So how was everyones muzzy season opening wknd?

[Musky Buck]

November 30th connected on a mature buck, 7:54 AM running wild until I stopped him. Only mature buck I've seen during shooting hours since the all-season tag began so roughly a decade to see 1 shooter. Got 1,200 acres of private farms,river,creeks to hunt so basically they are nearly completely nocturnal every season in my area and we won't like usual start seeing daylight deer until January kicks in, depends a lot on the cold and snow though, usually the colder it is I get to see a few staging deer, the scary thing is about 700 acres of standing corn to hunt, we almost walked every row of it last weekend and saw no tracks, few chewed on cobs, and saw 0 deer. We assumed from rifle that must be where they are, we didn't realize the population is as low as it is in our area. 5 Years ago the farmers wanted us to blast them out of season almost there were so many, now they ask me what happened etc. 1st time in 20 years we saw nothing combining ? Oh well, they'll bounce back again.

[kc0myy]

yeah too bad to can't shoot 5 deer again this year like we did a few years ago. That was the dumest thing the DNR could of ever done.

[lakevet]

That and allowing hunters to hunt total of 32 days with muzzy and regular firearms combined.

lakevet

[Musky Buck]

It's a combo of the 2. I never thought I'd see the day as a kid where you could tag nearly as many deer (5) as you could geese (2), pheasant (2), northerns (3), get my drift ? We had the early doe, 5 for years, and I haven't seen a doe in 3 seasons and haven't shot one since 1986. You'd think well the bucks must be really running because there aren't many doe opportunities around but that's not the case, the few does maybe are attracting many suitors. It was hard to see my dad not at least buy a license this year, he burned his tag every season basically since 1991. He was an old Muzzy guy that skipped rifle for solitude, those 10,000 voices weren't enough, now instead of 2 days of pressure the people have propaned their deer stands and can hunt or be in them enough to screw up what little chance you have for 25 mornings and evenings surrounding your property lines. Dad wants no part of it.

[Realtor Boy]

I completely agree with you --- But if a person loves the sport its hard not to interact in it. It would be very tough for me to sit out a season..

[lakevet]

The new muzzy hunters feel the season is great because they are used to the zoo of the regular firearms season. The muzzy hunters who experienced the muzzy season as it was originally intended to be see it eventually heading in the direction of becoming the zoo they so desperately wanted to leave behind . 10 years from now the muzzy hunters who started hunting the past couple years will be talking about the good old days back in 2009 when muzzy wasn't so crowded. All depends on what you are used to. Deer are moving less and definitely go nocturnal more with the increased hunter opportunities to be afield. Deer aren't going extinct and will rebound. Hunters who prefer to spend time hunting deer and not spend alot of hunt time strategizing around other hunters they compete against for the deer will steadily drop out of hunting even if deer numbers rebound. My Dad would have quit hunting over 15 yrs ago if it weren't for the muzzy season. The headaches of the regular season far outweighed the enjoyment and passion.

Hopefully cold weather and new ice will thin the number of people in the woods these last 2 days.

lakevet

[SledNeck]

still havent seen another muzzy hunter this year

I was suprised I didnt see one this morning. It was -15F and the deer were really moving.

[Realtor Boy]

I have only seen 2 muzzy hunters this year and I have hunted every evening from last fri until today. Im on state land too..

[Musky Buck]

I hear ya, my dad just can't take any more of the craziness. The muzzy hunters really dropped after the opening weekend with cold etc. and lots of them likely bagged a deer before it opened anyway so why cont. to go out. Couple friends bagged 2 brutes this weekend, persistence paid off. I wish I could post the pictures of them but they didn't want me to, one was 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 with a very thick rack. The other buck looks 3 1/2 meaning you can tell it's not a first or 2nd year buck, they wonder if the ones they got if they've passed on them in the past, I said well if you didn't someone else likely did. Between the 2 guys they saw 11 bucks this rifle/muzzy season counting the 2 they got. Both Ottertail County and both in that kind of terrain you'd expect old bucks to live in and have the chance to get old in.