Opening weekend reports

[Borch]

Hunted in 156 near Rutledge. Lots of buck sign where we were hunting but almost no sightings. Buddy shot a nice 8 pointer. I sat stand for 21 hours and not a single deer seen and very few shots fired in the area. Hope things improve although I have to move my son to Thief River Falls next weekend. Maybe get out Sunday and most of 3rd weekend.

[candiru]

There is plenty of corn available stacked on pallets for sale at the Fleet Farm gas station in Alex.

Hunted south of there. Deer numbers in my local area seem good, not sure about the whole permit area. There seems to be fewer shots and fewer hunters every year. I think the remaining hunters are getting more selective as well.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Hunting in the Motley area. Saturday morning saw 9 deer on the walk in about 1 1/2 hours before shooting. I was amazed that they didn't bolt...just stood and watched from 30 yards away. At legal shooting I had a doe 10 yards away directly to my right. I was waiting for her to move in front of me when I heard the sound of a stick breaking to my left. It was another hunter 50 yards away walking to his stand. GRR! I knew it was make or break it time, so I whirled around to try to get a quick shot...didn't work. I saw one other deer mid day in the thick brush, couldn't get a shot on that one either. Hunting partner saw 5 throughout the day Saturday, but couldn't get shots on any. All told, 16 deer seen on Saturday, which is more than the last 5 years combined. Zero on Sunday morning.

My theme for the weekend was hunters coming from an adjoining piece of private land using a swamp crossing 50 yards in front of me. 5 guys made a total of 24 trips up and down that trail on Saturday. Every single trip was during legal shooting hours. Definitely won't be setting up on that spot again.

[gp13581]

Zone 173. More wolves sighted than deer. One guy had one follow him just 20 yards behind him.

[hunterjoe]

Sounds like they're getting brave and hungry. That's a bit scary. I had mountain lion tracks on my tracks one day out in CO elk hunting. Never saw the cat but still puts a chill down your spine seeing big cat tracks in the snow on top of your tracks from earlier.

[tazimna]

An average opener for us by Leonard. Between 3 of us we saw 17 deer Sat. and 6 on Sunday morning. One took a small 8 ptr Sunday, and I chose not to pull the trigger on the numerous does seen.Had 14 doe/fawns in my field at 4 pm Sunday, but their my pets,so no shooting. Beautiful weather sitting in the woods. Those sitting on the fields had a chilly weekend. Good Luck. Taz

[Jeff13]

Group of 5 we finished with 3 decent bucks and saw 25 does over the weekend. 246 public land we hunted lots of deer to be seen and I've never seen so many deer coming and going from the woods we hunt. Most deer we have seen hands down in 30 years of hunting the area.

[LandDr]

Seen around 50 deer Saturday morning...about 6 or 7 were bucks...one bigger one chasing the doe ground around in the center of the property. My son seen him the closest that morning but couldn't get a shot...came within about 150yds of me but waited. Seen around 30 deer Sat evening along with same bucks. Bigger one came by my son twice but he didn't get a shot. Then he came by stand I was in with a friend...around 25yds so he took him. 9 heavy points with one kicker...brute of a deer and all we could do to get him in the truck. Probably score around 150. Next morning we seen about 30 again. Sunday night the deer really came out and must have seed close to 60 along with some new bucks...there were 4 really nice bucks just out from me with a couple that were really nice. Son ended up shooting a 9 with a kicker...first buck for him at 12yrs old so he was pretty thrilled.

Was really fun watching the deer select different food plots. The one most liked was the forage radish plot mixed with Peas&Oats...they would were pulling the radish up with the root and then chewing down the root...they were specifically picking the radish out and working the stem to make sure they got the root.

[charliepete]

Zone 173. More wolves sighted than deer. One guy had one follow him just 20 yards behind him.

I hunted 173 as well. I hunted from Wednesday to Fri bow, and gun hunted Saturday and Sunday. I saw 3 does and one wolf that entire time a little over 50 hours on stand. I am normally looking at 15-20 animals in that time including some quality bucks.

[B420]

Our group of 8 hunted in 184. We saw a grand total of 2 deer all weekend for the group, one doe and and one fawn on opening day. I had an anterless tag but I am not into killing fawns so I let it walk. Pretty much takes the fun out of it when you aren't even seeing deer.

[leechlake]

259. The guys that hunted at least 6 hours a day all saw some deer. The guys that watched the Gopher football game and sat on the couch saw nothing. One kid shot a spiker and one college kid killed a pretty fair 8.

Saturday afternoon from 3-4pm or so I'd count to about ten and hear a shot. One time I made it to 49 before I heard a shot but that was a long one. Quite a bit of shooting for what that's worth.

[Notime]

I hunted 184 as well, just NE of Kabakona. Never saw a deer all weekend for 2 of us. Not a single track in the fresh snow either.

[mnfathead]

hunted our traditional 259 spots, between the three of us, all weekend, fired one time, had to be just as legel time rolled around, i had a decent 8 come through in a hurry on the tail of a couple does that worked there way by in the dark, thought i had a good shot on him, trailed him for along time, but the blood disappeared and couldn't get back on it, so all in all, very disapointing, never saw another deer all weekend.

[ozzie]

hunted zone 222 and saw one running doe and buddy says he saw a buck thought the thick stuff on Saturday mornings sit till 10 back in the stand at 10:30 saw nothing till 5:30 when I got done...sunday we didn't see anything on stand and saw 3 does walking in the swamps with no shots fired. Pretty poor but Friday they picked the corn around us and then Saturday they tilled up the fields changing the deer movement IMO. Try again this weekend.

[luckydog25]

Hunted 172 Saturday and Sunday morning. Saw a couple does but no permit. Fair amount of shots Saturday evening compared to the morning. Two others groups in the same area had the same luck I did, one group of 4 didn't see anything in the same amount of time I sat. Only saw 4 deer on the drive home in trucks or on trailers, one really nice 10, 2 small forks, and a doe. Usually drooling over all the bucks people are hauling home if I have to head home Sundays...not so much yesterday. Headed back to hunt Thursday to Monday.

[icehole10]

Hunted 184 near Pinewood, MN. The last 5-6 years the number of shots fired has definitely declined. I suppose that could be looked at as a good thing. We have a group of 11 this year with 5 of kids under the age of 18yrs old. I would say that we as a group saw roughly 20 deer through out the weekend, with 5 being taken. My 14 yr old shot a real nice doe Sunday afternoon, so that made our day. This is his 3rd deer and im pretty sure I probably didn't shoot three by the age of 20. I only saw one small doe while in the stand.

[Xplorer]

12 YO son and I hunted public land in 183 this weekend, 2 person ladder stand. 1 doe seen Sunday morning, and it busted us. She was bedded down about 40 yards from our stand and winded us, took off down a ravine.

Only saw one deer taken near us, a 9 pointer from across the road. 10 hunters talked to, 3 deer seen and just the one taken. A guy from Wrenshall did say a friend of his shot a wolf just south of there on Sunday morning.

I will be back out thursday and looking forward to what things look like with the snow.

Shots: 2 Saturday AM, 10 Sat. PM, 4 Sunday AM, 7 Sunday PM.

[leech~~]

Hunted 172 Saturday and Sunday morning. Saw a couple does but no permit. Fair amount of shots Saturday evening compared to the morning. Two others groups in the same area had the same luck I did, one group of 4 didn't see anything in the same amount of time I sat. Only saw 4 deer on the drive home in trucks or on trailers, one really nice 10, 2 small forks, and a doe. Usually drooling over all the bucks people are hauling home if I have to head home Sundays...not so much yesterday. Headed back to hunt Thursday to Monday.

luckydog25, are you seeing the Wolf activity in your area of 172 as we are? We're seeing more Wolf tracks this year then Deer tracks, but it may just be that they run around a lot more and leave more tracks all over then the Deer?

[luckydog25]

I honestly haven't seen much wolf sign. I know two other groups that hunt close and they didn't see much either. I've seen more coyote scat and tracks than normal, but it's just my 3rd year hunting the area. I hear plenty of yotes in the evenings at my cabin also.

[minky]

I hunted 225 and was able to take nice 8 pt a half hour into the season. Talked to a few other groups, all took some deer and passed on others.

About the same number of deer around as last year.

[ESSGuy]

Some of our competition from zone 183 near Kerrick. Camera sits 100yrd from our cabin.

[tcwin]

Three of us; me, my son and his friend hunted 157 Sunday only.

Sat all day and finally had two doe come through, my son's buddy dropped one of the does. Very few shots heard around the area.

[Todd Caswell]

Hunted 172 between Hackensak and Longville, 5 guys 61 hours on stand, hunted Sat. Sun and this morning. Saw 29 deer with 3 of them being bucks, the woods were very quiet not a single vehicle came down our road was kinda nice not having all the traffic. Some shooting in the area but not alot.. No wolf sign but I do know 3 were seen in Sept. on the road we camp on..

This was the second year that my dad has not been around for deer season, he had hunted this area for 50 years and deer hunting was his passion, the man could sit for days. After he passed I invited another guy up to sit in his stand not sure why but i didn't want to sit in his stand, it's a good stand and always produces a deer, well my buddy went home last night , so I decided to go sit in dads old stand and grabbed his rifle to boot, not a big deer but a special one.

[bigpike]

Zone 266. 2 of us, saw a doe, two fawns and a buck. Single fawn Saturday am, and a buck just at dark on Saturday. If it were a half hour earlier, probably would have got a shot. Then Sunday am, a doe and fawn came by right at daybreak. Took the doe. Only have buck tag left so hope to get back out Friday. Seemed quieter overall this year.

[tunrevir]

Cool story Todd! The heritage rolls on! Keep those reports coming in guys. As far as the shots heard category, I heard 4 nearby Saturday am, a couple Saturday pm, 1 shot Sunday am and 6 shots nearby Sunday PM. I am wondering if with the full moon in some of the more high pressure areas if the deer fed all night and were mostly bedded by day. Heard some real good reports on activity around the metro area and others within a couple miles that never saw a deer. Standing corn in my area I am sure has had a bit of an effect on how much movement we are seeing in the woods. I am betting the deer are gonna have the feedbags on after this snow and wind dies back and things will pick up.

Tunrevir~