Rifle opener

[harvey lee]

Good luck to all that are hitting the woods this weekend.

I am leaving Mn on Thursday morning so I can get up a day early to check a few spots out.

Hope you see the buck of your dreams.

[marine_man]

Good luck to all! I'm forced to live vicariously through reports until next weekend!

marine_man

[LMITOUT]

Woods? There aren't any trees in ND.

[harvey lee]

1,000's of acres of trees by our area. Also the Sheyenne National Grasslands.

Plus the Sheyenne river bottoms full of woods.

Rob, with the reduction in herd from the past winters and wet spring this season, it may take me the whole season to whack a buck.

Looks to be the toughest season for us in the past 20 plus years.

[cbrooks]

Woods? There aren't any trees in ND.

Do shelter belts count.

Good luck to everyone this year

[LMITOUT]

Do shelter belts count.

How about telephone poles? We DO have some of those.

[cbrooks]

We better count those too

[KEN W]

Good luck guys......I won't be going out until the second week.I'll wait for the rut to get going before going to the badlands for a mulie.

[harvey lee]

I know with the whitetails, it seems the bucks never really get going and running hard until at least a week after the opener.

I would guess about the 14th of Nov. things should be heating up well.

[TylerS]

Man, I've seen some great rut activity the past few deer openers. I'm thinking with the cool temps, this one will be similar. Good luck to all! I'm not going after a wall-hanger (too expensive!) A couple fat does and a basket rack will suit my freezer just fine

[harvey lee]

I hope you are correct Tyler. I simply have not noticed any good hard rut until the middle of the month.

I am going to whack the first 1.5 year old buck that walks into my scope. I would rather eat a young doe but I drew a buck tag. I have a few trophy whitetail in the books and the horns were not that good.

[TylerS]

Maybe it's just our location?! Not sure. But our rule is, if you see a doe, wait 5 more minutes for the trailing buck to show up. This rule holds up more often than not. That past few years, we've shot several bucks with necks so large you wonder how they could have turned their heads! Lots of scrapes and rubs around, too. The one on my wall had busted tines and everything so you know he was fighting and rutting, and he was shot Sunday morning of opener.

With the cooler temps and possiblity of snow, I'm going to guess that if the deer aren't rutting yet, they will be very soon. Plus, all the crops off are going to make things VERY interesting. Haven't looked forward to a deer season like this for a LONG time!

[harvey lee]

You could have a different time than we do but that would be strange within the same state.

Over the past 25 seasons, all of our nicer bucks or the last 3 book bucks I have shot have come after the 10th of the month. We simply do not see large rutting bucks on the opener nor do our neighbors ranch.

Yes, we do see some little forks running around but nothing of size or swollen necks.

The buck with the broken tines could have busted his rack well before the rut simply fighting another.

Might be that I do not consider the rut going until I see bucks pushing does all day long. Many times on the opener I still see the fawns tagging along woith the doe so I know from that the rut is not going. Seems the does always kick the fawns off well before the rut.

Hopr you see the second deer to be a buck.

Gonna be a crappy opener for weather by the looks of the forecast, at least for the eastern part of the state.

[marine_man]

Any reports from yesterday?

marine_man

[harvey lee]

Toughest weekend we have had in 25 years for opener.

9 in our group with not one shot and only a few seen.

Neighbor with 8 in thier grouop with 0 shot and a few seen.

Much trouble with high winds all weekend. Noone saw one rub or one scrape for the 3 days.

Nothing for a rut at all and deer simply were not moving.

I hunt in a heavily hunted area with the grasslands but next to no shots fired.

Very sad. I didn't even bother to hunt this am nor did any of our group. maybe the end of next week.

I have never seen a opener good for the rut but this is crazy with nothing for sign. Should have seen plenty of rubs and perimeter scrape but we couldn't find one.

Heck, maybe we only have a couple bucks in the whole area and they are only going to run come time. Totallt lost on no sign for the rut.

Did see many robins though.

I guess these factors all add up to a terrible weeknd for deer hunting

1-High winds

2- This season opened a bit earlier

3- Few hunters afield but, in our area that we hunt, there are never that many other than the road hunters.

4-No rut sign at all.

I would hope that the bucks can crank it up a notch and get running in the woods or our group could be deerless. Typically we almost always near fill out on the first weekend.

I think the Game & Fish should cut the tags back more next season as the past 3 winters and last springs damage to the fawn population may have been more severe than anyone thought. Maybe cut them back another 30%.

[cbrooks]

Up in 2c the deer are population is WAY down. Saturday I made about a dozen pushes with not even a deer to show for it. Sat at night never saw one.

Friday we push up a monster buck that would just keep double back in a swamp. There's no way a person would be able to get a shot at where he lives. I'm laying all my on chips on this one. I'll be sitting off one of his trails waiting. Chances are I will never see him but I got to try. There rubs all over this quater plot. Hope he slips up during the rut. I sat off one of his trails yesterday no sign of him yet. Still alot of season left. Even if I don't fill my tag its fun just trying to outsmart the stud of the herd. I'm gonna need all the luck I can get with this one.

[harvey lee]

All one can do is put some time in and when that big boy starts to run hard, just maybe you will have the trophy of a lifetime.

There is a reason that buck is as large as he is and that is why he lives where he does and never shows himself. The hard run of the rut as you know is your best chance at him making that one fatal mistake.

Good luck, they are fun to try and figure out.

[TylerS]

I initially was pretty pessimistic about opener, but wound up more than pleasantly surprised.

Easily saw twice as many deer as last year. I attribute that to all the crops being down already. Wish that would happen every year!

Shot a mature doe 20 minutes after opener Friday from maybe 15 yards away, and then shot a butterball spike Saturday. Freezer's almost full! Still have a doe tag and I'm debating whether to go back out Saturday, or switch gears for pheasants. Decisions, decisions.

My uncle was about 75 yards south of me and he was done in 30 minutes on Friday. Shot a beautiful 5x4 and a doe 10 minutes apart and was done for the weekend. Another uncle shot a small 3x3 Saturday afternoon. I left Saturday to get my deer hung and skinned for butchering, so haven't heard any updates from Sunday.

Didn't see any "big" bucks, but I wasn't trophy hunting so didn't really care. Plenty of does and fawns though. Lots of sign, too. Didn't see many scrapes, but did find a ton of rubs. One tree that was a good 6-8 inches across was hit HARD by something big.

Had the usual pushers driving the area around us, which undoubtedly helped our success (although, historically, some of my best hunts have been when the deer were allowed to move on their own). Shot the spike out of a group of five deer. The four does/fawns hit the scent of a coyote that had come through about 20 minutes earlier and did an about-face, so I didn't have a shot. The spike gave me a good 50 yard broadside shot, though, and he went down without a struggle.

Funny thing: we now have a name for one of the pusher groups: the "cattle drivers." Heard them for the first time last year, and got the pleasure of witnessing their theatrics again this season. One of the guys (seems like the "leader" as we've heard him barking orders to his cohorts) enjoys yelling "yaw, Ye-aw!" as loud as possible as he pushes an area. Makes for some good entertainment! Didn't hear them fire a shot, either; but did see a gorgeous buck sneak out from behind them after they'd gone by. Couldn't help but smile a bit...

All-in-all, great weekend (especially considering the G&F's low-number predictions) and a ton of fun. Wish we could have gotten that snow as promised, but I guess beggars can't be choose-y. Next year opener is on Nov. 9, so I have my fingers crossed there will be at least a good foot of powder by then.

[harvey lee]

Sounds like you had a great weekend. The exact opposite of what we had for seeing deer. You would have thought we do not have any deer.

If I were to speak to the Game & Fish, I would suggest another drop at a minimum of 30% of the tags available for 2G1. The deer herd has to be even worse than predicted by the G&F.

I am sure we will have to drop our usual standards for what we shot to have any chance at all. But, I will not shoot a fawn.

[still floats guy]

We hunt up in the northeast part of the state. We ran a crew of 5 guys. 2 nice does are hanging. Of course the 10 pointer ran past my brother who did not have a buck tag and I had close encounters with about a half dozen fat does for which I had no tag. No worries though as we hunt multiple weekends of the season.

We saw a deer that was freshly killed and half eaten by something.(coyotes or the mountain lions that have recently been spotted)

Deer were just getting warmed up in the rut.(only a few rubs and scrapes) The bucks are not running the does around yet.

Hunting pressure seemed very light and most of the reports indicated that deer numbers were down. However, I think there are plenty of deer again this year and that the lack of snow, lack of food in the fields, lack of cold temps, and lack of hunting pressure give them no reson to move around quite yet. One other thing, the woods are so dry that you can hear a hunter walking in the woods 125 yards away. That gives the deer options to dissapear into the swamp, run away, or simple lay in brush 10 feet from where the hunter walks bye.

Good luck the rest of the season all!

[jeff127]

2 of us hunted the 2c area 10th through morning of the 12th. Brutal was an understatement--I saw the only deer -3- a fork, a spike, and a doe. None on the roadsides or fields to or from the place we were staying. Hunted large heavy woods and crick bottom areas mornings and evenings. Decent buck sign in woods but lower than usual. All hunting parties we talked to were having similar luck. coyotes are abundant and seem to be an issue---on sat morning I could hear 5 different packs howling and barking through the large woods/vally I was hunting

jeff

[harvey lee]

I was back up for 5 days and the hunting was no better than the opener.

I did see 2 does for the 5 days so I guess that beats nothing. Back up this weekend to see if I can find even a forkie.

Never seen since tough hunting in the past 25 years. It's brutal to say the least. I have yet to see a buck chasing or tending a doe. I guess maybe we only have a couple in the area and they are hiding very well.

[cbrooks]

Missed a beauty last Sat. Other than that the hunting is still tough. What I found to be the best is sunrise. I try to find where they bed at and wait along one of the trails heading out. As for the evenings IMO I think the deer are coming in later maybe with the colder temps that could change. Its been a really tough hunt for me. Some days I'll make a dozen pushes through shelter belts, cattails, CRP land and not a deer to show for it. I think I've seen as many foxes as deer this year. Thats not good. My strategy now is to scout for signs of deer all day and wait the next morning. Trying to push for deer seems to be pointless.

[harvey lee]

I am going back up in 2 days for the rest of the season. I found a spot where some does are bedding on my last trip and hopefully I can locate a buck in the doe bedding area.

Seems we also have been seeing the majority of our deer in the am.

[KEN W]

We hunted in the badlands.Saw enough deer to make it interesting.All the deer we saw were in the afternoons.I would guess the full moon caused them to bed down early.Did not see any bucks with does.All were by themselves.The rut must be going really late.Did see fawns with about half the does.