Best Area in Minnesota

[matchset]

In your opinion; which county in minnesota is best for seeing and harvesting a a P&Y buck!?!

[vister]

TODD!! only county ive ever bow hunted in. got a 175 4/8 net nontyp P&Y in the books two years back!! avatar pic. every year i get good P&Y bucks on trail cam, however, harvesting them is a different story!! heavy black soil, agriculture, dense river bottom, etc etc. these deer are in every county. heck, even 3 miles apart can make a huge difference!

[Archerysniper]

Don't over look Isanti/Chisago county line you got a booner living in your back yard he was spotted again on Tue eve.

[Spearing Machine]

Morrison..... It has Camp Ripley...pretty much explains itself if you have hunted there and seen some of the results

[matchset]

ohhhhhhhhh, i was lookin in the wrong direction. thanks for the info !

[matchset]

anybody hunt Houston county or St. Louis???

[goblueM]

i've hunted St. Louis County... not many deer but there are some bruisers hanging around. my uncle found a ridiculous shed last year

spent a bunch of time turkey hunting in Houston Cty but never deer hunted it... lots of monster bucks in the SE area of the state

[matchset]

if you have pics; i'd really like to see that shed! maybe i have the match

[goblueM]

unfortunately i don't have pics, he doesn't have internet and i haven't been up there in a year (moved away)

[jnorm1984]

I believe that Morrison has the highest # of P&Y harvested per the books if I remember right- Camp Ripley- So I gotta say Morrison

[InTheNorthwoods]

IMHO, the county you are hunting in has FAR less to do with the quality of deer you are hunting than the actual property you are hunting. In some counties you may have excellent odds at taking a big deer if you have access to river bottom land which may only make up 5% of a county - and at the same time have terrible odds outside of that prime habitat. How do you judge that county overall? It makes it difficult to answer this question at face value.

That said, looking at the list of the biggest bucks shot in the State of MN, one can easily see that there are a handful of them that stand out. Several have been mentioned, but others that have a good percentage of the very largest deer ever shot in the state haven't been mentioned at all yet.

[Scoot]

I totally agree with InTheNorthwoods' initial comments.

For some reason I was thinking that Ottertail County was #1 for P&Y bucks. Is that not true? Also, even though some of the biggest bucks ever taken in the state have come from the "big woods of the North", I'm not sure they're the most likely places to yield the best chance at a monster from a bowhunter. They're there, but they're dang tough to get at with a bow. Not that it can't be done...

[Jack Peterson]

I'd have to say Morrison as well. I've lived here for years, and have seen dozens of huge bucks harvested. Lots of 12 to 14 point typical bucks, often weighing over 260lbs, and the occasional 22-27 pointer!

[Musky Buck]

My feel is a P and Y deer needs age, etc. The metro areas seem to hold some monsters, 1 have 1 area that has them yearly because we all practice go/grow, in my other 2 areas it's shoot anything that's upright and there you rarely see that kind of deer. Ottertail County has produced a lot of them as my family has never recorded any in the books but they are on our walls just like many counties in the state. They need to shed a few racks to get there.

[maros91]

For seeing and harvesting one I would say anywhere in SE MN. Some counties I would like are St. Louis, Morrison, Isanti, and whatever the county is around Benson.

[nonteepical]

every county in minnesota has an equal chance at seeing a P&Y, you only need a minimum of 125" typ. to qualify, in alot of cases thats only a 2-1/2 year old deer. Boone and Crockett is another story.

[sticknstring]

I know St. Louis was #1 for years but it's really no surprise with the size of it. It would encompass the entire SE corner of the state. Anywhere along the river from Houston on up to Dakota are prime. The Van Lith buck was shot a few miles from I where I hunt in Wright county. You guys have rattled off a half-dozen others as well. Just goes to show you how much quality habitat we have here in MN.

[vister]

It's funny how so many people think MN is incapable of producing good bucks, yet, by the time this topic dwindles down, every county in the state will get mentioned. Mn has the most diverse habitat than any state. Our problem is deer can't get old enough. Hint hint. Also, Morrison butts up to Todd.

I'm thinkin anywhere in mn is a good spot to hunt except from the couch. Can't kill from there!!

[jnorm1984]

+1 to that vister! Aside from my perviosuly mention Morrison, Im gona have to add my home county, Chippewa! Its my favorite place to hunt!

[Bear55]

I agree with InTheNorthWoods, don't worry so much about county lines, instead focus on individual properties. Its pretty hard to hunt for a PY buck if the land you hunt only has forks and basket 8's.

Not too long ago I would just hunt any public land I could find hoping to shoot a nice buck. Now I don't even both unless I find sign of a big mature buck in the area. That can often rule out 75% or more of public land and it takes a lot of work to find more than one mature buck to hunt but that is what has to be done if you want to shoot one.

[Musky Buck]

No doubt every county has what it takes to produce them, some of it is up to the individual bucks, some of it is up to us not blazing them all before they can get there, I thought a p and Y buck was a 140+, didn't know 125 was the minimum. In the farmland it the buck can often get there a year ahead of a northwoods buck, example like at my OTC areas I'm not sure what a spike buck is hardly, in 30 years I've seen 1 or 2 vs. hundreds and hundreds of bucks, they just get that basket rack 1st, 2.5 year olds either a bigger rack/smaller body or a bigger body/smaller 2nd rack and once 3.5 + hits they can really start getting crazy.

[walleye365]

morrison and crow wing iv seen alot of big deer in both its were i hunt most of the time. but the biggest i seen had to of been over 200 inches it was in cook county 4 years ago crossin the road about a mile from were we were hunting. i coundnt beleive how big this deer was i couldnt even talk. theres not alot of deer or big antlers up there but they are big bodyed deer.

[slabchaser]

SE Minnesota. Truly remarkable population of deer and rack size.

[1eyeReD]

What's the opinion of Sibly county? Not looking for numbers but perhaps possibility of good pockets of deer..

[maros91]

cook county

I also hunted up there a few times and i seen a beauty cross the road. The rack was big but the body was even bigger. Big bodied deer up in the NE part of the state.