Opening weekend reports

[BartmanMN]

Great pics Jerk'n

[walleye29us]

We hunted area 157.I hunt with my old man. He never saw a deer. I shot a spike at 715 sat morning. Never saw another deer the rest of the weekend. I talked to two other groups that also hunt my area and all of them never saw a deer. We dropped my deer at the butcher also in the same area, and there was four bucks laying there. A 10,8,and two 6 pointers. I heard a fair amount of shooting when i was out there.

[Wanderer]

Holy happiness Jerkin'm!

1 fer 7 in zone 172. A nice 8 pointer by one of the Landowners. The other shot at a 4 point three times and missed clean. He's VERY frustrated.

I'm not party hunting with them, just getting my daughter out there. She finally saw 3 on Sunday evening but nothing with antlers. No doe tags in camp this year.

Scouted a new area Friday for her to hunt and she really liked it. Kinda off the grid for her - so much so that when I let her walk in on her own Sunday morning she got turned around and "lost". Some tearful cell phone communication got her back on the trail with me and I let her lead me the rest of the way to the right place. She sat till Noon after that hoping the early leavers would kick something to her.

I've been really proud of her hunting effort this year. She wants to look at new places and wants to shoot her own buck. She's willing to put in some work and went from a tearful "I just wanna go home!" to I'll sit it out here till everyone's gone, then go sit till dark closer to camp. She was the only one out for the night sit. She even pulled the Lone Wolf and climbing sticks by herself. Never "taught" her how to, she just watched me set it up and reversed what I did. She packs em up and carry's it out on her back like a pro.

She's starting to pay more attention now to what I'm telling her about topography, transitions, wind, reasons for picking spots and how to hunt around others on public property. This is success for the 2014 season in my eyes.

BTW, more sign, more deer seen and more shots fired in the area than 2013. Not crazy good but better than expected. We actually have a hunt this year.

Wolf reports in the area seem to down from last year too. Hmm...

[NoWiser]

Wanderer, the group I used to hunt with is in 172 and they had a great opening weekend with lots of deer seen. The lack of doe tags limited their harvest but they had fun and saw a lot of animals along with good sign. Things just may be looking up in that area, though they have always managed to do well, even the last few years. It's great to see your daughter getting in on the hunt! That is awesome!

Jerk, great pictures! You'll have to save a backstrap to grill up during morel season!

[paceman]

241 near frazee. Probably the worst in over 15 years. Over 35 hours in the stand and only 1 deer in front of me. Normally see about 20 by now. Even last year I had seen a dozen by now. Fresh snow every day. About perfect conditions. No deer, no tracks. Terrible but at least I am spending quality time with my son and reading a few good books. Will keep on hunting through the weekend and then go get a muzzy tag. I just love being out in the woods!

[Tripleplay]

New lease in 241 near Butler. Son saw a dozen on Saturday and I saw eight. We believe 4 of those deer were seen by both of us and double counted. Other than a glimpse of a bigger deer in the swamp he shot the only adult doe he saw on Saturday. I got a big doe on Sunday morning a bit after 7AM and we were done for the season. The neighbors tagged out by 9AM Saturday with an 8ptr,doe and button and that realy helped out my stand since they weren't shooting them before they got to me. Key seemed to be that the deer were bedding in the pines and if you weren't in their bedroom or on the edge of it you weren't seeing much of anything.

Daughter still deciding whether she can get away to hunt next weekend so I might still be back out there but happy with the results.

[walleyeking19]

Hunted in 183 this weekend. Bought the land about 2 months ago, so was pretty much our first time hunting out there.

I got a big bodied 4 pointer on sunday morning. He came in with a 7 pointer and they were both chasing a pair of does. The 7 pointer never game me a shot but the 4 pointer stopped when I grunted and after missing on the first shot, I connected on the second and he ran 30 yards and tipped over. In total, I saw 5 deer from Saturday to Monday at noon. 3 bucks and 2 does.

My dad saw only 1 deer on the stand and it was right at legal time on Sunday but he couldnt tell if it was a buck or not. My brother saw a button buck when he was walking over to my stand to help me drag my deer out. Talked to a few other groups, and they had nothing hanging up, so I guess I was fortunate. We need a gentle winter so the population can rebound.

[coletrickle26]

Zone 169. Around Marcell, Mn on public land. 3 of us went 0-for the weekend. Bucks only in our zone and 2 of us saw multiple deer and two wolves. My buddy did have 6-point in sight but unfortunately the buck was in thick cover and he was unable to get off an ethical shot.

I had an interesting encounter with a wolf on Saturday at 2:00 pm. I was hunting in a ground blind. Mainly dead falls that I stacked up in a square next to a tree halfway down a ridge. I hear some crunching coming in and the wind was in my favor. It's a healthy Doe walking gracefully through. Comes into about 15 yards in front of me and has her head on a swivel. Constantly looking behind her. She would take Two steps and then look back in both directions. Had no clue i was there and certainly didn't seem spooked. Of course I'm thinking a buck is behind her following based on her behavior. Not the case. The doe continues to gracefully walk away and about 3 minutes later a Wolf walks by following her same route, nose on the trail. It was eery and unreal at the same time. Had no clue I was 15 yards away. Well, 25 minutes pass and I'm still kind of in awe as I have never seen this before and suddenly the wolf is walking back toward me at a rapid pace. I hear the crunching and see the same wolf about 50 yards out. Nose down glued to the trail with no clue I'm there except heading toward me. It closes in to about 20 yards and I stand up and yell, "Hey". It stops, stares me down for 5 seconds or so, turns around and runs off back into the deep woods. It was quite an experience but certainly made me realize the wolves are pretty thick in our area.

I remained optimistic for the weekend with quite a bit of fresh rubs/scrapes in our area. It just wasn't meant to be. Back at it this weekend.

[leech~~]

Wanderer, Sounds like she has a good teacher helping her out. Didn't know you were hunting up in the same neck of the woods in 172. The Wolves over by us are still around with lots of fresh tracks ever morning and howling in the evenings. It was nice for my son to have 25 Turkeys scratching around him for about an hour. At least they are doing better in the area! Not sure if I will be back up this weekend but for sure the last one. Good luck to you and your new hunting partner!

[rkhinrichs]

great weekend for us!

[Nathansdad]

Great weekend in 155. No doe tags but we were filled out 3 for 3 by 7am Sunday morning. Did a little scouting today, deer were really moving with the new fallen snow. Saw many on their feet mid day.

[PurpleFloyd]

Saw lots of deer and ended the weekend at 6-12 in our party. A few big corn fields in the near area and excessive winds changed the hunt.One of our youth got his first buck-a 6 pointer- at first light opening morning.I clean missed a buck Sunday but my son and daughter filled their tags with 2 nice does.Saw lots of does running about but the bucks were bedded down and we pretty much had to step on them to get them moving but it was good experience as the young ones learned how they will hang tight and then jump up and take the back road out of Dodge.

[Ebiz]

We went 2 for 3 west of Cambridge in 225. I shot a 6pt at 2:00 on Saturday after kicking him up earlier in the day he decided to come back that afternoon. My buddy shot a 1" spike early Saturday morning that he thought was a doe. Saw 1 other doe all weekend but too dark to shoot through the brush, tons of sign in the woods though and trying to break away this week to see what everything looks like with the snow up there.

[BuckSutherland]

Hunted 172.

Tried a new area and pretty much left our 40 alone. Hunted west of Grand Rapids. Holy wolves. They were thick in the area that we were, unknown to us when we set up camp Friday afternoon. A decent amount of sign where we were, but I think most movement was happening at night. 3 guys 4 hard days. One guy saw 1 4pt, me and the other saw 2 fawns each. All in the evening. Fair amount of shooting Sat evening, but DEAD the rest of the time. Sure wish we would have been bucks only. Trail cams 10 miles away mostly night movement. Lacking doe bigtime.

2011-14 deer 5 days

2012-32 deer 7 days

2013- 5 deer 6 days

2014- 2 fawn 4 days, also got to see a propane truck almost smoke a wolf.

[MattL]

I see the DNR issued a press release today outlining the total harvest to date. Looks like we are 30,000 below last year's harvest at this time.

[uptracker]

Down 51%...."by design".

[laker1]

Down but down by 36%. From around 84,000 to 54,000.

[laker1]

Were up in 172 and deer numbers are down,but what was surprising more small deer tracks than I seen in recent years. Hope maybe with a mild winter.

[smsmith]

If the opening weekend numbers stay consistent through the rest of the season, we're gonna end up right around 60% down from 2003. In just over a decade our herd has been cut by more than half.

I'm sure the public stakeholder teams thought that would be the outcome of the last round of meetings

[hockeybc69]

With the snow and incoming temps,,, I dont think there will be the full force of people hitting the woods for the latter part of the season. Harvest will suffer from that alone.

Dont confuse the lower harvest with lower deer populations though. Wind, snow, and corn. Nothing to do with low deer numbers in areas.

[laker1]

I agree but the highs were inflated by too generous issuing of permits.

[smsmith]

With the snow and incoming temps,,, I dont think there will be the full force of people hitting the woods for the latter part of the season. Harvest will suffer from that alone.

Yup, hunting has been a bit "unpleasant" the last two afternoons....and the cold stuff hasn't even hit yet

[laker1]

I remember in 1991 from the halloween blizzard. I seen something than I never seen in my life before or after.

The snow was so deep during deer season around much of Aitkin county that mid week of deer season deer were out in the open in plain sight due to change of there habits because of deep snow was their main priority.

You could shoot them so easy.

Wondering if in the corn belt and deep snow they will be more vulnerable the rest of deer season.

[smsmith]

Wondering if in the corn belt and deep snow they will be more vulnerable the rest of deer season.

I'm not in the corn belt...but I can tell you the deer aren't "easy pickings" right now around here

[Bureaucrat]

Our group logged over 100 hours on stand in zone 172 this season. We saw a total of 5 deer. The wolves were close enough, we could hear them through the fish house walls. Ironically coming from the same direction as the cows we heard mooing in the middle of the night.

This summer, we found a big trail of wolf scat on the highway near our place. Had to be at least 8 wolves to dump that much on the road at once.

[ANYFISH2]

I agree but the highs were inflated by too generous issuing of permits.

I couldn't agree more.

We probably have to wait to see buck harvest numbers before any solid conclusions can be made. Clearly populations are down, but low harvest this year the goal. We should be pleased, if we want more deer, right?

[smsmith]

We should be pleased, if we want more deer, right?

Yes...we should be...on a "this year" scale anyway. We did need a very low antlerless harvest in order to grow the herd.

My "displeasure" is based on the fact we never should have had to get to this point. We can't go back in time and change the number of does that have been shot the last 10 years, but we CAN demand it doesn't happen again....right?

[CaptainMusky]

My "displeasure" is based on the fact we never should have had to get to this point. We can't go back in time and change the number of does that have been shot the last 10 years, but we CAN demand it doesn't happen again....right?

I agree, but the one thing I noticed is that at least in my area they have steadily reduced the amount of anterless tags allow (ie allowable harvest) for the last 5 years. Its started as intensive harvest, then managed, then hunter choice to now lottery. To me this shows that the DNR was taking steps to reduce the harvest because of a dropping population. There is no way they can predict what the winter will do, so they are in reaction mode the following year.

Im not saying the DNR did a bang up job on managing everything, but as sportsmen it falls on ourselves too, just because you can shoot 5 anterless deer doesnt mean you should. The DNR allowed it to happen, but it was hunters that followed through and killed those animals and now they are the ones complaining about no deer. Go figure. (note, this wasnt directed toward you at all smsmith).

[Farmsfulltime]

The steps to lessen harvest is working, If you count up the ( complainers ) about deer populations currently those vocal outspoken complainers might number less than 25 active individuals in this state same pitch and cry for change . Most reasonable sportsmen understand that with weather , wolves , that populations are going to fluctuate . The harvest is, was lowered everything is working as it should a little fine tuning and in a year or so numbers of deer and tags will be right back up

[BuckSutherland]

The steps to lessen harvest is working, If you count up the ( complainers ) about deer populations currently those vocal outspoken complainers might number less than 25 active individuals in this state same pitch and cry for change . Most reasonable sportsmen understand that with weather , wolves , that populations are going to fluctuate . The harvest is, was lowered everything is working as it should a little fine tuning and in a year or so numbers of deer and tags will be right back up

Wish I could live in the land of gumdrops and lolipops with you. Of all the things you mentioned weather is the ONLY one that cant be controlled. Just so happens that the wolf population and deer population are controlled by a bloated gov't agency called the DNR. And you are darn right there are not that many guys working hard for change. Most are PO'd and just sit and grumble but do nothing about it. I can tell you the area that I hunt (Cass county) and everything north and east of there has a lot of PO'd hunters and it is progressively getting worse.