Michigan not known for big bucks | Fred Abbas ■
Houghton Lake, Michigan, is not known for big bucks. Neither is Beaverton, Michigan, where my son lives. We know which Michigan counties produce most record-book entries, and we were looking forward to the challenge of hunting trophy bucks. We were switching our hunting efforts to southern Michigan’s farm country when we encountered Ray Scott of the Whitetail Institute at a hunting show in Alabama in the late 1980s.
The encounter changed our concept and approach to land management. We learned that food plots would become the backbone of our strategy. We currently own and lease several farms in southern Michigan counties known for trophy bucks. These farms are planted with Whitetail Institute products, spring and fall. Deer love a variety of food. A deer’s life revolves around food, water, safety and reproduction. We try to cater to all those needs. We also create safe zones we seldom enter, and when hunting pressure increases around our farms, deer know where to go. Three of the food plots on each farm are small (1/4 to 3/4 acre) and are normally planted with Imperial Whitetail Fusion, Alfa- Rack Plus, Whitetail Oats Plus, Winter Peas Plus or Tall Tine Tubers (we change annuals from time to time) in remote areas. We mostly use the smaller food plots for bowhunting, but after the pre-rut/rut begins, we switch to much larger food plots (2 to 4 acres) planted with Imperial Whitetail Clover, which attract does and rutting bucks. The day of this hunt, I counted more than 20 bucks chasing does in and out of the food plot. I knew larger bucks would soon pick up the scent of an estrous doe and follow it to the plot. Then, two bucks came out of the woods simultaneously but separately. I knew immediately both were trophy class. They locked onto a doe, and the chase was on. The lead buck was a big 8-pointer, but the second — and larger — buck attracted my focus. I ranged him at 130 yards and had him locked in my cross-hairs while tracking him to clear a pair of feeding fawns. Boom. The .450 Bushmaster barked, and the results were immediate. The big buck went down within 30 yards of the hit.