Best Part of State for deerhunting

[JohnnyC77]

What does everyone think is the best area for big deer? Area is whatever you want it to be, it could be St. Louis Co, or it could be the Bemidji area, or it could be the southwest portion of the state.....whatever you want. Let's hear what you have to say. I am partial to the southeast, but I also give A LOT of respect to the st. louis county area!!

[Proctor Pete]

Johnny, read my post in this section, you'll see I'm kinda partial to St. Louis County. The last time I checked, St.Louis and some county in Iowa or Illinois are tied for the most B & C registered deer. Granted, St. Louis is I believe IS the largest county in the lower 48 but there is also less pressure on the deer up here with less hunters per square mile so your chance of connecting with a larger deer might be greater. I can't prove anything, I've only hunted Lake, St. Louis and some county with the Mississippi river in it west of the Duluth area. my two cents-Pete

[jlm]

Yup, St Louis is one of the top in the nation as are several other MN counties. Most are south central to central and around the cities. We are just talking B&C bucks however so don't count out other areas. Many areas hold trophy bucks that either are not entered or fall short of the B&C record book because of reductions. Every county in MN has record book potential, thats whats great about our state. With many hunters moving to a QDM philospophy, we will see even more record book bucks. Look north as well to the vast acres of open hunting. Get back in there and you just never know what you will find. Good luck!

[PikeTipper]

Never hunted there before but Houston county seems to put out multiple monsters every year these days. Is St Louis county really the largest county in the lower 48? I have no idea, always thought some state like Montana would have bigger counties.

[uffdapete]

Great question - I'd like to hunt every part of the state before I'm done. Lots of different and interesting types of deer hunting in this state with our forests, praries, bluffs, lakes, rivers, etc.

Gotta go down this rabbit trail a little: St. Louis is indeed the largest county - technically in all 50, because Alaska is organized by boroughs, not counties, with the largest being about 95,000 sq. miles!

[Proctor Pete]

Thank you uffdapete, I knew Alaska had a different system. That is something that would be kinda neat, hunting in at least all the different geographical areas of the state. That bluff country down south intrigues me.-Pete

[JohnnyC77]

Hey pete,

If you are ever in the area, let me know. I hunt the bluffcountry and you would be more than welcome to stop out!! BUT...you would have to let me touch your deer sometime! haha!

Johnny C

[uffdapete]

I've hunted a couple years in the Park Rapids area, 4 years 25 miles sw of Warroad, a year north of Clearbrook and 25 years in various parts of SE MN including Whitewater, along the Mississippi south of Lake City, Forestville, Caledonia, Rushford, Kasson, Dodge Center and a few places near Byron and Kasson. The Caledonia area was one of my favorites. Near Byron was the most successful. My son and I saw 45 deer on one opener by 3 PM. We found an acreage through a friend that was only 20 acres but 2 major runways crossed there. Never had anything even close to that before or after. After 2 years there, the place sold due to a divorce settlement so that was over.

My most fun and enjoyable hunts have been canoeing a couple different streams in SE MN. It takes the right stretch of river and the right conditions, but it is very enjoyable floating silently down and seeing something different around every bend.

To answer the original question, according to the maps and yearly quotas, central MN and Houston county in the SE corner has the some of the highest overall populations. There probably isn't a bad place in the state to hunt anymore. Except this year where I hunted- I didn't see a deer until 10 minutes were left in a 9 day season. Not the fault of the deer, but I still don't have an answer.

[Proctor Pete]

For the right (ahem) influence Johnny, you could even "rent" the rack and hang it in your house and impress the friends! Quick story, was up to LOTW a couple of weeks back with the wife and some friends and we were in one of the fine establishments late one evening and there were a couple of "well oiled" fisherman sitting at the bar talking about my Buck. Can you believe that! 2 months and 250 miles away from where it was taken and they're still talking about it! My wife overhears them, goes to her purse, (she was feeling NO pain)takes out one of those plastic picture holder things for the wallet full of pictures of the brute, (I didn't know she had such a thing)flips it out in front of them and says something like "well there's some pictures of the fella!" (in her best drunken voice) The guys look at the pictures, look at her, look at the pictures, look at her (she's good looking and she owns the boat! but that's another story for another time)and then one of them starts to make his best moves on her. I'm thinking, oh boy, here we go, I'm gonna have to defend my wife's honor and I can't even get off the barstool! She catches on to the guy as well, turns around, points at me and exclaims, "and that's the guy that shot it!" Well, after that remark, I must have told the story 10 times that night and never paid for another beer. Man, was I sick the next morning. Caught lots of Fish though so that made up for it. Sorry to hijack the post.-Pete Ü

[JohnnyC77]

Ha ha ha, that is a GREAT story!! You are a lucky man my friend!! You should be proud!!\

Johnny C

[Eric_Sieve]

I would have to say taht the outer metro region does pretty well. They do get A LOT of gaints from southeast minnesota also...I would like to try it sometime!

[CorynTracySellHomes]

I would LOVE to see a picture of this buck! Sounds like a dandy!!

Cory Frantzick

[Mark Christianson]

Proctors Petes buck?

Here ya go.

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=480235&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

[TomBow]

Man, look at the character of that rack! Congrats Pete, noss deyah!

[tjm]

I like to hunt south central or south eastern.I know many places that offer better hunting for big bucks but to find and take 140-160 class bucks this is the area.If you put your time in for 2 years you can take a buck in that class every year if someone else doesn't screw things up for ya.

[roosterslayer]

my favorite place is carlton county, just south of duluth, tons of deer, and great bear hunting.

[Bassboy1645]

Any part of the state were the terrian is rough, the people are few and the deer are moderate is gonna put up some ginormus bucks. But what it really comes down to is this: Are you the kind of person with the experience, time and dedication to think outside the box and use off the wall tactics to hunt truly big deer?

[jake125]

i love it down in the southwest, lots of deer, not the biggest bucks but lots of nice does and lots of numbers

[USPENAMC]

well since i havent hunted any where else ill say that the rum river state forest has been good to me i have hunted there 2 years 1st year took 3 does me and my dad. missed a monster since it was only 3 minutes into the hunt and i looked at the rack and how could i miss ... last year i shot a small 6 point buck my dad took a doe and my other friend took a 10 point monster that we had to drag for about 3 miles holy .....was he heavy...there are alot of vehicles parked in these areas but once you get in the bush you hardly ever see anyone. i wish i had other places to go but i dont know of many other places open for public hunting so this is my favorite part of the state even though its public land it has treated us very well as you can see by the results

[Papa Woodie]

Quote:

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Johnny, read my post in this section, you'll see I'm kinda partial to St. Louis County. The last time I checked, St.Louis and some county in Iowa or Illinois are tied for the most B & C registered deer. Granted, St. Louis is I believe IS the largest county in the lower 48 but there is also less pressure on the deer up here with less hunters per square mile so your chance of connecting with a larger deer might be greater. I can't prove anything, I've only hunted Lake, St. Louis and some county with the Mississippi river in it west of the Duluth area. my two cents-Pete

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Proctor Pete, Contact me please.

[email protected]

[msm1018]

Hey Pete, me too please. [email protected]

[WB make the CUT]

Pete

Great story, LOL