Ripley-1st Week

[dustin85]

Hey! Who is going to be headed to Ripley for the hunt on the 21st and 22nd? Anyone planning on meeting up before the hunt in the camping area? It would be nice to meet a couple people while we are away for a couple days. Also, we rented a camper to take there for the hunt. One of our guys backed out. Is anyone looking for a place to stay while there? If you might be interested in sharing a camper with a couple other guys, let me know. Get me your e-mail, and I can get in touch with you. -Later!

Dustin

[rbs]

I will be there...first time for the 3 of us.

[dustin85]

Well, one of our guys just ran into some unexpected medical bills, and the other was injured in a farming accident yesterday. I have a lot of room in my 28' camper if any of you are looking for a place to stay! There is enough room to sleep 8. As of now, it is just me. Let me know

Dustin

[deerminator]

I'm, sorry, but have any of you ever seen Dirty Work the movie? The Chris Farley character to the Norm MacDonald character: "Hey Mitch, do you wanna go camping sometime?" Mitch (Norm MacDonald): "NOOO!!!" You have to see the movie, regardless. I'm just joshing ya. Have fun and good luck guys!

[Kyle]

anyone on here ever hunted the ripley before? what did you see?

[fire29]

This is my 5th year. I have seen the two biggest bucks I have ever seen in the wild, as well as many others. It looks like the weather is gonna cool off for us. Pick a spot, stay put, and expect the unexpected. Good luck!

[maros91]

anyone on here ever hunted the ripley before? what did you see?

This is my 5th or 6th year. I see deer in there. I also see a lot of porcupine in there also. My buddy seen a bear in there last year. Just pick out a tree that has a deer trail and sit all day. I will be hunting a half day on Thursday going to the George Strait that night and coming back Friday to hunt all day.

[MUSKY18]

Saw one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) bucks in my life last week during our deployed soldier hunt. Wide, tall 10 point eating in a field. Would have loved the chance to arrow him...........

[mrklean]

did anyone take any big buck last week?

[kevfish1]

Does anyone know if the leaves are off the trees yet up at ripley??

[Finlander]

99% are gone in the Alexandria area! Should be gone there too! Frost did them in!

[nater]

They were thin in the area last weekend and with the wind yesterday I bet they are pretty sparse.

[kevfish1]

Good , last year the trees still had leaves for some reason. If I wake up the 1st morning and it is pouring rain I will be the guy you hear yelling at the rain gods

[NELS-BELLS]

Saw one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) bucks in my life last week during our deployed soldier hunt. Wide, tall 10 point eating in a field. Would have loved the chance to arrow him...........

Musky 18 -

How would you rate the acorn crop in Ripley this year? Some years I've noticed that there weren't many acorns in the areas we hunt and during those years, we don't see many deer in that area, but when there is a bumper crop, we see lots of deer.

Nels

[MUSKY18]

Nels:

It seemed like a good crop from what I could tell. One of my buddies that hunted with us, put on some waders and hiked out to an Oak Island in the swamp. Said the ground was literally trampled from the deer in there hitting the acorns. Not sure if they are still hitting the acorns out there or not, but they sure were those couple of days.

I am not sure what was taken out of there the second day of our hunt. I know on Day 1, there was a very nice 2 1/2 year old 8 point taken. Think it had like 8 inch G2's on it. Also a very nice wide, tall 10 point was shot. I didn't get to see that one, only the eight. Also I think a 5 point and 2 does were taken. Not the results we were hoping for, but when there are only 135 guys hunting........

[Bugwubber]

This is my first year deer hunting and of course first time to Camp Ripley. I had been planning on sleeping in my Durango or tent. How does camping vs. getting in line work?

[Cheetah]

Bug, sleep in the truck if you can. When you come out Sat. night, you go immediately in line, you don't drive to any camp you have set up. You don't drive out of line and then come back expecting to get your spot back, you'd go straight to the back.

If you have just a small tent to throw out and sleep in, you could use that and stick it out 30 or so yards from the road. You need to make sure you get up and don't sleep in though otherwise guys in line will be driving around your vehicle parked in the road where you left it. Don't put up a tent next to your truck on the side of the road either, sometimes official vehicles need to drive up and down the side of the line.

Anyway, like I said, it's easiest if you can just sleep in your vehicle, that's how we do it.

[NELS-BELLS]

Bugwubber-

There are always some people brave enough to tent it. I would throw the tent in just in case. Get your vehicle parked in line first and then decide if you want to set the tent up or sleep in the truck. I slept in my Tahoe last year. If you decide to tent it, you may not be parked in line close to your tent for the second night. I guess you could always take it down and move it.

Nels

[Kyle]

luckily I only live 20 mins from ripley. We are planning on coming around 6:30-7:00am. Our thought is that most of the people will already be inside the compound and possibly in their stands. This way we wont have to sit there and sleep in the vehicles all night, and when we go to hang our stands we'll actually be able to see what were doing.

[NELS-BELLS]

luckily I only live 20 mins from ripley. We are planning on coming around 6:30-7:00am. Our thought is that most of the people will already be inside the compound and possibly in their stands. This way we wont have to sit there and sleep in the vehicles all night, and when we go to hang our stands we'll actually be able to see what were doing.

....and hopefully push some deer by me.

[Bear55]

luckily I only live 20 mins from ripley. We are planning on coming around 6:30-7:00am. Our thought is that most of the people will already be inside the compound and possibly in their stands. This way we wont have to sit there and sleep in the vehicles all night, and when we go to hang our stands we'll actually be able to see what were doing.

I did this one year thinking the same thing, most were through but we got there at 7:00 and still didn't get through until closer to 8:00. I'm only a 35 minute drive to Ripley so it didn't make much sense to camp. My advice is sleep in and show up at 8:00 and take a little time to find a nice area, rushing in and running into a lot of other hunters didn't do me any good.

[Kyle]

Thanks for the confirmation. Maybe we will sleep even a little longer. I figure there will be so many people buzzing around all day pushing deer, it probably wont matter if we bump a few on our way in. I know plenty of guys who can only sit until about 8:00am before they feel the need to get up and walk...

[BuckmasterG]

Looks like its shaping up to be a heck of a nice Thursday-Friday hunt for all of us! Getting down to low 30s at night, dry and a windy Wednesday prior to the hunt. I know that we won't be getting up there until about 7:00 Wednesday night so I expect to be towards the back of the line, but at least we got our spot mapped out to shoot to as soon as those gates swing open

[MUSKY18]

Hey RBS.....what time are you going to be up here on Wed? I have meetings in St Cloud and probably won't be back to my office til early afternoon, but as soon as I get back, if you are here I will run over with the big map.

[rbs]

we will be in line at 5am so we will be in as soon as the line gets us in the gate. I will email you where we are situated...thanks again!