Richard P. Smith

The Michigan DNR’s annual Upper Peninsula Deer Camp Survey from the 2023 firearms season confirmed that deer sightings and hunter success were down significantly from the year before, especially in the region’s western counties. 
However, buck hunting success actually increased slightly in eastern counties, according to survey results reported by DNR wildlife biologist David Jentoft.

Based on the Michigan DNR’s 2022 Deer Harvest Survey Report compiled by DNR statistician Brian Frawley, about 14% of the hunters who shot deer that year did not comply with the mandatory reporting requirement – the first year the state required mandatory reporting.
The estimated harvest from surveys sent to a random sample of deer hunters was 339,189 compared to 297,132 kills that were reported, a difference of 42,057.

Fifteen-year-old Dylan Meyer from Zeeland, Mich., shot a 20-point nontypical buck in Ottawa County on Sept. 10, the second day of the 2023 youth deer hunt, that is now the state record in the youth category for nontypicals. 
The huge set of antlers have a gross score of 211-6/8 and net 206-1/8, according Commemorative Bucks of Michigan measurer Allen Wilde. The previous number one nontypical in the youth category was a 29-pointer that Michael Derosa shot in VanBuren County during the firearms season 1989 on his first morning ever of deer hunting.