Bemidji Area - Blackduck Area deer reports

[Fishfanatic]

How many of you hunt the Bemidji-Blackduck area?

I have heard many conflicting reports about the deer numbers

in the area.

I'm curious what everyone is seeing for deer numbers?

[wannafish2]

I would say the numbers are about the same as last year. I haven't seen as many bucks, but the rut isn't really going yet.

[InTheNorthwoods]

Down from almost everyone I've talked to.

[rattlereel]

It was real slow for our group. 4 deer seen 2 shot for 8 guys

[Fishfanatic]

Our group of 7 saw a total of 4 deer. We ended up harvesting

2 of the 4 deer. We hunt north of Bemidji but south of Blackduck, not

far from Gull lake. The shots heard in the area were down significantly from years past. At times, I didn't hear any shooting for over 30 minutes at time.

When I dropped off the deer for processing, just north of the twin cities, I asked about the harvest so far. They had received about 1/3 of their 'Normal' numbers. They heard of one group doing well and everyone else was average to Poor.

What did you experience?

[Triple_D]

We hunt between Cass Lake and Blackduck off 39.

8 hunters, one small buck taken, 3-4 other deer seen. I agree the numbers are down as well as the shooting.

Saw wolf tracks in the woods with the fresh snow for the first time, one set of tracks...I wonder how many wolves there are in the area?

[CrappieAttitude]

We hunt East of Blackduck towards Alvwood. I didn't see a deer in three days, and was in the woods for 11 hrs each day. Of about 15 guys on three different properties, only one buck was taken. Very tough year for us. Only one other guy even saw a deer. Had good sign on Friday when we checked cameras and such, but after the snow, we didn't see many tracks anywhere. Very little shooting anywhere, except the duck hunters.

CA

[lungdeflator]

Triple-D...easy anwser is, lots! They usually make a round trip, might take them 1-2 weeks to go make their rounds and make it back to your area.

We are SW of Bemidji and saw a fair amount of antlerless and a couple small bucks, one small 8pt taken. The only difference we noticed this year was the lack of bigger bucks. There were a couple on camera that were probably 2.5yr old but they had a definate lack of antler growth. I was planning on hunting there til next Sunday but packed up and moved back to ND!

[Fishfanatic]

Just a quick report of the Second weekend of Deer hunting.

Hunting zone 184, south of Blackduck and north of Bemidji, the action

was ver slow. In years past, it has been a race to count the number of shots heard and see how long it takes to hit 100. Often times this occurs long before noon.

Compare that to yesterday, I heard a total of 3 other shots, other than m own. I managed to shoot a decent 8 point buck. I was the first shot of the day.

I heard 1 shot approximately 10 minutes after I shot at 8:00, then it wasn't until 2:45 that I heard shot number 2 and 3, back to back.

I was the only one to see a deer out of 5 of us.

On our trip home, we saw only 2 deer on the back of vehicles/trailers.

Anyone hunt near us? What did you experience?

[Ohboytimmy]

I managed to escape work to seek out White Earth Reservation ( just west of Itasca State Park.) I bow hunted 3 days before rifle opener and 2 days into it. Saw a few does, hunted over some big buck tracks after snowfall. Did not notice any ruting activity in the area. I heard about 5-10 shots a day. Along with the occasional "i haven't seen a deer, I need to shoot something" pistol rounds. Anyways I didn't get a chance to harvest.