar tree. Besides the scrapes, bucks had rubbed a total of seven saplings nearby with their antlers. Based on the amount of sign, I figured it had been made by more than one buck.

I simply picked a spot to stand on the side of the ridge where I had a good view of the buck sign, and waited. And I didn't have long to wait. It was 10:15 a.m. when I got in position. About an hour later, I heard the buck coming from right to left along the edge of the swamp, and he was in my sights as soon as he stepped in the open. A neck shot dropped him instantly.

I thought the buck had an 8-point rack when I shot him, but the antlers actually only had 7 points. He didn't have any brow tines. If the antlers had brow tines, he would have been a 9-pointer. The buck had a dressed weight of 160 pounds, so he would have weighed around 190 on the hoof.

LOOKING BACK AT 2004
Forecasts of success for the 2004 firearms deer season were more optimistic than they should have been.