Deer Numbers ?

[Jeff13]

I hunt in 242 and in 246. Deer number look really healthy in both areas I hunt. I know of wolves in these zones but still none where I am hunting, maybe that is making a difference. No wolves and a easy winter last year.

My cousin owns land in Princeton and has deer all over his land. Over the past 5 years he had deer but nothing like he does this fall. He believes a big part has to do with the removal of yotes. He invited trappers in last winter and shot a ton of them himself. The yotes were so bad last winter he was shooting them in his yard on the farm, I've bow hunted out there this year and not seen or heard a yote.

If you can find a good trapper out there it may not hurt to give them some access to your land to take some of those pests off of it.

[Bear55]

Just kidding but that's because the wolf has found easy eating down here in farmland country

This is probably true but don't worry, it might take some time but the deer will adapt. The wolves on the other hand might be there to stay.

[pikerliker]

Driving to and from work Le Sueur to Shakopee I've seen quite a few road killed deer the past few weeks. I saw 3 new deer killed in consecutive days in a one mile stretch about a week ago. I did take my daughter out for the early youth season deer hunt in Scott County last week for a couple days and saw lots of sign, but no deer. I have seen them driving though so I know they are around.

[jerkbait]

Musky, I have heard them by Skime also and seen some of them. That is where are deer camp is. Although I have not heard or seen many since the sharpshooters got done down there with the deer. The deer pop is still nowhere near what it used to be in that area.

[Musky Buck]

Right on JB, Not only do the deer have to adapt me too. I have land south of Mille Lacs in wolf range country and there are rare sightings here and there, the deer seem to have little issue as the terrain there is miles connected to miles of it, my other area is new wolf country and the deer have changed a lot in that area the past couple years. So I'm really better off hunting in the wolf range where there's fewer of them or at least they're spread out geographically vs non wolf range which has them confined to small chunks of cover, weird eh ? 10 days guys and it's game on. Glad it didn't open this morning what a wet mess.

[lichen fox]

In our area the numbers are quite high...I was out to one of our cabins last evening and on the 7 mile drive over I saw 35 deer, all does and fawns...this morning, on the way to work, driving in the opposite direction, I saw 15 within a mile of my house! Again, all does and fawns...and I really don't understand why they put our zone as a lottery area this year! Everyday going to work, for the past 3 weeks, there has been an average of about 2 fresh road kills per day!!

[gp13581]

If folks are worried about deer numbers, something must be done to knock down the predators. Inviting in a trapper is a great idea. You'll both get some benefit. The impact of predators cannot be underestimated. Thanks to those of you that do open your land up to allow others to harvest the predators. I don't think it will be too long before we start seeing requests inviting others to come and take out the predators.

[Musky Buck]

When I really analyze over the years there is no doubt the coyote population.....I've never seen or heard so many in all my years so the 70's,80's90's00's and today, the last 2-3 years have really been thick with coyotes, I hope the hound dog hunters get the perfect winter weather to do their thing, I have a group lined up to hammer our section with all landowners on board.

[RBuker]

I'm in 246. Lots of deer. I bow hunt three or four nights a week. Last week on Tuesday night I had sixteen deer come past my stand. The next night I had eight come by me on a different stand. Last Sunday night I had 10 deer milling around me. I sure can't complain. More deer than last year for sure. We have a lot of small bucks out there so last year the three of us avoided shooting does as we weren't real happy with the numbers. We took three small bucks and I know those three deer weren't the main difference but anything we could do to help... Either way, it's all good now.

[Musky Buck]

This deer numbers thing so many of us were really optimistic that they were hiding in all the irrigated or not corn in the area, I asked every farmer I could if they saw any while combining because they always do or the guys waiting on the edges to haul the corn see them sneaking out etc. Very few guys saw any at all so it's like oh oh, the numbers vary even section to section but most sections in my area have very few around according to trailcams, scouting,talking with farmers and lack of tracks and trails, glad we're a hunters choice area now. It just seems hard to expect to see much when we're not seeing anything now or over the course of the summer early fall. But, it only takes 1.

[hockeybc69]

Deer numbers seem decent around us.

Just give me some deer that move during daylight....

[Musky Buck]

Right on Hockey, there's been a major major shift to going nocturnal well ahead of rifle opener and I swear it's been since the 2nd year of zone 2. Not officially saying zone 2 is too blame but that's when we all noticed all of our unhunted land and the deer still are basically only active after complete darkness, maybe some is that extra 1/2 hour after sunset, maybe it's the wolves around now, maybe it's just much much lower deer numbers, maybe it's all of us t-cam boys scenting up pretty much every property in the area, lots of maybes and maybe it's just a combo of a lot of things, who knows, but deer will be taken and just hope our number is called. Get the right weather for once could help daylight movement, we'll know much more in 8 days.

[bigbucks]

Numbers are solid in 213-214 area. I'd say they're up from the last two years as a whole. I wish they would have left 213 as managed, seems like a bit of overreaction to a low kill last year, more due to windy weather opening weekend then anything. It may be that the Southern parts of the area have less deer, don't really know. It's been a bit of an odd season for me. I've had a lot of empty sits & a lot of multiple deer sits. 1, 0, 0, 7, 0, 6, 0, 0, 0, 5, 1...

[Bear55]

Between extended seasons and hunting opportunies, more bowhunters, game cams, and more hunters on less land I would say pressure is at an all time high and the deer react accordingly and just don't move as much. This pressure is probably here to stay and we are all to blame for the less than steller movement.

[hockeybc69]

I do believe you are on the right path bear...

[Musky Buck]

I'm with ya to, must be the deal, old zone 4 left plenty of deer around for all the next year, split up the hunters also, now we have 9 day guys who are more into it for the shooting and how many you get, we got to get our venison, we used to have 2 days to do that, add an extra week in there and it all adds up with everything else going on. I told my dad when the switch happens the 1st year will be awesome, then watch deer numbers bottom out, I wanted that prediction to not happen, up to 5 tags etc., too much pressure in the farmland instead of 2 days to drive deer now you have 9 in these smallish parcels, done over 3-4 years and winter mortality/wolves and yes our numbers should be down, deer that used to survive the hunt of old are now gunned down, not all of them of course but apparently too many or my neighbors swamps would still have wintering herds, they don't anymore. My shed hunting grounds are toast. The issue in my area is there are 19 rifles in our section now aday, if I lit a fire to the section maybe 10 deer would run out, the deer are now the minority. This year I hope there's that many deer in that square mile, haven't seen any since August there. I just need the 1 to come by. The days of it sounding like a war are on hold for opening day. Honestly if they closed the season this year do you really think we'd be overrun with deer the next year, not in my part of 240. It's just frustrating guys I'd sure like to see some deer like I used to, not go through a dozen sits without a sighting like the last few years, this is just another chapter in deer and deer hunting MN style. When that neighbor has a wintering herd there again all will be well.

[Bear55]

not go through a dozen sits without a sighting like the last few years

You farm boys are just too spoiled that is the norm in the bigwoods.

[Finlander]

Well if everybodys thought of deer turning nocturnal, then there should eventually be alot of big bucks around sooner or later ya think?

[Musky Buck]

There's just not too many to go around finlander because nocturnal or not they get driven out for 9 days instead of 2, yes we were very spoiled in 240 for a long time, in those 2 day years I used to average roughly 15 deer seen with gun in hand some good years many more some poor weather years many less but you knew the next year would be nuts, now I have 7 more days to hunt and I average 5 deer seen with gun in hand so that's 3x less with many more days in the field. This 240 is #1 for muzzleloader hunter numbers also, add in wolves, and I'm sure it's loaded with bow hunters also. Car kills, train kills lol, and winter mortality. Boy is that paragraph loaded with optimism lol, I'm actually voodoo ing my hunt already so it will go the other way and I'll need a forklift to get him home this year .

[fr0sty]

As always, give me a call if you need help dragging that monster out

I'm actually voodoo ing my hunt already so it will go the other way and I'll need a forklift to get him home this year .