Not A Fan Of Early Season Deer Hunt

[Weed Shark]

When we arrived Thursday for our grouse hunt, all three hunters in our party were surprised to learn there was a rifle deer hunt Saturday, within two miles of where we were staying. Most people avoid grouse hunting during rifle season (I hunt deer). I wasn't very thrilled about walking around with only blaze orange on my shoulders and hat, tan everywhere else. We avoided those areas, although we didn't have a deer zone map on us to really study where these hunts were taking place.

For safety, I think rifle season should be rifle season like it always has been. If three hunters did not know of these 23 deer areas where the hunt was taking place, how would a non-hunter know? These days, regulations are too complicated to keep up with.

[big drift]

In response I would have to say the early doe season is a necessary hunt for several very good reasons.

To many deer are causing to many wrecks up here, the numbers are to high to maintain healthy populations w/o the early season there is an increased risk of disease or illness spreading, and the crop predation is unbelievable, so yes we do need it. I realize this messes up your grouse hunt but the season is only 2 days.

[DonBo]

I hunt in Wisconsin where there has been an early deer season in place for many years. I wil say from experience that once the guns start going off early, your regular season will be a bust. Deer are too educated as it is. They will be scarce when November comes around.

The areas with "too many deer" are typically private lands. Many people who hunt these areas know to stay away from their own properties during the early season and only hunt public land. Believe me, there are NOT too many deer on most public hunting areas. Another downfall is the bowhunters after this season will not take as many deer as normall, the standard gun season will not be as productive. Another problem we see is a large % of the deer taken are buck fawns which won't help reduce next years crop and the future buck hunting will be severely impacted. How have we helped reduce the herd?

Wisconsin has finally gone away from this farce of a herd thinning tactic this year, just hope Minnesota catches on soon.

[BobT]

Not necessarily disagreeing with you but in defense of grouse hunters, why is it necessary to have an early season deer hunt? Why not just extend the existing deer hunt on the latter end. This would seem to make more sense from a safety standpoint because it would play right into the black powder season as well. It would provide a means to offer more hunting opportunities as well as a safer atmosphere. At the same time, those of us that take to the field should make ourselves aware of what's going on around us so in defense of the deer hunters and those that support the early season, grouse hunters need to take necessary precautions like knowing the seasons and wearing adequate blaze orange covering.

Bob

[JayS]

Not sure if I am either. It made it different bird hunting. I did not get a license but I bought one for my 13 yr old daughter. She bagged her first deer last night. Maybe it should be a 2 day youth hunt?

[northerndave]

2 day youth hunt is coming up this weekend. (20th-21st)

we had the early antlerless too, we were at the cabin all weekend & most of the shots that rang through the woods sounded like rimfires & small shotguns (grouse hunters)

[JayS]

Isn't the 2 day youth hunt this upcoming weekend 20 & 21 just for some state parks?

[DRH1175]

It is needed on Private land for sure. I hunt private land and there is way too many deer in my opinion. What hurts during firarms season is 1 the doe/buck ratio is so messed up and the Corn is always in. The father in laws cousin is always the last farmer on planet earth to get his crops in. Last year was our worst year ever. Not firing our gun once in early season and only shooting 2 does opening morning. With only 2 days I don't think it drives the deer out for the regular season as it is 3 weeks away. Most deer are still in summer patterns and far from the rut patterns.

I am a bow hunter so sometimes I get up set with the early season. However I do know it is needed big time and for only 2 days not much of a big deal. This is about the worst weekend to be in the woods for bow hunting anyways so whoopty do. I do myself agree on 1 bad thing. Yes some private land users tend to drift to the public areas to due early hunting. When in fact it is the private areas that need the hunt in the first place! I have done this hunt since it started 3 years ago and and first I hated it. Though now I have learned that it is absoulutly neccesary in the areas it is in. We have so many deer in our area even when we do not see them the tracks are proof that they are there!

[big drift]

I am not so sure it does affect the regular season I have hunted this since it started in 2005. NAd we have consistently taken animals during the regualar season as well as the bowhunters on the land have continued to take animals from Early Doe thru gun season. This is at home and where we hunt in North Dakota right next to the Red River.

I would not mind extending the regular season either but I believe having the season earlier then later does protect the bucks from illegal tagging.

[Harmonica Bear]

We were up grouse hunting Thurs-Sun up at our deer shack in Williams and found out about the 2 day hunt on Friday. The thing that really annoyed us was, we didn't know about it and so we didn't bring our rifles! Duh! We felt kind of stupid. Anyway, we wore plenty of blaze and stuck to grousin and stand building on our land.

Only heard a couple of shots in our vicinity which is at the south end of the zone.

[MN Mike]

Does anyone know if the DNR has any goals to achive by this season? Not just to reduce the Doe population, I mean real numbers?

I was out grouse hunting around home this weekend and in some of the woods we hit, there was not much deer sign, normally in one of the woods' we go in, there are extensive highways of trails running all over, I could only find a couple this year, no rub's either, normally this place is just covered with sign.

There are some corn fields around but that is nothing unusual, it's never had a big effect on it before.

Not saying there aren't deer around, there most definetly are but I'm just wondering how far they want to take it.

Mike

[northerndave]

I'm not sure jay, I'll have to check that out, I thought it was open for my area but I guess I better check into it.

[bigbucks]

We hunted private land this weekend & got 5 deer for 8 of us. We mostly stuck to the fields. 2 does & 3 fawns. We heard quite a bit of shooting.

[fivebucks]

Harmonica Bear,

I believe the hunt by LOW was up in area 105, north of Williams. South of town is 211 and that area was not included in the hunt until you get closer to the TB area further west. If you did your grouse hunting in Beltrami Island there would be no deer hunters there.

[northerndave]

105 was in it, as was 101 (TB) which is my area.

I'm close to what is almost a 3 corners spot where 101, 105 & ... 110 or 11 meet, can't remember the 3rd one. but anyways I'm on the far north side of 101 which covers a good part of beltrami island state forest & it was open for early antlerless.

Tags were just cheaper is all, you could buy the disease management tags & use them as early antlerless tags.

no luck for us though, coulple of "shoulda been" moments but it just didn't work out.

[Harmonica Bear]

We're in 105. 105 jogs south of Williams and Hwy 11 on Hwy 2 and then east on 3 before jogging back up to Hwy 11. Our property is in that little jog south of 11 (thanks to influential people who bought the section south of us awhile back, suddenly that jog appeared in the zone, go figure) We did most of our grouse hunting in Beltrami Island, but we did hunt our property as well.

[decoy]

I enjoy the early hunt. Saw 29 deer in two posts. Shot 2 nice does...

[fivebucks]

I know where you're at. We are straight south between Williams and the Krull Trail. Heading up there tomorrow AM.

[Hoyt4]

I bow hunt an area where the early season was in effect last week. This changes the deer pattern which does not really get me too mad just have to hunt harder and figure them out again.But safety wise this is a bad deal opener of pheasants hunting going on the same as the gun opener also fall turkey hunting going on.Just does not seem too safe.This should be in December or January I would love to do that and I think you would have more hunters out with nothing else going on then you would put good start to thinning the heard.

[vister]

in response to the people who leave their crops in to long, my dad has already combined, dried, and sold his beans and corn, as well as the did the fall plowing. So some people are just a bit more of a procrastinator than others. I myself love rifle, muzzleloading and bow hunting. But I'll tell ya what, if I can only shoot a doe with a rifle during the early anterless, you can bet dang well you'll find my 18 feet up with my bow, and wait till november till i can use the rifle! Also, they have EA this time of the year so everyone in an open zone has a chance to do it, not just the ones who didn't bag during the regular firearms season.

[bigbucks]

Well if you pick your corn you can't have harvested it yet & there's still a lot of smaller farmers that do pick theres. Most of them are probably the guys that have another job as well I'd guess. Down here a few of the big farms have their beans out, but it's been raining so much for the last few weeks I'm not sure the guys they want to do it when it's wet.

[BobT]

I think it would be good to be a little more careful, vister.

I am a farmer and I still have all my beans in the field and I'll tell you why.

1. I am a part-time farmer so I have another full-time job to entertain me during the week.

2. I was one of the lucky ones that managed to get my beans in the ground rather early last spring after spring tillage and rock picking so late planting is not the cause of my situation.

3. The varieties I chose have a rather long maturity rating for this area. What that means is that my plants take longer to mature and dry down so that is part of the reason my beans are still out there. They were just getting ready for harvest when the rains came. Incidentally, because I was able to plant earlier I chose a later maturing bean because the potential for increased RIO is higher. In an average year this would not have been an issue.

4. If you have a few thousand dollars lying around to buy me a combine and maintain it for me so that I don't have to hire the harvest, be my guest.

5. Because of item #4 I am at the mercy of the harvester's schedule and this year I happened to be near the end of his list and by the time he got to me it began to rain.

6. Rain wouldn't be a problem but 9-1/2" over the course of the last three weeks has made my fields nearly impassible on foot much less with a 10-ton combine, tractors, and gravity boxes.

7. Even if the weather turns it'll likely take a couple sunny and windy days for my beans to dry out unless it really goes wild and temperatures get up into the high 60s.

8. Suppose the weather does turn even to the extreme, with the amount of moisture we have received over the past three weeks and my heavy soil, I can expect it will take at least a week of dry weather before I can consider trying to send a combine out there. Case in point. Last week was dry all week and by Saturday (pheasant opener) the ground was finally somewhat stable BUT my beans were still not dry because the lack of sun and warmth kept them too moist.

9. In the mean time I'm chomping at the bit as I watch $7,000 worth of soybeans sit with the real possibility of never getting them harvested unless the weather turns its head soon.

10. Finally, if things do work out that I can eventually harvest my crop, I will still have to get myself out there and do my fall tilling before it freezes and you must have an idea of how soon that can happen. If I don't, past history has taught me that spring tillage reduces my yield potential by at least 30% and I do not want that to happen next year.

The next time you consider us farmers, even us part-timers, procrastinaters think again or perhaps come on out and lend a hand or even better yet, put your money where your mouth is and give it a try yourself.

In the mean time, I'll just have to grin and bear it while I take the opportunity to be lazy and do a little pheasant, grouse, and deer hunting. I sure hope my bean harvest and fall tilling doesn't interfere.

Bob

[vister]

you don't think i haven't been out in the fields along side of him. well on weekends anyways. I was born and raised on a farm, so i know the in and outs of weather, maturity times, all of the conditions that hard-working men and women have to deal with for a living, quite simply, my statement was concerning the people who have their corn standing in fields while the new years corn has already come out of the ground. Sure money can be tough for some, or most, but the bottom line is that your profit is still standing out in the field. Also, my dad is a full time carpenter, but he has taken these last few weeks off to get the crop out of the field, ONLY so him and my brothers and I can go to wyoming elk hunting in three weeks. A point I forgot to mention in my last post. He just wanted the field work done so we can do that and not have to come back to the fields. I wasn't saying to ANYONE out there that if you're not done in the fields by now, you're lazy, just making the simple point across of why he is nearly done now. sorry for any offense, intended none. sure some people leave corn standing for the deer and pheasants, but not anything over a 10 acre stand, rarely more. As far as money, yeah, he has been drying his corn at the cost of $.03 a point, and to drop it 6 points in moisture, $.18 a bushel, running 135-150 bushel an acre, and farming 600 acres of corn and half that in beans, thats a pile of profits up in smoke. on top of that renting half the land. once again, only to go out west and be done with this years crops. he should be lucky he contracted his corn at $3.45, and beans at $8.10.

[BobT]

That's fine. My reply was to your statement, "So some people are just a bit more of a procrastinator than others." In the context you used this you suggested that anyone that still has their crops in the field must be procrastinators and I take exception to that statement.

Growing up on a farm you should know first-hand that procrastination is a recipe for failure when it comes to farming wouldn't you agree? I'm happy your father managed to get his crops out before the water started to pile up. I wish I could have too but such is the business of farming.

In any other year there wouldn't be any beans left in the field and most of the corn would be gone as well but this year is far from typical. I can assure you that procrastinating I am not and neither are any of my neighbors that are in the same boat with me.

There could be an upside to this. Of the 9 birds we harvested last weekend, all of them had their crops full of beans. By my being unable to harvest my beans and till the ground, I'm still feeding the pheasants. Just thinking of the future you know.

Bob

[BLACKJACK]

BobT, a farming question for you. Read your bit above about spring vrs fall tillage and lost yield for spring tillage. I have a small 5 acre field that the renting farmer had soybeans in this year. He doesn't want to farm it next year. I'm thinking about putting it into Roundup Ready corn for a food plot next year. My plan was to leave it sit untilled until next spring, get some soil samples, tell them I want 110 bushel per acre yield, broadcast the fertilizer, work it lightly with a disk, and then plant with my old 4 row planter. Yes its 'only' a food plot but fertilizer isn't cheap, I want to do it right. What do you think of my plan? If I get a big enough yield and the deer don't eat it all in the fall of 08, it might just sit thru 2009.