Lowering our Low Expectations

[Bear55]

To comment on the original post, I think (like many others) deer hunting is what you make of it. Not hard at all to get a deer if you put in the effort and time. If you only hunt a few days in the same old stand year after year you are depending more on luck than anything else. DNR has to manage for the masses and they should. We all loved those boom years and I think the DNR understands that and hopefully they are working to build the population up in most areas. I also think they have a much better understanding of the herd than they did 15-20 years ago. Things will pick up again but it might take more time than we had hoped. Your options are to wait until herd booms again and deer are running around everywhere or you can hunt a little harder and shoot a deer.

[SmellEsox]

Good point PropsterII. Lets keep hunting mediocre at best so no one wants to come here and hunt.

[SmellEsox]

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This pretty much sums it up.

[PurpleFloyd]

We had two of the best seasons of the 35 or so years I have hunted in the last 2 years and we have seen a trend of more deer over the past decade along with warmer temps to boot so I am having a hard time understanding what is so poor about the hunting. In the photo section here and in the local papers they have pictures of some of the biggest deer I have seen in my hunting career. We had bigger deer running around that made it through the season and they will be bigger next year.

The sun is shining today, the birds are singing and I saw a few very nice Roosters fly in front of me on the way to Mankato today. What was the problem again? Things are as good as they have ever been.

[SmellEsox]

Maybe in your world PurpleFloyd. Other areas of the state are awful.

[Gordie]

Don't expect the best of things all the time and you'll be surprised with the out come each and every time.

So except what is given to you and be happy.

[flipper]

Maybe in your world PurpleFloyd. Other areas of the state are awful.

Yup, I'm quite sure one's personal viewpoint is directly affected by where they happen to be hunting and what they have seen/shot. Hunting success in any given area runs in cycles just like fishing does on most lakes. I appreciate Gordie's viewpoint, we should all just be happy to be out there, success can be measured in more ways than meat in the freezer and horns on the wall. Be Happy.

[DaveT]

Don't expect the best of things all the time and you'll be surprised with the out come each and every time.

So accept what is given to you and be happy.

So in other words, "lower your already low expectations"? Sounds like a recipe for happiness to me, think of how life changing this could be. "She only cheated on me with 6 of my friends but I expected it to be a dozen. I think I'm gonna keep her!"

Seriously, I just returned from another Kansas hunt where I saw ten bucks a day, mostly 1 and 2 year olds but the occasional mature buck. I can't get excited to hunt MN anymore and the day is coming where I will stop hunting here altogether. There is simply too much pressure in this state and the DNR refuses to do anything to alleviate the problem. They create more and longer seasons which makes you think there's more opportunity to kill a deer. In reality, the added pressure just makes you hunt longer and harder to kill the same forkhorn it used to take you a day and a half to kill.

[Jaspernuts]

And how should the DNR "alleviate" the problem of too much pressure? Restrict liscenses? You can only hunt every other year? I think the DNR does just fine with the enormous amount of hunters we have. Deer hunting is pretty good if you ask me. But Im just a meat hunter, what do I know.

[PurpleFloyd]

Maybe in your world PurpleFloyd. Other areas of the state are awful.

Could be. then again that is my point. Just because things might not be good in your area don't try to force your solutions to your area on the rest of the state. But really- what parts are awful that is directly contributed to the hunting operating under the same practices that have been used for many decades? If it is the Wolf zone then go after the wolves as the problem and not the fellow hunters.

[TruthWalleyes]

+1 Gordie

I kind of feel bad for those of you that think so poorly of our deer hunting when i know so many that are very happy to be out hunting deer each year.

In 4 days of hunting this year, 3 in se mn and 45minutes in sw mn I've seen over 40 deer. i can't complain one bit. heck the 45 minutes that i hunted in a sw mn lottery zone i saw 17 deer.

guys, therez tons of public land over there too, and they all hold deer.

its been a great season for me, and my friends n family so far.

[PurpleFloyd]

Don't expect the best of things all the time and you'll be surprised with the out come each and every time.

So except what is given to you and be happy.

+1

[PurpleFloyd]

So in other words, "lower your already low expectations"? Sounds like a recipe for happiness to me, think of how life changing this could be. "She only cheated on me with 6 of my friends but I expected it to be a dozen. I think I'm gonna keep her!"

Seriously, I just returned from another Kansas hunt where I saw ten bucks a day, mostly 1 and 2 year olds but the occasional mature buck. I can't get excited to hunt MN anymore and the day is coming where I will stop hunting here altogether. There is simply too much pressure in this state and the DNR refuses to do anything to alleviate the problem. They create more and longer seasons which makes you think there's more opportunity to kill a deer. In reality, the added pressure just makes you hunt longer and harder to kill the same forkhorn it used to take you a day and a half to kill.

What is the population of Kansas vs Minnesota? Is it identical? Is this public or private land?

[DaveT]

There's a hundred of ways to alleviate pressure, all of them involve limiting either your bag limit or time afield. There was a time when seasons were shorter, there were less antlerless tags, less special hunts, and in my opinion, a lot more deer and more mature bucks as well.

PF, it's private land and there is nowhere near the hunting pressure in KS as here. However, if KS had their rifle season during the rut and let people party hunt I expect our hunting would get much, much worse.

I don't expect MN to become Iowa, I just want it to be as good as it used to be as recently as 10 years ago, before the DNR declared war on the deer herd with ridiculously liberal antlerless tags and a bunch of new seasons and hunts. There is nowhere for a deer to hide between SEP and JAN in this state anymore.

[Jaspernuts]

I will agree with you on this Dave. Going from a 2 day season down here to 10 days does seem aggressive. Are the harvests higher? Not sure. Everybody was out for the 2 day season pushing them everywhere. Now they don't get pushed as much.

[PurpleFloyd]

I don't expect MN to become Iowa, I just want it to be as good as it used to be as recently as 10 years ago, before the DNR declared war on the deer herd with ridiculously liberal antlerless tags and a bunch of new seasons and hunts. There is nowhere for a deer to hide between SEP and JAN in this state anymore.

10 years ago we harvested 290,000 deer and in 2011 we harvested 192,000 deer and I don't know what this year looks like but my guess is it is not more than and probably lower than in 2003. In 2003 we sold 648k licenses and this year 597k.

Just sayin......

[hockeybc69]

Whats your point PF?

So the deer harvest is down 100k since roughly 10 years ago. And??

[Gordie]

So in other words, "lower your already low expectations"? Sounds like a recipe for happiness to me, think of how life changing this could be. "She only cheated on me with 6 of my friends but I expected it to be a dozen. I think I'm gonna keep her!"

Seriously, I just returned from another Kansas hunt where I saw ten bucks a day, mostly 1 and 2 year olds but the occasional mature buck. I can't get excited to hunt MN anymore and the day is coming where I will stop hunting here altogether. There is simply too much pressure in this state and the DNR refuses to do anything to alleviate the problem. They create more and longer seasons which makes you think there's more opportunity to kill a deer. In reality, the added pressure just makes you hunt longer and harder to kill the same forkhorn it used to take you a day and a half to kill.

If you always look at things for the bad or in a bad way you will never know when the good is in front of you.

Biggest problem today is not the population of deer, its the HYPE that these media driven hunting shows make out every hunt to be for the "MONSTER BUCK", and how it seems that they all shoot them. So we should too. $ $ $ is what's its about its not the hunt anymore or is hunt for the $....

Keep painting your picture black DaveT and soon enough the deer in the other state you hunt will not be good enough also.

[harvey lee]

The last 2 years in Mn for me archry hunting were the best two in many years f me. Last fall, I took a nice 10 and I hunted for 20 minutes.

This fall, I hunted for 4 days, about 2 hours each sit and saw deer everytime out.I shot one the last day and thought, boy, this has sure been good for me archery hunting the past 2 seasons in Minnesota

If Mn gets a bit better,I will quit going to North Dakota buying those spendy licenses and just hunt in my back yard.

I do go out and look for sign before the season and from time to time, I change areas I hunt but I am more than happy with my results the past 2 years.

NO complaints here.

[Old Dewjabber]

Why do some of you consistently have to keep throwing little pot shots at anyone that is for seeing bigger racks? Every post by a couple of you has some snide remark in it about antlers, APR, or trophy hunting. I just don't get it.

[hockeybc69]

I sure wish I lived in the land that you do Gordie with the flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children dance and laugh and play with gumdrop smiles.

I saw one deer this year during gun season at our farm in 5 days of hunting. I guess I should be happy. Last year I saw 2 deer all gun season if I recall correctly.

[Gordie]

Yep all the deer are gone in this state better go to Kansas with Dave T, Hockeybc69. Then soon you wont want to hunt here either and that will be two more deer for the guys that still hunt in this state.

Keep painting the picture black..

[boXCar JiggY]

Hey! thats where I live! EVERYBODY OUT, except gordie an people that age venison the wrong way. Wheres my candy......

[hockeybc69]

Hard to reason with unreasonable people Gordie..... No wonder there is a very clear problem in some areas.... Not saying the whole state is void of deer, but there are certainly problems in areas.

Truthwalleyes goes to an area in SW MN thats likely a lottery area and sees 17 deer? We are in a managed area and for the last 4 seasons havent shot a deer with our rifles? That seems pretty odd. But maybe thats your norm and you are happy with that. Good for you.

[Old Dewjabber]

I forgot to mention we hunt the old fashioned way. No fancy cameras, new fangled heated stands, food plots, fiber optics, high tech bows or guns, sprays and scent killers, calls, blah blah blah.

But now we still bigger deer easier....

My how things have changed in my 35 years of hunting.