I use to hunt in Gladwin Co, on my grandpa's property with him, my uncle and one of my uncle friend's on a small, 20 acre parcel. They would shoot any legal buck during gun season and be PROUD. I hunted state land in Calhoun in '12 on the gun opener with my grandpa when he sold his land in '11. I NEVER heard soooo many gun shots in my life! I only saw does during mid day and they were panting like dogs from getting shot at every direction! They were literally black from crossing the mucky creeks. While I was in stand, I told myself the following year I'd be buying my own property. I've lost a lot of permission from ppl selling their properties over the years.
When you have a ton of small parcels with multiple hunters, it doesn't take much to effect the deer heard during gun season, imo. Like I mentioned in an early post, we have to many hunter per square mile, IMO.
Southern Michigan is much different. There's much more acreage that ppl own and it's very limited on public land. I was fortunate enough to buy my first house back in '13 with 18 acres. EHD basically killed EVERYTHING in '12 before I bought my house. From '13-'18 it was very rough for hunting. In that time, I only killed (1) 4pt and a 1 doe for meat. Since '20 is been phenomenal, but I'm also very picky on what bucks I kill, now. In '25 I killed a 130's and 160's. I have neighbors around me that kill whatever bucks they see with no size. I'm normally tagged out during bow. I shoot my fair share of does during gun season to help my gf and few friends out for meat.
Branch, Calhoun and Jackson is littered with deer. Hell, this morning when I was going into work, I had to stop twice to let deer cross the road. It ain't uncommon to see 20-40 does in my neighbors fields.
1 buck tag ain't going help without APR on small parcels, but this is just my opinion from my hunting experience, YMMV.
