Opening weekend reports

[tunrevir]

Well it is Friday night and I have all of my gear ready to go and my sons and daughters gear layed out for the morning. I will sit with my son in a 2x ladder stand and my daughter will be sitting solo for the first time on her own stand. Good luck to everyone tomorrow! Lets hear about your hunts. Share your relative location, deer seen and any particulars about your hunt. Love to hear the stories! Good luck one and all, have a safe season!

Tunrevir~

[gp13581]

Just north of McGregor. Stands got put out today. Daughter is driving over from school in SD. Kicked up a couple of does. No horns seen yet. Sat tonight with bow and saw nothing. Great weekend to spend with friends and family.

[JIvers]

I'm guessing 60% of the corn is out in Fillmore County. Unfortunately, my timber is surrounded on three sides by about 200 acres of standing corn. That, the light rain coming down now, and the strong north wind tonight should make tomorrow interesting.

As suggested in my thread from a couple days ago, I have decided I am going to wait until about 8:00 AM to be in a ground blind on the upwind edge of some of that corn, facing the woods. I will be watching the grassy field drive between the trees and field that is about thirty feet wide and a little under three hundred yards long, hoping I catch deer moving between the timber and the corn. Between the rut, people in the area pushing deer, and combines running I should have a shot or two.

In the afternoon, I will start stalking corn--the wind and damp conditions are what is needed for this tactic to work well--then go back to the ground blind for prime time. Based on the weather forecast, I will do exactly the same thing on Sunday.

Good luck everyone!

[MJ1657]

Me and my hunting buddy Mollie will be sitting in our new enclosed stand tomorrow morning. We have normally sat together in a ladder stand so the leg room and being out of the wind will be nice.

[JIvers]

Opening Morning Report: my coffee is hot, the breakfast is good, and the north wind is howling outside of my Mom's house as I type this.

I am going to wait a little longer, and then head out to one of the cornfields bordering my timber and start stalking it. The wind will be gusting right down the long rows this morning, and then dying down and shifting this afternoon. I will be in my ground blind after I eat lunch. Looks like more of the same tomorrow.

[harvey lee]

I am in North Dakota and the rut is not at all. Sat yesterday from noon till sunset, saw. 4 smaller bucks and 11 doe and the wind was on average 25-40mph. This am beautiful with 1 buck and 14 doe seen, approx 10 walked right underneath my stand. The bucks r not chasing at all. Almost all doe with fawns. Very few scrapes and a rub here and there. Bucks neck not swollen at all from what I could see. Should be better maybe next week as very cold temps moving in for the week. Seems like a normal year for the rut, will start mid November.

[tunrevir]

We had an uneventful morning sit. Nobody saw a deer this am and very little shooting in our area. Neighbor and his 2 boys sat this am and saw 1 spike between the 3 of them. Inside warming up and plan to head back out in a few hours for the night sit. Hope they move a bit tonight and the wind dies off just a touch. Sounds lik some good activity for you Harv, interesting that there isn't any chasing going on. I had bucks in this neck of the woods albeit little guys chasing for the past week and a half. Figure the big boys ought to start in a few days.

Tunrevir~

[harvey lee]

I have no issues seeing deer typically but as I said, the bigger bucks never get going until mid November at the soonest as far as the rut goes. Those little bucks like to chase but not even seeing that yet. I would be a bit more excited if the does had kicked their fawns off but only one doe out of 10 without their fawns. It will happen, just have to wait another week or so.

[Siwulat]

Hunted this morning on the border of 601 and 339. Only had one other vehicle in the parking lot when I got there, which was pretty good. Sat from dawn till 1200 without seeing any deer. I did have a group of at least 4 hunters decide to drive the piece at about 1130. Had one guy literally look straight at me as he walked across my entire field of view at about 20yds without even attempting to give me any sort of space. The joys of public land on the opener...

[maros91]

I'm by Motley and it seems to be slow. Can count on one hand how many shots I hears. Sat till 11 went back for lunch and the other 4 gentleman there didn't see anything either.

[paceman]

My son and I have been in the stand since 630. Only 1 that walked through while 2 dark to tell what it was. Still a great way to spend the day together. Hopefully see something this afternoon.

[MJ1657]

Seen 2 bucks and 3 does this morning. 14 year old shot a doe at 10 this morning. We had a fun morning together. Were in our evening spot trying to put her on a buck now.

[mrklean]

Sat till about 11 between me my wife and father inlaw didn't see anything on the way back to the cabin saw 2 doe which got my father in law excited so we ate lunch quick and headed back out. I didn't even make it to my stand and I had 3 does right behind my stand I was able to get the biggest one, my wife has seen a few more does but she doesn't have a doe tag. One other guy in our group got a small 8 this am only deer he saw

[wannafish2]

didn't see a single deer until the drive into town at 1130, little doe waiting for the traffic to clear so she could cross by the Bemidji airport. caught a head cold bow hunting so decided to take a pass this weekend even tho I have a doe permit. Not that many deer so I'll hunt around DL maybe with my bow. I'm ok eating tag soup if it means more deer next year.

Only heard 1 shot this morning from the neighbor up there....they always get one opening morning out of this huge tower stand they put right at the junction of our two properties (they make it impossible for me to hunt 3 out of 4 40's with the way they put their stand and shoot in all directions. But, even they can't have unlimited tags this year.

Doesn't seem to be many deer around. I only saw 6 all week bow hunting.

[Neighbor_guy]

Was on the stand at 0-dark-30 and stayed on the stand until 5:15/dark. Wind sucked... Never saw anothe living thing until I got back to the truck. Very disappointing.

Congrats to those that saw it took deer today.

[Bureaucrat]

Saw no deer today. 32 shots total counted including follow ups. Talked to 7 groups across the state, nobody shot a deer. Only the group by Thief River saw a deer.

[Archerysniper]

My group shot a 3 and 4 point my dad took some hair of a big 8 and when I was driving out to help my dad look for his I saw a buck laying in the tilled corn behind his truck with its head up. I walked up to it and put it down, it was hit by a car a few days ago and the hind quarters were rotten and nasty. So I drug it out to the middle of the field to shoit some coyotes off it. Tonight one guy saw 3 his brother saw 15 and missed a 6 that was running does.

[laker1]

Saw a doe and fawn crow wing co.

[Jeff13]

Party of 5. We got a decent 8 and a big 6. We also saw 14 does which we could not shoot because we have no doe permits. We have hunted this piece of public land for 25 years and this is the most deer we have ever seen in a day! We are in 246. Doesn't seem to be lacking deer in our area. Lots of does to get bred up that's for sure.

[FISHINGURU]

That's a wrap!

Seen 21 deer today, 17 does and 4 bucks, finally decided to pull the trigger on a big body 9 pointer, not the biggest rack but I'd say in the 110-120" range. Solid buck, he'll be mighty tasty.

[laker1]

Give at least what county or a town within 80 miles where you hunt,otherwise it don't mean much or even up north or down south would be better. You can be very very lenient on where you hunt.

[ANYFISH2]

Yesterday was a bust for us in 246. Leader area.

Zero deer seen by our party. There was a little more shooting than I expected. Today is our day, right?

[Eric Wettschreck]

Our group of 7 people got 5 yesterday. We'll fill today hopefully before the weather shows up.

Lotsa does out there.

SW MN.

[JIvers]

My 2014 season in photos:

I got out at a little after 8:00 AM yesterday, and with the wind and standing corn I was sure the deer would be laying in that corn. Fifty yards in my first walk across the rows I almost stepped on a doe. She got up and ran before I could even get a shot off. I figured no big deal, as there would probably ten more in there. Six hours and thirty acres of standing corn later, this is all I saw:

I did not see another deer in that time. I was a little surprised, but figured with all the other corn in the area the deer were spread among the various plots, and I would just have to do more walking to find them.

Having had enough stalking corn for one day, I went to the ground blind I set up Friday on the field drive between my timber and some of that standing corn. Here is the view I had, north and south, as I settled in a little after 3:00 PM:

About fifteen minutes, later this was the view looking south. See the difference on the ground?

There is a big fat doe laying there. She stepped out of the woods (where I was sure there would be no deer) fifty yards from me, and I dropped her with a Texas heart shot. Six hours of stalking corn with no deer, and then I drop one not fifteen minutes after going on stand.

Walking back to get my truck along the north edge of the timber, I heard some racket, and there was a decent eight-pointer chasing a doe around not thirty yards inside the treeline from me. Of course, they saw me and rather than run, they stopped and stood broadside to me. I could have shot the buck with a bow. But, one deer only in 347 this year.

After I loaded my deer up in the truck, two does came walking out of the woods just north of my blind. Had I missed the doe I got and then stayed put, I would have had a good shot at them.

Driving up Highway 63 to Spring Valley right before sunset, when not laughing at all the sad Hawkeye fans heading south, I saw groups of deer out eating in the open at every slough and woodlot, even when they had plenty of standing corn nearby.

Long story short, the deer in my part of 347 did not get the memo about what they are supposed to do on windy days when there is a lot of standing corn for them to hide in.

[Glenn_S]

Party of 3 near Nickerson. My son in law dropped a 5 pointer and I got a fork horn, we each shot within 3 minutes of each other at 7:00 am. Both deer are big bodied bucks with smaller antlers.

The two boys are out this morning hoping to fill my sons tag before the weather hits. We were going to stay until tomorrow but pulling a camper in heavy snow is not fun so I am getting things packed up.