MN deer hunting.....

[BuckSutherland]

Another pathetic year in the north woods. My zone (172) the kill is down considerably from last year. Statewide kill is sitting shy of 167,000 as of this morning. I have friends that hunted hard by McGrath and by Embarrass and they didnt even see a f*****g deer for 7 people over 8 days of hunting. That is pathetic. Even the shittiest hunters would see deer if they actually existed. I did ok this year, but things were not good when I had my 15 yo daughter with. I passed 3 small bucks and one decent one hoping that she would get to see them when she was with, but it wasnt meant to be. Ate my tag for the 6th year in a row. As much as I want 50lb of venison in the freezer I just couldnt pull the trigger on a doe. We could really use a cupcake winter and a bunch of dead wolves for once. There were several camps in my area that didnt even bother showing up this year cause the hunting is getting shittier every year. Really sad to see the loss of tradition.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Sorry to hear that Buck. It seems Game depts. these days are all about bringing in more tag revenue than the actual resource they're charged to protect and steward.

 

[bwoods11]

Zone 1 of Minnesota seems to be a real dud right now. Minnesota has too many gun days. I’m guessing wolves are an issue too.

 

[homerj]

Any Sturgis vids out there to solve these issues?

 

[Tree Spud]

Any Sturgis vids out there to solve these issues?

LOL!!!

 

[bowhunternw]

Zone 1 of Minnesota seems to be a real dud right now. Minnesota has too many gun days. I’m guessing wolves are an issue too.

I totally agree with the too many gun days. Personally I wish the muzzleloader season be eliminated. It is so hard for a buck to reach maturity in MN, over the counter tags combined with long seasons.

Buck I thought you had some pictures this spring with fields full of deer, so they must have made it through the winter. Do you get much on camera?

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I wish the first two seasons would be combined, the dates would be the same as the second season and muzzleloader season was the last two weeks of December.

NO extended “CWD zone” seasons.

We have plenty of bucks reach maturity in my area but the deck is currently stacked against them.


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[bwoods11]

Zone 1 has 36 gun days I think? Many during the peak of the rut. The other zones are not much better. Plus anyone can get a tag.

That’s asinine! Minnesota bucks that do survive are warriors, nocturnal by nature, a true trophy if a buck survives 4 years or more!

 

[BuckSutherland]

I totally agree with the too many gun days. Personally I wish the muzzleloader season be eliminated. It is so hard for a buck to reach maturity in MN, over the counter tags combined with long seasons.

Buck I thought you had some pictures this spring with fields full of deer, so they must have made it through the winter. Do you get much on camera?

My township up north has decent/ok deer numbers. Hunting mid week was pretty good. Hunting on the weekends was not near as good with all the pressure the neighbors put out this year. I could have shot over 40 times with 4 of those being bucks, but I'm only interested in 120+" buck. I actually had some daytime movement on my land again this year without those food plots, which is something we never had the previous 5 years with the food plots. My father in law shot a decent 8 pt the night before opener with his bow. With that being said, I am not really referring to our hunting, but instead ALL of zone 1 combined. I heard quite a few terrible reports and its just sad to see.


I couldnt imagine hunting where these guys do...

 

[Mortenson]

I scanned that video. Did they shoot anything? It looks like a nice deer camp for sure. Do they have good hunting or bad?

 

[bwoods11]

It’s a sore subject, but nothing will Change unless we do something with the gun and Muzzy seasons. This year MN added 4 more gun days over MEA (youth).

I’d bet nothing will ever happen. That’s why my friends, family and I hunt other states.

 

[SWIFFY]

My heart rate goes up just seeing this post. Its ridiculous. Just when you think they cant hardly make things worse.... they figure out a way. Nothing survived my area. 76% buck harvest this year. "The BEST EVER" the DNR said.....

 

[bwoods11]

Zone 1 harvest was down like 18-20%. From a previous bad number. You guys need to contact the MDHA and DNR and talk about some serious changes? Think either will listen?

 

[bueller]

WI DNR told us our herd was at an all time high prior to the recent gun season. They released numbers today showing a 25% drop in the statewide harvest from last year. Where I hunt the buck harvest was down over 40%.

 

[Mortenson]

IL's 1st firearm season was down 15% from last yr.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

WI DNR told us our herd was at an all time high prior to the recent gun season. They released numbers today showing a 25% drop in the statewide harvest from last year. Where I hunt the buck harvest was down over 40%.

In my county the deer numbers were way down as well. We saw deer, but not very many. But every evening we got to listen to the relaxing howl of wolves nearby. We didnt see any wolves during the season, but you could hear them every afternoon, evening.

I think a lot of my lack of deer numbers though came from illegal baiting. I went from 50+ pictures a day all summer through the second week of November, to a couple a day the weekend before hunting. Hopefully the DNR planes flying over non stop put a damper on the corn piles for next year.

I am afraid that with the last few hard winters, the over excessive doe tags given out the past 4 years, along with the wolves, the days of having plenty of deer are long gone. The way this winter is looking, it will be another hard winter. Already have a couple feet of snow, and the temps are going to dive after this weekend. The will for sure make it tough for deer if their food is buried this early.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Just from what I saw this past year our deer numbers were up a fair amount from last year. There wasnt a lot of shooting locally during our gun seasons but that may have a little to do with the timing of it. Our first season was right during that time when you would expect to have most of your bucks locked down with does. My mid-late October bow hunts had me on an average amount to slightly higher number of deer. There was a decent amount of mature deer shot locally as well. I doubt if i'll even hunt the muzzle loader season due to the fact that we will more than likely get a late CWD hunt. I want to let things calm down as much as possible to get a good feeding pattern established on my food plots before getting out again. As soon as I'm done hunting I plan I getting out a bunch of snares. I just had 4 dozen of them show up at my door last night.

 

[SD51555]

Zone 1 harvest was down like 18-20%. From a previous bad number. You guys need to contact the MDHA and DNR and talk about some serious changes? Think either will listen?

I would expect the DNR to report a much higher number than what is actually harvested. They "make adjustements" to reported numbers based on a number of BS reasons they need to arrive at the number they want. To report reality might stir up the fuds.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Bueller post #14 - We heard the same things here in Pa. a few years back. We supposedly had deer overrunning the state. Doe tag numbers soared, guys bought into the hype, and many deer were killed in the succeeding years of tag confetti. But then the honest-to-God hunters noticed we weren't seeing deer, even after spending days afield. We hunters didn't forget how to hunt .......... and the proof was when we did have snow on the ground, we didn't see tracks. Unless the PGC trained the deer to fly, we had a problem.

As SD said above in post #18, we had inflated deer harvest reports here too. Made it sound like deer were as numerous as dandelions.

It sounds like some of the Mid-Western states are in the same predicament. I hope the hunters there can get things straightened out. If insufficient revenue is the problem, maybe try what many of us here did - buy the doe tags and burn them. DNR gets needed money, (I don't doubt rising costs for fuel, vehicles, insurance, personnel, etc.), and more deer live to have fawns.

 

[SD51555]

Bueller post #14 - We heard the same things here in Pa. a few years back. We supposedly had deer overrunning the state. Doe tag numbers soared, guys bought into the hype, and many deer were killed in the succeeding years of tag confetti. But then the honest-to-God hunters noticed we weren't seeing deer, even after spending days afield. We hunters didn't forget how to hunt .......... and the proof was when we did have snow on the ground, we didn't see tracks. Unless the PGC trained the deer to fly, we had a problem.

As SD said above in post #18, we had inflated deer harvest reports here too. Made it sound like deer were as numerous as dandelions.

It sounds like some of the Mid-Western states are in the same predicament. I hope the hunters there can get things straightened out. If insufficient revenue is the problem, maybe try what many of us here did - buy the doe tags and burn them. DNR gets needed money, (I don't doubt rising costs for fuel, vehicles, insurance, personnel, etc.), and more deer live to have fawns.

I think PA's very own Gary Alt was the founding father of hunter manipulation as a management tool.