Minnesota Deer Hunting...

[nonteepical]

antler crazed nuts isn't anything new, taxidermy has been around forever and the boone and crockett club was formed in 1887.

[SartellMN]

This year we decided to only shoot does and large bucks (8+ points). We meat hunt, but also we need to control the population on the land. Typically we have between 30-50 deer over winter on my property (220 acres). That is a lot of animals living off a small chunk of land. One hard winter and we will have a lot of dead deer.

That being said, we shot a 6 point that was misidentified as an 8, as well as a fawn buck that was the size of a good sized doe. No regrets and lots of meat.

Trophy deer look good, but they taste like cr*p, and other than looks and bragging rights, are no better than a 6 or 8 point. I would love to have a photo of me on the wall with a 12 point, 170" buck, but that is by no means the goal of hunting for me.

[hockeybc69]

Quote:

Trophy deer look good, but they taste like cr*p,

No way you can tell an old buck from a young buck once its made into tasty sausage and jerky.

[B. Amish]

lots of deer taste like [PoorWordUsage] when they hang in a tree for 4 days in 50 degree weather with their hide still on. then get hauled back home on a 4 hour drive absorbing all the exhaust along the interstate.

[eyeguy 54]

I've eaten steaks from small young deer and from old trophy deer. I love em all. If you shoot a monster and don't want the meat you can always donate it to somebody. I started passing smaller bucks about 5 years ago. That was tough to do cuz I was a meat hunter for many years but hunting a lot I was able to harvest a few dandy bucks. Great memories on the wall in my man cave and great steaks on the grill. I have no problem at all with anybody shooting small bucks. It's legal and we should be thankfull that we can just hunt. If a trophy buck is what you live for patience, good hunting ethics and a little luck will hopefully get you your trophy.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

I guess i should clarify as well that i have no problem with anybody who likes to see deer get larger on their property, but until minnesota eliminates the over the counter licenses and goes to a lottery for all gun tags similar to other states like south dakota, there will always be those of us who enjoy deer hunting and enjoy meat that will shoot a small buck. I didn't draw licenses for south dakota gun season this year, but i definitely plan on buying left over doe tags, as well as attempt to fill my 2 muzzy doe tags as well. I'm building preference points though for a county that has plenty of trophy bucks, and should I draw a tag, and get lucky enough to harvest a big buck, I'm surely going to enjoy the moment, but you won't find me sitting at the bar telling anybody who'll listen that I'm some great deer hunter because i shot a big buck. Big antlers and $.50 will get you a cup of coffee and thats about it.

[Vikings_59]

Here is some more info on this subject.

If someone has some other info please inform us, but this info is via St. Cloud State and Valley City State University (ND) Biology departments.

Deer age Dental examinations show deer don't start to deteriorate calcium until they are past the age of 7. Obviously there are rare cases. So their bodies/antlers can get bigger for 7+ years if they survive. I have never tasted a deer from ND, MN, WI or Iowa that tasted bad no matter what the age.

A 1 1/2 year old buck can range from a button to a basket 9/10 point. Again there are rarities.

An ESTIMATED 85% of bucks registered in Minnesota in 2009 were 1 1/2 year old bucks. Now think what we would have walking around here if we gave those deer another year to grow.

One way to look at it is, do you keep an 11-12'' Walleye? Actually, We dont want to hear the answer to that. : ) I am guessing some of this board does.

Again, I am not a trophy or selfish hunter or picking on anyones choices. It would just be nice to see some bigger deer around.

[DHost21]

The best post ive ever seen on the site!!! I agree with 100% of it!

[Musky Buck]

What's funny is so many say I shoot for meat or venison but yet just plow that small buck like you'd never see a doe in a 9 day hunt. Sure some can only hunt a day or 2 and there's a lot of variables, kids/elderly,newbies, but if you've taken several small bucks in your days and they being the easiest challenge yourself some to let him go, take your doe or who knows a large buck may come by nearly adding 50 extra pounds of meat for the table, I'm tired of most in my area blasting everything they can get a shot at and finding tags so they can keep blasting, you may say you're trying to impose your way on me well I'm tired the other direction of the blasters imposing and skirting the tagging laws on me. Let him go, so he can shed his first ever rack !

[surewood]

Let em go let em grow.

[Musky Buck]

It does work trust me as I have seen some of the go grow areas in Ottertail county kicking out some real bruisers thus far just meaning there's a good buck age distribution in those areas. Wait until you see that Perham MN monster. There's no doubt many have passed on that deer for awhile now.

[DHost21]

What's funny is so many say I shoot for meat or venison but yet just plow that small buck like you'd never see a doe in a 9 day hunt. Sure some can only hunt a day or 2 and there's a lot of variables, kids/elderly,newbies, but if you've taken several small bucks in your days and they being the easiest challenge yourself some to let him go, take your doe or who knows a large buck may come by nearly adding 50 extra pounds of meat for the table, I'm tired of most in my area blasting everything they can get a shot at and finding tags so they can keep blasting, you may say you're trying to impose your way on me well I'm tired the other direction of the blasters imposing and skirting the tagging laws on me. Let him go, so he can shed his first ever rack !

AGREED!! The "meat hunters" are the same people that will pass on does for the first couple days of the season waiting for a big buck and when the time is running out they will shoot a little buck, if youre a true meat hunter that is awesome take the does then if they are in range!!! Passing on little bucks in most areas of the state shouldnt be an issue if you just take does if you are really looking for meat!!

[Musky Buck]

Right on DHost, I'm sure when the wives are kissing the husbands good bye they say good luck bagging that doe, not I hope you get a big buck. I think there's a lot of well the neighbors will blast him, haven't fired a shot in 2-3 years, etc. Lots of justifying why they did what they did. No I don't want a huge buck behind every tree and that won't happen, my dad hasn't shot a buck since 1991, so he rarely even goes anymore, he says why, every buck around our area is shot if seen, no wonder there are few big ones if any some seasons, can't go from a button buck to a shooter the next year and I added when every property has multiple stands there is no sanctuary area(standing corn is the best hope for sanctuary) for them to survive the hunt like there once was and the rut really moves them around for the shooting crowds and the runt bucks go down,down,down and Dhost there truly are meat hunters and then self proclaimed meathunters that really aren't but they can justify the small bucks they take by lobbing themselves into the meat hunting crowd, how would we know. I predict and pray I'm wrong but without the standing corn around the bucks in my area are really going to be thin next season.

[Jackpine Rob]

We are in a lottery zone, and drew 0 doe tags for five hunters. We are meat hunters, and the only buck seen during daylight hours, a forkhorn buck, is in my freezer right now.

Had we passed on that deer - there wouldn't have been venison for us. Last year we shot no deer - 5 hunters, no doe tags, and only one buck seen. We take what we can get, and are grateful for the tasty venison.

Maybe if the farmer across the road would take out his corn sometime before Christmas, we would see a few more deer! The very very large buck that was hanging around this fall heads into that corn shortly before sunup each day, and doesn't come out until well after dark. I had him beneath me both Saturday and Sunday, but it was too dark.

[MJ1657]

I cannot understand guys blasting others because they choose to shoot a deer of their choice. If you are so concerned about having a "trophy" animal to shoot buy every bit of land you can and manage your own herd. Sorry for the rant but some of us are out here to enjoy nature and have some venison in the freezer not to just shoot an animal they have been granted permission to by the so called trophy hunters.

[pulleye16]

I am against APR for one basic reason... There are tons of huge deer out in MN and on public land. Instead of just "wanting" every deer you see be a trophy, just shut up and go out there and do some home work. EVERY year someone in our group has managed to take a huge "trophy" deer on VERY heavy populated public land with tons of hunters shooting small young bucks. Scout, get set-up, and learn the area. Try learning how to hunt instead the state of MN hunting for you (implementing APR)!

[Musky Buck]

LOL MJ, some how inflation and the loss of the dairy farmer ruined a big land purchase, was looking at a section but just couldn't get the bank to borrow me a half million dog gone it. Not really trying to blast others but it is getting really old watching bachelor herds every summer that often don't contain even 1 buck I'd consider taking, years back there'd be 1 or 2 that we'd try for all season, now it's why go when you won't even see a deer that's 2.5 years or older, I want to hunt not shoot but what I'm trying to hunt is no longer available or so rare, all we are doing is leaving these immature bucks for everyone around us to gun down which is happening year after year, did you read my dad hasn't shot a buck since 1991 and has seen maybe 3-4 shootable bucks since then, admit it most still want some form of calcium on the head or people would be taking does. In my area if it's a buck it's shot pronto, if it's a doe 75% chance it's going down and fawns about 50-50 depending on how many tags the group has and like tomorrow and sunday if it's brown it's taking lead for sure. Then the muzzy crowd can gear up and thin em down a bit more, kinda funny how you go west on a muley hunt, I never have, most are not taking a spike or Y, they pass on them, here kaboom. But, I can go another 10 years without a year a buck and my dad can go another 20 years without a buck although he'd be 85 years old by then.

[DHost21]

The price of hunting land along with the economy being down and jobs cutting wages makes it hard to even purchase 40 acres. Trust me it is my dream to someday even own 40 acres of land but right now thats not possible and i hut all public land. I see good deer and do my scouting and have shot a good 10 pointer and 11 pointer in the last 4 years but those were the only deer of any size i have seen in those 4 years. It would be nice to see a couple more instead of seeing 10 does every night im out and this is in the metro area where we can take as many does as possible. I in the past 4 years have taken 12 does and my mom has taken 6 and yet we still see them everywhere and see very few little or big bucks. I was out during the gun season just seeing if a big one would come out and saw 7 6 pointers or less get shot out there and these were all supposedly meat hunters as i talked to them. They also said they had been seeing does all day. That to me gets really really frustrating. I understand lottery areas are harder to do that but in non lottery areas and especially intensive harvest or managed areas people need to take does!!! Especially instead of the little bucks

[MJ1657]

I can undertand your viewpoint musky buck. I just dont want to see deer hunting get so over regulated like I believe alot of our fishing has been. But thats another subject for a different day. Lol

[Getanet]

Pardon me for sounding insensitive here DHost, but averaging a 10+point buck every other year sounds like pretty good hunting to me.

[NaturesRespect]

when i saw how young deer really are and the size rack they had i was like

when i realized how we are hunting i got really sad. no wonder i havnt shot a big one they were all shot when young.

man its hard wat to say were we hunt if you dont shoot it someone else will and thats an almost guranteed statement.

we hunters need to take a step back and learn to pass up bucks for a while but that will never hapen since nowadays everyone is all about shooting it, as long as somethings shot right?

i think we have gone a long ways and our generation of hunters have become too compitition mind set that we just shoot anything that walks by. other than that i think we need to open up more public forest for hunting and stop selling land for ppl to buy were i hunt the entire area was once all public and now most of it is private all baught by ppl who could afford it, in the future there will be no more public hunting land and we will all be bunched up in management areas and state parks i just feel if we had more public free open land deer have more room to roam and grow like we want. im pretty sad about how my hunting will turn out in the future for me

[DHost21]

Pardon me for sounding insensitive here DHost, but averaging a 10+point buck every other year sounds like pretty good hunting to me.

Haha no im not upset with the deer i got at all im very happy with them!! I am just saying they were the only "shooters" i saw and neither of them even made pope and young so they were smaller 10s and 11s. I would just like to be able to see maybe 2 shooters in a year instead of 1 and i have my cameras up all summer and dont see but the 1 or maybe not even that all summer. And also i would like to see less does than i do now that is the whole idea behind the intensive harvest is to thin the herd and when people are passing on does to take a fork buck that gets me angry.

[flipper]

But guess what, not everybody thinks like you and not everybody really gives a rip about the horns. I would just as soon shoot a doe but a young buck tastes good too. Yesterday I saw what you consider "a shooter" I didn't want it but I sure had a great time watching him and I hope he stays on my place to breed the does. You guys that say you want to see the big bucks in the herd crack me up because as soon as you get a shot at it you take it. Guess what, NO MORE BIG BUCK!

[DHost21]

If they couldnt give a rip about horns how come they are passing on does to take little bucks? I think that is all a mentality that the young bucks taste so much better. That is the cop out way of feeling ok about shooting them. All the does i have taken have tasted amazing along with the bigger bucks they taste great also. Deer taste good in general. If the younger animals were the ones that tasted sooo much better why dont they butcher new calves for beef and not the adult cows? And yes when i get a shot at a good buck i will take him but by the time he has gotten big enough ive passed on him 3+ years and he has bread a bunch of does and his little ones are becoming big also so taking him was an accomplishment and then next year there will be one or more big bucks again. If people werent taking the little bucks there could be more than 1 big buck out there so guess what, ANOTHER BIG BUCK NEXT YEAR!

[pulleye16]

I have a great experiment I wish we could try in MN just for fun that I think would show APR hunters and people who don't think people still "hunt for meat." Here it is in a nut shell:

The DNR should implement a universal deer liscense that would restrict all hunters to ONLY shoot a 8 point or larger deer (to satisfy trophy deer hunters) or a doe (for the meat hunters). Thats one liscense for either a 8 point plus deer or a doe...its the hunters choice.

Now, how do you think the deer population would look in five years? If so many hunters want to shoot big bucks instead of putting meat in the freezer it should survive right?????? I'm guessing IMO the deer herd would be starving to survive.