Mid Michigan Outdoors

    From early Spring through the end of September, my sons and I have spent countless hours scouting our hunting area.  We have watched day after day, rain or shine, meticulously patterining the local deer.  We can tell you that there are 23 deer that move through our area regularly.  Now that may be just a close guess but we know for sure there are at least 23 as we have seen all of them at once on several occassions. 16 of them are does and the other 7 are bucks.  The matriarch doe has a set of big twins from this spring and she also has what appears to be last years doe fawn and, until just a couple weeks ago, last years buck fawn which is now a 6 inch spike that tags along with her.  There is a doe with real small triplets and 2 more does that have twins.  One young doe has no fawns.
    The bucks consist of the spike who had been tagging along with mom, two other spikes, a three point that has its' third point coming off its' forehead like a third spike rather that another point.  A decent 4 point, a respectable 6 point, and a tall tined 10 point that will score in the 130 range.  Throughout the summer there was another buck very similar to the 10 point but he was run off  by the remaining 10 point  shortly after they shed their velvet.
    When the wind is from the North we will rarely see any as it puts the wind at their backs when trying to approach the fields, gardens, and apple trees, for feeding.  Any other wind will have deer moving.  Their movement patterns have been quite predictable.  A couple of the younger does and their fawns, along with one of the spikes and the 3 point usually being the first to appear at the woodline over looking a field which must be crossed to get to food.  These deer always appeared on the eastern most run, and always headed  south east toward our far fence line, where they would browse  until just before dark, then cross the fence line into the neighboring wheat field, or make their way across the weed field into our garden or to the apple trees.  Shortly after this group would leave the woods more deer would appear at the woodline.
    Usually the next to show up would be the 4 point, also on the far east run, followed by a couple more does and fawns and the other small bucks.  The six point only came into the field about 30 percent of the time and he always appeared on a small run right along our far fence line and on only 3 occassions did he actually go into the center of the field.  The matriarch doe always came last and never entered the field until her fawns and all other deer had left the woodline.  90 percent of the time she came out on the western most run, closest to the houses, but also nearest to the best cover to stay concealed while skirting the field to approach the various foods.  She busted us more than once while we were scouting from cover at distances that I was sure no deer would have a clue we were there, but for some reason she would stop and stare in our direction.  Sometimes she would stand motionless for 5 minutes just staring into our scouting location, then without any good reason she would just turn around and return to the security of the woods. 
    The big ten pointer was a welcome sight on the rare occassion that he showed himself.  He was never in the field more than 40 minutes before dark or after daylight and was never more than 50 yards from a fence row or woodline.  He always stayed seperate from the main group of deer but never appeared by himself.  His evening travel route was our far fence line and his morning route was our south fence line, through pine trees bordering the neighbors property of a tangled thicket.  The morning routes for the rest of the deer were usually through our pines, cross the highway,  head north a couple hundred yards then cross back over the highway into the woodlot from which they would appear in the evening.  Once in awhile a few of the younger does and bucks would be seen in the morning heading north across our weed field back toward the woods from where the came just before dark.  They all bedded in or right next to a half football field size thicket that was created from a timber cut several years ago.  This is a sanctuary that we have considered off limits as far as scouting and hunting goes and I believe that has been a major factor in the predictibality of the local deer.  That is until just a few weeks ago.
     Literally overnight our deer sightings dropped to basically zero.  We saw a couple does in the first week of bow season but have seen very few since, now into the sixth week.  The activity has become almost totally nocturnal with little explanation, until last night.
     Wondering what has caused the deer to radically change there movements we decided to enter the woods towards the bedding area to see if we could figure something out.  Our curiosity was soon answered as we came across a huge pile of sugar beets under a stand about 20 feet up in a tree.  Now generally I have no problem with baiting, in fact I have done it a few times in the past,when it was legal, but I do have a few problems with this situation.
     First of all, the "hunter" obviously did no research as to whether there were any other hunters using the area.  If he had, he would have realized that we were hunting as close as 75 yards from where he dumped his bait.
     Secondly, he did absolutely no scouting.  He just drove out to the spot, dumped a bunch of beets, hung a stand and shot the 4 point.  He dropped his bait right in the middle of the two main runs coming from the bedding area and less than 100 yards from that same area, not even aware of what was going on naturally.  When going to his stand he would drive his truck  across both main runs and right along the transition area between the woods and the far fence line where the 6 and 10 point traveled, cutting off all natural travel routes of the deer.
    Third, and most important, baiting is now illegal in the lower peninsula of Michigan where we hunt.  Now if you can not hunt respectfully, at least try to do it legally.  If this guy considers himself a hunter I would have to argue with that.  He has no respect for anyone on the surrounding properties who might be trying to actually hunt.  Dropping a huge bait pile in the middle of prime area without any scouting is not hunting as far as I am concerned, it is simply killing.  He totally changed all the local deers natural activities.  We spent our time and efforts to learn about the deer, where they were going and why they were going there.  Which deer were running the show and which ones were just there waiting their turn.  Now none of that matters.
    If one good thing did come out of this, it is that my 12 year old son is able to see first hand the demise of our great sport.   People willing to do whatever they want, just to kill a deer.  Sure he might need the meat for his freezer, but it could have been accomplished without disrupting all the natural flow.  A couple days of scouting on his part would have made it easy to realize all he had to do was put his stand 20 yards to the north and take a deer as they walked by on the run, without freaking out every deer in the area.   To the true hunters, and most importantly the antihunters, he and those like him are simply killers. If this keeps up  it will not be long before anyone who kills a deer, or any game for that matter, will no longer be a hunter, they will be a poacher.