Deer reports-less deer,more deer seen than last year? How does it compare?

[laker1]

updates?

[96trigger]

I and my group have been seeing plenty of deer. Many of the does are still with their fawns. Weather and crops are playing a huge role in deer movement. On Saturday, my father in law and I saw double digit deer numbers. Only mature deer we saw were 5 does, all with fawns. It was really windy and we were at the bottom of the bluff where it was pretty sheltered. I sat from all day, from sun up to sun down.

Sunday the wind died down and we saw 2 deer all morning, 2 by him, 0 by me. It's worth noting that we never spooked or were busted by any of the deer on Saturday. I moved locations to a different farm, sat on top of the bluff next to an alfalfa field. The corn field below me was getting picked. I had a little fork horn come in and then a nice 8 -10 pt buck and I had a stare down. I won the stare down and had him in the crosshairs for a second with the safety off, but never pulled the trigger, he was probably only 2.5 years old. Nice buck though.

Monday night I sat and it was windy, there was fresh snow on the ground and there were also fresh human tracks going right by my stand. Neighbors are having trouble understanding the property line evidently. Never saw a deer but someone I couldn't see shot 4 times, he was probably only a couple hundred yards from me on the neighbors property on the other side of the bluff.

Tuesday I was prepared to sit all day, cold temps, sunshine, little wind, thought the deer would be moving. At 8:00 a nice buck works it's way towards me,eventually he pops out from behind some dead fall at 30 yards. He is now in my freezer. Sat on Wednesday night with my son looking for a doe to use my management tag on. Never saw a deer, but my father was looking out the window and saw 3 deer feeding in the field where my truck was parked.

Never got out Thursday and won't get out today. Weather looks lousy this weekend, probably going to buy a ML license. Zone 342

[muskiemanAD]

Our group of 5 hunting SEMN public saw more deer then we ever have and tied our record for bucks taken with 3 and they were all bigger then the previous record of 3 taken in a season (I know, I know you cant eat the horns ) We also got 2 does to go 5 for 5. They are doing something down there that has sure improved the hunting the last few years...........

[certified jumbo]

Official numbers out for first three days.

Statewide down 8 percent..

Breakdown of that. ... ...

Down 20 percent zone 1.

Down 8 percent cental hardwoods.

Down 4 percent south east.

Northern mn is in a tough situation. Where do we go from here in zone 1. Bucks only next year?

[Pinusbanksiana]

Yea, pushed real hunters out of the area.

[muskiemanAD]

Yea, pushed real hunters out of the area.

What area are you referring too?

[Pinusbanksiana]

I was cracking wise, nevermind

[walleyeking19]

Do you think the wolves have anything to do with the lack of deer in zone 1? They showed up a couple years ago where we hunt and our numbers have gone down ever since

[laker1]

Do you think the wolves have anything to do with the lack of deer in zone 1? They showed up a couple years ago where we hunt and our numbers have gone down ever since

Its a combo,wolves,hard long winter last year with some people finding numerous dead deer,and some areas to liberal of season by us hunters-2 deer limit etc.

Lets not shy away too much away from original topic on deer observations(include county or zone area) etc.

[gus004]

Area 169, Itasca County. Party of 8 shot 2, one buck and a doe. 3 other seen. Fresh snow was a plus for sight, but a hinderance as it was very noisy to walk into the stands. Had fresh tracks every morning into stands, only moving during dark hours. Did spook a couple on way to stand but not sighted. I was very impressed with the amount of deer tracks in the snow, just wish they were moving in the daylight hours. Talked to many others in the area and it was about the same. Shooting was about the typical on Saturday and Monday evening was good, other than that it was way down. The buck that was shot made two scrapes on the trail before we went in and was shot at 2:00 pm on way back to check them on Saturday.

[Musky Buck]

Jumbo need to hammer the wolves I think, how is it Wisconsin allowing 251 wolves to be taken this year and MN quota is 220 ? Someone explain that to me and Montana worried about the elk near Yellowstone because the wolves are crushing them want 500 wolves in their state ? I think the remaining moose would like to be more than just food for wolves, I'd take dying from a tick better than getting murdered by wolves, there numbers got way out of hand or we wouldn't have packs establishing in Wadena,Ottertail,Todd counties. Wisconsin officials were surprised so many wolves were taken so quickly like MN officials were so surprised, surprised cmon people. Realize this in the last 8 years wolves have taken 1/2 million deer give or take a dozen. That number may be low actually, I say south of US HWY 10 there should be no quota on wolves. If we had high priced elk here people would be in an uproar like Montana.

[Bear55]

Down 20 percent zone 1.

Northern mn is in a tough situation. Where do we go from here in zone 1. Bucks only next year?

Been slow in our area for 5-6 years now, things were starting to improve but you really need 2-3 mild winters in a row and that just hasn't happened. Just have to keep plugging away in the lotto zones and hope for the best. We are seeing more tracks than we use to but high winds and wolves kind of put the hurt on us this year.

[Musky Buck]

Bear55 our area of zone 1 is up I'd say, the most southern parts of zone 1 have been great this year, it's exactly where I live, 3 deer area, so that down 20% is even higher really because the extreme south part of zone 1 is helping carry that zone. Pretty much talking south and east of Mille Lacs lake to Mora.

[Getanet]

We hunt in the general area of Mora. I would say our sightings are down slightly this year, but with the strong winds we had on opening morning it's hard to say. We have 10 guys in our party and 6 of us at least saw a deer over opening weekend. Certainly didn't hear the number of shots as normal, particularly on the second day.

[Bear55]

Bear55 our area of zone 1 is up I'd say, the most southern parts of zone 1 have been great this year, it's exactly where I live, 3 deer area, so that down 20% is even higher really because the extreme south part of zone 1 is helping carry that zone. Pretty much talking south and east of Mille Lacs lake to Mora.

We are guarding the far north end and the reports have been poor going on 5 years now. I still remember when they moved us from managed to a lotto zone and gave out 500 doe permits. When only 200 got filled you have to wonder if someone was like OOPS. Been 100 doe permit area since then. A lot will depend on this winter, a couple of easy ones and we will be up again, if not more of the same.

Wolves seem to be taking it out on the moose now, eventually their numbers will come down to earth a bit and that will help too.

[JBone]

Zone-180, 2 does, 6 guys, 3 day hunt.....wind is death of our hunting due to small shooting lanes

[laker1]

Zone-180, 2 does, 6 guys, 3 day hunt.....wind is death of our hunting due to small shooting lanes

wind does make deer spooky.

[surewood]

Since October 28th 130hrs in the stand. Saw 13 deer, zone 171 and 179. Usually I lose count, saw more in one day last season then all this season. Even in the big woods that's very poor. Hoping for a mild winter.

[CaptainMusky]

I'd be curious to hear reports from guys who had trail cams out preseason. A coworker had several cameras out this summer and they had at least a dozen different bucks and some real dandies showing up regularly. 7 guys hunting opening weekend and a total of 5 deer seen none of which were bucks. None of their neighbors saw anything either. The deer WERE there but something obviously changed.

[laker1]

Interesting if they show up on cameras after season>

[Gordie]

I saw more deer this season than last season but not by much so I would say its the same where I hunt.

[archerystud]

I had some seasons where I used to see 20+ deer on opening day alone (South Central MN). Probably counted some deer twice but I used to see a bunch.

I do know the deer numbers are a little bit lower but I think the biggest change for me is FAR fewer groups making drives. My best hunting used to be from 9AM to 3PM on opening day when all the drives were going on around me. I used to know of 3 big parties making drives all over and each of those groups no longer make all the drives they used to.

I had good deer numbers on camera prior to season.

[Wanderer]

Z172 the past two weekends have been strangely quiet for shooting. Our group has seen mostly does and only one nice buck that was grazed by a predawn shooter :-/. No shot for our group. Everyone has had opportunity to fill doe tags but none have been shot yet. They're hoping to not have to take out potential mama's and start getting the pop back up.

I'd say our sightings are overall less than average.

[JimmyJames]

Zone 171, northwest Aitkin county.Saw more deer than last year, but there are fewer deer.Just saw more cause I adjusted a couple stand sites.The deer population has been steadily declining,for the last 7 years,in our area.We hunted hard sat. through fri.,still my favorite week of the year.

[laker1]

Was up in area 172 yesterday and did not see anything I would call a deer trail,where 5 years ago they were wore down. SHOULD OF NEVER HAD 2 DEER LIMIT IN THAT AREA A FEW YEARS AGO. But last winter was also tough with snow until May in that area.