Ripley roll call... 2nd hunt

[sticknstring]

Looks to be a nice fairly dry weekend for a change with cool temps. Who's all headed up? I don't think we'll be rolling in until late Fri afternoon so I'm sure we'll be at the end of the line. It's our first trip so it'll be an experience.

[Finlander]

Going up there Friday morning with my friends. First time for me so these guys will put me on some spots they have hunted before. One of the guys shot a buck that scored 149 p&y two years ago there. Hopefully we'll be lucky and get a chance at a monster!

Good luck to all!

[RuttenBuck]

We are heading in Friday morning as well - can't wait. Glad to hear the weather is supposed to be dry so far. Good luck other hunters.

[NELS-BELLS]

I don't think we'll be rolling in until late Fri afternoon so I'm sure we'll be at the end of the line.

I'm heading up Friday after work so I'll probably be somewhat near you in line. I'm going solo this year. My group hunted the first hunt but I didn't have any vacation left so I had to apply for this one. I'll be in a maroon Tahoe with a Crestliner sticker in the back window. Stop and say hi.

I've been hunting Ripley for as long as I can remember. I always look forward to it.

Nels

[sticknstring]

I'll look for ya Nels. We'll have a green Sierra w/ a Mathews sticker in the back tenting it.

[DonBo]

Good luck to all heading up there. Should be a great weekend!

[ANYFISH2]

We will be getting to Camp about noon on Friday. Good luck to everyone this weekend.

[LiveToHunt&Fish]

We will also be heading up sometime fri. mourning. First hunt for me. Our group will be in the dark green 18 foot v-front. Stop on in.

[tritonman]

I'll be there! This will be my third year in a row! Last year we got up there late and would have be close to the end of the line so we just parked by our camper instead of walking all of our stuff a mile to the truck in the morning. We got up about the time the first vehicle went through, had breakfast, loaded the truck and then went to get in line. Finally got up in a tree at 9 a.m. I saw 27 deer from 9 till noon. I will never put the truck in line again. It was SO much easier this way.

[Wanderer]

Good luck guys! I'm betting the 2nd season will produce better than the 1st.

[rbs]

good luck you guys! I was gonna apply this year but my youngest sister decided to get married the first season so I wouldn't be able to go....what a stupid time to have a wedding! lol

[walleyeking19]

So did anyone get anything? A friend of mine that was up there said someone shot one that dressed out at 265 lbs! Does anyone know anything bout it?

[NELS-BELLS]

Zippo for me. I saw fewer deer and more hunters than last year, in the area that I hunted. I did see a very nice buck on the back of a truck that was parked near the area that I hunted.

I got to Ripley at 5:00 on Friday and the line was already full, so they staged us down along the river and up by the baseball backstops. That is the farthest back that I have ever been. We didn't start moving until an hour after the gate opened on Saturday morning.

Nels

[sticknstring]

We didn't get up until 7pm Fri. Waaaay back in line. We were still able to get in stand by first light though. I shot a doe right away at 830 then had a forkhorn come by at 10 yds and try to mount her. They aged her at 6 1/2 yrs. I only saw 7 deer from stand all weekend. We hunted 4 different areas. Pretty slow from a lot of guys I talked to. 195 registered on Saturday with heaviest buck at 265lbs. We saw 3 200lb + being weighed but left before that toad came in. Not sure about Sunday's tally.

It was our first time there and overall had a pretty satisfying experience with the hunt. I wish I wouldn't have waited this long to apply. A lot more natural deer movement than I had anticipated.

[NELS-BELLS]

We didn't get up until 7pm Fri. Waaaay back in line. We were still able to get in stand by first light though.

You must have hunted close to the gate, because I hunted about in the middle of Ripley and it was getting light enough to see without a flashlight when I stepped into the woods. It was 7:10 when I went thru the check station and 7:55 was sunrise. I was probably only about 10 vehicles a head of you.

Congratulations on the nice doe. You saw more deer than I did.

Not much for standing outside and socializing on Friday evening. I did see some guys shooting there bows in that wind and snow.

Nels

[Wanderer]

Stick,

Nice job to score on your first outing in Ripley! The place is pretty interesting eh?

[sticknstring]

Interesting indeed. Yep, we were only 3 miles north of camp the 1st morning. Friday night was pretty brutal. We were going to tent it, but wound up sleeping in the truck. At least the weather held out for the weekend... beautiful couple days to be sitting in a tree. Pretty cool to have 2,000+ bowhunters in camp together like that though. Too bad more of them don't check out sites like this. Think of the Ripley threads we could have!

[ANYFISH2]

Pretty slow for me also. Only saw 4 deer for the weekend. My buddy Chad did however shoot a decent 8 on Saturday morning.

I was there to see the 265# deer get weighted. It was a large 17 pointer. The body didn't look "that" large but it was a horse.

The other thing I noticed is that I NEVER seen one "undersized" buck shot, at the wieght in or on the back of a vehical. Every deer was a 8 or better and most would have been over 100 inches. Pretty impressive to me at the average quality of bucks this year.

It sure is a fun hunt.

[tritonman]

We didn't get past the gate until 7:20 on Saturday morning and at 7:10 a buddy of mine (who made it through the gate at 6:20) called and said there was 4 trucks parked where we usually go. We went to a couple other spots and there were tons of people at each one of them. Finally walked in the woods about 9:00 only to have a 10 point 140 class buck come flying past me. That was the only deer I saw without being in the truck. Thats Ripley though, some years its great and some years you have some bad luck. Still always fun

[fire29]

I came up empty also. I saw a MONSTER on Sunday morn but he was to far. I saw a couple 8pts a six and some doe. One of the guys I was with, had the biggest buck he has ever seen at 18 yards and got busted. Saw alot of very nice bucks in trucks and laying around, some fellas had some luck, not me.

[Finlander]

When I was leaving last night from Ripley, I asked one of the Ripley staff how many deer were harvested and he said 310!

I guess that is the most ever for two days of hunting there.

I arrowed a 150lb. 4 point buck. My friend shot a 149 class 8 point buck that weighed 195!

Saturday morning when I was just starting to put up my treestand, 5 deer were running straight at me and were in the process of them running me over. I had to wave at them so they wouldn't collide with me. Needless to say I just about loaded my pants as there were 3 monster buck and 2 does in that group.

I didn't have an arrow ready to shoot at that time as I just arrived there. At 8:55 here comes a big bodied 4 pointer coming to 10 yards away and stops and looks right up at me.

He backs up and starts going away at a right angle so I picked a spot in between an opening and let go an arrow right behind his shoulder at 30 yards. Just as I let go the arrow it jumps forward and I see the arrow disappear high in the rear quarter.

45 minutes later I find the blood trail which was pretty good all the way to where he laid. After gutting the deer I discover the arrow came out thru the shoulder hitting a lung and the liver. All we can figure is that the arrow must of glanced off some brush and entered the rear quarter going forward and out the shoulder. Never hit the gut as they were all intact. Thats bow hunting and murhy's law!

[ANYFISH2]

The DNR has the harvest data up on thier HSOforum for the hunts already. Record one day harvest (Sat 198)and record harvest for the second hunt (305).

[sticknstring]

Camp Ripley 1st hunt results

Camp Ripley 2nd hunt results

I took 2nd largest doe (out of two weighed) haha.