200" plus bucks in mn

[Z7EXTERME]

I have herd of or seen a lot of pictures of monster bucks taken this year. The majority of the bucks green score over 200" is it just me or is there a lot more taken this year than normal in mn?

[CANOPY SAM]

It's just you.

There's big deer shot every year in MN. It's just that everyone doesn't shoot one, so 99.9% of people complain that there aren't any big deer to shoot in Minnesota.

[james_walleye]

It's not just you. No you normally don't see this many deer over 200".

[Jeff13]

Noticed some real monsters in the outdoor news I picked up today. Nice to see some big deer like that. We don't want to advertise them all like Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, and then have out of staters coming in crowds to shoot them all.

[Laska]

To bad its already happening... Guys coming from outta town to come down here and pay farmers leases and kick the guys out that have been hunting that property over 20years... Makes me sick... Its happening more and more every year.

[Z7EXTERME]

Ya its sad seeing hunting groups lose hunting land that they have been hunting for 30 plus years becsuse someone pays a bunch of money to hunt. Public land in central minnesota is always packed hard to find a spot you can hunt yourself but thats why they call it hunting and not killing part of the challenge.

[PropsterII]

So we'd rather have mostly small immature bucks, or maybe an occasional trophy buts let's keep it on the down low so nobody really finds out what good hunting we have - or I guess don't really have? Sorry guys, it's the way it is and Minnesota is late to the game. High quality hunting with a good chance for large critters is getting to be an expensive proposition, whether it's owning land, leasing, hunting with an outfitter, traveling to other states, expensive or difficult-to-draw tags - that's what we all face. We should be thankful we've had it as good as we have for as long as we have. And Minnesota still has more public hunting opportunity than most other Midwestern states. But to lament the fact that we are now getting more and more big deer and quality deer that some of us are now getting to experience, c'mon that makes no sense. And put yourself in the landowners position. He finally has a chance to offset some of the expense of owning that land over the years. Maybe if we who had free permission all this time had made it better worth their while to allow us to hunt we we wouldn't be looking at someone else leasing "our" hunting spots.

[ANYFISH2]

Do you believe what you just wrote? Yes, we've had it good for a long time, but we do not have to except being forced to pay $1,000's of dollars per year just to hunt 120, 16, or 9 days a year. Landowners can do as they wish, thtas the way it should be, but WE do not have to pay the exorbinate lease fees, that may help from pricing out most of our hunting community.

[PropsterII]

Nobody is forcing you to do anything. All I'm saying is that it is difficult to have it both ways. How do you expect to have high quality hunting and yet not have it be worth anything to others?

[matchset]

Easy winter+early green up+sustained moisture =200"

[DinnerPail]

Easy winter+early green up+sustained moisture =200"

+1

[monstermoose78]

+1 for matchset you nailed sir. I am sick off idiots saying its APR regs. Wait some of these deer come from other areas.

[PropsterII]

But you're missing the fact that you have to get em past a year or two of age in order for the easy winter, early green up, etc to have an effect. Sure you can have big deer without regs. You'll have more now having gone through a few years of it.

[buckeyes08]

The one thing is if we pay to lease then why not hunt all seasons and not just firearm season. I have a friend that lease land for 1200 a year but split it 4 ways now that make it more affordable for one to manage. I thinking about doing it with a few other guys.

[CANOPY SAM]

Matchset...I think that's precisely right, and I think it's two years in a row now.

We've seen some real giants pre-season up here in NW Minnesota, not sure they're quite 200, but they're bigger deer than we've seen in quite a while.

There were some real nice deer last year as well. I think it's truly amazing how these bruisers completely disappear once season opens. No one even sees them! I'm completely convinced these guys go to little, out of the way, obvious hidey holes, that no one bothers to walk.

Easy winters, ample moisture, and plenty of food definitely bumps up the antler growth.

[Z7EXTERME]

What I mean by people leasing out there land is that I grew up hunting private land a lot of land to hunt and it was good deer hunting. I understand the land owner had the right to do what they my please but when my younger sisters enjoy deer hunting its hard with there school and work and other oblagations only give them two days to hunt and the private land has decreased do to people up north had the land they hunted leased or whatever it may be just hard to get in to those good spots I had when I was there age... I know I can get enough hunting in my hunting season never really stops from shed hunting to scouting to the legal hunting season begins and ends. I couldvgo lease land if I really needed to but the rest of the family can't afford it I have a enough special hunts to keep me busy. But like I said thats why its called hunting just part of the challenge!