Do you share your land with people outside of your family/owners

[biglakeba$$]

Ouch. Think of the deer that get eating up in spring when taking the first cutting of alfalfa..... Farmer that tends our alfalfa hit 3 fawns this spring on other fields. We asked him to wait until end of June at the earliest to cut ours.

 

[buckvelvet]

I knew of one area like that in East Central MN where people would easily see 150+ deer in a small area with a short drive back in 2005 or so. But this was in the end of April and beginning of May and they were coming out to alfalfa fields that were just turning green. Still saw decent numbers in July and August but not close to as many. Heard that a farmer in that area hit 20+ fawns making his first crop of alfalfa on a few 100 acres. That will cut back on recruitment :eek:

Yep thats pretty much how it is in my area. You see lots of deer pretty much all year round except for the nasty part of winter.

 

[SD51555]

You wanna see some crazy deer? When I was in college, we used to fill a cooler and drive out by Houston, MN and glass deer just a few miles north of Houston. We saw amazing herds with a few drop tine monsters mixed in here. Easy to see 30-80 deer in one 20ac hay field out here. This was a perfectly laid out area; a large valley, crops in the bottom third, hay in the middle third, hardwoods on the top third. If I win the lottery, I'm buying this valley.


There are probably lots of fawns chewed up with how fast and wide hay can be cut.

 

[Ojibwa]

the farm I was leasing in middle GA was just for my family and I, but I did let the guy who did all my tractor work hunt it when he wanted too and when I was there alone..

 

[PackerBacker]

Due to tradition, I'm all backwards. My dad and I still go hunting with my uncles on public land where their grandfather took them. Lucky to see a deer most years and really lucky if there isn't a non-family member trying to crawl in my stand with me opening morning.

My stepdad hunts my 80 along with my BIL and a few of my stepdads friends during gun season. I go out for muzzleloader following but that is it. My stepdad helps with all the work but the rest have yet to even offer.

 

[wiscwhip]

You wanna see some crazy deer? When I was in college, we used to fill a cooler and drive out by Houston, MN and glass deer just a few miles north of Houston. We saw amazing herds with a few drop tine monsters mixed in here. Easy to see 30-80 deer in one 20ac hay field out here. This was a perfectly laid out area; a large valley, crops in the bottom third, hay in the middle third, hardwoods on the top third. If I win the lottery, I'm buying this valley.
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SD....sssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We take drives over there now and then (along with Buffalo Co) just to gawk at some of the monsters that are running around over there. I have a work buddy that lives just east of the general area on your map. He is always showing me trailcam pics from his phone of some dandy deer. He has a 180"+ on his wall, shot about 7 years ago with a bow, 12" drop tine off the left side and all! BTW, where did you attend college that you were in driving distance of Houston?

 

[sandbur]

Due to tradition, I'm all backwards. My dad and I still go hunting with my uncles on public land where their grandfather took them. Lucky to see a deer most years and really lucky if there isn't a non-family member trying to crawl in my stand with me opening morning.

My stepdad hunts my 80 along with my BIL and a few of my stepdads friends during gun season. I go out for muzzleloader following but that is it. My stepdad helps with all the work but the rest have yet to even offer.

I like your tradition of hunting with your Dad and uncles. Enjoy it while they are still around.

How many hunters are on that 80 on opening weekend?

The areas I hunt in ag country and the north woods average about 1 hunter per forty on opening weekend. About 1 hunter per 80 during the week.

I often do sit with one of my daughters on opening weekend. They are old enough to hunt alone, but we enjoy sitting together and I am only counting us as one hunter. I carry a gun but do not intend to shoot anything.

 

[SD51555]

SD....sssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We take drives over there now and then (along with Buffalo Co) just to gawk at some of the monsters that are running around over there. I have a work buddy that lives just east of the general area on your map. He is always showing me trailcam pics from his phone of some dandy deer. He has a 180"+ on his wall, shot about 7 years ago with a bow, 12" drop tine off the left side and all! BTW, where did you attend college that you were in driving distance of Houston?

I was one of the rowdy kids at Winona State.

 

[Freeborn]

Remember Uguide from the other site, this is his Flushing bar for flushing pheasants and fawns. I have seen other versions of this and I understand they work quite well.

A rig like this on a front end loader would be just the ticket.

 

[SD51555]

You gotta have a lot of respect for a guy that takes the time to try.

 

[wiscwhip]

I was one of the rowdy kids at Winona State.

I kind of thought that might be the case, that or one of the SE MN Tech locations. My younger cousin played baseball at WSU when he was attending in the early 90's.

 

[Freeborn]

Here is another example from the pheasants forever site. This would work for those harvesting what they are cutting.


For some reason I could not post the photo so here is the link.

http://pheasantsforever.org/BlogLan...ars-Simple-Devices-Save-Pheasants-in-Hay.aspx

 

[PackerBacker]

I like your tradition of hunting with your Dad and uncles. Enjoy it while they are still around.

How many hunters are on that 80 on opening weekend?

The areas I hunt in ag country and the north woods average about 1 hunter per forty on opening weekend. About 1 hunter per 80 during the week.

I often do sit with one of my daughters on opening weekend. They are old enough to hunt alone, but we enjoy sitting together and I am only counting us as one hunter. I carry a gun but do not intend to shoot anything.

There is typically 4 to 6 in my stepdad's group but hard to say on the actual 80. The property is surrounded by Nicolet forest and a few venture off the property to hunt.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I was one of the rowdy kids at Winona State.

When did you attend Winona State? - I graduated from there in 2002. Great hunting and fishing around Winona along with a pile of good bars and good looking women.

 

[SD51555]

'01-'05. We used to trout fish beaver creek over by Alba (Elba?). I don't know if I could find it anymore given there are no straight roads in the bluffs. A friend's dad had 40 acres down towards Houston. It was drinking beer down there that we discovered there were tons of deer to be seen back in those crop/hay/wooded valleys. That country is unbelievable.

The girls were good looking. Given this is a family site, we won't talk about Sheehan Hall. :D

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

'01-'05. We used to trout fish beaver creek over by Alba (Elba?). I don't know if I could find it anymore given there are no straight roads in the bluffs. A friend's dad had 40 acres down towards Houston. It was drinking beer down there that we discovered there were tons of deer to be seen back in those crop/hay/wooded valleys. That country is unbelievable.

The girls were good looking. Given this is a family site, we won't talk about Sheehan Hall. :D

I spent a lot of time on Beaver Creek by Elba, there are nice browns in there. Ever go to Mauer's Bar in Elba? It's the best hunting/fishing bar around - they have the former state record brown trout on the wall that was caught on the Whitewater River and always have a bunch of giant bucks on the walls and even a giant MN bull moose that was shot by the bar owner's group. Anyone swinging through SE MN has to visit Mauer's.

Winona is a great area for hunting and fishing. I think I fished every creek within 20 miles of campus and there's actually some decent grouse hunting on the public land west of Winona. I never did much hunting south near Houston in college, but I know a bunch of people who hunt the Rushford/Houston area and it sounds like the hunting there is unbelievable.

Those 13 floors of Sheehan were unbelievable.