Fawns

[BuckSutherland]

There are very few where I hunt in NE 172. None on cameras either. Winter was dang tough for the deer in my area. Was up for 5 days last week, and that is the fewest deer I have ever seen up there. Sure hope we are bucks only.

Only good news is there was PLENTY of food for them to eat.

El Nino should bring us a mild winter this year.

[certified jumbo]

To my surprise we saw a decent amount of does and fawns in north east minnesota while working our property this past weekend. But l believe most of northern half of mn will be bucks only and I'm cool with that.

[Bureaucrat]

Some info is already trickling out. A lot of northeast MN is going to be bucks only already.

http://www.virginiamn.com/sports/feature...19bb2963f4.html

[monstermoose78]

I hunt 126 and at the cabin I saw 2 does both had singles fawns. I did see one really nice buck as well. I hope to see what the trail cameras caught.

[Wanderer]

Some info is already trickling out. A lot of northeast MN is going to be bucks only already.

http://www.virginiamn.com/sports/feature...19bb2963f4.html

Huh, just when I was thinking of taking a week this fall to hunt and fish around Ely. The thought of a morning bow sit on my property that lies in a wintering area and taking the first mature deer just went out the window...

We did see deer regularly while vacationing in the area last week but not the numbers we usually do.

As Sportsmen I think we can all respect the direction the DNR is going in 2014 for the NE part of the state.

[monstermoose78]

Make it a later season bow hunt for a monster buck Wanderer

[Wanderer]

The fall fishing is too awesome to sit all day for the chance at a buck.

This year I'm just in the mode to put two deer - any deer in the cooler. I'm not planning on being picky. I had my neighbors rifle hunting theirs and my property last year and they didn't see any bucks. I'm actually in funnel and the two main deer traffic areas can be covered by an archer with no more than a 30 yard shot. 1 deer from Ely early by bow and the second later on in another part of the state.

Grouse hunting and fall fishing are high on the list too. I've been checking out a lot of the smaller lakes in the area and might do the whole camp, hunt, fish thing by canoe or small boat.

Getting excited just thinking about it.

[smsmith]

I'm kinda thinking that 2014 of all years in recent history may be the worst year for a hunter to take more than one deer in this state...just my $.02

[mntatonka]

I'm kinda thinking that 2014 of all years in recent history may be the worst year for a hunter to take more than one deer in this state...just my $.02

looking like one of the best for us. Deer are still everywhere down here.

[DonBo]

looking like one of the best for us. Deer are still everywhere down here.

Yep, the metro is lousy with deer. Tags still unlimited

[Wanderer]

I'm kinda thinking that 2014 of all years in recent history may be the worst year for a hunter to take more than one deer in this state...just my $.02

Stu,

I just read through the MDDI thread to see where you're coming from. I understand your thoughts and to a degree, am in line with your thinking. Where we might differ is in the travelling hunter mentality. I've been in the habit of deer hunting several parts of the state each year and until this year, have gone out of state for deer. Two deer per year at my home is not a lofty goal, especially since we have two licensed hunters.

We'll see what the limits shape up to be. I see won't be able to take a doe in 117 this year and I'm OK with that. It's just bad timing on my part. Other areas I hunt have always had more deer and consequently the reason I haven't deer hunted 117 before. It's all proportional.

My choices are: Hunt harder for a mature buck or figure out another way to be satisfied this fall.

[mntatonka]

Yep, the metro is lousy with deer. Tags still unlimited

I'm farther south than that. 346. It'll be a 5-deer limit, and probably an early antlerless sub-permit area again. And it should be, deer have become pests around here.

[92python]

I have been seeing quite a few pairs of fawns in North Central MN. I do believe it the deer population is spotty though throughout the state.

[midwesthunter]

Just pulled the memory card from my hunting property in 178. Does and a couple bucks on camera but zero fawns.

Hopefully if it is bucks only up there, the herd does rebound fairly quickly.

[bigbucks]

I'm really curious where in Todd County you hunt? I hunt from pretty much the East border to the West border on a line roughly 10 miles either side of LP North & South & there's deer all over the place. The fawns were late this year & they're little, but I've been seeing a lot of them of late.

I have also seen 3 pretty decent bucks in the last couple of weeks. None of this is going on drives looking for deer, it's just looking while I'm going to work or going fishing, etc.

I thought there were more deer last year than the year before & expect there to be still more this year. Couple of back to back odd opening weekends the last 2 years where I didn't see a lot of deer, but then did later.

[PurpleFloyd]

Been seeing decent numbers of fawns and does. Nearly had one of each as hood ornaments today in 2 different areas.

[smsmith]

I live and hunt on 87 acres just west of L.P. I run cams pretty much year round, I have one fawn on cam and have seen one (pretty sure the same one) with my own eyes this year. There are two resident adult does here, one has a single fawn, the other has none (that I can determine). I do have a few does that were fawns last year...none have fawns of their own this year (not unusual).

Deer "all over"? Sure, I've been seeing deer around but far from "all over". I do see deer out in areas they don't normally frequent, but I'm sure that's due to the unreal number of skeeters and deer flies.

Zero bucks on cam that weren't last year's fawns, I have seen two that are likely in their second (+) year.

I'm glad you're seeing deer and feel there are plenty around. You're the exception from talking with folks around here (except farmers...they always think there's way too many deer)

[MUSKY18]

I have an 80 that I hunt on just north of LP. Have been running cams since April and I have one picture of a fawn on camera from about two weeks ago. Was still very small, so assuming it was born late. I'm going to assume there are more around that I haven't gotten to see as of yet because in April I had a number of does on the cams that were really big and round and aren't that way anymore. Will pull the cards this coming weekend and hope to see more of them.

[harvey lee]

Checked my cameras and got 2 pic's of fawns. 2 locations the weeds are o high where the camera is located, I a doe and fawn walked by, I doubt that I would even see it in the knee high or better weed's.

Coming home from fishing this morning, I came over hill and maybe 50 yards in front of me and doe walked out about 50 yards in front of me dong 6o. I slowed all I could as I figured a fawn would be coming. Fawn came out maybe 30ft in front of the truck, I swerved but not enough and clobbered the cute little fawn, Made me sick. I was not going to roll the boat so I hoped I moved far enough but nope. Man, it could no have been 5-6 weeks old as it was very small

[bigbucks]

I don't want to hijack this post, so we can move it to a different one if we need/want to. How many deer per square mile is a good number? Just going with smsmith's numbers, he said he has 87 acres, so for sake of figuring say 80 acres. I believe that an 80 is a 1/4 mile by 1/2 mile, so a quarter square mile right?

My calculation says "2 adult does, 1 fawn, a few yearling does, & some yearling bucks" as well as "possibly a couple of 2 year-old bucks". To me that could easily be 10 deer, but let's say 5-10 deer per 1/4 square mile. If you extrapalated (sp) it out that's anywhere from 20-40 deer per square mile. To me that seems like a lot of deer. I agree the farmers would definitely not be happy with that.

I look at how much more wooded land is set aside for hunting & not pastured for cattle where as 30 years ago almost all of it would have been around here. To me there are so many more deer than there were 20 years ago, admittedly less than there were 10 years ago, but the vast majority of people realize there were too many deer then. I loved it, but I'm not a farmer. That said people keep hitting deer on County Rd 38 W of LP every week or two. The deer can't be that unlucky that a large percentage are getting killed by cars.

[mntatonka]

I don't want to hijack this post, so we can move it to a different one if we need/want to. How many deer per square mile is a good number? Just going with smsmith's numbers, he said he has 87 acres, so for sake of figuring say 80 acres. I believe that an 80 is a 1/4 mile by 1/2 mile, so a quarter square mile right?

My calculation says "2 adult does, 1 fawn, a few yearling does, & some yearling bucks" as well as "possibly a couple of 2 year-old bucks". To me that could easily be 10 deer, but let's say 5-10 deer per 1/4 square mile. If you extrapalated (sp) it out that's anywhere from 20-40 deer per square mile. To me that seems like a lot of deer. I agree the farmers would definitely not be happy with that.

I look at how much more wooded land is set aside for hunting & not pastured for cattle where as 30 years ago almost all of it would have been around here. To me there are so many more deer than there were 20 years ago, admittedly less than there were 10 years ago, but the vast majority of people realize there were too many deer then. I loved it, but I'm not a farmer. That said people keep hitting deer on County Rd 38 W of LP every week or two. The deer can't be that unlucky that a large percentage are getting killed by cars.

remember though, that 80 acres isn't the only place those deer are. Their range is larger. It's entirely possible that those few deer are the only deer in a square mile or more. Of course, the other way is possible too. It also depends on how much habitat there actually is in that area, maybe that 80 acres is the only tract of woodland in the whole area.

[bigbucks]

Agreed, on that, but all habitat isn't woods, even if it was then maybe that's all that area can support. I don't see habitat going away in this part of the country, mostly more is being created. Popple stands are now left there because the paper mill burned down & they didn't rebuild it. I know I'm talking about a relatively small area, but it's the area we are in.

213 has plenty of deer.

214 is loaded with deer.

[00rowe]

Completely agree, there are a few sets of triplets south of Clotho. We had so much standing corn and corn stubble, the winter had zero effect on the population. I wish we were a managed zone, I would love to shoot a doe in the backyard eating acorns, instead I have to go across 71 to get meat.

Mike

[smsmith]

214 is managed for 20 dpsm pre fawn, 215 (my unit)is managed for 10 dpsm and according to Marrett Grund it has been slightly under goal for a few years (yet it remained Managed). I don't know what 213 is managed for off the top of my head.

The deer I report seeing/on cam obviously do not spend 100% of their time on my tiny little chunk of ground. The area around me is heavily wooded with plenty of swamp ground and a mix of small row crop fields. You appear to be familiar with the area, I'm in the series of hills east (I mis-typed west in my previous response) of LP about 7 miles, south side of 27. When I bought here I bought because it is ideal deer habitat. Absolutely zero biological or sociological reason to not manage this area for 20 dpsm pre-fawn.

Just wanted to add about popple (aspen)...there is a good market for 8"+ dbh big tooth and quaking aspen just south of LP. I'm having about 25 cords logged in the next week and my neighbor just had around 40 cords taken out. Not gonna get "rich" off of it, but its good habitat management for deer and grouse...and the mature aspens were just going to die, fall, and rot and anyway.

[PurpleFloyd]

Took the back road out of New Ulm to towards Hanska this afternoon and just as I came up to the river bridge a nice sized doe came up a driveway from the est headed right at me. The exhaust brake kicked in when I let off the gas and she froze and darted back away from me but man have I had a lot of middle of the day close calls in the last month. I am beginning to think the new 2015 Duramax is so quiet they don't know I am even there.

Was up in the iron River, Wi area over the 4th and saw plenty of deer around the area but not as many as there were during the peak years before the Wolf releases. Mother In Law says she still gets a lot of them in the yard but not as many as she had 5 years ago.