Thoughts on seasons...............

[gr8icefishinmind]

So heres the deal, what do you all think about moving the slug season to a later date like other states?? I think it is a terrible idea to have slug season during the rut, but maybe it is me being a selfish bowhunter and wishing that the orange army would stay out of the woods during rut so the bowhunters could be out!! Seems like there are wayyyyyyy too many big bucks being shot by the one weekend a year warriors known as the orange army!!

[Jack Peterson]

Not everyone can afford bowhunting gear.

Keep it the same. It's a good ol' tradition!

Although there's a lot of people that hunt with a bow, I would think 50-75% of hunters use rifles and slug guns only.

Maybe extend bow season?

[gr8icefishinmind]

bow season goes from sept. to jan. Slug hunters would still get their week season but just move it back a week or two!

[heat checker]

I feel that firearms hunters are given the "best time" to harvest a deer. Look at the success rates of firearms to archery. Some of it has to do with distance required to shoot, but also look at the amount of time bowhunters spend in the woods compared to gun hunters. I do hunt both, but feel "cheated" about not being able to bowhunt at the prime of the rut like bowhunters in other states get to do. Positive that ALOT of young bucks would live to an older age if guns were moved out of the rut. Doesn't much matter how the minority(bowhunters) feel, as the DNR will always go with the popular vote.

[wannafish2]

i thought you could still bowhunt during the gun season...just have to wear orange right?

[Jack Peterson]

i thought you could still bowhunt during the gun season...just have to wear orange right?

yeah, no kidding. heck, the gun hunters will push deer around for the bow hunters too.

Why not bow hunt, and then gun hunt during the rut, and then bow hunt after it?

Or do you strictly bow hunt? I've never gone bow hunting, but I hear it's addicting.

[gr8icefishinmind]

yeah, you can bowhunt during slug season. The point i was trying to make was all the big bucks being shot during slug season because of the rut being on, actually just bucks in general! that is why states like south dakota have a later gun season and also have a much bigger concentration of nice bucks!

[Jack Peterson]

The best thing you can do to have big bucks in the area, is to be selective.

If you can get 4 or 5 neighbors to shoot only big 8's and up, the quality of deer will jump drastically.

Leave it the same, but try to convince people not to take the little guys. Nothing wrong with hunting for a big buck until the last day or two, and then taking a doe or fawn.

Also, if firearm season was pushed out of the rut, less deer would be harvested, resulting in overpopulation/more car accidents.

[gr8icefishinmind]

Also, if firearm season was pushed out of the rut, less deer would be harvested, resulting in overpopulation/more car accidents.

I am in the auto body business so that wouldn't be all bad! Actually the numbers around here are down quite a bit!! And i agree 100% that selective harvesting is the way to go but unfortunately more people could care less about it and are just out to get meat which is fine but it doesn't help us that are out for a nice rack and put the extra time into it!

Example.....I have been hunting the same stand for bowhunting every weekend the last 2 months or so on private land to only see does and a few small bucks. A different guy from the cities who hunts one weekend in the fall hunts it on slug opener and shoots a monster 10 point that was chasing a doe! I was happy for him but at the same time was extremely dissappointed cause if i would have been able to hunt that during the rut he would have been mine! What upset me even more was he couldn't care less about mounting it, just wanted the meat!!

[gr8icefishinmind]

Gotta keep the body shops in business too ya know, and deer hits are a big priority in that business!!

[mabr]

Aint going to happen in this State, people are to set in their ways.

I just got back from Iowa, whos gun season is in December. I mentioned I was glad that the southern part of MN is using antler restrictions now and they just laughed. Would'nt be a need for antler restrictions they said if we moved the opening gun season out of the rut. They have the meat hunters as well who shoot the lil bucks every year. but there are always mature bucks that are running around year after a year.

MN is just to set in there ways for following a good DNR program as Iowa has. On a side note, I am noticing that more people are practicing QDM on there own which will go a long ways towards trophy potential in the future.

[gr8icefishinmind]

QDM is a great thing, but when rut begins the deer move alot and end up in state land quite a bit where most of the time QDM doesn't exist!! I hunt all private land and use QDM but sometimes i wonder if it is worth it if those deer then go to state land to roam and get shot!! I would LOVE to see point restrictions!!!

[Archerysniper]

Well if we push our season back that would interfear with the sconi season wich would mean reduced $ in both states.

[heat checker]

To be successful with archery gear, you generally need calm deer, not hyper-alert deer. Unless you own some land and don't allow gun hunters in, the chances of encounters with calm deer during firearms season are pretty slim. Yes, you can bowhunt during gun season and muzzy as well, but most don't for the above reason. So in effect, prime rut is "given" to the firearms hunters. You do have a good point about a lower harvest and overpopulation if moved out of the rut.

[Meat-Run]

gr8ice,

I'm all for your idea but it will never happen. I used to hunt slug zones and for the most part you sit for the first 1-2 hours in the morning and then you "pheasent hunt" for deer the rest of the day. Don't get me wrong we were very successfull and it was fun but my life was more in danger in a slug zone then in a rifle zone. Now to get back to your question or post, I would like to see rifle and slug moved back just one week and they still would not see any difference in rut activity state wide. It might even help the hunters to the south more...that's just my opinion or .02.

mr

[gr8icefishinmind]

I think one week would be a huge difference, pretty sure that is what south dakota has done isn't there gun season starting the weekend of the 20th???

[sticknstring]

Eliminate the gun season all together and allow unlimited tags for bowhunters. I know I'm good for 10-20 deer!

[goblueM]

yeah, you can bowhunt during slug season. The point i was trying to make was all the big bucks being shot during slug season because of the rut being on, actually just bucks in general! that is why states like south dakota have a later gun season and also have a much bigger concentration of nice bucks!

i see quite a few giant bucks taken by archers in the Outdoor News and on message boards...

and there's no way that the DNR is going to move a traditional deer hunting date for the majority of the hunting public to appease bow hunters.

[Jack Peterson]

What makes bow hunters so special?

All my buddies that bow hunt took their deer in September or October anyways.

Most of them shot nice 8's or 10 pointers.

Where you sit, when you sit, and how much you sit make a difference.

[gr8icefishinmind]

Not trying to ruffle any feathers but to me, the gun hunters are out to get their meat and be done! Bowhunters seem to be a little more selective in what they shoot cause we have 4 months to shoot! Sure i could have filled my tag already on a doe or small buck, but then i woiuld be done hunting and i don't really care to shoot a small buck when i hunt all private land!! If it comes to taking a doe i will but as of now i am out for a big boy!! It is tough to bowhunt during slug season as soo many deer are being pushed and are on the run, even if you hunt private land!

[Jack Peterson]

Maybe you should find some more land to hunt on where there's no gun pressure then.

[DHost21]

Eliminate the gun season all together and allow unlimited tags for bowhunters. I know I'm good for 10-20 deer!

Agreed!!! I would love that

[gr8icefishinmind]

Maybe you should find some more land to hunt on where there's no gun pressure then.

Pretty sure i have PLENTY of private land to hunt on, but deer move from place to place pretty consistently especially during the rut and it only takes one shot from a gun to get deer riled up or one ROAD HUNTER blasting shots off the road!!

[gr8icefishinmind]

Eliminate the gun season all together and allow unlimited tags for bowhunters. I know I'm good for 10-20 deer!

Ohhhhh that would be nice!!

[Musky Buck]

Whether they are in rut or not you still have 50 days to hunt these mature bucks before rifle gets going, my best chance would be from Oct. 15th to Nov. 3rd ish when they start making scrapes and rubbing trees hard. I think moving it back in MN would be a joke personally and a lot of vacant deer land would be up for sale especially in snow years. So 480,000 gun hunters, you really think it would save that many mature bucks to make some sort of impact I doubt it. Are you thinking hunters would freeze out sooner and spend less time on stand? I just don't think comparing Iowa to MN is plausible, compare the number of gun hunters per state, Iowa's smaller, but we have how many acres of our state tied up as water. We allow party hunting where 1 guy can shoot as many bucks as they have tags even in zone 3 where it's tag your own buck but how many wives or whatever have tags so they can still muzzleload later by saving their tag, I think I'm saying there are way more issues than moving it out of the rut in MN. So the savior would be nocturnalism for these mature bucks. Also, if that happened I'm telling all the bowhunters on my land(s) they are done for good. Why should I fork out huge land payments monthly for their pleasure when they own no land but come up my driveway in new suburbans or ext cabs saving their money for their lakehomes that I never get to use, do 95,000 bow hunters want that number to double or triple, it might as I think a lot of us would take it up just for that rut time and then the rifle crew would take there certain % of mature bucks anyway, simply put more smallish bucks need to shed a few racks before they are mature. Realize bow-hunting is a low percentage deal and 480,000 rifle hunters aren't going anywhere. But, whatever the rules are, I'm happy to hunt accordingly.