Upper Peninsula Off Grid Deer Camp 2014 

That's awesome Dan ! Appreciate your kind words.

Congrats on tagging out Karl ! Did you break in your new meat pole by hanging a deer from it ?

@@campbenny I sure did! It worked great!!

Outstanding !!!! That's fantastic brother.

Kris Lindquist You've got that right Kris! Thanks for the comment. Good Luck this season !

Thanks for watching James !

Thanks for watching them buddy. Season is just around the corner!

+Justice Smith Thanks for the comment. Good Luck this season......I hope you bag a nice one !

Bruce Walker Thanks for the comment Bruce ! I'm glad you can appreciate the beauty that the U.P. offers. Good Luck this season !

That would've been handy that year for sure

Thanks for watching!!

Thanks for watching and your words of wisdom ! lol. We brought a snow plow this year. That really helped !

Matt Smith Thanks for the comment ! I hope you do start your own camp. It's a lot of fun. Good Luck this season !!

Our worst in many years too. Hopefully they bounce back quicker. Thanks for the comment.

WoW! Great story about your dad. Was the train transporting Iron ore ? How long has it been since you've been up there? Thanks for your feedback on the video.

I went up in 2006 the first time. Then in 07 and 08 and not since then. I'm sure the trains were hauling ore in those days. Grandpa's job as the fireman was to keep the steam boilers lit by shoveling coal in. He had massive forearms as a result. Dad moved down to Ann Arbor area in 1940 to work in higher paying war materials factories. Eventually all but the youngest brother got drafted or joined the military. Grandpa and Grandma followed the kids down to southern Michigan. Only my Great Grandparents and one of Dad's aunts are buried there. Grandpa bought 80 acres about ten miles out of town back in the 30's for about 250.00 dollars for the whole parcel. Grandpa gave it to Dad. Dad ended up with a career in the military and retired down here in Georgia in 1970. He always held on to the land more for sentimental reasons than anything else. I am doing the same now. I've always wanted to hunt up there but it never seems to come together. Several of my cousins and myself talk about meeting up there one day for a week or so. Maybe it will happen! Your video brought back memories of some of those stories I had heard. Even ya'll using the oil burning lamps! Of course in the late 30's when Dad was driving it was some old car called a Star...with no top! Even here in Georgia where we usually tent camped while deer hunting, it can get into the teens or twenties early in the a.m..........but due to his cold weather experiences Dad was the only one who could serve a multi-course hot breakfast where all the dishes were still hot even though cooked separately in the same pan.

Greg Kerr That is awesome! I love hearing about the history from back when. Did they build a cabin on your property ? I hope you make it back up there along with your family for an annual hunt !

campbenny There was a small cabin on the property when Grandpa bought it. It was a cabin loggers lived in when they timbered the Ironwood area. Dad's family used it for deer camp. As I said earlier, by 1942 everyone was down in souther Michigan. A local remembered the outer walls were still up in the early sixties. In 2006 I found the cabin site. The only clue above ground was an old iron stove and some half buried old car body parts. The body parts according to my last Uncle still alive were from the logging days. Supposedly they left a key in some heavy machinery and a logger's kid started it up, lost control and smashed the car. They salvaged what they could and left the rest...fenders, door, etc. Digging down I found broken glass, window and door hardware, nails, tar paper etc......plus out behind it an area apparently used as the trash pile...dig down some and find old bottles, parts of rusted out food cans, broken crockery. Since then I've wanted to take a metal detector up there. The first gun Dad got to hunt with when he was ten in 1930 sounded like it was an old trap door Springfield or some such. He said eventually the hammer spring must have broke and the gun was set aside and he never found out what happened to it. Could have gone into one of the many WWII scrap drives or maybe!!!!!!...got stuck up in the rafters of that old cabin and are somewhere under the slight mound formed where that old cabin stood!

Greg Kerr Maybe you could restore the site and reuse the iron stove if safe ? old foundation or what else might be salvaged ?

Thanks for the comment. Feel free to checkout our 2015 u.p. hunt too.

+neolexington What was the name of the movie??

+Todd Crenshaw Escanaba in da moonlight

Thanks for the comment! I think the thumbs down are from nonhunters?

Nick Matonich Sounds like it's going to be another rough year of hunting this fall NIck. 3 bad winters in a row. Hopefully we have some milder winters ahead. We will continue deer camp regardless of how bad the hunting is. Thanks for the comment and good luck this fall !

Thanks for watching man and good luck to you and your camp this season !!

Thanks for the comment. We talked about doing it the way you suggested. You are right.....I'm sure that would have worked.

Bucks as big as Buicks ! lol That is a beautiful area your camp is in. Awesome to hear about all the deer camp history and tradition that you have going on. Thanks watching and good luck this season!

@@campbenny You outta see some of the monsters we get down here in the thumb area. Them farmland deer feed well and grow big. Heck, a few years back I took a 200+lb doe with my bow in Armada. When my hunting buddy neighbor saw it he asked "Did you shoot a cow?". She was definitely bigger than your average doe for sure. I've also shot some nice bucks out there for sure but that was by far the biggest doe I've ever taken.

@@campbenny Oh yeah, I love it in da swamp. And yeah ive got some buck stories fer sure. I did forget to mention da numerous bear and bobcat encounters over da years eh. Being a trapper I've trapped plenty of dem over da years too, bobcats that is. One encounter in particular will be a life long memory fer sure. I dont hunt in a blind or up in a stand in da swamp(ya couldn't see anything through da cedars from a stand). I still hunt ever so slowly along a creek there and it always produces an opening morning buck for me. But this one particular year I had already taken my opening morning buck, stayed back at camp and butchered my buck the next day. Went back out the following day with my muzzleloader. I was still hunting along that very same creek, decided to sit down and just relax for a bit. I'm sitting there at the base of a tree and hear a bobcat yowling as it's coming down the bank of the creek. It comes from behind me, can't see me because I'm behind the tree. And no shit, it walks up, around the tree and literally walks across my lap, and then shot off like a bolt of lightening when I said "Hey kitty". Now dat's a bobcat story fer sure eh? Never been that close to a live bear in there, taken a few and seen plenty over the years. But nothing is as memorable as that bobcat.

Thanks for watching!!

Hi Jeff, Great to hear from you again. I hope you all are doing well.

Yeah, some pretty deep snow got thrown at us that season ! Thanks for watching!!

Thanks for the comment. Deer camp is da best !

Thinking of heading north over spring break to open up our cabin for the year :-)

+Bud Farkus I made that mistake in April haha got stuck on the two track from all the swamp/snow/and rough road had to be pulled out... whomp whomp

Thanks for the comment. Glad you all saw lots of bucks. Good luck this fall !

+cabotbluegill You're right, That definitely would have walked us right out of there. I've hunted up in Jackman, ME 3 or 4 times. Beautiful up there ! Thanks for watching.

Thanks for the comment and congratulations on your 5 pt ! That's awesome. I just uploaded my crossbow hunt from over Halloween weekend. Looking forward to the 2015 opener with a little less snow this time. Hahaha

+campbenny Thank You! Yeah it should be way different this year than last..LOL Great I will check out your new video thanks! JJ :)

Thanks for the comment. Good times indeed. Why don't you hunt Foster area anymore ?

Thank you for your service Brett ! Thanks for watching and I hope you get to spend more time in the woods this fall. Best of luck to you !

Find a local to plow, they appreciate the money we had a guy use his dozer to get us in a mile to camp $200 best money we spent. He would actually go in and get stove going before we showed up ,

Thanks for watching. I didn't go back and watch my video but based off my recollection they shut down doe harvests around that season because so many deer were killed in the previous winter. Combo tags had restrictions of 3 or more........Single tag you could still shoot a buck with 3" or longer. Good luck this season !

+justin loraine I think you're right. Thanks for the comment and good luck this season!

justin loraine the Up is nice but more deer in the lower and big bucks used to be the other way around but not now

You gotta love the UP the hunting can be tough. I feel better about a deer I worked for . We should all start putting in food plots. We bitch about how harsh it is for the season imagine the whole winter of that.

Thanks for watching and good luck to your camp this season!!!

I think I will cut my sleeves off for Halloween

The antler point restrictions the one guy was referring to was for combo tags only. The other guy shot the spike and didn't have a combo tag therefore he was not under that restriction. He could shoot any buck (one) with 3" minimum antler.

We have done some food plots over the years however we have not been able to plant enough to sustain them through an entire winter however we are able to at least provide them a little boost. We also planted over 2,200 trees that will help provide food and better winter habitat cover. Thanks for watching !!

Better snow tires, tire chains, chainsaw winch and a high lift jack I believe are in our future. Thanks for the comment.

"Escanaba in da moonlight". Thanks for watching and good luck this season!

Yes !! At the Soady deer camp ! Fun to watch up at deer camp

Thanks for watching Terry !👍🏻

Only with combo license. He had a single buck tag. Thanks for watching and good luck this season!

+Nicky Jassoy I've never hunted in Wisconsin

Nicky Jassoy , Buffalo county has good genetics but expensive leases , Oconto ,Marinette county, Peshtigo harbor area .. Put in pre season work scouting,getting permission etc .and most places can produce. We’re blessed to have such hunting in the area. I’ve hunted all areas except the southwest corner and was at least lucky enough to fill doe tags every where. Good luck ,be polite , ask permission and we “Sconies” can be a great bunch .

+brooke bush its the 3rd weekend in September private land only

justin loraine you passed the test

Yes, our worst season in over a decade. Thanks for the comment!

You are wrong. That is only true with a combo license.

"Poached it because no one was around?" - lol! Is that a serious question? It's on RU-vid man. Come on !!

Dean Williams Nope, Nick had a single tag that season.

Hope you are having a great season. Thanks for watching buddy 👍🏻

Chris B Thanks for the comment Chris. We do let em grow for the most part. Most of us are on 3 or more on a side. Not a Michigan rule as you know. My nephew is the one who shot the spike and that was his third buck ever. He gets out one week per year and no doe permits available. Congrats to him! Unfortunately, most of the deer that we have been letting go died last winter. I hope they bounce back quickly. No doe permits in our area anymore so that should help if we can get some mild winters back to back. How bad did last winter impact your camp ? I saw about 10-14 deer per day (all doe and little bucks).

Don't care. He chose to buy one buck tag and filled it. No doe permits available. The winter killed most of what we let "grow". Thanks for the comment and good luck this season.

+campbenny spike bucks aren't good anyways. Either means early birth or poor nutrition so you don't want them breeding because of their bad genes. Good video

+Upstate Bassin but in this video it is clear that their is a VERY limited supply of bucks if I were hunting this property i would only shoot a couple of does at most, so the bucks can bread and grow bigger over time. probably the reason for bad genetics is shooting deer before they are big and in result the younger deer are the only ones breeding the does, and there is such a limited amount of deer they just keep inbreeding.

+Upstate Bassin another problem why the deer population is small is nutrition . it is clear in the winter especially with that much snow cover they have no food. I would focus on food plots, or small patches of standing corn for the late season

+Logan Dick You can't shoot the does. No permits are available. A 1 1/2 old spike buck in the bigwoods is not bad genetics. There is no agriculture in this area. The same buck would have had better antler development in an agricultural area. This was the only buck taken by the group in 2014. Many others were passed up. The hard winters/mother nature is the leading reason for lower deer density.

And buy A FORD!

+Theodore Aniskoff That will NEVER happen!

campbenny and thats why you got stuck and drive a TURD!

+Theodore Aniskoff hahaha! Our buddy tried to bring his Ford up to camp one year and it could even make it to the bridge. Such junk!

Why ? We want to be able to make it to camp at least.