In Michigan it’s required to report deer harvests. The state has a mobile app that makes it pretty simple to report, and you can also check the past and present deer harvest summaries.

As it stands, Michigan’s deer harvest is down over 23% this year.

There’s still about 4 weeks of late doe and the entire month of January is open in select counties. It’s also worth considering that people stopped buying tags and subsequently reporting harvests given the astronomical increase of processing costs. But I don’t think that accounts for a 23% decrease. Thought this was interesting.

I hunt the northern lower…… in five days of hunting I saw around 12 deer and I don’t believe any of them would go over 100 lbs live weight.
Saw one buck that was one antlered spike….. we have antler restrictions of three on side for the first then four on a side for the second.

I did see quite a few rubs and scrapes however so there is some bucks around— just didn’t see them.

I’m not crabbing about it— it is what it is….. I did not hear much shooting around me and I have heard several guys complaining about the season

I harvested a decent 9 pt and let several mature deer walk that werent bigger than the the first...no shortage of deer around here. Cant kill them from the couch...gotta get out and hunt.

I would imagine a unchecked wolf population and no coyote market doesn't help in the Upper. EHD hit pretty hard in the southern lower and they are talking about increasing license fees. I struggle to understand the logic of Michigan's management of its game. We have had 2 relatively mild winters in a row and according to their "experts" the deer herd should be fine. Most hunters would beg to differ. Why would you spend millions stocking fish and then restrict otter harvest? Regs here are based on emotion and not science. Frustrating

I would agree, maurob.

Seems a single buck tag and decreased cost for doe tags in southern lower would help with the deer population issues. Need to be incentivizing actual herd reduction harvest activities.

After a couple years of single buck tag I suspect there would be a significant improvement in the age class structure, resulting in more non-resident hunters (and resulting license fee revenue) as well as more hunter interest (and thus, more revenue).

Supergoose, are you hunting public ground?