2020 gun deer season ?

[monstermoose78]

Good luck every this weekend!!

[Wanderer]

I might actually partake this year with the lack of ducks in the state. 
 

Good Luck to you too @monstermoose78

[Mike89]

good luck to all and stay safe!!!  

[smurfy]

yep what Mikey said!!!!!!!! hoping to be at deer camp by 3 this afternoon!!!!!!

[ozzie]

Good Luck to all this year!  will be warm, but that will just make it easier to sit all day in the woods and watch the natural world move by!  

[gim]

Looks warm on Sat/Sun, but a big weather change is coming in on Monday and all of next week looks like 30's and no hurricanes in sight.

 

Remember to exercise patience because there will likely be more hunters out there this season too if it follows the same pattern everything else has related to the outdoors in 2020.

[monstermoose78]

Not many deer in the arrowhead!! 9 shots heard for both days and two were my brother. Seen a button buck yesterday but no doe tag!! 

[Wanderer]

Saturday was a shootout in the morning, modest shooting in the evening.  Sunday was slow all day.

 

I dropped a wounded doe that came by me.   The only other deer I saw was a second wounded doe that I couldn’t anchor.  I put the other neighbor on it and they were able to make the recovery.

 

I haven’t been back in a stand until Saturday morning.  Even though it wasn’t that great it was worth the price of admission!  Felt great being out there.

[ozzie]

I hunted the west side if mille lacs and dropped a busted rack buck. Walked right next to me and was the only deer I saw Saturday.  More shots than I am used to hearing on opening morning, and after that the shots were far between.  Good luck to everyone the rest of the season!

[Barbelboy]

Saturday morning there was good deer movement, better than I anticipated. My partner shot a fork, i passed a doe and smaller 8 pt. Only hunted Sat morning as i wanted to butcher the one we had because of the warm weather. So Sat evening i did a little drive around to some of the local public land spot. Holy moly, I know the warm weather helped, but there were more cars parked in places that i have never seen them before. Kind of cool to see the resurgence in hunting to the level it has been. 

Gonna get back out Wednesday, maybe we'll have some snow on the ground.

[DonkeyHodey]

Hunted Sat/Sun with sonny boy in bemidji area--his first year ready to shoot.  Sat AM We had a healthy, fluffy lookin' coyote sneak in on us--15 yds from stand, but no deer.

Sunday we had a harvestable fork appear--sonny boy passed on the initial shot as he felt he wasn't in a comfortable position (we felt the deer would easily cross another shooting lane, but deer turned off the path/doubled back so there was no opportunity.  (deer seemed to be just browsing...)  I'm proud of sonny boy for not shooting; I'd rather he pass on a shot, than take one he's not fully confident in.  Simply getting the gun up, taking off the safety and being ready to pull the trigger was enough of a thrill to keep him wanting to try again.

We'll try for round two next weekend.  

 

Around me, we heard lots of shots saturday; much fewer sunday.  Saw lots of carcasses in vehicles driving home so I figure overall harvest numbers were likely higher--probably up from last year opener.

[Huskie]

Hunted in the Dora Lake area Saturday and Sunday (169)  some shooting in the nearby on opening morning, then it was pretty quiet the rest of the day.  On Sunday I took a fork buck that was chasing a doe.  Those were the only deer that I saw.  Not many hunters in the area either, very few permits available in that area.

[monstermoose78]

I hot buck. I seen two deer for four full days in a stand. The wolves moved in today according to my cousin and dad.

Edited November 13, 2020 by monstermoose78

[monstermoose78]

Update on the buck I shot at. I did hit him just forward and a little low. My cousin found him today fighting off a coyote. My cousin shot the buck and could not get the coyote. 

Edited November 15, 2020 by monstermoose78

[protrapper]

I had both those bucks on camera. Been real slow. 

[Wanderer]

People in Central MN were stacking up some good deer in a late October span of about 7-10 days.  Otherwise for bucks I’ve been hearing it’s been slow all over.

 

I have some friends hunting a park hunt right now and they say the same thing.  Hearing as many shots over the whole day as they’re usually hearing in an hour.  One of them got a 12 pointer at the end of shooting hours last night though.  Not as big as a 12 sounds but a nice deer with some character.  He’s happy!

Another friend got her personal best yesterday but the rest of the party has been shut out.

[DonkeyHodey]

It was a blessed day for sonny boy.  He took this beaut with me.

Just so ya'll know:  sonny boy finished gun-safety ~2 weeks ago.  Never shot a firearm more than a BB-gun or lazer-tagger before this!  (...but I knew with me, he could take a cold-shot and be true)

His first rifle shot ever?  an absolute perfection!  He spotted the deer, got the gun up, fired...

 

I think it's always dangerous when a first trip to the casino you win big; it's similar when your first trip deer hunting is a big one at 730AM opening morning...  Not so for sonny boy:  We spent 4 days in the stand and he had to work for this deer.  I'm proud of him showing a lot of patience and perseverance (cause Sunday morning when he got this was pretty miserable weather--30 mph gusts in our face).

 

Not too many people can say every cartridge they've ever fired have humanely harvested their deer!  He's batting 1.000 dudes!

Only "downside" is the poor guy missed the "fun" of tracking a deer since he placed the bullet so picture-perfect on the L shoulder.  The deer dropped right where he was!

[gim]

I harvested this 8 pointer on Wed, Nov 11 at 6:50am north of Princeton.   I didn't think it was this big when I initially saw or shot it.  Only when I walked up to it did I realize that it was bigger than I thought.  It has a 20.5 inch inside spread and 4 inch diameter bases.  I hunted for 6 of the 9 day season and saw deer every day except one, including several smaller bucks.  My Father also shot a corn fed doe with a bonus tag so I gave the big old rutted up leathery buck away.  I intend to do an antler mount display.  Its the second biggest buck I've ever shot.  I also saw 2 black bears, about 150 pheasants, 18 turkeys, and a pine marten chasing squirrels.

 

Wild weather in a 6 day span, that's for sure.  It went from 63/sunny to gale force winds to down pouring rain to measurable snow to bitter cold in less than a week.

[mulefarm]

Congratulations, nice buck!

[ANYFISH2]

2020 firearms season was a big change for my family.  After 28 years of hunting public ground for firearms season, I made the investment this spring on 80 acres of woods and alder swamp that adjoins a good friends farm.

So this year we had a group of 8 hunters covering 180 acres land.  Best of all after a couple of years full of loss, my father joined us again for deer hunting, that alone made all of our seasons.

The Anyfish family however, seemed to struggle a bit on our new piece of land.  As us four only harvested one antlerless deer.  I took me 4 1/2 days to see my first deer.  However, in my last day and half of hunting I was able to see 10 deer.  Good way to end the season.

The other half if our group, my friends family, had great success.  They had 2 first time hunters, that were able to harvest 3 deer, 2 does and a 8pt, between them.  As well as my buddy harvesting a doe and a buck(8pt)and his son harvesting a nice 10 pt.  Overall a fun season, and new land and lessons being learned.

My new land produced a decent 8 by Zach his first deer. And Eli's 10pt.  So good things so far.

 

Zach first ever deer.

Ray's 8 pt

Eli's 10 pt.

 

[Wanderer]

Congrats on the new land and having your father back hunting with you!  Congrats to the boys on their bucks!  Great season. 

[eyeguy 54]

Nice deer guys!  My 20 gauge barked again on a nice 11 last November. Son in law tagged a dandy 9. Lotta brats and steaks

[PRO-V]

Between wolves and some bad winters our deer up north are pretty scarce. I see more moose and their tracks now than whitetail.

[DonkeyHodey]

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/deer/management/statistics.html

Total harvest this year:  195,010.  (last two yrs. were 183,000 (2019) and 188,000 (2018)...  further more look back a few years--2014, 139,000...)

 

Harvest doesn't tell the whole tale, (and I know certain counties are up while others are down) but these numbers indicate the statewide-herd would seem to be thriving.

If you like lotteries, when you look at total licenses sold, ~1/3 of all tags sold are getting filled; I like those odds.

(*brag alert* ...and I'm beating "the house" pretty handily )

Edited February 8, 2021 by DonkeyHodey

[gim]

I also read the other day that 2020 was a record harvest for turkeys last spring, 13996 birds.  The previous record was in 2010 at 13467.

 

I think a major role in these record harvests is the result of the pandemic.  More people participating is going to result in more people harvesting.  Same with fishing, camping, boating, etc.

Edited February 8, 2021 by gimruis

[eyeguy 54]

Indeed. People are really enjoying the outdoors.

[WillWard101]

All the best to those who have been good, stay safe from now on.

[leech~~]

13 hours ago, WillWard101 said:

All the best to those who have been good, stay safe from now on.

Thanks Will.  You be good too!  

[WillWard101]

On 2/7/2021 at 9:08 AM, eyeguy 54 said:

Nice deer guys!  My 20 gauge barked again on a nice 11 last November. Son in law tagged a dandy 9. Lotta brats and steaks

You shared something amazing! Thank you so much