deer zone permit area. Was your permit area deer observed up-down-same

[MNice]

157. 1991 was our first year here, this was first year skunked

[germanshorthairs]

287(itasca state park) way down and it continues to be an intensive (five deer limit)???? Lots of sign of wolves. Left there and tried 184 seemed way down as well. Quietest opener I have ever heard.

[delta dude]

107 very poor. Hunt near Ray and from Fri till today only heard six shots. Most camps were lucky to get one deer.

[summit090706]

I agree with Germanshorthairs, we have hunted Itasca State Park for over 20 years and this might have been one of the slowest years. We shot a few but not what we are use to. I saw that in 2008 the total harvest in the Park was just over 250 deer.... Anyway did you see that the DNR is happy with the numbers so far, I am a bit confused based on this thread and my experience...

[JimmyJames]

170 deer are way down from what they should or could be. Has been an intensive area for last 4? years, should a been lottery area. DNR is doin a poor job of managing states herd, let's get rid of Cornicelli, he's an [PoorWordUsage].

[JimmyJames]

sorry, not very good big game cordinator.

[skolfoppa]

We hunted 126. Numbers were down but we got what we needed.

[NoWiser]

Hunted far NE MN first two weekends and saw plenty of deer with two harvested but could have easily filled out had we not been picky. The group I usually hunt with hunted in 172 and I joined them third weekend. We had average to above average hunting. Plenty of deer seen and some nice bucks shot all on public land. Overall great hunting this year, but with the exception of one deer, if you weren't in your stand between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., you weren't getting a deer....

[Wobbler]

I hunt in Area 122 Lottery Area. 4 of us in our party shot an 8, 9 and 2 10 pointers. Our best 4 bucks ever!!! We decided not to shoot does hoping for a population boom with young ones coming up next year. Saw less deer than usual (Not many small bucks) but wolves were around the first 4 days of hunting which put the deer on zero movement. We had 2 different packs come through. One was about 2 miles away from the other. There are many wolves out there which effects numbers. There are way more wolves than what people think or claim there are out there. I know the winter was tough but when 12 wolves come by you a pack that large puts a hurting on the herd. My prediction is the wolf numbers will start declining huge because there are no deer. Or they start hitting livestock. IMO seems to me in my 25 years of hunting, when the grouse population is up, deer population goes down!!! When grouse down, deer population up!!! I also think people with the philosophy of "brown is down" need to start thinking about what their actions are when the keep shooting every deer they see. What effect does that do on our woods the following year or the next year? Some people in this thread are realizing where they hunt that they are not seeing the deer like in years past. Even in years where we could shoot 2 in our area our hunting group did not choosing an approach of shooting mature deer. We shoot only bucks 8 or better and have seen our buck population go way up. We own 80 acres but hunt in the Superior National Forest too. When people start shooting selective, you would be surprised what your herd looks like in a few years. Imagine if everyone did that! Just my 2 cents worth!

[IceHawk]

Area 246 near Pine River - slower than normal but we shot some nice bucks which made up for the lack of numbers. I Was amazed at the lack of shooting in the area it was the quietest I've heard.

[bigfoot]

Hunted 170 with few sightings. However our trail camera picked up several good bucks out of 7-8 different bucks. Only a couple of does caught on camera. My sister managed to get an 8. I bagged a doe and nice fork within 20 min on Sat. The only deer I had an oppurtunity to take all year.

Hunted 168 also. 3 days of hunting and only heard 1. There was buck sign and a few on cam but overall it was poor.

[Red Cabin]

Hunted 184, opener was slow for us. It picked up on the last weekend. Also hunted lake bemidji state park, very poor hunting.

[Musky Buck]

The deal is great for some bad for others. Depends on where they are that Friday before it opens, this year standing corn was the issue and still is for muzzy, none of it is off yet and driving around saturday night I confirmed 90% are in it or near it, I did see a few large bucks no where near it this weekend, breedings about done though. For our group of 20+ hunters we had our worst season ever for seeing deer or getting deer. Spotty would describe it well. Actually, the last 4 years have been pretty shaky and we don't take does or fawns, someone must be or the winter got em. Few wolves in our area. All I know is putting in the same amount of time I have seen 1 mature buck in 4 years of rifle and muzzy, in the 4 years before I saw 7 mature bucks rifle or muzzy. Just not as many to go around anymore. Now I can go see if any of these nocturnal deer will move during muzzy season. Glad the DNR gives us that extra 30min. after sundown or I'd really be seeing nothing during the season.

[Musky Buck]

I hear ya wobbler on the brown down theory, I think for quite a few groups it goes a bit like this. Bucks only the first weekend, then better take a doe or two, then last weekend it's tag filling time, brown down and also people start to drive the land because the season's about done anyway and they worry less about pushing deer possibly to the neighbors because the season's about done. In my area when it was 5 tags, quite a few bought a bonus tag so they could save their buck tag/regular license because they muzzleload or just to simply have the chance to take 2 deer or whatever the case may be but I think things caught up to us in our area, when a doe goes down generally it's like taking 3 deer because of the future fawns. But, it is what it is and it's time for lots of us to realize that the golden days of rifle may be gone in many areas. Instead of every other year taking a mature buck it might be every 5 years or more.

[Dbl]

244 was way down for us. 0 for 7, first time in a long time. Quietest I've heard in memory.

[Neighbor_guy]

157 no deer.

Skunked.

No deer sign until the sunday of the last weekend.

Sad.

Got beef?

[mws4dux]

hunted 154 seen a fair amount of does and fawns,couple of forks and a spike.Hunted all three weekends.our group went 2 for 3

[McGurk]

240: I saw more than last year, but way less than the DNR says we have. 3 deer in 3 1/2 days of hunting, all within 1/2 hour of dusk/dawn. Party went 3-9.

[End of the Line]

156: (just south and west of Carlton, MN) I hunt public land. Opening weekend was overcrowed and a zoo, however after that, I had alot of the area I hunt on the public area pretty much to myself for much of the rest of the season. Deer populations in my estimates were down slightly in this managed area. However, quite a bit less pressure for the entire season in my opinion. I got my buck and doe, but I spent alot more time to get them this year. I only saw 2 bucks, one was the 9 pointer I shot, and the other was a spiked buck. I have a friend that has private land near Wright; no bucks were taken from their party of 4 and only one spike was seen for the group of them.

[wplatehunter]

We hunted 291 with a group of 4 guys. Shot two bucks and saw a lot of does, but we did not have any doe tags. Last year we also shot two bucks and saw some does, so I would say it was about the same. This year we had a lot of trespassing, and guys setting up right on the property lines. I would like to know who the guys were sitting in our stands. One got down and ran away when I was walking into the stand and the other one left his chair in the stand. This happened during the week. I'm sure they thought no one hunted during the week.

[MrCrappie]

Less gunshots heard in zone 225 as well. I hunt archery pre and post rut and firearms during the rut. Deer sightings are down about 25% from last year. I used to see does at least 7 out of 10 mornings. Now I see does about half the time I'm in the stand. Of the deer that I see, there are less mature deer and more fawns. All of the corn is still standing and was HSO last year during opener as well, but I remember it being much colder.

[huskie0302]

We hunted in the paul bunyan and this was the worst year I have ever seen. Lots of rubs, no deer to be seen.!!! Anyone else hunt the bunyan? How did you do?

[slabbin@thecabin]

157, the deer were there but movement was minimal at their usual times (sunrise and sunset). I got my 2 deer at 2:30 opening day and 11:00 second saturday. Definately saw deer but not nearly as many in the past. Our group of 9 shot 8.

[Gofishleech]

We hunted in the paul bunyan and this was the worst year I have ever seen. Lots of rubs, no deer to be seen.!!! Anyone else hunt the bunyan? How did you do?

I hunt in and around the Paul bunyan. Deer sightings are way down!! Talked to a couple camps around there and the kill numbers were suprizingly low. I have been spending some time scouting and driving around the Paul Bunyan and I am seeing some sign but not much deer movment in day light yet, in fact I cant find a deer or an area that looks promising for muzzy season. We have some cooler temps now and that will help get what deer are there moving a bit.

[backlash 1]

3 of us hunt on my land in 246. We used to have no problem seeing deer, but in the last 3 out of 4 years we have had no shooting on opening weekend. After that, whatever deer that may have been around vanish also.