Sand Dunes State Forest

[crestliner16]

Has anybody deer hunted this before?

[TProGuy]

Went out there with my bow twice, right before the start of the rifle season. Saw some decent sign, but never saw a deer...probably due to the number of squirrel hunters tromping around out there. One of them shot a squirrel that was 10 feet above my head in the tree I was bowhunting from...not cool!

I went back after rifle season ended and scouted around for over 3 hours. With the relatively fresh snow on the ground, I thought it would be easy to find where the deer were. After 3 hours of walking and not one set of tracks, I packed it in and went home. All in all, nothing very exciting.

[Gordie]

During regular season its a pumpkin patch but the refuge gets hit a bit harder than the Dunes

There are some really nice deer taken out of ther each year.

I live a few miles away from the re and have dtaken a couple of does with my shot gun I have aklso hunted with my muzzle loader a few times but those deer get pretty skidish by then but they still can be taken.

There are some really good placs to hunt just have to scoutit out a bit.

[crestliner16]

i figured they were probably pressured pretty good in there. Was just looking for another place togo with the muzzleloader!

[elkhuntingfan]

I've heard the Sand Dunes are very busy during muzzleloader. Unfortunately, you can't hunt Sherburne Refuge during muzzleloader.

[leech~~]

I use to Bow hunt it years ago before they blocked off most of the roads and logged a bunch. I had one spot where I could almost time the deer every morning, but that got logged off and it blow the spot. There seems to be a lot of traffic in there the last few years so I gave up trying. But if you keep scouting and stay in the heavery cover areas and some of the places on the edges where they can cross over from private land you may find a few good setups. A good way to do some scouting is to do some snowmobiling through it in the winter and mark spots you find on the GPS for next year! Good Luck!

[fowldreams]

Mixed results. Yes it can be done but as others have stated things have changed drastically in the last several years. Plenty of turkeys though. Come back in the spring. Good Luck

[maros91]

Lots of pressure from the gun and muzzy seasons. Do some legwork like the previous people have said and you may get lucky and get one. Good luck!