MORE DEER COVERAGE • 2004 Deer Outlook, Part 1 • 2004 Rut Report in North American Whitetail Forums

By Richard P. Smith

Muskegon County resident Larry Mahn was one of Michigan's successful deer hunters during the 2003 firearms season. He got a 17-point non-typical the day after Thanksgiving with his wife's help. The buck's antlers officially scored 175 inches, according to state record-keeper Commemorative Bucks of Michigan (CBM), making it the second-highest-scoring non-typical on record for Muskegon County.

The Mahns knew this particular buck hung out in a wood lot. The year before, the deer had escaped when no one was covering the route the buck took during a deer drive. Last fall, Larry's son Randy was watching that spot while Mrs. Mahn walked through the woodlot, but when the buck was jumped, he went in front of Larry instead.

There's plenty of opportunity for successful family deer hunts like that one to be repeated over and over this fall. Many of the bucks that will be killed won't be as large as the one Mahn bagged, some does will also be tagged and hunting methods will vary, but the hunts will be satisfying nonetheless. The outlook for this year's deer hunt is good to excellent - depending on where you hunt and how you will be hunting.

The chances of filling tags are always optimum where deer numbers are highest. Read on to find out where success was the best last year and where the odds favor you filling a tag this fall.

For the second year in a row, the firearms deer season harvest was higher than the year before, and all indications point to the tally going up again this fall. A total of 306,344 deer were bagged during the 2003 season, according to Department of Natural Resources estimates, compared to 298,937 in 2002, an increase of more than 7,000. The 2002 gun season kill was up by about 20,000 from 2001.

It's anybody's guess how much the kill will go up this year, but those of you who hunt smart and hunt hard can contribute to elevating those numbers. By examining the regional breakdown of the 2003 firearms tally, it's obvious that growth of the deer herd in southern Lower Peninsula counties - Region 3 - was responsible for last fall's increase. The Region 3 kill was up 6.1 percent, compared to slight declines in harvests from Region 1 and Region 2.

An estimated 157,415 bucks and does were shot in Region 3 during the gun hunt last fall compared to 148,361 for 2002, an increase of 9,000. Hunters killed enough deer in Region 3 to offset the declines in the rest of the state. Southernmost counties will remain excellent places to fill tags during 2004.

The presence of excellent habitat, along with quality food supplies and mild winters, contributes to the continued growth of deer numbers in this region. These factors are responsible for deer being so productive there. Some doe fawns are bred, giving birth to their first fawns as yearlings. Most of the older does have twins, but some have triplets.

Photo by BillKinney.com

The lack of predators large enough to prey on deer, compared to the northern two-thirds of our state, ensures good fawn survival. Abundance of private property in Region 3 helps prevent an over-harvest of adults, too, during hunting seasons. Some private land is closed to hunting, creating sanctuaries for deer, and other parcels are lightly hunted.

On a district level, Region 3's southeastern and south-central counties are where the increased harvest occurred during 2003. The gun season kill was up 12.3 percent in the southeast district and 8.2 percent in the South-Central District. The harvest went up to 15,021 from 13,381 in the southeast, an increase of 1,640. In the South-Central District the kill increased to 60,399 from 55,805, an increase of 4,594.

Even though the increased harvest in the South-Central District included far more deer than the southeast, that number represents a smaller percentage of the previous year's total. The South-Central District is also larger than the Southeast District, 12 counties versus seven. Keep these things in mind when considering where to hunt.

Counties that make up the Southeastern District are Lapeer, Genesee, St. Clair, Oakland, Macomb, Wayne and Monroe. The South-Central District is composed of Montcalm, Gratiot, Ionia, Clinton, Shiawassee, Eaton, Ingham, Livingston, Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale and Lenawee counties.

The gun season deer kill for 2003 actually declined 2 percent in Region 3's third district, the southwest. The kill in that district was 47,414 last fall, versus 48,362 in 2002, a decline of 948 deer.

In the northern Lower Peninsula - Region 2 - the firearms season harvest was only down by .4 percent during 2003 from the year before, so the harvest each of the last two years was close to the same. Gun hunters bagged 106,528 deer in Region 2 for 2003, according to DNR estimates, compared to 106,975 in 2002.

When looking at last fall's firearms harvest in Region 2 from a district level, the kill actually increased in two out of three districts. The tally in the northeast went up 10.9 percent (45,034 versus 40,606) and 8.9 percent for the Saginaw Bay District (47,557 versus 43,653). However, the decline of 9.3 percent in the northwest (48,519 versus 53,521) was enough to offset those increases.

The Northeast District consists of Emmet, Charlevoix, Antrim, Cheboygan, Presque Isle, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Crawford, Oscoda, Alcona, Roscommon, Ogemaw and Iosco counties. The Saginaw Bay District counties are Clare, Gladwin, Arenac, Isabella, Midland, Bay, Saginaw, Tuscola, Huron and Sanilac.

A little more than 1,000 fewer deer were taken in the Upper Peninsula's 2003 gun hunt versus 2002, so there wasn't much change there either. The tally for last fall in Region 1 was 42,402 compared to 43,598 in 2002, a decline of 2.8 percent. The harvest in the eastern U.P. was actually up 11.5 percent (7,762 versus 6,961) and down 5.5 percent in the west (34,639 versus 36,647).

On a statewide basis, 36.6 percent of 2003 firearms hunters killed at least one deer, according to DNR estimates. Hunter success by district gives a slightly different picture of which ones offer the best chance of scoring this fall than harvest figures over the past two years. The South-Central District, for instance, came out on top as the No. 1 district in the state for hunter success on bucks and does combined at 40 percent. And I don't think it's going out on much of a limb to predict that this district will offer some of the best deer hunting in our state again for 2004.

The southernmost district in Region 2 - Saginaw Bay - was next in line for success on deer of either sex at 37.8 percent, and the Southwest District came in third at 36.8 percent. The western U.P. was fourth best at 35.8 percent. These three districts should continue to contribute good success among deer hunters this fall.

The Southwest District includes a dozen counties. They are Muskegon, Kent, Ottawa, Allegan, Barry, Van Buren, Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch.

Counties that are in the Western U.P. District are Menominee, Delta, Dickinson, Iron, Gogebic, Ontonagon, Alger, Marquette, Baraga, Houghton and Keweenaw. Highest deer numbers and hunter numbers can be found in those counties farthest south, which are the first four. The counties bordering Lake Superior - Keweenaw, Houghton, Baraga, Marquette and Alger - generally have fewer deer and hunters, but some of the bucks are whoppers.

The Western U.P. District continues to be tops in the state, as it has been for a number of years now, for hunter success on antlered bucks at 27.5 percent, and there's little reason to expect that to change this year. Hunter numbers have always been lower in the U.P. during firearms deer season and they have declined even more during recent years as fewer hunters from the L.P. travel north to hunt deer. That means there are more bucks to go around for the hunters who try their luck in the western portion of Region 1. The fact that public land is abundant in that part of the state makes bucks more accessible to hunters, too.

Only 111,412 gun deer hunters pursued deer with firearms in the entire U.P. during the 2003 season, according to DNR estimates, with 82,208 going afield in western counties. This compares to a Region 1 total of 113,390 during 2002, with 83,698 setting foot in the west. More than 100,000 hunters were afield in each L.P. district last fall, with the exception of the Southeast District, even though the Western U.P. District is larger than most districts in Region 2 and Region 3.

The Southeast District is one of the smallest in our state, and it includes the largest urban areas of the state. That's why hunter numbers are low there. An estimated 44,589 hunters tried their luck in that district during the 2003 gun season, an increase of about 2,000 from the 42,674 who hunted there during 2002.

The South-Central District ranked second for buck hunting success during 2003 at 25.1 percent. The Saginaw Bay District wasn't far behind at 24.4 percent. The Southwest District came in fourth with a success rate of 21.6 percent. These districts should remain good for buck hunting this year.

The South-Central District and Southwest District are clearly the best in the state for hunters interested in filling antlerless permits, according to DNR data, at 20.6 and 20.3 percent success, respectively. Deer numbers remain higher than the DNR would like in those districts, so it's easy to obtain antlerless permits.

Based on personal experience, the odds of filling antlerless permits in the western U.P. is at least as good as the two best districts in the L.P. Even though the 11.5 percent success rate the DNR estimates for antlerless deer during the 2003 firearms season in that portion of Region 1 may be accurate, it's also misleading. There are plenty of surplus does in most southern U.P. counties in that district. The fact that more permits are not filled is because some hunters buy the permits even though they are not serious about shooting does. Others save antlerless permits they have for use during December.

I think the U.P. deer kill will increase significantly this year over last fall. Although there were some fawn losses in Region 1 last winter, most mortality was in southern counties where deer numbers are highest. Fawn production this year should more than offset those losses.

Winter mortality in the U.P. was much lower than it would have been because the Natural Resources Commission, the policy-making body for the DNR, approved supplemental feeding of deer in the Lake Superior Watershed during midwinter. Clubs and individuals who wanted to supplementally feed deer still had to get a permit from the DNR to carry out a feeding program, but that was better than not being able to feed at all, which was going to be the case until the reversal. An earlier decision that banned supplemental deer feeding starting last winter U.P.-wide failed to take into account the difficulty that deer have surviving severe winters in the northern U.P., where snowfall frequently exceeds 200 inches.

Common sense also prevailed in regard to the potential for spreading disease through supplemental deer feeding in the U.P. Disease has to be present in order for it to be spread, and all testing done of U.P. deer confirmed that no communicable disease is present. Recreational deer feeding was legal in the U.P. and most of the northern L.P. last winter. A DNR permit was not necessary to recreationally feed deer, so many state residents took part in the practice.

Mandatory antler restrictions limiting hunters to shooting bucks with at least 3 points on one antler are no longer in effect in a portion of Clare County that used to be Deer Management Unit (DMU) 118. A five-year test of those regulations ended last fall. DMU 118 no longer exists. All of Clare County is DMU 18.

In order for the mandatory antler restrictions to be continued in DMU 118, at least 66 percent of a random sample of landowners and deer hunters from that area had to support continuation. Survey forms were sent to almost 4,000 hunters and landowners, and the approval rating was 57 percent. Even though bucks with spikes that are at least 3 inches in length are now legal across the entire county, hunters and landowners still have the option to voluntarily follow more restrictive guidelines, as hunters in many other areas have been doing for years. So the change in regulations will not necessarily change the buck harvesting preferences of hunters who hunt in what was DMU 118. It certainly doesn't have to. The DNR is on record supporting voluntary versus mandatory antler restrictions over and above the 3-inch spike rule.

Regulations that protect all spikehorns were renewed on Drummond Island in the eastern U.P. Also in the U.P.'s DMUs 122, 152, 155 and 252, bucks must have at least 3 points an inch in length on one antler to be legal. Besides Drummond Island, spikehorns are protected on South Fox Island.