Any good Bucks opening weekend?

[Bank Beater]

How did everyone do this weekend? Weather was nice for being outside. Deer were slow to move. Saw a couple nice ones way off, too far for slugs.

[CodyDawg]

I opened the door to the camper around 5:40 am on opening morning to pure darkness, no wind ( I mean exactly ZERO wind) and a temp of around 30. Jumped on the four wheeler and drove about a third of the way to my stand. Shut it off and realized, it was REALLY dark out there. After getting my gear together, I trudged across the plowed corn field toward my stand. As I approached the woods, I began looking for a big willow bush that marked where I enter the woods. Did I mention how dark it was? Luckily, I also put up those reflective tacks, or I would still be looking for my stand. As I walked my trail to my stand, I realized there was more deer sign than ever in this corner of the 50 acre hardwoods. Oh, this could be a good morning as the corn had just gotten picked this week.

Didnt see a deer for the first half hour of light and of course, I was thinking everyone was seeing deer but me. My stand sucks. Pretty soon a doe stuck her head into the end of one of my shooting lanes and the floodgates opened. I had a doe and two fawns followed by a six pointer sneak along behind me and to my right at about 30 yards. I just watched the age old courtship ritual take place. Actually, in this case it was kinda a one sided deal. The buck was more than willing, but the doe had no interest. Pretty soon along came a buck with only one antler. He would have been a little 6 pointer too, but the left side was broke off. I called him "Half-o-Buck". He joined in the chase for that hot doe for awhile. After about 20 minutes, that dang doe saw me. She got a little nervous but still didnt leave. All of a sudden, a commotion behind me had me slowwwwwly turn to see two little basket racks pushing and shoving each other. It went on for about 2 or 3 minutes and was fun to watch. It was just like you see on the nature channel. For the next hour or so, I had an assortment of little bucks chasing does and fawns all around me. One little forkhorn came in grunting and I thought he might be the one until he showed himself to be a little fella. Half-o-Buck walked within 5 yards of my stand until he smelled my scent from walking in. He didnt like that one bit, but never left the area.

About 7:30 am, I heard one shot from my dad's stand. When you hear one shot from dad, that pretty much means a dead deer.

Anyhow, back to my stand, I had the original 6 pointer and his doe and two fawns out in front of me about 30-40 yards. Half-o-Buck was about 15 yards to my left, wishing he was buck enough to steal that doe. There had been a couple of does behind me and to my right, but they disappeared. Pretty soon, I heard something behind me and to my right again, and figured it was those does. Because it was so hard to twist around and look, I just waited as I didnt want any of the deer, especially Half-o-Buck to see me. Pretty soon, I couldn't stand it anymore and started to slowwwly twist around. Just when I could see what was there, I spied a big buck working over a tree 35 yards behind me. I would have loved to have a heard monitor on me, cuz my heartrate went to 867 beats per minute.

He worked over a tree, then he decided to make a scrape. All the while, my excitement level is through the roof. The problem is, I can't move to take a shot. Finally, Half-o-Buck and the others are looking away and I quietly stand and turn around. That solved one problem, but there was still too much brush between me and the big buck for a shot. He starts walking towards Half-o-Buck which is bringing him behind my tree. Because Half-o-Buck is on the other side of my shooting lane, this will mean the big buck will have to cross it in about 25 yards! However, I will have to move to the other side of the tree and Half-o-Buck is just too close and is now facing me! I think to myself, how will I explain having a big buck 30 yards away and not even shoot!

He ambled along for about 15 yards, pretty much like he was king of the woods until he stopped with a nice little 8" clearing over his vitals. Holy cow, I can thread that needle and decided right then and there not to tempt fate by waiting for a better shot. According to my estimates, he was 35 yards away and it took the slug 0.0552631 seconds to get there. He flinched and turned toward me and ran back the way he came...kind of. He stopped broadside 25 yards away after running for about 20 yards. Slug No. 2 was on its.....what the heck?? After over 10,000 rounds without a jam, my Beretta finally jammed. I couldnt believe the timing. The empty was hanging out, so all I had to do was toss it aside and we were in business again. I will never use that new oil I bought again, the action was gummed like I put grape jelly in it. Anyway, Slug No. 2 was on its way and he hunched up and took off through the really thick saplings. Slug No. 3 tried to find a hole, (no jam, starting on another 10,000 round string....)but it couldn't bust through all that brush. I wouldn't have shot, but I knew I had a couple in him. After about 50 yards, I saw a bunch of saplings shake, so I was pretty sure he went down. My stand doesn't suck anymore.

He has 11 points, but the biggest one on his left side is busted off a couple of inches from the beam. His other tines are around 9-10 inches long. His beams are 22 inches long with good mass. The spread is 17.25 inches inside. His left side antler is awesome and if he had a carbon copy on the right side, would probably score into the 150s (I didn’t get much of a chance to measure). The right side isn't as pretty, but isn't too bad. Too bad about the G2 being broke. He weighed 205 lbs after field dressing. I will get an antler mount done.

All in all, a great hunt with a few minutes of pure excitement/stress/nervousness/anticipation and of course critical decision making. Deciding when to take the shot or waiting for a better one was really tough. I will have pics in the next day or so.

It was a great opening morning!!

[buzzsaw]

Great story Cody!!! I can relate to all the times I've been eyeing a deer and another deer has it's peeps on me and I have to freeze! It makes it that much more challenging doesn't it? If you have pics, try and post them as we'd all like to see that dandy! What did your dad get?

[Shorelunch]

Sounds like a nice buck. Congrats.

How did you guys do Buzz?

[buzzsaw]

Tom took a nice sized Doe and Dave & I passed on a fair share of bucks ranging from spikes to 6 pointers... Dave also saw a monster as he put it that was deep in the thick bushes.. he was 150 yards away and it turned away before he could get a shot... he was excited the rest of the weekend but never saw Mr. Bigs again... about thirty doe & fawn were in those Alfalfa fields around the farm but as you know our sights were not set on harvesting meat, but on getting Mr. Bigs. We may be heading up again next weekend... it's up to Dave. We did see a few Grouse, a Woodcock, a Golden Eagle a ton of Trumpeter Swans on Upper Rice lake to keep those Coots company.

[CodyDawg]

Dad's was a pretty good, but short story. He is watching a nice 8 chase a doe. The doe cuts across a little opening and Dad gets ready. After a while, a buck steps into the opening. He only had time to verify horns and shoot. Turns out he shot a 6 pointer (would have been a small 8, but it had no brow tines). So somehow, the 6 got in front of the 8 at the exact wrong time. Hehehe.

[Studer]

Are you all hunting in Central, Southern, or Northern MN?? We usually have a great opener but this year was THE WORST!! I think I only counted 8 shots all weekend around us and usually it is like a war zone!! What a bummer. Oh well at least we weren't the only ones. Most around us were pretty slow too. Some buddies of mine were hunting maybe 15 miles NW of us and had all sorts of action including a possible 140 class 11 pointer hanging in the tree. Good for him. Probably not the story you all wanted to read but there was my opener. Hopefully it cools down this week and they start moving a little more. I am getting Veny hungry (I mean very hungry) haha

[Mr Special]

Had a weird and fustration saturday morning the 1st couple hrs. Due to the uncle and best bud got to the stand later then I wanted.

6:15am Finally in the stand and ready.

6:35am Legal shooting time, shots are going off all around me, especially in the next ravine over.

7:05am I see 2 nice bucks chasing a doe, 60ydrs south of me and super thick. No Shot.

7:10am I see them again, same thing

7:15am Again and moving off our land. I'm my stand should be closer to the thicket.

7:35am Shots from the uncle's stand

8:11am A doe comes in behind me at 15yrds. Aim at her a fews time. But it's opener morning and I know there's buck around.

8:25am I hear grunts from over the ravine. I'm thinking someone is grunting the morning away.

8:30am Grunts is getting louder. Up over the hill comes a nice doe. She starts coming down my scent trail towards me.

8:31am At the top of the hill, with the sun against his back is the grunter."picture prefect" I can count at least ten points. He follows her down the trail, grunting every few steps. The does pasts by within 10yrds and so does he. But when he stop there was some brush, 2trees offering a very low precentage shot. So I let him on his way following her. All of a sudden he detours from her and goes to my scent wick. Lifts up his nose to the wick, offering a 50yrd shot. Click the trigger and that was the last thing he smelled. When I finally clammed down to go see him. He's a typical 10, but has 4 addictional 1.5"-2" points to make him a 14. DNR estimated him to be 225-250 dress.

The uncle shot a nice 8pt and doe that he was following. 3shots two very nice deer not bad.

I was very blessed this season and harvested a fork and doe sunday while working a drive.

Sunday night the tree has a total of 5. My 14,4,uncle's 8, his doe and my doe. More then enough meat for the 3 of us.

Great weekend, great times and now the wait for next year 4A. Not to mention I now own the biggest buck title for our group.

Good luck to everyone still hunting

[DRH1175]

I shot 2 doe on saturday east of taylors falls. Had a group of 6 come around at around 8. Shot two however one I didn't find till Sunday morning. 60 yards from my stand even. (Contact US Regarding This Word) Coyotes!! Kinda funny a few shots on Saturday around. Not a peep all day sunday. So many rubs of different sizes everywhere we look. Yet didn't spot a buck. I suppose all the corn doesn't help much. Thank god Bow season last till dec 31.

[Steve Foss]

Great stories Cody and Special. A lot of fun to read.

I spent the weekend at a family reunion. A must-do. Nobody asked me when they scheduled it.

My brand spanking new 30-06 leaned there behind my home office door staring at me accusingly when I snuck out of the house to make the drive to the reunion on Friday.

It was good, as reunions go, but I was a little distracted. I'm sure you all understand. Watching all those hunters filling tags along Highway 1 on the way home yesterday afternoon didn't help matters any. Deer:30 on opening weekend, and I'm traveling. Sheesh!

Today, I stuffed my hunting gear and gun in the truck, worked like a dog until 2 p.m. and then played a little hooky and hit the Echo Trail to a logging cut that has produced an 8-point for me.

An hour after I walked in to the other side of a ridge and hunkered down for the sundown hours, a yearling doe stepped out of the heavy lowland woods and into the young jackpines. I hunt for meat, not horns. I twisted the scope down to about 4 power and put the crosshairs where they belonged. And the 150 grain took her right behind the shoulder at 70 yards. She dropped like a sack of rocks, and a live deer became meat for our family.

Nice to have one hanging for very little time invested. I'll be out Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday looking for No. 2. Heck, with a tender doe getting ready for the freezer, maybe I'll hold out for black swamp buck horns this time.

[USPENAMC]

Bad.... Hunted area 157, Public land usually a war zone out there there were some shots but half as many as usual i didnt see anything but squirrels both days ill be specific anyone had luck in the RUM RIVER STATE FOREST... 7 people pretty distant from each other in stands and only one doe to show for it no other sightings i wonder why...might be the weather but still oh well maybe this coming weekend.

[ASMOLEY]

We hunt in Itasca State Park it was a slower year than usuall. They did pass the new antler restriction in this area so i think that had an effect on the # of hunters. By the sound of the shots it sounded more like second weekend. But for 11 guy we only got 1 deer on opening day my dad shot a small 6 point. Sunday we got 3 more i shot a decent 8 point well 7 he had a busted tine. The brother and sister both shot does. Last year we ended up 15 for 11 after opening weekend this year only 4. Where have all the deer gone? We have noticed that there has been a lot more wolves in the area maby they are to blame.

[Studer]

I hunt in the St. Cloud area as well and I think the story is pretty much the same wherever you look. They are just extra elusive this year and I don't know that anybody is to blame. Oh well hopefully it cools off a bit this week and we can get them out of their beds. Good Luck!!!

[Bank Beater]

Great stories! Looking forward now to the late season down in 3B to fill the tag for the year. Have a good one!

[Ole #1]

USP,

I hunted the rum state forest too, only saw one deer and didn't get a shot opportunity. We camped for the weekend, I might have seen or talked to you. There were a lot of people driving to our campsite to turn around or just BS. Seemed pretty slow for everone.

Ole

[MNmikew]

I also hunted 157 and had similar results as USP. We got one small buck for three of us, only deer we saw. Usually we see many more deer.

[Northland Sportsman]

I hunt area 157 also and it seemed to be slower then usual for us too. We did get a small buck and a fawn for the freezer but nothing too big. The shooting was definetly slower then past years but I think it was the weather. It was foggy, wet and warm. I hope the cold front moving in today gets them moving. We still have 2 weeks left!

[USPENAMC]

Well I guess it seems it wasnt my fault that it wasnt a good weekend i believe i did everything right and from the reports here i guess it was pretty slow on the RUM and area 157 as a whole. Will anyone be out there this weekend at the RUM. My Dad will be driving a Blue Dodge Ram license plate says PENA on it and ill drive later since i work until 8 a.m. and will drive a black explorer and park behind my dad right on the street about 100 yards before getting to the road that goes through the middle of the rum river state forest. hope we have better luck this time. good luck everyone Today WED will try the Carlos Avery area see what happens

[Studer]

With all of the slow reports, maybe the DNR will extend the season. That would be great!! I see that a lot of corn is starting to come down so I think that will help as well. And with fresh picked corn...that should drive the deer crazy!! Should be a good second weekend. Good Luck