Steve Gruber

I say thank you today to all the men and women who didn’t make it to the dawn. Thank you for those I never met that put their life on the line to defend me and my family. I say thank you to those who watered the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots. there own!

Part 2 from ”Outdoor America” where we’re hunting late season whitetails at Limberlost Farms in Michigan’s northern lower peninsula.

In this clip from my show ”Steve Gruber’s Wild Life” we take a break from fishing in Costa Rica for a canopy tour.

Steve Gruber and his 176 inch urban whitetail

A little more than ten years ago, I moved to Columbus, Ohio and my perception about where to find big deer began to change and it began to change dramatically. On numerous occasions, on my way out of town and into the country to hunt, I saw big deer and even trophy bucks behind houses or small businesses, just standing there. For many people, myself included, that can be an unexpected sight. We expect animals to hightail it out of town as development occurs. However, the whitetail deer is one of the most adaptive creatures God ever created and it will tuck itself into a small piece of brush, live behind a house, even live in a subdivision if it just has food, water and a place to sleep. Deer in town need the same things as deer in the country.

Many new developments, like in Michigan where I live, actually provide a very livable habitat for deer in their effort to create an appealing landscape for humans. When they build twenty or thirty new houses they always include green spaces—an excellent bedding area for the whitetail. Frequently they also provide a water feature, as they call it, creating a water source for whitetails. Additionally, much of the ornamental shrubbery, flowers and landscaping become a tremendous food source for these deer. Thus the whitetail adapts and instead of leaving, they flourish. Moreover, in many urban areas these deer have little to no hunting pressure. It is frequently so low that deer get to be four, five or six years old.  Add this to the genetics from Michigan to Massachusetts, from North Carolina to Illinois and Iowa, plus great bedding, food sources and water and what do you end up with? Great big whitetails living in town.

But for most of my adult life I didn’t really think about hunting in those areas. I drove by them because I have always had the perception that in order to kill a big deer I had to go out in the middle of big fields and big farms. Every time I passed deer on my way out of town, though, I wondered How is it that a 150, 160, 170 inch deer is standing in town and I’m driving by that deer on my way to go find deer? My father always used to say, “you don’t leave fish to go find fish” and I think the same is true for whitetail deer; you don’t leave deer to go find deer. Thing is, I, like most of us, always made the assumption that you just can’t hunt in town but you never know if you never ask. So finally I took it upon myself to find out, Can I hunt here? The truth is, in Columbus, Ohio, the answer is yes. Since that time I found that the answer is yes in a lot of other places, too, if you use the available resources.

Great resources available today include things like the internet being that every small town, every community, every municipality has a website. It’s a great way to find out ‘Can I hunt in this town?’ Whether it’s a small town or a big town like Columbus, you can get the city ordinances to determine how hunting is controlled. If that doesn’t answer your question, you can move on to local law enforcement. The local chief of police is a great resource to find out what’s legal and what’s not.  In many of these communities, especially in the eastern United States because whitetail deer have overrun so many communities, loads of places are desperate to find a way to control the populations. And as we all know, hunting is the number one way to control whitetail deer populations. You may also find, as I did, that in many suburbs you need a special permission slip to hunt in urban areas but once you have that, you will have access to some of the most amazing whitetails anywhere.

One of the challenges you will face in hunting in an urban area is what to do once you arrow a deer. Often times you are going to be hunting on a piece of property that may be less than an acre, and if you arrow that whitetail and he runs onto the neighbor’s property, it is very important to know the laws of your state. States like Ohio mandate written permission to go and get that deer. So make sure you understand the laws and make sure you work with the landowners because once you find this goldmine, you are never going to want to leave. If you are like me, you’re going to say, Why would I drive way out in the country if I can hunt in town and see more deer, more big bucks, and have a chance at a Pope & Young or a Boone & Crockett trophy? Why would I do that?

I had begun in earnest re-learning my approach to hunting trophy class deer. One thing I noticed was the deer in urban settings live in smaller home ranges. It took me quite a while to accept what I was watching. It did not make sense to me that these big bucks would stay in a much smaller area but I was sure of it. Once I found a big deer and began to see a pattern, I saw the deer regularly. In fact, once I found a big deer in town it seemed I saw them almost every time out. I wanted to know if what I was seeing was the norm so I asked leading biologists and experts. Brian Murphy, the Director of the Quality Deer Management Association, confirmed my observations that deer in town do in fact travel far less as a rule than their country cousins. The same has been observed by biologists and wildlife professionals with the Georgia Dept of Fish and Game, the Ohio DNR, the Michigan DNR and others. The revelation was important because it meant once I was able to find and identify where these big bucks were living, I was able to focus my efforts exclusively on that area and hopefully get lucky enough to make the shot. Another interesting point– in one small area in central Ohio I hunt that shall remain nameless, I can verify that in the past seven years or so, at least six 200 inch deer have come out of the same area proving that if these deer get old enough, they become the kind of deer that we dream about- the deer of a lifetime.

I have also put to rest, at least in my own mind, other misconceptions about hunting deer in town. I have heard people say “hunting deer in town is like hunting in the zoo”. I am not certain about that as I have never actually hunted in a zoo but I do take exception to the implication and I can tell you without question it is just not true. Because these deer live in smaller home ranges they seem to be much more in tune with their surroundings. Sure they hear the dogs barking and the children playing. They see the school bus, the garbage man and the ice cream truck but just walk in and hang a tree stand and they will vanish like a big buck anywhere else. In fact they may do it more quickly. The urban deer in my experience will pick up on something out of place faster than those living in the middle of Iowa. This also means that scent control is every bit as important when hunting in town as hunting anywhere else. I have many friends with years of urban hunting experience and they preach the gospel of scent control more than any other group of hunters I have ever met. Of course these are also the guys who know on any given night they could have a 200 inch monster cruising in at twenty-five yards so they take every step of the bow hunting process very seriously. I know several hunters who have 200 inch deer on their walls that were taken in town. Some of the names you would know but mostly they are people, just like you and I that took the time to figure out where the big boys are living. They took the time to find out what was legal, knock on doors, put in the time and trust their own hunting instincts and not rely on their friends who kept saying, “You can’t hunt there”.

As a result of my changing attitudes about where to hunt for big whitetails, I have had the great blessing of taking the two biggest deer of my life in urban settings-both in central Ohio. One deer scored 187 inches, the other the other 176 and I have learned a lot along the way.

So before you leave the crowded, noisy city and drive out in the middle of nowhere, before you go to the secluded farm or into the deep peaceful woods, take some time, look around, smell the flowers (no really, big bucks love flowers) and maybe, just maybe change the way you think about big deer and you might find the deer you have been dreaming about has been living in the backyard all along.

Scott Esker and his 155 inch urban whitetail

Welcome to my new site- SteveGruber.com

I have had the great blessing of traveling the world for more than 25 years most often with a camera somewhere nearby. My journey began in Lansing, Michigan with a microphone in a radio studio at Lansing Community College. From there the wind blew me 1600 miles to Bozeman, Montana. While attending Montana State University I was hired by the local ABC affiliate KCTZ-TV. Soon I was the weatherman and a few months later returned to Lansing as a main news anchor for the NBC affiliate WILX-TV. During my time back in Michigan I launched Wolf Creek Productions with my close friend and genius photographer Tom Nichols. While Tom and I began building the business I continued on the road as an investigative reporter and landed in Columbus, Ohio with WCMH-TV… NBC4.

I knew however that my days covering news were numbered. I longed to be exploring new cities, counties and countries. I have logged more than a million air miles with Wolf Creek, visited just about every U.S. state and Canadian province, numerous foreign countries and hosted hundreds of hunting and fishing shows on TV. Like I said it is a great blessing and make no mistake it has been and continues to be great fun!

SteveGruber.com is designed to help you join me along the way. I will talk about the places I’ve been, the places I hope to go, my thoughts on politics and people and just about everything else.

I welcome your feedback and yes even your criticism. This site is designed with you and mind so I hope we can work together, have an open conversation and maybe learn something while we’re here.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will do so often.

Keep the faith and shoot straight!

Steve