Rifle opener

[harvey lee]

The rut this year seems to not be as good as other years or a typical rut.

It seems a bit slow and I simply have not seen near the typical rut signs or the hard running bucks chasing does.

maybe the weather or the full moon but I hope soon they begin to move a bit more.

Never hunted this hard for 1 buck and I am not being picky at all.

[TylerS]

I was south of I-29 this past weekend hunting roosters with two friends and our dogs. One spot we kicked out five deer, two of which were bucks (one beaut), and the other spot we kicked up three big does and one smaller buck. All unposted property.

Seems like there are still plenty around. Where I hunt deer and where we saw deer this weekend are on different ends of the state. Maybe I'm just lucky?

[harvey lee]

You would not see those deer numbers in our area unless you got very lucky.

I have hunted 7 days to date and have not seen enough deer to bother with and I have hunted this ranch for 25 years so it is not a new piece of ground to me.

Some area may be good but I can guarantee you that our piece of heaven is close to deerless.

As far as I am concerned, the GnF could close our area for a few years to let the deer numbers rebound.

It is sad to see what has happened to the deer numbers.

[still floats guy]

Good luck this weekend everyone! I'll be back on the hunt in both 2c and 2d. Stay safe!

[TylerS]

Looks like we were Rooster hunting in 2G if that helps anyone. Good luck SFG! You hunt near the river? I've seen some big deer along the Red, but never had a tag for that area. Let us know how you do!

[still floats guy]

The last weekend for rifle hunting has come and gone. We ended up bagging 5 of the 8 tags we had for the season. Bucks were hard to find this year as our entire group saw only one fork-horn and one 8 pointer(neither of which were shot). A litle snow on the ground in 2c and 2d helped a lot in the last weekend. There are plenty of deer in the woods but all totalled I would agree with most that overall numbers are down.

I usually hunt private land but this year hunted almost exclusively on public land. What a great resource! The decline of total population is not due to lack of habitat in these areas. I didn't see even one other hunter on the two weekends I hunted on the public land. 4 of the 5 deer we shot were on public land.

We were happy to do our duty and remove two coyotes from the population as well:)

TylerS - I have hunted the Red river bottoms several times in the past. It is a really fun hunt and it is a different hunt every year due to spring flooding. With that said it is also difficult. The deer think nothing of swimming the river to the Minnesota side. It is best to have heavy hunting on the other side to keep the deer circulating through the area. You would be surprised at how little the deer by the river get hunted.

Good luck to everyone transitioning to muzzel loader. Stay warm and good luck.