deer harvest reports ? anyone

[snapcrackpop]

Worst season that I can remember in 27 years. No deer for our group of 5, and that's in an intensive harvest area. Thank goodness the 10 year old got a button buck during the early youth season.

[laker1]

Zone 172 harvest is going to be very low compared to 5 years ago. I think in many zones we over harvested and got spoiled on some very very good years of hunting.

[fireman]

Not much going on in Clay and Ottertail counties. Hunted 8 of the 9 days and saw very little deer movement. Our party went 1 for 4, taking a small 6 point. On a positive note, I underestimated the pheasant population, lots of roosters crowing in the mornings. Hopefully muzzleloader season turns out a little better.

[TRZ II]

I was able to take a dandy 10pt that weighed 200lbs on sat at noon, big time rutting deer. Saw another doe that morning. Very slow in area 156-heard ONE shot sat. evening....Good thing we are intensive harvest the deer are everywhere! The DNR is clueless on the REAL deer population right now. Or it is a big cover-up to keep people from being outraged over how many wolves their are!

[nofishfisherman]

I spent Thursday-Sunday hunting zone 259 near Bemidji. My group of three took 1 small doe and that was it. I didn't see a deer until Sunday afternoon when we were packing the truck, 2 does came into the yard just to mock us.

The spot I hunted had fresh sign and had great visibility but the deer just weren't moving during daylight. The one my friend got was pushed to him by other hunters.

Despite our terrible trip I don't feel as bad a group hunting down the road from us. They had a group of 6 guys that hunted for the entire week, thats well over 300 man hours of hunting and they didn't see a single deer the entire week. That has to be hard to swallow.

[going4it]

I thought even before the season that they didnt do many lottery drawnings for does because of the shut down and the time that it takes to do it. Just easier for them to open it up to everyone to lessen the workload. My opinion at least

[JBone]

we ended up going 3-6 north of duluth

[snapcrackpop]

When do they determine the area destination based upon deer numbers? If they did it last winter (january 2011) I think a lot of deer died last winter.

In my opinion, the poor deer population is due to hard winters, no food in the fields(better combines and fall tilling) and losing habitat, not generous tags one or two years.

[96trigger]

5 for 6 in zone 342. 2 nice bucks, one small youth buck by my nephew, his first deer. A smaller 8 by my father in law. My Dad struck out this year. Another tough year with the wind and warm weather. It was feast or famine this year. Some nights, you would go out and see double digit deer, the next night, nothing. I didn't see nearly as many deer this fall as normal, but the trail cameras are showing pretty normal amounts. I think Some of our areas could go back to managed pretty easily, but like I said, some hunters maybe never saw a deer, while others saw alot of deer. There was a lot of shooting in the river bottoms. Those deer were really getting pushed around. Not as much in the bluffs. The deer were staying by water sources when possible.

[Gordie]

9 for 10 in zone 2 249 getting 8 the first weekend and 1 on wednsday morning

5,6,and 2-8 pointers the rest were anterless deer

we had a good year but the deer were not moving as they usually do.

only the 2 8 pointers were really big deeer the rest were not typically big deer 3 yearling anterless deer shot also.

My youngest son shot his first deer small nubby buck and thats all that mattered to me was him getting his first deer

[Gofishleech]

I spent Thursday-Sunday hunting zone 259 near Bemidji. My group of three took 1 small doe and that was it. I didn't see a deer until Sunday afternoon when we were packing the truck, 2 does came into the yard just to mock us.

The spot I hunted had fresh sign and had great visibility but the deer just weren't moving during daylight. The one my friend got was pushed to him by other hunters.

Despite our terrible trip I don't feel as bad a group hunting down the road from us. They had a group of 6 guys that hunted for the entire week, thats well over 300 man hours of hunting and they didn't see a single deer the entire week. That has to be hard to swallow.

I hunt this area to and the deer movment thru the week was bad. We were allowed one bonus tag aswell but seemed to be to few deer to allow that imo. The paulbunyan is over run with wolves and deer numbers have been down for a few years now. Tough hunting. Many stories of groups getting 1 for 6 or more and low deer siteings. I also have only seen one buck with a doe all week, is the weakest rut I have ever seen. I keep thinking it is yet to come but there has to be some breeding going on. Maybe just too few deer to see the activity.

[hockeybc69]

0 for 5 in Ottertail County. Didnt think that was even possible out there......

[surewood]

Dinnerpail, Rick would say that. I can't even get a 170" on game cam. Did get a 150"-160" on cam though. I did end up getting a mature 8 that dressed at 219lbs and a doe. Been seeing lots of does, fawns, and small bucks.

[ducksnbucks]

Just talked to the boys up at the cabin just south of Bemidji. A couple guys on/off hunted all week last week and then 4 guys hunted over the weekend....nothing. We went 3 for 11 opening weekend with two 6 pointers and a doe. The boys even walked around after the light snow looking for tracks and they only saw a few, hardly heard any shots either.

Going to head up for the 3rd weekend though, perhaps the little colder weather with get them moving.

[triggertrav]

went 6 for 6 in otertail county. friday morning was hot, 5 taken by 10. five does and one buck.

[critterman]

0 for 9 by Marcell only saw 3 does. very little sign this year.

[hookset]

0 for 5, worst year ever. never even saw a deer on my 150 acre farm. I think we have shot too many of them over the last few years along with some hard winters. I think some one over estimated the population in my area, heck the whole state.

[DinnerPail]

Surewood, just poking a little fun your way. I got a nice 8 on wednesday and my buddy got a big 8 monday that dressed 205#. Son got a 7 pt and two others got a spike and a fork. Have seen a few deer every day out with everything being early in the day.

[leech~~]

Our group with one more weekend to go is 3 for 7 with a few Doe's passed on. I passed on a Doe last Sat waiting on a nice Buck I had seen on my trail cam. Well he showed up on Sunday at about 2:30pm. He was out about 80 yards in thick brush so I passed on him UUuG!

So, I have now given up Deer hunting for the rest of my LIFE!

Well, maybe we'll see next weekend?

[Musky Buck]

Same Hockey 0 for 11 of us, not all of us hunt together in OTC, but it was easily the worst season we've had since whenever we started in 1982ish. But, remember last season was crazy for monster bucks statewide and decent bucks statewide so I expected a down year, not a toilet year but down even though our t-cams showed some good bucks, they were nocturnal days before the big wind and opening day. Then again since we switched to zone 2 I've seen 1 shootable buck in 74 sits, the 6 years prior to that I saw 7 shootable bucks and many more deer sightings in less days, it's a pressure problem which interrupts daylight rutting behavior, the acreage in many areas isn't big enough to allow these bucks to roam around and every field has a stand or 2 so they get driven/spooked out of the fields an hour or so before legal shooting, on edge these deer go find the thickest cover available for the day so us in the swamps/woods don't get to see them trickle back to bedding ground because they're spooked and we're respooking them. I'm convinced more than ever that they'll even (especially the biggest bucks)forgo going to fields to eat in these fairly warm rifle seasons choosing a time or 2 to go load up at midnight, they'll browse/grass more closest to their hideout. There were so few fields that weren't plowed and the t-cams had very few deer and basically 0 bucks since opening day in the only crop field available, yet no 1 got a buck and there are a fair amount of midnite does on the cam. Zone 2 stinks, that 5 day between zone 4 used to help get them feeling somewhat safe again. Easily the least amount of shooting in any rifle year. But, Muzzleloader has been good likely because rifle has been so poor and fewer bodies are out after them.

[winterwalleye]

Just what Lou Cornicelli wants according to his comments in the Outdoor News the last few weeks.

[hoytshooter]

our group went 4 for 4 in 184 south of bemidji. we had a very good season i thought. by the sounds of it our group is very lucky to have a good deer population on our land.

[fishuhalik]

i got real lucky. hunted sun & mon (zone 169) opening wknd. saw a fawn sun morn, saw a small 8pt sun afternoon that i took. sun night a big pack of twolves moved through. not good. my dad has been hunting every day since opener and has kicked up a couple does on his way out/in but has yet to see a deer, buck or doe, while sitting. we usually see at least 6 in a full day. very, very little sign. one scape here, 2 rubs there, worst i've ever seen. same reports from neighbors. haven't heard of a mature buck being taken within 30 miles of us. i know last winter was rough but this is weird...

[MrCrappie]

7 for 11, zone 183 in 7 days of hunting. Two spikes, two fawns and three does. Opening day was the best day. I didn't see a single deer during shooting hours but a friend saw a 10 pointer at 11am on the way to his stand while on his ATV Thursday 11/10. Heard wolves on Saturday and majority of shots were heard in the morning.

Spoke to a CO who said the population is down and with the weather conditions, the harvest will be low.

Hunting pressure, weather conditions, lower deer population and just not being at the right place at the right time is what I blame for my unsuccessful hunts. Although it's hard to keep the optimism, all I can do is keep trying. It ain't over till it's over.

[NEXPLANAR]

We went 5 for 6 my boy got 2, 8 point bucks and my young son got a button buck and we got 2 does shot by other member of ours party.My older son that got the 2, 8 pointer this season has had great success on the stand that he has now in the last 5 season on that stand he has got a 10 point 3 8 point and 2 doe.