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I'm not trying to stir up a hornets nest here, but I was just curious if anyone is seing as much wolf sign as I have this year. I hunt just north of the west-lake a few miles and I'm seeing tracks and scat all over. I've seen it occasionally in the past, but this year its much more noticable. Just curious if the population is up that much, or if it might be due to logging moving them around into my area.

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This is no lie, on opening weekend up in area 115 (around ORR), my 14 yr old son was sitting in my deer stand and 2 timbers came out. He said they were just sniffing around. He was nerveous and shifted himself in the stand and crunched some leaves in the stand and that startled one of the wolfs. It came towards the stand foaming at the bottom jaw, growling, and wrinkling up it's nose, and was as far as one paw on the latter rung when my son let off a shot and shot a hole through the roof of my stand. He said it then ran to the trees but just slowly walked off from there.He said it was startled at first from the gun but then wasn't afraid. My son was afraid to get out of the stand and had to sit there yelling for us.

Luckily no one was hurt, things could have turned out a lot worse. It was not a good experience for my son's first time hunting alone in the stand but on the other hand it was a good learning experience. I myself went down and checked and there were tracks all over by my ladder and have every reason to believe him. He has never seen one before and described it to a "T". He said it was huge and you could see it's muscles riplling under it's fur.

Therefore yes I feel there are quite a few wolves around. IN fact I think too many when they want to charge your deer stand.

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It all just goes to show that anything can happen out in the woods. Never take anything for granted and always be thinking and prepared.

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Haven't seen any wolf or wolf sign by us but lots of coyotes. Neighbor saw three working together making a drive thru the swamp for rabbits or deer or whatever

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I see a few each winter while sitting in my fish house.

Here's a picture of one on Hinsdale Island, the picture was taken around the 4th of July.

111974.jpg

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I'm not sure if the population is up or not. That would a question for the DNR. I do think that when you have an abunant prey base, deer, that the preator population responds to it thus you could have more. On the other had mange took a toll on them a few years ago. Wolves have a very large teritory but will stay in an area for awhile if the pickins is easy. I did not see any wolf sign where I hunt deer. Seems like about every three years they are there during or close to deer season. Curious as to wheather your son had any deer scent on or had some hanging close by?

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Thats not a wolf, that's Stanley our bassethound grin.gif (that's our cabin and dock)

and we are apparently hammering walleyes in the mirrocraft at the time of this pic.

jkrash thats a neat pic. Thanks for posting that.

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Rankenstuff/Jkrash,

Very neat picture. Ranken, I am your new neighbor on the island South of Hinsdale sort of across from Retreat. Starting cabin and a new dock a few years ago. Funny thing I realized a few months ago. A woman in Chicago who works for me (Emily Palmieri) is somehow your cousin or something like that. Her grandmother (Maidan name Mary Gaylord)used to own your property or something in the family. Really pretty ironic. I was going to stop by sometime this summer (driving to our island) but never got a chance to. Anyway, blew me away when she got back to me on her familys old property. We view this property from our dock.

Andy

[email protected]

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PSU I will email you sometime soone. after I email this picture to everyone i know. LOL

That is neat, congrats on the dock and setup you have, seen you in your boat handful of times, beautiful spot you have looking east at IMO the greatest bay on vermilion. Not stupid, but.... smile.gif

Smart

Back to the wolves!

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Rankenstuff

That's hilarious. LOL grin.gif

I guess I better tell the guy that took the picture his eye sight isn't what it used to be, LOL

Your pooch sure is big enough to be a wolf, fooled me. LOL smile.gif

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My eyesight is fine... grin.gif We were cruising by and the thing was standing on the dock, no foolin. By the time I turned around it was as is in the picture. It wasn't concerned with us at all. Looked like a lone male to me. I'm just glad there were no cats or dogs outside.... Maybe it was looking for a walleye dinner smirk.gif

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I can't believe you took a picture of a dog. LOL

Of course it wasn't concerned about you, it lives there. LOL

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There is also a lot of wolf sign in our deer hunting area close to Tower. mad.gif

Cliff

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lol stanley the bassethound

I gotta be honest...I'm a little skeptical about a wolf attempting to climb a deer stand...

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Quote:

lol stanley the bassethound

I gotta be honest...I'm a little skeptical about a wolf attempting to climb a deer stand...


Many of the timber wolves that I have encountered in this area of Minnesota seem to have very little fear of humans!

This is due to the fact that they have not been hunted or trapped for many generations.

Cliff

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im sure there are wolves munching on the gut pile of my biggest buck i have shot....very nice eight pointer that weighed in at 224....what a job to pull that deer out of the woods...i shot it about 430 sat pm....im still elated....i knew it wayed well...but that to me is huge....and get this....we found the same deers sheds from last year right near where i shot it!!!

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Gary,

That was a very nice buck!

I missed an 8 or 10 pointer on opening morning with my black powder rifle! frown.gif

I made up for that by shooting a 6 point and a 5 point bucks 1/2 hour apart off of my stand yesterday morning! laugh.gif

I made my first trip to Wyoming last week and managed to get a nice spike bull elk too! Great trip! smile.gif

We will be eating lots of brats and polish in the fish house this winter. laugh.gif

Cliff

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  • 2 weeks later...

Opening morning, I was in a stand, and had 6 T-Wolves make a push through the areas and went right under my stand. They worked very efficiently through the area and would have kicked up anything that was in the woods. I saw good quality deer this year, but more wolves than deer.

I think the wolves will be chomping on all of the mice that are running around. The woods were thick with them.

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We saw 3 wolves last weekend in Embarrass. And my parents' neighbor said that the other night he had a couple in the trees behind his house growling and moving around when he went out to light his sauna. They don't eem to have much fear of humans.

TO make things that much more interesting, the deer seemed to have gone deep into the Tag Alder swamps once we started seeing the wolf sign in a heavy way. I missed a nice doe on saturday afternoon, and that was the last deer that any of us saw until after I was heading home on Sunday night.

I dont ever remeber there being so many of them in that part of the state. Are they moving farther south or is there just more wolves?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Quote:

Thats not a wolf, that's Stanley our bassethound
grin.gif
(that's our cabin and dock)

and we are apparently hammering walleyes in the mirrocraft at the time of this pic.

jkrash thats a neat pic. Thanks for posting that.


This wouldn't be the first time a dog or coyote was mistaken for a wolf... and certainly won't be the last. I think it happens a lot.

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When we take our Siberian Husky hiking on fairly populated trails, probably 3 out of 10 people think she is a wolf if they see her before they see us(we have a fairly long leash).

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was wondering could I bring a gun when im bow hunting. My neighbor told me a story of his cousin and how five wolves surrounded him. Nothing happened though

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Not if you want to be legal...To my knowledge there hasn't been a documented attack on Human beings by wolves in MN since they have "returned", so put the assault rifles away and enjoy the outdoors

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Carrying a firearm while archery hunting is illegal except when bear hunting. A guy that I work with was out checking his traps. While walking the trapline heard a wild thrashing in the brush on the otherside of the hill. went up to investigate and a wolf pack had just brought down a 6 pt buck. He yelled the wolves left although grudgingly, and I am sure they returned when he left. I would not worry about the wolves. If they show up, stand up make noise talk yell etc. Once they know it is you they will leave. They might hang around out of curiosity though. I also would assume that would take care of your deer hunting for the day.

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