• On Saturday, hunters around the state celebrated opening day, the start to regular firearm deer season
  • Members of the Bryant family drove several hours from southern Michigan to the Upper Peninsula to partake in their deer camp traditions
  • These days, the crew rents an AirBnB and isn’t too worried about dwindling deer sightings

On Saturday, Tom Bryant had sat in his blind for nearly five hours but hadn’t seen a deer all morning — unless you count the one that almost ran across the road on his pitch-black drive in. 

But suddenly Tom heard a shot ring out that sounded like it might be coming from the direction of his brother or his nephew. He immediately set a timer.

“If we kill a deer, (we) shoot a shot five minutes later,” Tom explained. 
He was hunting atop a small ridge in the Ottawa National Forest about an hour south of Houghton. 

There’s nowhere else he’d rather be on Nov. 15, opening day of the regular firearm deer season in Michigan. His family and friends have driven about eight hours from southern Michigan to set up in that general area of the Upper Peninsula since the 1960s. 

(From right) Brothers Tom and Curt Bryant, along with Curt’s son, Kevin Bryant, hike out from setting up their deer hunting blinds in the Ottawa National Forest. (Kaden Staley for Bridge Michigan)

Tom’s father, Jack Bryant, first got the invite from one of his elementary school buddies and the trip turned into a tradition that spanned three generations, though only a couple kids in the youngest generation have participated.

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In its heyday, the crew of up to seven people slept on the ground in one or two large communal tents in the middle of the forest. But a few years back, Tom and his brothers realized they couldn’t set up the tent without much help from the youngest generation, so the hunters who still go up now stay in an AirBnB farmhouse about 20 minutes from where they used to camp.

The Bryant family tradition is similar to scores of other Michiganders’ traditions as hundreds of thousands of hunters descended upon the state’s woodlands on Saturday.

But, just as the youngest Bryants have given up the hunt, the number of hunters has been on the decline statewide. Last year, just more than 600,000 hunters purchased Michigan deer licenses. While that was up slightly from 2023, it’s down from more than 800,000 licenses sold 30 years ago.

Looking back on deer camp

On Friday, this year’s opening day crew — Tom, his brother, Curt Bryant, and Curt’s son, Kevin Bryant — gathered in the farmhouse’s living room, defrosting beef stew that Curt’s girlfriend made for them to pack. Per standard protocol, they reminisced about deer camp.

There was the time it snowed so hard the roof caved in on them while sleeping, the time the gas lights burned through the tent’s roof and started a fire (they put it out fast and no one was hurt), and, of course, all the pranks, like the one they pulled on Kevin during one of his first trips up as a young man.

After about four days sleeping in the same tent, the older men started heating up some water to wash off and change into fresh clothes. But Kevin was just sitting there, drinking beer.

“‘Kevin, are you gonna get cleaned up? The women are showing up tonight,’” Curt recalled someone said to his son. “His eyes got as big as saucers.”

A black and white photo shows three young kids with a slain deer
An old photo shows four men standing next to dead deer hanging from trees
An old photo shows five men sitting inside a tent

“I washed up. I combed my hair,” Kevin said. “I’m drinking beer, having a whiskey, and they’re like, ‘Alright, time for bed.’ And I’m all confused. ‘What do you mean?’ Of course they all started laughing.”

No women were ever coming.

There were also plenty of deer stories. The time Curt shot two bucks within three minutes. The time they found a wounded deer missing a leg — the coyotes had eaten it — and an old man drove up and said, “What’d you shoot that with, a cannon?!”

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Although Curt likes to boast that he’s gotten the most deer over the years, it’s been more than a decade since he last killed one and it’s been about as long for Kevin. Tom last bagged one back in 2023.

But, if no one gets a deer this trip, that’s OK. That’s not really the point. 

Plus, between gutting it, dragging it out and hanging it up, “it’s a lot of work,” Curt said.

“If you kill a deer, it ruins your whole day of hunting,” Tom said they like to joke.

Toward the end of the night, they each filled a glass of whiskey and toasted the deer camp members who were no longer with them, among them camp founders Fred Curry, Ben Hanamoto and Jerry Chopp; Tom and Curt’s father; and their brother, Mark Bryant, who died just a few years ago from kidney failure.

In 2022, the three siblings all hunted together one last time. Mark wasn’t a great hunter, his brothers say, but he shot a buck that year. And later, after he got sick, he ate venison from that deer as part of his final meal.

‘In deer camp forever’

On Friday, Tom stepped into the field in the forest where they used to set up their tents for deer camp. 

A man knees next to a pop-up deer blind and moves branches around
Tom Bryant moves branches around at the foot of his pop-up hunting blind in the Ottawa National Forest ahead of opening day of regular firearm deer season. (Kaden Staley for Bridge Michigan)

“Every time I come back here, it takes me back,” he said, his eyes starting to well up. “Right now, I’m experiencing everything going back 50 years.”

Tom said being at deer camp was like living a fantasy life.

“We would pretty much just disappear from the world for a week,” he said. “When I’m in the woods, I’m not thinking about the next report that’s due at work or the coworker I’m having trouble with. We’re hunting. We’re in deer camp.”

He pointed to where a stump used to stand before loggers came through, which is where they scattered his father’s and his brother’s ashes.

“Of course, my family can make their own decision once I’m gone, but my wife knows this is where I want to be,” Tom said. “If my ashes are here, then it’s like I’m in deer camp forever.”

  • Two men talking in the woods. One of the men is sitting in a deer blind.
    Tom and his brother, Curt, talk strategy and discuss the placement of their portable blinds compared to past years as they prepare for the opening of deer hunting season in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. (Kaden Staley for Bridge Michigan)
  • Man walks in the woods carrying chairs to a deer blind
    Tom Bryant carries the final touches to his deer blind as he sets up for opening day of deer hunting season in the Ottawa National Forest. (Kaden Staley for Bridge Michigan)
  • Two men look at a tablet.
    (From left) Tom and Curt Bryant look at old photos of the members of their deer camp on a tablet while back at their AirBnb the day before they head out for opening day of deer hunting season. (Kaden Staley for Bridge Michigan)
  • A man in hunting garb sits in a pop-up blind and looks out the window through binoculars
    While hunting, Tom Bryant uses his binoculars to check on suspected deer, or sometimes just to look at birds. (Laura Herberg/Bridge Michigan)
  • A man in hunting garb stands and looks through binoculars
    Tom Bryant stops to look for deer while tiptoeing to his blind in the Ottawa National Forest on Nov. 15, opening day of regular firearm deer season. (Laura Herberg/Bridge Michigan)
  • The view through the window of a deer blind shows woods
    The view from Tom Bryant’s blind while deer hunting in the Ottawa National Forest. (Laura Herberg/Bridge Michigan)
  • camouflaged baseball cap
    Curry’s Hunting Camp was named after its founding member, Fred Curry. The deer camp members wear custom hats in memory of him and many others who have passed. (Kaden Staley for Bridge Michigan)

5-minute shot

Back in Tom’s blind, another shot went off almost exactly five minutes after the first one. Tom sprung into action. He grabbed his backpack and his gun and bounded down the trail. 

He had a bar of cell service, so he pulled out his phone and typed into the group chat with his brother and nephew, “Five minute shot???”

They each wrote back to say it wasn’t them. Tom’s step’s slowed.

It turns out opening day wasn’t ruined yet after all.

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