“It’s a good way to boost morale of hunting, because a lot of us have lost the morale of hunting. “It’s a good way to boost the economy,” he says. Stauffer expects northern Michigan will become a destination for out of state hunters, people who might otherwise take a trip to Canada or out west. So it's nice to see that as well, because it's not so much everybody sits on 50, 60 pounds of bait and kills them anymore, you’ve got to hunt them.” “And they would never come into shooting range, they would never come into a clearing to get a shot at them. I actually had two nice bucks step out,” he says. Some people just hunt to put meat in their freezer and now it’s harder to do that.īut hunters like Lee Stauffer say the change has been dramatic. There was grumbling when they were put in place in 2013. One of the reasons hunters started this event in Manton was to generate some excitement about the new rules. Some hunters argue it's been a good changeĪt an organized buck pole, there are prizes for winners of categories like the biggest deer, the first deer, and the oldest hunter. That usually means the deer is two and a half years old. At least one antler has to have three points. The size is measured by the number of points on the antlers. The rules changed in 2013 and now a buck has to be a certain size before it can be hunted. You see a spike horn and everybody would just shoot it.” Shepler says around here, nobody would let one get away because it was too small. That’s because in the past you could shoot a buck of any size. “In this particular area that I’ve always hunted, I mean it was rare to even see a big buck like we've got out there now,” he says. This is a new event for Manton, and Shepler says before now it would not have been very exciting. That’s where hunters gather to see who got the biggest buck on opening weekend. Tonight, they’re near home, at the buck pole in Manton, north of Cadillac. He has a picture of an alligator his nine-year old recently shot. They go all over the country on hunting trips. “I’ve got three daughters and two of them hunt for sure and the one’s only two,” he says. Randy Shepler’s whole family hunts - his wife and his kids too. Plenty of hunters objected when they were put in place.īut after a few years, some say it’s a dramatic improvement and could make the region a hunting destination for people from other states.Ĭhanging the norm: younger bucks are off limits The rules apply to much of the northern Lower Peninsula, and they're more restrictive, making it harder to shoot a buck. Recent changes to the rules for deer hunting are changing the sport.
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