camp ripley

[RogersMN]

congrats on the doe. I wish i would have spent more time scouting on my previous trips. now i'm going to hunt a new area and go in blindly. i hate that.

[Cheetah]

I was up at Ripley yesterday (Sunday). We decided not to hunt Monday (today) since it's getting to be a busy fall for me and my dad.

For those that didn't understand how the line worked this year, I believe the first line was at the main road and went from the registration station back to the entrance to Ripley. Once that was full they started sending the second line down the river road (we were near the start of this one). Anyone in the second line was quite a ways from their camping area, and I know some guys complained about this from last weekend. Then there appeared to be a third line once the river road line was too long, but I don't know where they had these guys parked.

Anyway, we hunting along Lake Alott road and the hunter pressure was the usual. Lots of trucks, I had two guys walk in on me in my stand. Deer sign was down from past years by quite a bit. I didn't see any that morning in the snow/rain/wind, but my dad had a 6pt walk up to him at 45 yards while he was getting ready to put up his stand. He drew, but the deer spooked before he could get a shot.

We then scouted a bit looking for deer trying to get out of the wind and managed to jump a nice buck and a few does. Almost got a shot on one doe, but she knew something was up.

In the evening we set up near west boundary road and I shot a nice doe at 20 yards. Had a small 8pt and spike come by out of range, they wouldn't come in to my grunt or rattling. My doe weighed 107lb on the scale. We didn't stick around to see what other guys brought in, saw a couple fawns being weighed when I brought mine in.

[fishinmajishin]

Did good taking a doe with that wind. And only a one day hunt. Congrats.

[icefishing21]

didnt see a whole lot this year where we hunted. we hunted off punic road on the north end both days. yesterday my brother had a spike buck come in at 8 yards and when he drew back, his bow hit a bar on his tree stand and the deer saw him then and started running so my brother shot and hit him in the hip. we followed the blood trail for about 100 yards and there was no blood after that.

this morning i had an 80 pound doe walk down a trail at about 9 yards but decided to let her keep walking hoping for something bigger. didnt see any after that. my dad had a 200 plus pound 10 pointer walk down a trail 50 yards away. i think i saw a total of like 10 deer and didnt see a whole lot of deer in the beds of trucks. only 103 deer were killed the 1st day.

[dustin85]

I only saw one deer while on stand. It was a large 8pt. he came cruising in at about 30 yards, but never made it into my shooting lane.

Dustin

[Cheetah]

Did good taking a doe with that wind. And only a one day hunt. Congrats.

The wind was really tough, not to mention the rain/snow on Sunday morning til lunch time. On both stands I had wind switching all over the place, it'd be NW, N, NE then all of a sudden start coming out of the south... The only option was to just wait it out and try to be in a spot with multiple trails coming from different directions. That and try to figure where the deer will be bedded out of the wind as well as finding spots where the other hunters haven't been pressuring the deer yet.

[RogersMN]

We also had a very difficult hunt. The wind/rain/snow was something I’ll never forget. I watched rain and snow come up a ridge towards me (never seen that before). The funny thing was between me and my buddy we only saw 6 deer and all were while it was snowing and raining. I had a gimme shot on a doe at 15 yards but I hit a branch that I completely forgot about. One branch in my shooting lane and of course I nail it. Had a small 6 point come directly into my tinks. He picked me out of the tree and bolted. I also saw a bobcat which made my hunt. Never saw one before. We left Monday at 1pm.

[Cheetah]

Yea, good times when you can hear that 35mph gust blowing through the woods then BAM a cloud of snow and wind bashes into you and the tree you're in starts rocking and trees around you are falling over. I watched at least a half-dozen dead trees tip over, heard one that was definitey huge by the boom it made when it hit.

[colonel42]

Wow what a two day hunt. Not any luck in the killing department but still good just to be out. Saw nothing on Sunday. Sat from 7:30 til dark, Monday was a tad better had a doe and a fawn walk out 15 yards but decided to let them walk. An hour later had a nice buck come out 60 yards away and he just headed up the ridge. The guy I went with saw a total of six. Two bucks but nothing in range. He also seen a bear with one cub. All in all it was a good hunt. Sure would be nice to be able to rifle hunt there. Also seen about six deer on the way out yesterday really close to the gate. No fear in the animals out there at all.

[Studer]

Well here goes my Ripley Story!!! Get out in the woods about 7am on Sunday Morning and find a nice tree on top of a small ridge looking down into a swamp/pond. It was raining, snowing, sleeting and wind was brutal!!! Well I get settled in and hear something behind me.....not a deer, it was a hunter of course. So he keeps walking, then I hear something else and see another hunter....not walking....let's just say he had to get down from his stand due to maybe a good bowl of chili the night before, (if you know what I mean) Then things settle down a bit and CRACK/SNAP here more noise, here it was the first hunter I saw and he was coming up from in front of me at this point. He said he lost his backpack or something. So he keeps walking and about 10 min later, here he comes again. Same hunter still looking for his bag. So just as all this is going on it is now about 8:30 am and I am thinking this ripley thing is kind of frustrating cause of all the pressure etc. etc. but just then I here some snapping behind me and luckily I was standing up and it was a small six pointer and a beautiful 8 point walking right towards me. The eight stops looks up and I don't think he quite made me out cause he kept coming. Starts off down the ridge, I draw, he is about 25 yards, the six catches me drawing so they both stop. I let one fly at the big eight and WHACK!!!! Good solid hit. I immediately get down so I can get right on him and eventually find my arrow. Full of blood. Good sign. This other hunter walks over and apparently had drawn on him but had snow in his sights. Lucky for me I guess. So I start tracking this deer and I have a good solid blood trail. I am clipping pretty good through the woods following this trail. About 30-40min later I am still tracking but now getting worried cause I have no clue where I am. So I take my hat off flip it to blaze orange side, hang it on a tree, and back out. I heard him get up and run a couple times so I wanted him to bed down but worried about all the other hunters getting a crack at him. I hurry back to my stand back tracking the blood trail, meet my buddy who has some tracking tape, and we immediately get back on the trail. About another hour of tracking we begin to get worried cause all the rain/snow is really washing the trail away. As we stand there looking for more blood, up he pops about 40 yards out from behind a dead fall. We run up there, see where he was laying and it was not a ton of blood. We decide to just hang tight have lunch and relax and catch our breaths. So about another 30 min we stay there and start back on him. I bet he went another 800-1000 yards but we had great blood this whole time. Finally we get up to a big beaver swamp and hear voices and car doors. We thought oh great he ran right to these guys and they got him!!! I stayed at last blood as my buddy heads up to see where these guys are. He found nothing but when he started coming back down, he kicked him up again. There I stand watching my trophy run around this swamp up the ridge. Oh boy we got more tracking to do. So we regroup and decide that jake will run around the same side as the buck and I would go the opposite way to try to drive him toward one another. So as I sit in a deadfall waiting for him to show himself, he pops out of the brush and he was limping pretty good. He was getting just as worn out as we were. So I watch him bed down again and I just got down cause he was facing me. So here I sit, both legs asleep and everytime the wind picked up and made noise, I would then move inch by inch closer to the deer. Soon I was able to get behind a tree and stand up. Wind was perfect so he would not wind me. Pretty soon I look and there Jake is about 30-40 yards behind the deer. We had him cornered. I took one more shot and it deflected. He didn't move. Then Jake takes a shot right from behind him and by that point, I knew we had him. Finally 4 hrs later and about 2 miles through the Ripley Ridges.....we had this guy in our hands!!! ABSOLUTELY THE MOST MEMORABLE HUNT I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED!!!! Thanks to good team work and persistence, we got a nice deer down. UNREAL!!!!

[Coach1310]

Congrats on a great deer. Thanks for sharing. I would say it is a miracle for you to not have that deer run into another hunter!!!

[jltimm]

Great story! Congrats on the hard work paying off!

[icefishing21]

congrats on the deer! looks like you had a better hunt then we did.

[RogersMN]

studer - i hate you.

seriously - congrats! that's a great buck and to get it under those conditions should make it even more memorable for you. That was tough out there.

[frogtosser]

I had a nice first trip to ripley. I was up late Saturday night driving home from southern mn so I decided to sleep in on sunday and get there after light since I didnt have a spot to hunt anyway, having not hunted there before. So I get up at 7am and arrive at the gate around 8, sweet no line, start driving till I get the feeling to stop, get out, set up in a nice oak woods on a hill. Find a tree, get setup up with my climber about 17ft up.

By this time its 10:15 and I am ready to hunt in the wind and snow. I sit for about an hour and am getting some water out of my back pack when I turn around and there is a nice 8 pointer walking into me about 30yds away, I grab my bow and now he is 17yds and behind a tree, he looks up at me and then steps out so I send one at him. WHACK, I hit him alittle far back say in the rump, oh man what happened. I watched him limp off slowly as the arrow fell out of him and the blood was shooting out, thanks to a rage 2 blade. I sit there in confusion as to what happened and give him an hour as I didnt see anyone else in the area.

Its now 12:30 as I get down and go get my arrow, the broadhead is broken off and I look alittle and find good blood. I am hopeful I hit an artery, I follow the trail about 60yds and there he lays on his way down a hill all piled up. I look up the trail and see another stand about 70yds down the trail, but no one was in it. as I am gutting him out the guy who the stand belonged to came up behind me with his young daughter, they were done for the day coming back from lunch to get their stands. I had a nice chat and they were very nice and even helped me drag him out. I told him thanks a ton and he said "thats what hunting is all about", you know the kind of guy you hope to run into out in the field. I weighed him in around 3pm and then left for home, he was 146lbs, if I figure out how to post a pic I will, I think I will be back.

[CO1978]

I was waiting to read the story here!! Congrats again Matt!

[RogersMN]

frogtosser - i hate you too

Here's a bit of info about the hunt:

191 deer were killed the second hunt. the largest being a 230 pound 9 point.

325 were killed the first hunt.

[Bowfritz1474]

Well, we went to Ripley for the 3rd time and that must have been the charm (although last year I shot a doe). Both me and my buddy connected with old bruisers (not great spread but great mass). Since Pete, my buddy, does not have internet access, I will post his story as well.

Pete's Deer

On Sunday, with the rain/snow blowing sideways, we started looking for a spot to hunt. After stricking out at a few places we knew about (too many cars) we just chose and area that looked good and walked in. Me and a thrid person took deer trails and Pete continuted to walk. He found a nice trail area with rubs and scrapes and set up.

After a couple of hours, he saw a little 6 walk in - he did not want to shoot that one. A little while later, he looked up and saw a very nice deer about 40 yards away. The deer stopped in an area where he could draw and shoot over a deadfall (cleared the shooting lane before getting in the stand). He released and watched the arrow go in, but it looked a little low. The buck did not react, more like flinched, and started walking off wagging its tail.

Since he saw the arrow go in, he knew he hit it but after the no reaction, he started to worry that he might have just cut some hair on the belly. When he got down after 20 minutes, he walked over to where the deer had been standing only to see a blood trail a blind man could follow. He followed the deer for about 150 yards and when he crested a little hill, he saw someone stanidng over a really nice deer - the deer he just shot.

The guy standing there indicated he shot the deer but knew something was wrong when it fell over after his shot. Although we have all heard the stories about people fighting over who killed the deer, this was not the case. This new friend said "I just finished it off for you" and helped Pete drag and clean the deer. They took some pictures and off they went to fill their tags. Petes buck was a 212 lb 9 point.

Since Pete had filled his buck tag, I enlisted his help to find me a place (my morning place had no movement other than a small 10 pt that ran through as I was walking in). We went to another area and walked up a nice ridge to see some big scrapes, great trails and after getting my stand in the tree, 1 hunter in a tree about 50 yards away so we backed out!

Since that side was pretty busy, we crossed the road and walked through some thick stuff to find what looked like a nice area. As we were walking up, a big doe was standing on one of the ridges and just walked off (did not spook too bad) and did not give me a shot (which I am very happy for).

I found a tree for my climber and started getting it ready while Pete was starting to clear shooting lanes when he whispered for me get to ready - there was a deer coming. He saw the grey muzzle and then saw the white anlters coming down the opposite ridge. In the time it took me to see the deer, reach down grab my bow and nock an arrow, the deer had covered about 50 yards. I was trying to stay calm and not move too much, especially after I saw the white antlers.

When he walked behind a tree, I drew (according to Pete it was funny to watch me struggle to draw but the real story is the arrow fell into the rest and I was trying to fix it while I was drawing). After getting to full draw and the arrow on the rest properly, I found a spot where the deer was going to walk through, chose my 40 yd pin and released once I was sure of a good hit. When I released, the deer took a step and turned just slightly and my arrow hit back.

In the instant of the hit, I was not happy until I saw the blood shoot out after about 1 second (felt like forever). The deer flinched and stumbled and then hobbled off without the use of one of his back legs and the other not working too well. He walked about 30 yards and fell down, got up, walked another 10 feet and layed down. After a minute, Pete came over and said "I think it was already shot - there was hair missing and he was panting".

We heard something else coming behind it, and thinking it was a tracking hunter, we stood up only to hear more commotion (another deer). I could see the buck laying down and not knowing if it was dead already, I started a stalk to finish it off if it got up. When we got close, we could see he was down for good. I got over to him to see that I hit the femoral artery and broke his pelvis.

Looking at the patches of missing hair, you could see that he had been beat up pretty bad by something a little bigger - rats, could have waited and shot a bigger one... Mine was 198 lbs and with the tines broken on one side, would be considered a 6 but would have been a nice 8.

Pete's deer

http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/Album...88/t_=124173888

My deer

http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/Album...88/t_=124173888

Sorry for the long post...

[RogersMN]

dang bowfritz - i guess i hate you and your friend pete too

pete's buck was the second heaviest shot and yours was in a 3 way tie for 4th. consider yourselves blessed! (I got a list of the top 9 bucks emailed to me this morning. although pete's shows at 213 ). There were only 3 over 200 pounds.

[Bowfritz1474]

Thanks for the info - could you send me that list so I can print it out? e-mail at pjohnson1474 at yahoo com

[dustin85]

bowfritz, were you guys the 2 in the white van? We watched many of the dear come in to get weighed that evening. After not getting a shot at a NICE 8pt that was about 20 yds from me, I was pretty jealous of you guys that night. :-) Nice deer!

Dustin

[frogtosser]

I posted a pic of my buck on the last page if you guys want to check it out

[Bowfritz1474]

Dustin - yes we were in the white van. After unloading it about 5 times, we decided next year we go we are bring the trailer! We met some really nice guys up there - always willing to help.

Patrick

[CFD200]

Nice deer. Definitely better than what I saw. Dustin, I did not see your truck in line but I did see it on Minshaw. If anybody found a digital camera on the road on Sunday please let me know. The guy I was hunting with left it on the bumper or the back of his pick-up.

After this hunts' weather all I can do is look forward to the next hunt.

[dustin85]

cfd200-Do you normally hunt that area? We werent down there for very long, just hiked down that hill to the lake, and scouted around a bit since neither of us had checked that spot out before. It would be fun dragging a nice deer up that hill!

Dustin