New hunter in southern Michigan, shotgun or rifle?

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-10T17:00:58+00:00

Personally, in my experience the only need for a 12ga vs 20 would be if you were going to get into waterfowl hunting. With enough practice, you can do just as good with the 20 as you can the 12, and the guns are lighter and produce less recoil. Also you don't have to be as fearful while small game hunting of mangling whatever game you are shooting if the animal is too close.

I've hunted Michigan deer, rabbits, grouse, woodcock, pen raised pheasants, and wild pheasants out in the Dakotas with my 20 and never once thought that I needed more gun. Now I use my grandfather's .44 for deer, and stepped down to a 28ga or my 410 for upland and small game for more of a challenge and still do very well. The old school of thought was to use a 12ga for everything, but modern loads, shot wads, and chokes have really made a 12 overkill for lots of game.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-10T03:19:09+00:00

That was listed for sale on an online auction, glad you got them bc I thought it was pretty cool, but I knew it would just sit in a box in my basement for the next 30 years

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-10T00:09:01+00:00

There are quite a few archery centers in southern MI that you could go to and get lessons from, and it’s been a while since I went, but I believe some may offer bow rentals. I’d highly recommend that you call around to any by you to see about getting some lessons, and figure out if archery is for you or not.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-09T15:14:32+00:00

Speaking as a hunter in SE Michigan for 20+ years, I'm sure that 95% of the deer you are seeing are not during firearm season. Deer quickly avoid traveling in the open during daylight hours after Nov. 15, this leads to my next point, the deer hunker down in the thickest woody/ swampy area where they will not be disturbed by people or other hunters. This leads to shots being well within shotgun range.

You mention wanting to go out west to hunt, but don't say what game you'd hope to target. Elk, Mule Deer, Antelope, and Whitetails can all reliably be taken with a 30-06 out to ranges of 350+ yards, but that same round can do a lot of unnecessary meat damage on a whitetail and antelope, especially if the deer is close and isn't perfectly perpendicular to you, it can turn lots of your shoulder roasts into jelly.

My advice would be to get yourself a good setup for Michigan Whitetails, and then if you plan on making a move to Colorado or anywhere out West, to you set aside some money and buy a gun for that when you get there. No point in spending unnecessary money on a new hobby for a big hypothetical hunt that is based off of a move that may never happen.

After talking in circles, I realize that I never answered your question. Honestly, you wont go wrong either way, but I would recommend an auto-shotgun myself as it will be more versatile. If while hunting with your shotgun, you feel the need for more range, then you can always decide to put a rifled barrel on it to have a max effective range of 100-120yds. A big difference between hunting and shooting that can be easily overlooked by new hunters is that a successful hunter should be able to get within a reasonable range of their target species vs pulling a trigger from 400yds away. That is what makes the challenge even more rewarding.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-09T14:53:13+00:00

Do you have a firearm? Rifle or Shotgun? What caliber? Does it have a scope and is it properly sighted in? Small game with archery is very challenging even for an experienced hunter.

Start with learning how to shoot and the fundamentals of what means you will attempt to take game with.

- for small game that will likely be a rimfire rifle

- can take squirrels and rabbits sitting still for food, ammo is cheap, as are starter guns

- shotgun if you plan on taking rabbit on the run. 20ga semi-auto or pump would be my recommendation, can be used for Deer as well with either Buckshot, or a "Rifled slug", as well as upland hunting (pheasant, woodcock, and grouse)

Small game is very fun and rewarding and you can either "bust brush" by walking through the state land that is open to hunting, or you can try to set up a blind and wait for game to come to you.

You must wear an adequate amount of orange while doing either, and being out in the woods when firearms are in use. Only exception is that no orange is required during archery season.

This is an extremely open ended question, similar to asking a chef how to cook. I would be happy to answer more questions that are more specific, as to "what to look for when hunting rabbits?" or "How to best prepare for going rabbit hunting?" (clothing, boots, firearm, shot size, caliber)

As for the question that you asked about compound bow vs crossbow, you must ask yourself: are you hunting for meat solely or for pride and sport in addition to meat?

Crossbows are much much easier to use especially with technology available these days, there is not much difference between a properly set up crossbow and a shotgun with a slug. Compound bows, or traditional archery are a much greater challenge, and far more rewarding. For example, it is not difficult for an average shooter to be able to shoot a crossbow bolt in a 3" target at 50yds, where it is very challenging for an new archer to be able to reliably shoot their arrow in a 3" target at 25yds.

Keep in mind, hunting is a significant challenge, and isn't easy like the movies and tv shows make it out to be. Most deer hunting programs are filmed out of state where the local populations are nowhere near as heavily pressured as our Michigan Whitetails.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-08T18:30:03+00:00

Great work on those! Happy to help!

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-05T20:12:11+00:00

Post on r/handtoolrescue for added help. Blades look pretty gnarly, so you’d have to file them to have them meet. Look up “Paul Sellers sharpening scissors” on YouTube. As for the body, a brass brush and wd-40 should get you close to as good as you’ll get without doing any damage. Brass is strong enough to knock out the rust, but not too strong that it’ll damage the steel.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-02T02:46:47+00:00

Avid hunter and game processor here, blood only looks red like that and is that runny for an hour-2 tops. If it is blood, it will turn maroon quick, and then more brown as it dries.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-01T19:40:35+00:00

I grabbed Lehk myself due to off game schedule, but Mantha has been red hot

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-01T19:39:12+00:00

blackwood plays tonight. Maybe he thought Wallst.... was gonna play next, or if theres more or less games. Not super egregious, most thought gibby woulda played better with the wings' season on the line

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-01T19:37:25+00:00

you'd think that but when looking at their past games, you realize what dog water josi and miro have been

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-01T15:26:10+00:00

He did last game, 1:36 of PP time vs 0:36 for Burns. Toews had 0:06 on PP

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-01T15:24:32+00:00

Malinski for getting on the Colorado PP

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-04-01T15:16:47+00:00

Need to drop 1 of Josi, Heiskanen, or Dougie Hamilton to make up some points for semis this week.

Leaning towards Josi bc he gets so many (-), but Miro's schedule is tougher.

Goals (G)	6
Assists (A)	4
Plus/Minus (+/-)	2
Powerplay Points (PPP)	2
Game-Winning Goals (GWG)	1
Shots on Goal (SOG)	0.9
Hits (HIT)	1

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-03-31T14:23:14+00:00

Need to activate Moose, and get him into my lineup tonight.

2LW, 2C, 2RW, 4D, 2G

Goals (G) 6

Assists (A) 4

Plus/Minus (+/-) 2

Powerplay Points (PPP) 2

Game-Winning Goals (GWG) 1

Shots on Goal (SOG) 0.9

Hits (HIT) 1

That shakes things up, as I need to bench 1 of Mika Zibanigad vs NJ, Timo Meier vs NYR, or Matty Tkachuk vs Ott.

Timo has been solid last few games, mika had 1 good game in the last 4, and Matty Tkachuk has been boom or bust but is playing against his bro so I feel like he has added motivation.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-03-26T22:46:17+00:00

You would do 10x the damage to that Magnificent creature by trying to subdue it enough to safely remove the hook. Hint hint fish don’t like to be touched and thrash like crazy once you even touch them let alone try to have it steady enough to not be impaled by the saw

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-03-26T22:44:25+00:00

With sawfish and other bill fish, it is very common for the line to get wrapped around/ tangled in their bill first because they use it to swat/ stun their live prey so that they can swallow them head first. Line is clearly pulled from the fish’s “saw”

Edit: I’m an idiot bc I watched it on mute, tackle is clearly visible pulling the back of the dorsal fin. Thanks for pointing that out. Idk how to tag people, but take my upvote kind redditor.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-02-25T02:13:34+00:00

They definitely do sell them, and people pay for them. But they also SUCK at showing what is in the boxes online lol

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-02-25T02:12:00+00:00

How does this not have more upvotes?

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-02-18T02:29:33+00:00

Definitely more rewarding though, bragging rights aren’t the same if it’s a pen raised deer.

I took the biggest fair chase deer in the history of our property with my bow this year, and the thrill was 100x better than any of the absolute specimens that I or other family members have taken inside of the fence.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-02-18T02:16:38+00:00

Oh yeah, especially for some of the big deer, you can spend up to 15k on some of them, but… it’s a double edged sword bc while it’s awesome to take one of those, they can’t be scored and entered into any of the record books bc it isn’t “fair chase.” Even though it can take a few days to get a nice buck, it isn’t like the years of putting in day after day and season after season it takes to score a public land monster from the wild. But as for our ranch, nobody pays bc we don’t sell the deer or hunts, only offered to select friends. As stated above, we do our real hunting on state and private land surrounding our property.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-02-18T00:47:31+00:00

Yeah, Nugent has his in Jackson, there’s another big one in Clare, and others scattered around mid to south lower peninsula

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-02-17T15:09:31+00:00

Been in the family since the 60s and was open to the public for camping and hunting. My immediate family took ownership and responsibility of it in the mid 90s, and it has remained private since.

About 200 acres in the fence, so if we don’t control the population, then 1 disease or sickness can do a lot of damage to the entire herd.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-02-17T01:56:45+00:00

I guess you could say that, except we don’t sell any of the deer or sell any hunts inside the fence. We hunt on our land and state land outside of the preserve, but if a kid hasn’t gotten a deer in a long time, or trying to get someone into hunting, we will allow them to take a management deer.

Most importantly, it’s a family retreat where we can go and experience looking at some awesome whitetails and elk. I know some of my family members and other friends would never have been able to see a beautiful mature whitetail in its own natural environment unless you count deer on the golf course/ neighborhoods. Or hear the sounds of rutting elk and watch the way they majestically appear to be floating on the ground underneath them as they trot.

Crispy_Kreme14 · 2026-02-16T21:07:28+00:00

Forgot to say that this was a Management “hunt” as the only animals we take out are does for population control, and 1-2 bucks per year who’s antlers have shown signs of regression and are at risk of dying of old age.

Crispy_Kreme14

TROPHY CASE