Piker

Great post. My response is that the road to [PoorWordUsage] is paved with good intentions and I think that the QDM and the catch and release crowd is going to usher in some bad times for hunting and fishing, while having good intentions. The further we get away from just going out and catching a stringer of fish to eat and keep moving towards catching fish only to release is when we've really armed our enemies with tools to question our ethics. Would you shoot a deer with a tranquilizer gun, snap some photos and then revive it for release? When we only care about shooting large inedible-antlered deer and focus less on getting outdoors for the experience with hopes of shooting some venison for the freezer, we've left our outdoor heritage behind and we've opened the doors again for our enemies to question what exactly it is that we're doing out there. Do we need to only harvest deer with "six points on each side" that are so old and tough that we do nothing more than cape it out and cut the head off for mounting and leave the rest? I think many of you have lost your way and need to start thinking about what it is we're doing and what we want hunting and fishing to be. If we don't, this picture painted might sound like the good old days by 2050.

Yeah, [PoorWordUsage]?

I agree with BRULEDRIFTER, that is the point.

I think everything about deer hunting just seems a little better with temps in the 20's and some snow. To me it seems like the deer move more, they are certainly easier to see and you're right there is something a little magical with some snow flakes falling. You get back to the shack and the coffee tastes a little warmer, the stories seem a little better and it makes deer hunting a lot more fun.

Enforcing QDM, antler restrictions or anything else is a mistake. Our deer hunting laws are too complicated already. Thankfully, the licensing laws did get a little easier this year. I'll give a couple of reasons why "enforcing" QDM is a mistake. I think practicing it privately is fine, but I don't like enforcing it. 1) Just like monetary inflation, if there were more large antlered deer to harvest the value of a trophy would not be the same anyway. A buck is a trophy because it's size or characteristics are somewhat rare. 2) I like deer hunting the way it is. If there were more "trophy" deer, you can bet that accessibility to land will suffer. 3) I respect the opinions of others in this debate, but I do think that it does make deer hunting look more barbaric. I'm sorry, but this isn't like a slot limit where we're trying to protect spawners. So under the topic of DNR management, kudos for the simplified licensing and count me amoung those that are against enforcing QDM or antler restrictions.

Great story and a great deer. Congratulations.

Not everyone thinks food plots are baiting, I'm the only one that made the comparison but it was only for the purpose of trying to demonstrate that I don't think baiting is all that evil. Food plots are a good thing, they help the herd while attracting deer to an area. I think they're great and they essentially accomplish the same result as baiting. One thing baiting has for it is that it allows for a selective harvest. There shouldn't be a need to shoot at a running deer, so you probably have cleaner kills. Anyway, that's rambling my point is I don't think they are that bad. Baiting is definitely popular.

If the land was posted there would be a name and number, why wouldn't you want to call first? Like Deitz said it could start a relationship.

There is really very little difference between a fall forage food plot and baiting. The food plot is more work, but you're accomplishing the same result. If you hunt over a food plot then you are essentially baiting. Would deer naturally be out in that field if it was plowed black for winter? Probably not, so you've created an unnatural movement of deer to a food source. They are the same thing. I know most will disagree, but there really isn't a difference.

You shouldn't go on private land at all, even if it's not posted. If you can ask permission, you should. If the land owner says "no", then that's it. Private property rights should take precedence over the retrieval of game. If you think that the animal could go on someone else's property after you shoot it, then you probably shouldn't shoot it.

I had a doe bedded in the yard last night when we got home at about 8:00. The doe was bedded and three bucks were standing around her. If they are bachelor grouped, I'm assuming that they aren't hot N heavy yet. Why were they with the doe? One buck was clearly larger than the other two and was just hanging out. I don't think it's quite on yet.

I'll take the snow and cold. I remember 2003, I think it was below zero one morning. Maybe opening morning. I think it's more fun with the snow. The mornings do get cold, but if it's warm the afternoons are so warm it can be miserable. I vote for snow and cold.

A couple of these latter posts are exactly why we are seeing this trend. A few years a go a farmer had a piece of land with a little bit of woods, a little water, and some tillable. The tillable was the only land of any real value and was taxed as such. Now the little bit of woods and water is worth more than the tillable land and is taxes are higher. So essentially, the farmer is paying higher taxes for land that is of little value. It only makes sense that the farmer would try and recoupe some of that money from the people that are driving that cost up, the hunters. The solution is common sense assessments. If the land is zoned as agriculture any woods and wetland should be assessed as garbage land, in terms of a farmer paying taxes on it.

I think the photoperiod is the most important biological alarm clock for most everything from trees turning to deer rutting. In order to shoot a deer you've got to see it during shooting hours. Obviously, you won't see it if you're not hunting. What I've read is that a full moon leads to more deer moving mid-day because they move more mid-night. With no moon they move more at twilight and sunrise. Sounds logical. In my personal opinion I think that temperature/weather/wind direction is the biggest factor in seeing deer mid-day. A S or SE wind usually leads to + average temps. A warm stretch of S/SE wind ending with a cool down, clear sky and NW wind seems to lead to more deer. There was a change like this last year mid-week and the night it changed we had our best night of the week. I think a more natural NW wind and average to cooler temps lead to more predictable deer movement and in turn more success.

From the MN DNR HSOforum on whitetails. "The biggest one ever recorded in the United States was a 500-pound Minnesota buck."