IS A TREE SADDLE FOR YOU?
It was Election Day 2004, and as always, I took the day off to do my civic duty and vote. It’s tough giving up a premium rut-phase morning hunt, but I do it every two years because I believe nobody has the right to complain about politics if they don’t vote.
From my home in northern Michigan, I had a 2½-hour drive to where I wanted to hunt in the southern part of the state. My plan was to vote as soon as the polls opened and then hunt midday and evening down south.
My hunting location was a 50-yard-wide pinch point consisting of excellent transition security cover on high ground that dropped down to the north and south into two large bedding areas. The tree I planned to hunt was almost centered in a public-land funnel, and the only two apple trees in the area were 15 yards away. I had hunted the location for several years and had been mildly shocked that none of the many other hunters in the area had ever hunted it.
The landscape to the east and west of the pinch point consisted of relatively open weed fields, which were not conducive for daytime mature buck movements, and the topper was I could access the pinch point through them without intruding through a bedding area.
During a pre-season speed tour in late September, I noted that the apple trees had apples, there were two active scrapes under one,
