Thief River Falls MN Hunting

[FrazeeHunter]

My family is selling our land by Frazee due to only owning 120 acres and having the neighbors shoot deer we let walk. We do good first two days and then it shuts down the remainder of the season.

We are looking at land north of Thief river falls.

It is 400 acres.

What can we expect in that area in regards deer sightings, and such. Farmland does abutt some of the piece but most of it is woods, aspen and swamp.

We are used to seeing about 10 deer for 3 days between 5 of us.

Will we see more or should we just keep our land.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

[Musky Buck]

Do it. 120 acres isn't going to stop deer from coming and going. Guarantee a year from now frazee you'll have this same post again and again. 400 acres is getting to where you can hold deer where they might not be as apt to travel off of it, that leaves a 240 if you have a section mile by mile. a 120 is lots of times only a 1/4 mile or 440 yards wide. I have the same issues somewhat, any antlered deer is shot at ASAP which fine but then don't have someone come in and tag it for ya so you can keep at it and then muzzleload. Don't mind as much if it's the buck you want and the buck you'll spend "your" tag on. These same dudes must have an IQ like their shoe size as they complain they haven't seen or taken a mature buck in 10 years or more, yet in 10 years they've shot 25 bucks not counting buck fawns. Buy it before I do !

[FrazeeHunter]

I agree. We see plenty of deer in the a.m. just like most due but then it shuts down.

Neighbors shoot everything they see. 17 of them got like 45 deer last year on 350 acres.

Makes it tough.

Let two fawns walk this year and found out they both got shot 15 min later.

FRUSTRATING....

Have you ever hunted near fireweed wma or hamre wma?

the land is near there.

Still looking for a little more help.

Thanks

[CANOPY SAM]

Frazee,

We have unlimited deer up here, and they're all giant trophy animals! Also, there's no hunting pressure what-so-ever, and every landowner practices QDM.

C'mon. We probably have more hunting pressure up here than anywhere else in the state. Our deer herd is pretty strong, but they've got pretty much ideal conditions with plenty of cover, and an abundance of available food.

People in general take deer in our area the same way they do in your neck of the woods. Good hunting parties fill their tags, others struggle, bend the rules, shoot whatever moves, and drive the animals noctural about 10 minutes after the season opens.

This year I saw more road hunters than I've ever seen in my life! Most parties fill their tags with whatever walks, and a few invest the time it takes to get mature adult animals. The number of deer you see anywhere depends on how much you understand deer movement, and what lengths you're willing to go to "learn" the deer in your area.

Deer up here follow food sources just like they do down there. If there are only a few corn or sunflower fields around you can pretty much lay odds on finding many deer in the area of these crops. Of course there are deer to be found all over, and in good numbers, but the older mature bucks are pretty scarce, as young bucks get shot all the time - just like everywhere in this state.

Can you and your family really afford to buy 400 acres up here just for hunting deer? I'd conservatively guess your looking at investing anywhere from $150K-$400K. That's an AWFULLY big price tag to just fill a deer tag each year.

If it were me, I'd forego buying the land, save my money, and simply eat prime rib three times a day for the rest of my life!

[bottomdweller]

What good is money if you dont spend it on the things you love.

Spend it before the govt takes it.

[FrazeeHunter]

CANOPY SAM

ARE YOU FOR REAL???

WHAT MAKES YOU GO ON A SPORTSMAN'S HSOforum AND PUT RUDE COMMENTS ON IT FOR SOME ONE INQUIRING?

IT MUST BE COOL TO BE YOU.

ANYWAYS, THANKS FOR THE INPUT. WE SHOULD MAKE A DECENT AMOUNT ON OUR OTHER PIECE AND ITS A FAMILY TRADITION TO DEER HUNT.

MY 3 KIDS ARE GOING TO LOVE HUNTING WITH GRANDPA AND THE FAM EVER YEAR MOVING FORWARD.

DIDN'T KNOW ROAD HUNTING WAS AN ISSUE THOUGH?

[Muskie456]

FrazeeHunter,

I think musky buck is spot on with his take on it. You have a much better chance to house bucks on 400 ac. vs. 120 ac. We have come that realization on our 120. We have spent a lot of time, energy and money planting food plots and logging our property. We have passed numerouse bucks that have died on neighboring properties. Thats the way of it hear in MN. The thing that my dad, brother and I have found is we really like working the land to create this great whitetail habitat. It is now more than a week of deer hunting. It is a year round conversation that we love.

That being said, if you want to greatly increase your chances of killing a matue buck every year you need to leave the state. You could sell you property in Frazee which I am sure is worth 200k and travel to a premo whitetail state every year. The way I see it is you can do a quality hunt for 3k (a guy)so you and your boys can kill a dirty pile of big ones for the next 16 years.

I understand that the family gathering is important and you most likely wouldn't give that up but IMO that is the only way your whole crew has a good chance at killing a big buck every year.

Good luck with the new property if you go that way

[CANOPY SAM]

Frazee,

Sorry if you were offended. I wasn't trying to be rude, just realistic. "Cool", definately not.

Times have changed so much for hunting in general. Everyone seems to define success in hunting and fishing differently, but the general opinion appears to be that everyone is dissapointed if they're not seeing or periodically connecting with a trophy. This is a prevailing "misconception" about hunting deer in my humble opinion.

I've hunted deer with bow, rifle and muzzeloader, in three different states, for the last 30+ years. I consider myself a pretty good hunter and I put in the time to get into good quality animals. I study deer movement, and I think I'm pretty comfortable with understanding deer behavior. But honestly, in all that time I can count on one hand the number of true trophy class whitetails I've seen in the wild, and I only have one on the wall - and for me, that's enough.

I don't have my own land in Minnesota. I'd be thrilled to have what you have, but financially that's not likely to ever happen. It's just too expensive.

You asked what you might expect to see up here in Northwest MN. Road hunting is a huge issue! What MuskyBuck and Muskie456 have stated is true, however, even with 400 acres up here you have to remember that mature deer move around a lot when the sun goes down. 400 acres is a big plot of land, but an alpha buck might cover several sections, even several miles in one night chasing does in estrus, regardless of what area he calls "home".

Are your chances better at keeping deer on your land with 400 acres? Perhaps. But is it really worth it? Road hunters were so thick up here this year it was pathetic. I was a little concerned about even taking my 14-year old son out during the rifle season this year. We tucked pretty deep into a quarter section of woods and stuck to our stands, but the parade of traffic around this woods was constant - and the deer knew it. My son passed on a forkhorn on opening morning only to find out it was shot in the same woods a few hours later. I'm not exaggerating about driving the animals nocturnal.

I have a very good friend who owns 500 acres of prime habitat up by Middle River (north of here about 25 miles). He keeps it clearly posted for his family to hunt during the rifle season. This year he said people in the area literally surrounded his land almost everyday of the season, and shot at everything that ventured off of his property. He passed on deer from his stand only to hear them get shot once they stepped out of his woods. Big difference here is he lives there. It's not just a parcel of land that he visits a few times a year to hunt. Here's another point to keep in mind, Frazee, if you're not there, I'll guarantee someone else will be - No Trespassing signs or not.

My son and I had two people sit ON THE ROAD right where we entered the woods to our stands - and they shot a small fawn right there while we were only a few hundred yards into the woods from them - and they knew we were there!

If you can afford to purchase family land up here for the sole purpose of developing a hunting camp that's awesome, but you're likely going to have the same frustrations up here that you have further south. I think that answers your question quite accurately.

There are successful hunting camps in our area that regularly take big bucks each year, but they've also owned the land for generations, and cultivated it for quality whitetails for many, many years. Everyone knows where they are, and the slob hunters generally park just adjacent to these properties and snag anything that walks off of it. I know families that own WHOLE SECTIONS that see THEIR TROPHY DEER get shot by someone else sitting on the next section line every year!

This morning, before looking at this post, I was actually thinking the same thing that Muskie456 posted above. If I could afford to spend that much money on land of my own would it be more sensible to reallocate the funds to go on guided hunts where my odds were much better for taking a really quality trophy?

It's hands off, no massive capitol expenditure, no taxes, no up-keep, no investment in food plots, etc., etc., etc.. If you put that much money in the right places you could probably take great percentage guided big game hunts with all your family members wherever you wanted to go - just off the interest that money earns annually.

Of course, in the end, going your route you end up owning a nice parcel of land, while I would own nothing. With the investment your talking about I could buy 2 acres, build a beautiful cabin on the Rainy River, and hunt and fish public land and water with my whole family for the rest of our lives, and still have a pile of money left over for other pursuits. We probably wouldn't get a trophy every year, but once in a while, if we play our cards right, we would. I guess it all boils down to how much value we each place on a white-tailed deer.

I love hunting deer, and I love to make wonderful food from their meat. I'm dissapointed when I have a year without filling a tag, but it happens - rarely, but it happens. But keep in mind, I rarely have the opportunity to hunt private land.

I'm convinced, and this is just me mind you, that there are deer pretty much everywhere in our state, including nice trophy bucks. But after so many years of such intense hunting pressure they've become very smart. And many of the true giant alpha males have become almost exclusively nocturnal. We'll see em' on our trail cams after dark, but good luck finding em' during daylight hours.

Once in a while somebody really puts in the time, does all the homework, and connects with a great animal, but more often than not, someone just stumbles on the right place at the right time and gets lucky.

Are there more deer up here? Maybe. I think the DNR has developed some reasonably accurate maps showing deer density for every region of our state. Have you checked the DNR HSOforum for this information?

This year lots of folks are voicing some harsh words about low numbers of deer. In some areas this may be true.

In our region we saw tons of animals scouting before season. The mild weather dropped on us right when the rifle season opened and we had to work our butts off to find deer and fill tags. We watched the fields scouting after sunset and nothing showed. But interestingly, there was a LOT of activity that started at 1:00 a.m. Not an hour after sunset, or three hours after sunset, but six to seven hours after sunset.

They're smart, and getting smarter, all over the state. I'm just not convinced that moving north is the prudent thing to do in your situation. But I wouldn't presume to tell you what to do with your money. These are just my thoughts.

Again, I apologize if you were offended by my earlier post. In re-reading my first post I don't think I was being rude. I was just a little amused by your question. I'm a realist, and perhaps a bit cynical about our current state of hunting, and the general perspective of the average hunter in Minnesota.

In a nutshell, Frazee, wherever you move, wherever you go, you can't pick your neighbors, or affect their behavior for that matter. Now if you were to buy 400 acres up here, fence it all in, and farm it like they do in Texas, I'm sure you'd end up with big racks on the wall every year. But again, in my humble opinion, that's just not the kind of "hunting" that I'm into.

[bucks-n-ducks]

FrazeeHunter~

Send me an email at [email protected]. I think I have some info you would like.....

Thanks,

Bucks-N-Ducks

[FrazeeHunter]

Canopy Sam,

Thanks for your detailed explanation.

I have been hunting since I was 12 and I see what you are saying happening more and more. I have 3 kids and in my family we enjoy hunting.

Road hunting rarely happens in Frazee due to alot of private land and woods being off the road but it might.

My dad trusts my input and don't want him to buy land where it is going to be a joke.

Your right about far to many people also shooting everything.

Last year I had a bullet zing over my head on our land and that was frustrating only to have the neighbor say it wasn't him or having one of their stands pointed right at our land and having a nice doe shot( I mean Tracked::::on our land).

People need to be honest and respect other peoples land.

The reason we looked in that area is some land is going for 400 an acre rather than 2k an acre where we are.

Our family is just getting to big!!!

[Crappie Killer]

Hamre WMA, south of Fourtown. There is a lot of state land in this area. With a lot of state land comes a lot of road hunters. I bird hunt this area some. I don't think there's any more deer here than any where else in the state. Are you aware how close you'd be to the TB Zone?

[jerkbait]

That is still quite a long ways from the TB zone.

[paceman]

Road Hunters are everywhere. I also hunt near Frazee and have seen numerous road hunters throughout the years. A couple years ago they shot one of my dads young horses. If you can find good hunting land for 400 bucks an acre you should snap it up. That is a steal....

[Crappie Killer]

the south east corner of TB Zone 101 is Fourtown. Highway 89 is the south bondary line for zone 101.

If I had the money, I'd buy it. They're not making more land.

[FrazeeHunter]

Our land is nice but like I said we would like to put up some towers way back on the 400 and wait for the big swamp bucks.

The roadhunters would have a tough time getting back there since it is swampy in the front and high in the back.

It is off on 707 and 710 north of hamre and west of fireweed.

looks like a lot of canary grass and aspen, poplars.

[FrazeeHunter]

Paceman,

Where near Frazee do you hunt?

[paceman]

NE of Frazee, 2 miles east of Hungry Lake, corner of CR 31 and 122.

[Crappie Killer]

I'm familiar with the spot. Buy it and put up a firebreak. We spend a lot of time putting out fires around that area in the springtime. Great snowmobile trail near there also.

[jlm]

Lot of good posts. I do agree, the area (north of TRF) gets a ton of hunting pressure. Personally, if you are looking for an area with good genetics and big racks, the area you speak of would not be the best option (in my opinion). Matter of fact, your area near Frazee is much better genetic-wise. All of central MN is prime as is the southern part of the state. Even with age, you may not get big racks in the area you intend to purchase. If you are just looking for a place where you have more space, this area will give you a lot of options as there is tons of public land. Land is significantly cheaper as well. Whatever you decide, having your own spot is better than what most have so count your blessings! Good luck!

[CANOPY SAM]

JLM is right. I know there are some pretty nice racks running around up here, but they're not easy to come by, and there are definately areas where bigger deer grow. I think you'd probably see bigger deer, and bigger antlers north of Agassiz refuge, up toward Badger and Roseau bog. Lots of state land up there as well, and I believe hunting pressure drops off a bit up that way.

CrappieKiller is correct about the TB zone (and it's geography). There are a few, but not many deer left runnin' around up there. They've been snipin' em' off each winter from helicopters now for a while. I have friends up there with deer hunting land that are pretty dissapointed. It'll be a few years yet before they allow that herd to climb back up again. Too many farmers lost their whole herd to that little fiasco.

Here's another thing to consider, if you're really looking at value. Central North Dakota has been consistently kicking out some big bucks over the last 10 years, and they're getting bigger. Three years ago I entered a buck into a contest out there I shot on family land in central Nodak. He green scored 162 7/8, perfect symmetry main-frame 10 with split brows to make him 12. The guys running the Big Buck contest just laughed and told me, "Don't bother, we'll have at least three deer scoring over 200 inches before this show is done!" I almost wept, but I believed them completely.

The biggest bucks I've seen in the last 20 years have all been out on the North Dakota prairie, and I've seen some DANDYS! They're big now, there's lots of them, and they're spreading those genetics rapidly. There's also WAY less hunting pressure. In fact I've hunted many opening weekends at our place when I was the only rifle for many miles around!

The other bonus to this, and I'm not trying to chase you out of MN if that's what you're thinking, is that land out there can be had for $250.00 / acre or less, depending on where you're buying, and what kind of shape it's in; ie. rocky soil, pasture land, non-tillable, lots of sloughs or wet ground. The other benefits that Nodak offers are the plethera of other game to hunt. If you can lay hands on 400 acres dotted with cattail sloughs not only will you have great deer hunting, but you'll also have pheasants, sharp-tailed grouse, huns, and all the waterfowl you can unload on. I always multi-species my trips out that way. Coolers full of varied species of wild game - YUMMY!

That's the hunting camp of my dreams - and that's why we have family land out there (the in-laws), and I'll never part with it. You can get the land much cheaper and bank the remainder of your investment for non-resident license fees each year. You can also buy an older house in some of the little rural towns out there for little or nothing, to use as base camp. I've seen 25 yr.old, 2000 sq.ft. ramblers sell out there for less than $5K! Might need a little elbow grease, but nice huntin' shack!

By the way, BottomDweller, that buck in your left hand (avatar), he looks pretty similar to the one I described above - high 150's to low 160's? Beautiful deer! He's tall, and wide inside and stays that way. I love that. Mine stays out wide all the way to the tips - never curls back in. Looks just majestic.

Also BD, spending your money frivolously is exactly how the government gets it back! They love guys like you cause they can tax you coming and going. Tax your income, tax your spending, tax your property, tax your fuel, tax your licenses, tax your passions! Be smart, be frugal, be patient. Put your money in the right places and they can't touch a dime of it. (; Har Har Har....

Frazee, if you do settle on something in Nodak, let me know. I'd be happy to help you look around out there, and might even go in on parcel if your interested. I could always teach ya' a little somethin' about huntin' big prairie white-tails!

[JSK76]

I have hunted 1/2 hour north of Thief River a few times with my girlfriends family on privet land. I haven't been impressed with the bucks up there other then one exception, but the does seem to be plentiful. They have gotten some very nice deer up there in the past (one is hanging in the bar in Middle river) but nothing in the 11 years Ive known them. I have a open invite to hunt there, and I choose the the 40 I live on near Bemidji over it.

BTW, the one "exception" was the biggest buck I have ever seen in my 20 years of hunting!