Conference vmsnet::hunting$note:hunting

    Hi,
    	What area are you referring to when you say UP?
    
    	The only area I can think of, coming from the land of acronyms is
    	Upper Peninsula, Michigan?
    
    	Sounds interesting.  There are many high density deer areas in the
    	U.S. that are a reasonable travel away for many of us.  Whether or
    	not yours is one of them has yet to be seen. Please elaborate.
    
    	Thank you,
    
    	Steve

    What are the prices for non-resident tags? Do the same regs. apply to
    out of state hunters as well, pending one can still get a tag?
    
    Jeff

    UP means upper penninsula, michigan.....
    
    Sort of like hunting in southern canada.
    
    Prices for non-residents are:
    
    	archery		$ 75.85/tag  	two allowed (10/1 thru 1/1/96)
    			$  3.50/bonus   apply by 9/24 (11/15 thru 1/1/96)
    	firearm		$100.85/tag	two allowed * (11/15 thru 11/30)
                                        *except where bonus tags are issued
    
    	muzzleloading	use firearm tags	(12/1 thru 12/10)
    
    The draw rate will by 90% in several DMU deer managment units. All
    along the western coast of Lake Michigan, and in the center of the upper
    penninsula. I have hunted all these areas and they are very attractive
    habitats. 
    
    call (800)898-MDNR for the DNR. You can get tags over the phone with a
    MC or Visa, according to this flyer. You can apply for doe bonus tags
    this way as well.
    					
    
    So if you had a month, you could use your center fire for two weeks,
    then use a muzzle loader for another ten days. Or use Archery all the
    time (archers must use the firearm tag if they score in firearm
    season.)
    
    

    some possiblity for confusion in the prior
    
    the bonus tag is not good until 11/15 and then can be used by any
    method until all seasons for deer close (sunset on Jan 1st, 1996). It
    cost $3.50 for the entry into the drawing. I have not missed getting a
    bonus tag in any year that I have applied. There are 19 DMU's with
    excess population. 10 of these are in the UP, several are just west of
    Detroit and a couple are just east of Chicago in the sw corner of
    Michigan. Should be reminiscent of vietnam in those regions. Michigan
    fields the equivalent of three Army Corps during hunting season
    (750,000 hunters with guns) Not many drive the 550 miles to get to the
    western U.P.
    
    In archery season opener, I have nearly 60 square miles entirely to
    myself. This is with an average of 35-40 deer per square mile. At 2400
    to 1, the odds are pretty neat, eh?
    
    

    Thank you for the information.
    
    
    Jeff

    It seems the 1-800-898-MDNR number has been disconnected. The new
    number, (not listed) is 1-800-898-6367. This works because I just put
    in my fiancee's sportcard # (she is from Illinois and has a fishing
    licence from Michigan) and her bonus tag application was accepted.
    
    You will need a sportscard # which you get for $1 over this same line.
    If your are a non-resident, and you have already purchased fishing, or
    small game, you already have a sportscard #.
    
    To actually use the bonus tag, you will still need to purchase at least
    one archery or firearm tag. Since the the bonus tag only cost $5.00
    ($3.50 in person) the average for two deer is not so bad ($52.50ea).
    
    Application deadline is 9/24/95.
     

    Hunting at its best? You decide. My hunting partner this year was also
    my lady friend. She had never hunted anything, but does love venison.
    When I was going over my plans, she got caught up in the idea of
    culling the hear to save a lot of them by removing a few. She decided
    to put her archer target skills to work. After a month of prep work in
    clothing, arrows, broadheads, tuning and shooting, shooting shooting, I
    felt that she could hold a 1.5" group at twenty yards with the Muzzy
    tipped hunting shafts. She ruins about half her target nocks in a
    sitting but the broadheads amplify every little twitch.
    
    I had taken a couple of solo runs to the UP for scouting. Found two
    real promising stands in a fir and a hemlock about 300yds apart. One
    was a typical funnel effect and the other was a bedding exit trail. We
    went up two days early to set up the stands, clear out and do a little
    fishing by canoe on lakes you can only get to by Jeep. I had this
    feeling that things were going to be great when that 20" Northern Pike
    bashed my lightweight spinning gear first thing. Catch and release for
    under 24" but it still was fun.
    
    We were tenting it and about 2am, savage lightning bolts, cracks of
    thunder and a trememndous downpour wake us up. Kind of a bummer I
    think, but maybe, just maybe it will let up at dawn. The rain shuts off
    like a switch at 5am. We are already dressed and bolt for the stands.
    It has been my expereince that whitetail will stay bedded while it
    rains if the rain is heavy. This was. They did. I got to my stand
    undetected even after excorting my protege to her first tree climb
    since she was thirteen - a lot of unspecified years ago. Needless to
    say she was not thrilled about a wet climb in the dark as the second
    time up there - the first was when we put the stand up and did
    familiarization. She moaned, "I can't do this. I can't do this." all
    the way up. She made it though.
    
    I got in my stand around 5:50am; about 45 min before shooting light. At
    6:30am a large deer, sex undetermined, wanders under my tree and keeps
    going. The light was so poor, and the coloring was so close to the leaf
    riddled forest floor, that I could swear that deer was wearing a
    "predator" style suit; sort of invisible except when it moved. Since I
    could not get definition while it was standing still, I passed.  45min
    later three does come together. One looked to be a yearling, but the
    other two were two or three year olds. It was very windy so they were
    spooky, looking every which way. Getting into position for a shot was a
    trial, to keep looking at each one avoid detection. I settled on the
    right "medium" doe and drew back the Beman Light tipped composite
    arrow. The pipper on the propoint found the spot and I let it go. 
    
    The doe kicked both rear feet into the air at the "Shraaackk" sound of
    inpact and then hit warp speed for the tangles. I hoped she was hit too
    hard to reach them but not so lucky.  She made it but only by 10 yards.
    So finding was not that bad. I had hit a little forward, the Beman
    three blade head punched throught the right shoulder bladed before
    doing major damage in the boiler room. Since my carbon extreme shoots
    a 475gr arrow at 268fps, the energy assured a "shoot thru". The doe was
    quite dead when I found her.
    
    Dressed and dragged out and a change of clothes for me by 9:30am on the
    opener: one deer hanging. Haven't done it this quick in a few years. I
    was supposed to go check on Olivia at 11:00am. I went in a few minutes
    early to find that she had not seen a thing. Seems the rain might have
    changed the schedule, but then I did not really know exactly when the
    deer would arrive, just that the trail was well used. 
    
    We went back out at 3:30pm. I figured that maybe the deer that was
    early might not be spooked as I was sure the others certainly were. It
    was a good guess. Another doe, walked out from under my tree at just
    about the last bit of light. She was facing straight away and alking
    very slowly, so I drew on her. Tried a spine shot from above and
    behind. Missed the spine by an inch, but the angle was right. The arrow
    drove through the heart and out the breast bone. The doe staggered
    sideways and ran off leaving a blood trail looking like it had been
    painted with a three inch brush. I did not have a light, (dumb
    mistake), so had to go back to the tent anyway. Can't field dress deer
    in the dark (not yet anyway).
    
    Checked on Olivia on the way, She was done and moving about the woods
    with a light (not as dumb as me). She had drilled another doe. Her shot
    was the prettiest I have ever seen. Her doe was angled toward her, so
    she put it over the shoulder on the left side. The carbon shaft drove
    out the right side right at the white belly boarder, just in front of
    the diaphram. Her deer ran just thirty yards. When I found her she did
    not feel so hot. First kill kind of thing...we've all been there. But
    the remorse passes and the pride of doing it well lasts. Two days later
    she talking about a Thanksgiving day hunt after the bonus tags arrive. 
    
    Me?....Well, I've just dressed, dragged, hung, butchered, packaged, and
    frozen three deer. I'm little less eager at the moment.......

    Some fallout of Olivia's hunting experience: She is a supervisor at the
    social security admin office in the city where she lives. Her boss is a
    hunter and when he heard of her success, he put a computer printout
    banner up in the office. Olivia has received a lot of flack about her
    decision but is really handling it well.
    
    One man says "You, of all people, I would have thought had better
    sense."
    
    Her reply to him, "Hey, me and OJ. You never can tell........"
    
    Another woman asks, "How could you do that to an animal?"
    
    Olivia simply asked her, "And where do you buy your meat?"
    
    She is unperturbed by others as far as I can tell. But is seeing first
    hand the antihunting sentiment in a big city, socialist type
    environment.
    
    

    re:7+8
    
    	Good for her, on her first deer and with not putting up with the
    crap. Somehow people think they're so much better for letting someone
    else kill and butcher their meat. Some people just don't get it, and 
    never will.
    
    	Ray

    Olivia is a published writer. Her treetime experience led her to write
    this Sestina in the old troubadour fashion. Inserted with permission:
    
    
                                DIANA THE HUNTRESS
                
                Leaf-clad Diana takes up bow and arrow to hunt
                Cedar-scented, she now awaits the elusive doe
                So did the hunter Actaeon once follow her trail
                To where she lay unawares, entangled in the leaves
                To awake in fear with  the birches ancient quiver
                His beard just brushed her cheek, a foul season.
                
                Her freedom she gained, to roam for another season
                Resolved to seize upon the male domain to hunt
                She returned as the god slept to steal his quiver
                In the forest, deep, she hid to learn the ways of the doe
                Her sister of noiseless step who no shadow leaves
                While fingered light of woodland hides her trail.
                
                As quarry no longer hunted, she traces the trail
                The huntress blends with bark and leaf each season
                On her flank lithe as the deers, the moonlight leaves
                Its timid touch and in her hair, gentle breezes hunt
                How in her movements so like the dignified doe
                As she stands, her ears and nostrils aquiver.
                
                Let no man nor woman at her courage quiver
                Nor for the stalked deer down cheek a tear trail
                For Diana must eat,  as so must her sister the doe
                Feed upon what earth offers of berry or bud in season
                Scholars, poets and sailors for wisdom, word or wind hunt
                Yet each in turn, not unlike the comet, a trail leaves.
                
                Even as the fallen doe whose dauntless spirit leaves
                Jolted by arrow pulled from Diana's stolen quiver
                The blood-round hole in her hide bored from the hunt
                Marks not whats thought the end of  her trail
                For surely in a rainbowed round circle the seasons
                As rises again to wander the wildwood the fallen doe.
                
                High in the pine Diana spies the feeding friendless doe
                Carefully she draws bow and the lethal arrow leaves
                the bow like the frighted deer will the buck in season
                The doe bolts but the heavy-eyed trees do not quiver
                For thirty yards she thrashes then falls on familiar trail
                Diana descends the pine to tag the end of her hunt.
                
                When Diana finds the doe, neither of them can quiver
                Among the leaves it lies; above she sees the stars trail
                It is the harvest season; there in the sky she reads the hunt.
    
                                                              

    In Menonomee country the firearms seasons just got extended from 11/30
    to 12/30.....more of the same coming I'll bet....
    

    The results are in: 270,000 deer have been taken from the UP, according
    to the DNR estimate. Still have almost 700,000 in the up alone, nearly
    1.4million in the state. We have had a very tough start to winter, but
    the deer are in very good shape this early. If the snowfall holds all
    season or extends into spring, things could get tough. The ideal number
    would be more like 1.1million. Next year should be a bumper crop on
    acorns and if we have a mild spring, 75% survival of fawns might just
    happen. This would mean almost 600,000 new deer in 1996