In the western Upper Peninsula, just a few miles off Highway 28 near an old logging trail deep in Ontonagon County, township resident Don Kengerski spreads a layer of straw on the frozen ground.
‘Cover that with a plastic tarp and the moisture won’t rise into the tent,? said Kengerski, 78, a Minnesota native and former Wisconsin resident who moved to Brandon Township in 1973.
‘We set our wood stove in a box of sand to keep the sparks from starting the tent on fire. We can get it warm and toasty in there’no matter how cold it gets outside.?
For more than 55 years, Kengerski, along with family and friends, has ventured to a remote area for the firearm deer hunting season, which opens statewide today. With the growing popularity of baiting and modern hunting techniques becoming more prevalent’Kengerski holds to more time-honored methods.
‘I started deer hunting in the mid-1940s and have missed only a few seasons,? he said. ‘We have the traditional deer camp and hunt. No fancy deer blinds’we lay dead fallen trees around where you’re out in the woods.?
‘Our deer camps are all about deer hunting. Hunters today are getting away from the ethics of hunting. I believe in the fair chase, we never use a deer tree stand or bait for deer for that matter. We need to hunt deer on their own turf and learn their habits’they are very smart animals.?
‘When we started hunting up near the Ontonagon River, part of Highway 28 was dirt and we’d have to wait 15 hours along US-27 to cross the Mackinac Straits on a ferry before the bridge was built,? he said. ‘It’s beautiful hunting up there.?
For a week, Kengerski and his hunting partners will live in a 14-by-18 foot canvas tent dining on a turkey, sauerkraut, and other hearty deer camp food. When the provisions get low, the group peels potatoes and has to prepare meals.
‘We hunt in all types of weather, too,? he said. ‘We never sit in camp and drink beer, we don’t go up to the U.P. for that purpose.?
Some hunting seasons Kengerski and his group have had five bucks hanging up on the second day of the season. Still, other hunting seasons produced no deer’not even a doe, he added.
While legal targets, Kengerski said he passes up spike horns and even 4-point bucks so they can grow more next year.
Kengerski attributes the lack of deer in the Western U.P. to poachers on four-wheelers, along with plenty of wolves.
‘We’ve seen poachers out hunting, driving down old-logging trails,? he said. ‘Lots of deer are taken at night. You can hear the wolves at night, too. They are good hunters, efficient, they are killing the fawns. It’s cut into the deer population.?
‘The use of baits has been a big problem in Michigan, they make a ton of money on hunters’it’s just too easy to get one. Last year we did not see a single deer up there. Forty years ago you could count 30 deer in the same time period.?
Rod Clute, big game specialist from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, agrees with Kengerski that many hunters today need the quick fix and some use modern legal methods of deer hunting.
However, said Clute, using bait is of no advantage to deer hunters.
‘It’s a matter of tradition,? he said. ‘If you use bait to hunt growing up’then often hunters will continue to use it during the season. Our studies indicate that deer will not travel outside their area of just a few miles to eat from a bait pile. If the bait is within their area, they will take advantage of the food. In the case of the U.P., that area may be 40 miles. In the southeastern part of the state, it’s only a mile or so.?
Clute also said wolves? impact on deer are minimal.
‘Wolves make deer far less visible,? he said. ‘Fewer deer are in the Upper Peninsula than 50 years ago’it could be down by as much as 50 percent. There are only as many deer as can survive up there. Downstate is another story’way too many. The DNR wants a deer herd that can be sustained by the environment around it. There’s plenty down in the lower peninsula’success rates in the other parts of the state may be lower.?
For the last six U.P. deer hunting seasons, Kengerski has not brought home deer; however, the lack of success does not deter him.
‘You have to do your time in the woods,? he said. ‘So many today have lost the idea of sportsmanship’it’s not about killing a buck’rather the sport of hunting.?