Monster spotted!!

[Johnny_Namakan]

As if I wasn't excited about deer camp already, now I can't wait! My family has a shack and 80 acres up around Orr, MN. This weekend my Bro and I were up there getting some work done on the stands and doing a little grouse hunting. On Saturday night around 7:00 (with the full moon out) we took a little cruise on the wheelers out to where we park the trucks (no road into the shack, ATV accessible only). Well, we cruised out to the trucks, only about a 5 minute ATV ride from the shack. We locked the trucks up for the night and headed back. I was leading the way and as I came around a corner I hit the brakes. Standing 20' away was a monster buck. He looked at me and then turned and ran straight away down the trail. This thing was huge!!! It was a typical 10 pt+ rack. But the tine lengths and spread on this thing looked almost surreal. The trail is just wide enough for an ATV to drive down. This buck had such a wide spread it's rack was brushing up against the brush on both sides of the trail. I thought the deer was going to flip over head first as it ran the rack was so big. I'd have to guess a 20"+ spread easily and 12-14" tines very easily. I'm not a professional scorer, and won't even try to guess, but I have a 10ptr on the wall at the shack with a 17 1/4" spread and 10" tines and this buck made that rack look small. I have several rolls of deercam film from this summer/Fall with plenty of 8 ptrs. and one 10pt. This buck has never been seen before. Either on film or by any of the 8 hunters that hunt our property. It just goes to show you, when you think you have a handle on what kind of deer are in your area, you truly have no idea what's in those woods. I just hope this Monster gets rutty enough to move during the day during rifle season. Yup, it's official! The next three weeks will take an eternity to get here.

[harvey lee]

Looks like every person in your party will have a chance at a buck of a lifetime.

Good luck.

[fishermn]

Good Luck! Those big old bucks seem to get real stupid for a couple days during the rut. Hope you have a chance at him when he is chasing. Otherwise, they really seem to lay low until the masses are out of the woods...

[nitroant]

We hunt near Orr too. There are several atv access only shacks around us. Anywhere near Elbow?

[Johnny_Namakan]

As the crow flies, I would say about 4 miles from Elbow lake. It's too late though. I saw him first so I call him!

Those big swamp bucks only seem to move at night. I know they kind of lose their mind and get stupid during the rut, but some fo those big guys still stay smarter than us.

What's funny is, my brother and I just drove past that spot not two minutes earlier. Then on the way back, there he is. He had to of heard us coming, but still stuck around to wait to make eye contact with me. I think he let me see him just to tease me a little.

My brother was behind me, cause he can't keep up with me on the wheeler, so he didn't get to see it. I think that's worse than never knowing he was out there. But his stand is in the swamp that I saw this buck in, so he shouldn't be too bummed.

[nitroant]

N, E, S, W of Elbow? Not looking to steal your spot. We have been hunting the same 400 acres for 30 years, not planning to move. The nice part about hunting up there is that there is not too many people. They bad part about hunting up there is that there isn't too many people. I know there are some big deer up there and I know there are plenty more that slip in between us each year. We usually pick off a real decent one about every 3 years. We had a group member take a huge 8 pointer last year. Once the shooting starts they all head for the swamps. You get lucky once in a while a get on chasing a doe.

[Johnny_Namakan]

As the crow flies, It's about 4 miles North, Northwest of the North arm of elbow lake. Are you guys off the Schuster road, Holmes road, or Elbow Lake road?

You said it exactly right. Not having many hunters in the woods is a good and bad thing. It's nice to have the woods to yourself, but if nobody's pushing the deer around, you may never get that big one moving during the day.

Our group has really gotten into using grunt calls the last few years to help with that. I had a ten pointer bolt across a shooting lane two years ago chasing a doe, I called him back in and shot him 75 yards from my stand.

[nitroant]

Elbow Lake Forest Road.

I have tried a buck grunt and had exactly o% of the deer I have grunted at come back to me. You can see them but can't get a shot at them, thought the call would help. I had a nice buck come in last year but couldn't get the best shot and didn't want to risk it with no snow, tried the call and nothing.

You must be out by Myrtle Lake? That is the only 80's I see on the plat map that would make sense.

[Johnny_Namakan]

You probably saw our 80 on on the map then. There's lots of area to hunt where you guys are. I hear there's a lot more hunters in your area the last year or two. We always ATV around there and now there's tons of those Potlach leased land signs around there.

I've successfully grunted in two bucks, (at least two that I could defintely credit to the call). The 10 pt came in on a Buck grunt, and a couple years before that I was able to get an 8 pt to turn back in to me with a doe call. Then last year during muzzleloader season I was grunting for about 15 minutes trying to draw in a deer that I heard off in the distance in front of me. Well he came in alright, but he circled back behind me and came in that way. He got to about 25 yards away then he grunted back. i turned to look behind me and he was right there staring at me. We locked eyes for about 10 minutes and then I must have blinked because he took off before I could swing the gun. My brother and one of my uncles have successfully called in some bucks as well. The trick is not to over use it. 90% of the time I only use it after spotting a buck that I didn't get a shot at. 8 out of 10 times I'll get him to come back in to range to check it out. The 10 pt I got 2 years ago, bolted across my shooting lane hot on a doe that ran past first about 150 yards away. I called twice and within about 2 minutes he came right at me. He turned sideways to go around a falling tree and gave me the opp. to take him.

[nitroant]

Every year it seems like there are a few more people around. They are most all gone by Sunday. Getting to be plenty of private land now too. We took a couple pieces of potlatch land just to try and limit the amount of new people in the area. Potlatch is logging alot of land north of us. Depending on where you are at there is only a few 40's left between you and us. We have hunted the Potlatch land for many years, Now what used to take all day to walk to you can drive to in minutes. You don't happen to be part of the group that had that 8'x 10' fishouse on stilts as a deer stand back by us?? They took it out about 4 years ago. That was a pretty nice deer stand. I have heard grouse are up this year. Did you see some decent numbers when you were up there??

[Johnny_Namakan]

No that wasn't our stand, but I wouldn't mind hunting out of something like that:) I agree with what you said, by Sunday most of the hunters are gone. Same around us, put up with it for the weekend and your o.k. after that. My brother and I got into blackpowder hunting four years ago too. There is hardly nobody in the woods then, and the deer start to move again during the day.

Grouse are a lot better this year. On opener we saw 15, the weekend after we saw 13, the third weekend I didn't go, and then this weekend we saw 7. A lot of young birds. But wow are there getting to be a lot of people in the woods! We must have came across 15 different hunters hunting the trails we were. But that's not going to change anytime soon I guess, so I better get used to it.

We just started hunting around Myrtle 8 years ago when we bought the 80. Before that we hunted down the Gold Mine Camp road where my great grandpa built a hunting shack back in the 50's. There got to be too many owners/hunters out of that shack so we looked for something else.

[nitroant]

I wish I lived closer to it like you do so I could buzz up there more often. Looking to hit some grouse in a few weeks. We had a few guys doing some blackpowder for a few year, but they got tired of the bitter cold weather.

We have hunted this area for over 30 years. They all started hunting out of travel trailers back then and built a shack in 1980. Lots of things have changed over the years up there. Seems like lots of guys hunt back off of Gold Mine. We have had our problems too now that everybodies kids have grown up, the shack is buldging that first weekend.

What kind of grunt call do you use?

[WalleyeWeasel]

You's Keep yapping and you'll get a whole lot more people in your neck of the woods !!!

[nitroant]

If people want to give up their spot and come hunt our area, I say come on up. Be prepared to walk lots of logged areas that are full of bugger brush and look out for the swamps. If your lucky you even see some deer. If it was not for our history up there, I would hunt where a guy sees more deer than we usually do.

[iceman16]

we are in the area or orr also. well northeast up off the echo trail at the end of the 200 road. great place to hunt but like you we have to take the wheelers back into the woods 3 miles to get to our shack. there are some monsters up there but like you also said we only have 5 hunters and alot of land to hunt and no one pushes deer to us like they did when we hunted in pilenger. i just changed from partime to fulltime at work and lost my vacation for a year so i wont be makin the treck up there this year. good luck on baggin the monster!

iceman

[Johnny_Namakan]

Nobody wants to hunt our deer. They don't taste nearly as good as the deer further south. Plus the Timberwolves up here are man-eaters so it's probably not a good idea to hunt up in these woods, unless you're loaded for bear, and a little bit loco. Oh, did I mention the bald eagles up here could carry some of the younger hunters away. We lost a 13yr old last year that way. Sure going to miss him.

[BigWadeS]

I hear you about that area, I am around that area and talk about some big Timberwolves, had two walk thru midday while we were cooking lunch last year, backs as high as a kitchen table...glad I didn't have anything outside, like myself...

[Black_Bay]

Feel free to spook that big guy a little further north to Ray. I have a place on the wall for him.

BTW We don't worry about the timberwolves in our area. Bigfoot usually keeps them out.

[Johnny_Namakan]

Nitro: Not sure what the brand/name of my call is. I bought it several years ago at Cabela's and don't recall the name. The reason I decided to go with the call I did was because this call came with an instructional cassette tape. I wanted a call that had good instructions for proper use, and this one did. I've actually thought about getting those game callers that play CD's and the like, from real deer, but have had good enough success to keep what I've got. It's a great feeling when you actually get that first deer to come in to the call. Just be careful not to over use it. I learned the hard way. Last year the buck that came in was able to pinpoint me because of the call. I heard some walking off in front of me about 200 yards (you guys know the sound.....when it's absolutely quiet in the woods and you can hear footsteps off in the distance) so I started in on the grunt call. Not too much though, 3 grunt intervals spaced about 3 minutes apart. That lasted about fifteen minutes. By this point I have my gun readied facing straight away, and am concentrating straight ahead. I grunt once more and he answers back from 25 yards behind me. Oops, busted. He's got me locked in, but still unsure of what he's looking at. We were locked in on each other eye to eye, for what seemed like forever. He never took his eyes off of me. My body and gun were facing forward but my head was turned looking behind me at this very nice 10pt buck. Man that was an akward position to try and not move in. Finally I must have moved slightly because he bolted. i quickly stood, turned and popped off a shot at his white flag blazing through the woods. So, I definitely attribute that deer to the call, but I also attribute him pinpointing me to the call. Oh well, live and learn.

Black bay: I heard you guys had bigfoot up there. I'm still trying to get a picture of him on the trail cam, but he must not be very photogenic. But everytime I get my film back and there's that mystery picture that the camera snapped off for no apparent reason, I credit those to Mr Bigfoot.