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Decided to get out and stretch my legs yesterday so I went to a nearby public hunting area and stomped around in the brush for a few hours. An inch of snow but light drizzle was making it disappear quickly. Was using the meat gun, a 1952 model 12 shortened to 24" and Federal Hi Brass # 6. Saw plenty of rabbit tracks and a load of squirrel nests but the only thing I got this hunt was exercise...

WELL DONE
Good to hear you got out Smile

Mike

Glad you got out for a day.

I don’t know where you live in S.E. Michigan and I know there are some areas that hold grouse in your general neck of the woods. Were you looking for anything with feathers, just fur or both?

I grew up in Grand Rapids, MI but I have not lived there since I left for the Marine Corps in 1967. I get back to visit friends and after I got married we lived in both Traverse City and Marquette in the 80’s, but work moved me back to Illinois in 1992.

Now I have to be satisfied with a September/October rental in the Marquette area for grouse hunting and summer rentals.

I miss the Water, Winter Wonderland (k/n/a Pure Michigan).

Good Hunting,
Mike

First time out in a while, felt good. That is the original social distancing...Chicago, I was keeping my eyes open for the possibility of feathers also but focused mainly on cottontails. The west side of MI has some great hunting, also been up around Houghton lake and Roscommon public lands hunting snowshoe hare...that's a hoot. I've heard that Illinois has some great hunting and some monster bucks so hopefully you do some wandering of your own every now and then.

Illinois used to have good pheasant hunting if you got down around Gibson City where the original 160 acre land grant farms still exist. Like a great deal of the farm belt modern farming techniques have eaten up the roosting areas for pheasant and now the population is greatly reduced. I have a buddy with several farms near Gibson City and in the early 90’s we would limit out by 10:00 A.M. with five or six guys, mainly hunting the drainage ditches with my shorthairs. We have been skunked the last couple of years and only heard a couple of roosters laughing at us.

Regarding bucks I only hunt feathers. I don’t have anything against fur it is just something I never got into. When I lived in the Upper Peninsula they shut down the schools for the opener because the teachers and anyone old enough to carry would not show up. It is a religion up there, sort of like getting an elk if you live in Wyoming.

I live on the Illinois/Wisconsin border and I spend most of my time pheasant hunting in Wisconsin. There are still some wild birds in S.E. WI but getting access is tough. They do have some large public hunting areas in S.E. WI and at one of those sites they release about 12,000 pheasant a year. It is only about 20 minutes from my house and I get out there frequently. I also belong to a hunt club about an hour from my house and I get out there weekly starting in November after I return from grouse hunting in the U.P. I take most of Jan/Feb off unless the ice crust melts.

Good Hunting,
Mike

Chicago,

Mike living in Pa I fully understand the schools shutting down on opening day, it was a religion here for over 100 years. In our mountain communities it still goes on even today, closer to the big cities not so much any more.

I was always allowed to skip school opening day of Grouse Season, every once in a while Deer season also. When I was a kid there were more people in the woods than in school on opening day, so most of the rural schools turned it into a unofficial holiday. This also happened on the opening day of Baseball season, especially around the Pittsburgh area. After the Pirates won the world series in 1960 all the kids were at the Pirate opener for many years.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.c. Smith Man

Joined: 24 Mar 2010 Posts: 280 Location: Northwest PA

dap,

Not sure it ever did come in on a week day, our family traveled on Friday to hunt on Saturday morning. In my case it was almost 400 miles from Swissvale, Pa where my father worked, to my Grandparents home in Galeton, Pa Potter County, and the roads back them were small mountain roads, not interstates as today. Unfortunately my father had been moved from Galeton to Swissvale, Pa, he returned to work at the Union Switch & Signal after coming home from WWII.

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Chicago,
I think every school North of Bay City closes for opening day of deer season.

Joined: 26 Apr 2016 Posts: 369 Location: Vermont

I used to take my first born son to and later my twins as well to Pa. for the opener whn it was on Mondays. One of the first times I took Joey a friend invited us for turkey soup. While eating another gent asked Joey why he didn't have school today. Joey sheepishly replied my dad wanted to take me deer hunting. Turns out the gentleman was the high school principal and said " Joey if you went to school in Pennsylvania school would be closed today"

soggy socks,

I forgot about when opening day of Deer season was sometimes on a Monday, thanks for the reminder.

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

still is in Ohio, always starts the Monday after Thanksgiving