How was your opener?

[vermilionwally]

Well i hunted on private land in cloquet today and didnt get out to the stand until 4:30 and sat for a half hour and saw 4 deer. Only heard one shot though. I havent heard nearly as many shots this year as i normally do.

[Sergeant Slabber]

I hunted area 239 by Hawley. Our party of 9 ended up with 5... 4 bucks and one doe. I got a nice 9 point late in the day on Saturday. We were lucky to get what we got considering we had about 300 acres of standing corn surrounding our land.

[dartsportsteve]

We hunted northwest of Claremont. This was my second season and got my first deer... I'm hooked now for sure. I shot my ave size 6 pointer 20 minutes after the season opened. My hunting buddy got a small doe Saturday at the end of the day. Saw 1 nice 8 point and one 10 plus from a distance as I was field dressing my six. All in all a successful weekend, and I will second the fact that the corn was hiding a lot of deer. We hardly heard any shots on Sunday.

[woody1975]

Here is the 10 pointer I shot north of Brainerd on Saturday morning, not a monster, but a 10 pointer none the less.

Also shot a 6 pointer on Sunday night. Ended up 4 for 13, which sounds "not that great", but we had a few guys pass up deer and a couple of missed opportunities, so a successful hunt none the less. Still have some muzzleloader and bow tags left as a group.

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/4127/exlaroption116sv0.jpg

[Shack]

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Woody, Very nice deer.

[woody1975]

Thanks Shackbash and thanks for the help

[Fish&Fowl]

Got this guy Sunday afternoon of firearms opener at our shack near Int'l Falls. 230 lbs dressed.

[Eckie]

Can you resize the photo so we can get a better look at that bad boy?

[Tripleplay]

Honestly the worst opener for deer numbers I've experienced in something like 20 years on this same leased property. Friday started with driving into the hay field to open the stands up and finding them vandalized. One had been in the field for 2 weeks only and we have to put them in right before season as the owner doesn't like them in the way during haying. Buddy's had all of the rope he was using to connect as anchoring cut and they took all four of his ratchet straps. Stand was still up so that was the good thing!

I then look over and my stand (4' x 8') PVC enclosed is completely gone. Drove over and luckily it was in the woods. Checked it out and found that they took the turnbuckle off of the anchoring setup and they either pushed it over, the wind blew it over or they were setting up to steal it. (property is currently for sale and nobody seems to honor the no trespassing and no hunting signs!) Anchor was also bent over at a 30 to 40 degree angle. Pick it up and get set up to place it again when I realize that they have stolen all of my gun rests (6 of them) that for the first time ever I left in the stand! Also took an old boat cushion that I use for my son to sit on since he is a bit short for the windows.

All of the messing around and actually placing a new stand in another corner of the field for a neighbor and his grandpa (the boy's father was injured earlier this year when working on his own deer stand and the bottom fell out and he is currently paralyzed from the chest down!)may have just been too much scent and activity for the first weekend. I would have hunted from a bucket if I had to just to give this neighbor boy a chance to participate since he was the one who was present when his dad was injured and he will not ever return to that property!

Well to get back to the hunting, my stand literally didn't see a deer until 5PM on Sunday when my son managed to get one. The neighbor boy and his grandpa never saw a deer (one ran across the field and we saw bits of it when our other stand was shooting but that hardly counts). Other stand saw 7 on Saturday and 6 on Sunday and a 13 year did tag his first deer so some positive did occur. We saw none on Monday morning. Oh well, as I told them all---it can't get much worse than the paralyzing accident to the neighbor, the vandalism and theft and then little to no deer when we normally see large numbers so we are all pretty excited for the upcoming weekend. If it can't get worse then it can only get better--right?

I told my kids that a bad day hunting was still 100 times better than a day of work or school! Hard to impress on a couple of 14 year olds who were pretty frustrated but they will understand when they get older.

We are in zone 245 and the Hubbard County sheriff told us that ours was the 21st report of deer stand vandalism he had reported on Friday alone. Frustrating but apparently that is the reality we all face when you leave something in the woods whether on public or private property. I hope whomever likes my gun rests and the ratchet straps.

[Pikeslayer]

My opener was strange but good!I was in my stand sat. morning waiting for Big Ed!(large buck)1/2 hour into dalight here comes a 3 legged brush wolf,1/2 hour later here comes a 4 legged brush wolf! I think to my self this is not good,I might as well pour myself a cup of coffee and then move to another spot.10 minn. into my cup of coffee I hear something comeing so Im ready for another wolf!I couldnt beleave it when a nice 4 point walks down the very same trail that them wolves were on 10 minn.earlyer Not much of a rack but perfect for the woodstove in the fishhouse this winter

[tealitup]

I had the most awesome experience this weekend. First - I have seen wolves in the wild many times on my "up north" property. Every time as soon as they see or smell me they run away as fast as they can.

Two weeks ago my father was up north getting things ready for deer season. Early one morning while doing natures call he looked up and saw a jet black wolf looking back at him not more then 20 yards away. A second wolf (grey in color) came along -stopped and looked at him. They were not scared and wondered off.

Fast forward to last weekend. I made sure I was scent free as possible. Put some "doe in heat" on a rag and created a scent trail.

After 40 minutes in the stand three wolves with their head down followed my exact trail. They found the rag in a tree branch and tore it up (tug of war style). Then continued to come towards me. Well this jet black wolf came around and took two steps up my steps of my tree stand.

At this point I was a little excited - thinking.. do not move this is a one in a lifetime thing. The second wolf came over and started to drink out of a water cup I brought with (left on the ground). Now I know my scent was on that cup. About this time a squirrel ran 15 yards from the wolves. They were uninterested.

While I was up there I started to mess with them. I was droping water on their heads. Funny! Until I came to realize that they knew I was there the whole time. All three looked up and me and sat down!!!!

What would you do? Well I pointed my gun down the ladder and came down the stairs as fast as I could. They took off scared as can be.

These wolves have now became used to humans. Time to open a season. But WOW what an experience - it was better then shooting a deer.

[Hammer Handle]

I have heard that most people have not done well (in my area) and they think the deer forcasts are way too high.

Everyone by us seemed to do not-so-good, but we got 7 deer for 8 hunters. My niece shot her first deer.

I got a nice 6-point.

I seen LOTS of turkeys....

[bigbucks]

Pikeslayer I'm confused, you're going to burn the forkhorn rack in the fishhouse stove or actually attach the rack to the stove pipe. Please enlighten us...

I forgot about this, we found out Friday night that one of the trees of my brother's permananent deer stand had snapped off in the wind. I only live 4 miles from there & some of our hunting party was staying there, so we went out & put up a ladder stand for him on one of the remaining trees that night. We got done with that about 11pm. He shot a forky there at about 20 feet just past noon on Saturday. The stand had actually been down for at least a week, but we'd checked it earlier than that & the guy that saw it for some reason didn't think anyone sat in that stand. He should have known, but apparently wasn't thinking too clearly.

[Pikeslayer]

It sounds to me like you had a very interesting day!There are not many wolves around my area as a rule,so I was shocked to see a deer so close down wind of them,Maybe thats why he gave me the shot I had!

[RBuker]

My wife and I hunted west of Garrison. We are meat hunters so when a big doe came strolling by on Sat evening, I happily shot her. We'll go back up on this weekend and maybe fill one more tag.

We saw a few other deer but heard very few shots and those we heard were far away in the distance.

[walleyefisher87]

My party hunts west of mille lacs. The weekend went real good for us. We ended up harvesting four does and two fawns. Everyone saw deer. Am pretty excited, because we passed up a total of fifteen bucks, all little guys. One was a decent 2.5 year old eight. that probaly scored about 110 if he hadnt broken off his right main beam. I believe nine of those bucks were different deer, so a couple more years, it should be really good. The neighbors to the north ended up shooting a nice 12 pointer, and according to them they had seen one bigger than that, so hopefully he'll come past one of us this weekend. As for the rut and how far progressed it is, it was tough to say, some of the bucks we saw seemed to be running and checking does pretty regularly, while other 1.5 year old forks, and sixes, seemed not to interested, and where out eating in the fields with does and fawns. I haven't been out since this cold weather moved in, (College is always a problem) but ive got high expectations for this weekend. Good luck to everyone out there, and be safe. Keep the success reports coming. Oh ya, Saturday morning and evening, it sounded like a war with all the shooting, and then sunday it slowed down considerably. Amazing how those deer wise up. Although im glad they do.

[Pikeslayer]

Forget the rack!Its the meat Ill be frying while Im fishing and your WISHING!!

[roosterslayer]

My opener was great even though i didn't take a thing. I saw approximately 35-40 deer through out the weekend and probably 10 different bucks. all the bucks were small and i will wait on but it sure was a fun and exciting weekend. I can't wait for this weekend to get here.

[Fish&Fowl]

sorry I thought the pic was bigger than that. Here's a bigger one!

[Pikeslayer]

Nice rack,very tall. I wonder how old that deer is?

[bigbucks]

That's a dandy, nice job.

[bigbucks]

Okay, just didn't understand what you meant. While I'm WISHING what? I've pulled the trigger multiple times this year. I've got plenty of venison with more likely to come.

[Pikeslayer]

You were fishing!

[ozzie]

WOW!!!! that is a cool looking deer!! congrats....

[Steve Foss]

Sweet buck. Great character with that dark tall rack.