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Opening weekend reports


tunrevir

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259. The guys that hunted at least 6 hours a day all saw some deer. The guys that watched the Gopher football game and sat on the couch saw nothing. One kid shot a spiker and one college kid killed a pretty fair 8.

Saturday afternoon from 3-4pm or so I'd count to about ten and hear a shot. One time I made it to 49 before I heard a shot but that was a long one. Quite a bit of shooting for what that's worth.

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I hunted 184 as well, just NE of Kabakona. Never saw a deer all weekend for 2 of us. Not a single track in the fresh snow either.

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hunted our traditional 259 spots, between the three of us, all weekend, fired one time, had to be just as legel time rolled around, i had a decent 8 come through in a hurry on the tail of a couple does that worked there way by in the dark, thought i had a good shot on him, trailed him for along time, but the blood disappeared and couldn't get back on it, so all in all, very disapointing, never saw another deer all weekend.

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hunted zone 222 and saw one running doe and buddy says he saw a buck thought the thick stuff on Saturday mornings sit till 10 back in the stand at 10:30 saw nothing till 5:30 when I got done...sunday we didn't see anything on stand and saw 3 does walking in the swamps with no shots fired. Pretty poor but Friday they picked the corn around us and then Saturday they tilled up the fields changing the deer movement IMO. Try again this weekend.

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Hunted 172 Saturday and Sunday morning. Saw a couple does but no permit. Fair amount of shots Saturday evening compared to the morning. Two others groups in the same area had the same luck I did, one group of 4 didn't see anything in the same amount of time I sat. Only saw 4 deer on the drive home in trucks or on trailers, one really nice 10, 2 small forks, and a doe. Usually drooling over all the bucks people are hauling home if I have to head home Sundays...not so much yesterday. Headed back to hunt Thursday to Monday.

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Hunted 184 near Pinewood, MN. The last 5-6 years the number of shots fired has definitely declined. I suppose that could be looked at as a good thing. We have a group of 11 this year with 5 of kids under the age of 18yrs old. I would say that we as a group saw roughly 20 deer through out the weekend, with 5 being taken. My 14 yr old shot a real nice doe Sunday afternoon, so that made our day. This is his 3rd deer and im pretty sure I probably didn't shoot three by the age of 20. I only saw one small doe while in the stand.

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12 YO son and I hunted public land in 183 this weekend, 2 person ladder stand. 1 doe seen Sunday morning, and it busted us. She was bedded down about 40 yards from our stand and winded us, took off down a ravine.

Only saw one deer taken near us, a 9 pointer from across the road. 10 hunters talked to, 3 deer seen and just the one taken. A guy from Wrenshall did say a friend of his shot a wolf just south of there on Sunday morning.

I will be back out thursday and looking forward to what things look like with the snow.

Shots: 2 Saturday AM, 10 Sat. PM, 4 Sunday AM, 7 Sunday PM.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Hunted 172 Saturday and Sunday morning. Saw a couple does but no permit. Fair amount of shots Saturday evening compared to the morning. Two others groups in the same area had the same luck I did, one group of 4 didn't see anything in the same amount of time I sat. Only saw 4 deer on the drive home in trucks or on trailers, one really nice 10, 2 small forks, and a doe. Usually drooling over all the bucks people are hauling home if I have to head home Sundays...not so much yesterday. Headed back to hunt Thursday to Monday.

luckydog25, are you seeing the Wolf activity in your area of 172 as we are? We're seeing more Wolf tracks this year then Deer tracks, but it may just be that they run around a lot more and leave more tracks all over then the Deer? whistle

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I honestly haven't seen much wolf sign. I know two other groups that hunt close and they didn't see much either. I've seen more coyote scat and tracks than normal, but it's just my 3rd year hunting the area. I hear plenty of yotes in the evenings at my cabin also.

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I hunted 225 and was able to take nice 8 pt a half hour into the season. Talked to a few other groups, all took some deer and passed on others.

About the same number of deer around as last year.

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Three of us; me, my son and his friend hunted 157 Sunday only.

Sat all day and finally had two doe come through, my son's buddy dropped one of the does. Very few shots heard around the area.

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Hunted 172 between Hackensak and Longville, 5 guys 61 hours on stand, hunted Sat. Sun and this morning. Saw 29 deer with 3 of them being bucks, the woods were very quiet not a single vehicle came down our road was kinda nice not having all the traffic. Some shooting in the area but not alot.. No wolf sign but I do know 3 were seen in Sept. on the road we camp on..

This was the second year that my dad has not been around for deer season, he had hunted this area for 50 years and deer hunting was his passion, the man could sit for days. After he passed I invited another guy up to sit in his stand not sure why but i didn't want to sit in his stand, it's a good stand and always produces a deer, well my buddy went home last night , so I decided to go sit in dads old stand and grabbed his rifle to boot, not a big deer but a special one.

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Zone 266. 2 of us, saw a doe, two fawns and a buck. Single fawn Saturday am, and a buck just at dark on Saturday. If it were a half hour earlier, probably would have got a shot. Then Sunday am, a doe and fawn came by right at daybreak. Took the doe. Only have buck tag left so hope to get back out Friday. Seemed quieter overall this year.

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Cool story Todd! The heritage rolls on! Keep those reports coming in guys. As far as the shots heard category, I heard 4 nearby Saturday am, a couple Saturday pm, 1 shot Sunday am and 6 shots nearby Sunday PM. I am wondering if with the full moon in some of the more high pressure areas if the deer fed all night and were mostly bedded by day. Heard some real good reports on activity around the metro area and others within a couple miles that never saw a deer. Standing corn in my area I am sure has had a bit of an effect on how much movement we are seeing in the woods. I am betting the deer are gonna have the feedbags on after this snow and wind dies back and things will pick up.

Tunrevir~

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

I'm sure Dad would have wanted you to take over his stand and gun. It's just hard to do so soon after he is gone. Lots of his thoughts and memories rubbed into the wood grain of that old gun! smile

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Zone 157, my group of 4 for the weekend got one large body 10 inch spike buck and we passed on 3 does, that is all we saw.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Nice story Todd. smile

Here is my story.

Decided to go south this year with son in law since I did not fill the arch tag yet. He has not hunted much and asked me to join hi. His dad also. Got there at dark so looked at a couple aerial pics and found a nice easy spot to walk to about 300 yards from the house to sit on my chair and wait. Sat down at 6. He came by at 7. smile (lucky me!) tougher these days for me to see open sights so double lunged him but on the very bottom. He jogged off and then walked. Jumped him up after about 200 yards and finished him off. after lunch I put down a scent trail for Mark and then an hour later did a slow walk down a creek bed to try and spook something towards him. Nice 8 ran right to him and stopped at 25 yards and stared at him straight on. Mark was ready and had the sights on him but didn't think he could shoot straight on so he thought the buck would go to the right but it bolted left. Panic shot and missed. He was really excited he said. Being a rookie he didnt know that his 12 gauge would have probably dropped it right there with a straight on neck shot that close. So he was pretty bummed that he hesitated and cuz a couple years ago he hit a tree that was in front of a nice buck, but got him cheered up having him stand by the tree that his bullet zapped 20 yards on the far side of where the buck was. Repeated the slow walk Sunday and a fork did the same thing, stopped right by him but to small. Gotta have 4 on one side in area 3 this year. Then it went to the other side of the pond and walked 30 feet from where I positioned Marks dad. Fun! Sure wish it would have been a shooter ! No nice does came close enough for the guys to shoot. They will be back at it this weekend. I'll be cheering for them.

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178.. Had a symphony of wolves by me and my dad for 2 nights now. They will die soon enough from lead poisoning. I've heard 2 shots since Sunday morning.. Yep, it's crappy out here but were still at the shack havin fun.

Wolves can kiss my one-just-like-silly-me

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eyeguy, I zippered a Popple tree 4 years ago. Nice buck and instead of shooting in neck I tried to sneak it past the tree behind the shoulder. I saw the zipper mark on Sunday when I walked by the tree. It's like a tattoo that you want to get removed but it still brings back some memories of past hunts.

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183. Actually saw a lot of deer. Foodplots helped us big time. We shot three 8 pointers. 2 of those were 4 year olds and dressed 200 pounds. Passed on many spikes and forks. Lots of does too.

Not sure what all this snow is going to do?

At my house in Cambridge we have 18 inches. Hunting land got about 8 inches.

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My dad, uncle, and I hunted our usual spot in NE MN. It was worse than I imagined it could be. My motto is "it only takes one" to make my season. Well, we left early because I don't think that one was out there. I walked over 3 miles in the fresh snow Saturday before I cut my first track. None of us found a single rub, scrape, or pile of droppings. Not a shot was heard opening day and only heard 3 on Sunday. Two were from a guy shooting at a wolf that we later talked to. The camp where we parked our truck had 14 guys hunting and in 2 1/2 days they saw 1 deer.

I never thought I'd see the day that I'd skip MN deer season, but I think my dad and I will either do mule deer or rifle elk next year instead with our time off and, in the meantime, pray for some mild winters!!

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No Wiser,

I've had the same attitude for years knowing it only takes time on the stand and one deer to make the season a success. I started going to South Dakota about 7 years ago and after that experience of seeing 20-100 deer a day I've only hunted Minnesota in order to get all of the other things I get out of hunting here; tradition, the guys, the food etc.

I didn't draw a buck tag in SD but I'm still going to bring my bow and try to shoot a doe. Frankly, I think my chances are as good down there trying to take a doe vs taking even a small buck in MN. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy the hunt but when the deer sightings are as limited as you experienced it's pretty defeating.

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Area 197. Our group was quite lucky considering the lack of tracks I saw after the snow. I was done 2 minutes into the season with a 10 point. We also got a 8 point at 8:30 Saturday. We had a picture of this buck near a scrape at midnight 8 hours before. We also harvested a 7 point at 3 in the afternoon. Not much shooting heard outside of our group. We were 3 for 4. All healthy looking 2.5 year old deer.

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We had a good weekend in 240- saw a lot of deer and shot 6 for 7- my 6 and 9 year old spent every minute in the woods I did and got to see a couple bucks hit the dirt- very exciting for them and me-

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