Minnesota Deer Hunt

[Bowhuntrben]

I can't wait til tomorrow! With recently getting married, my hunting time has gone down significantly this year. I've gotten out bowhunting a few times this year, but I missed out going to Colorado for elk, and I am having to live through everybody's stories on here to try to cover that "need". I finally get to go hunting for a week starting tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able contribute some entertainment to this site when I return!

On the positive side (if there is one) to not getting out to Colorado, I am able to at least start my research for next year's elk hunt....

Good luck to the other MN folks getting out there this weekend! (Good luck to everybody else too!)

 

[Cammy]

I have 2 brothers and uncle and cousin in the North woods of Minnesota right now. Kind of a somber deer camp as they are spreading some of my Dad's ashes. My dad will join 2 of his brothers who are "spread" at the family deer camp. I hope they have a lot of fun and fill their tags as well.

 

[GSP4EVER]

With my work schedule, I won't be heading to camp until Sunday afternoon. I am in the southern part of the state heading to Otter Tail County, so hunting Sunday is out. We have 80 acres of family land. I let my uncle, dad and his buddy and his "step son" have the "80". I head across the road to the big public land. Most of the people that hunt the area are from the Twin Cities metro area and head home Sunday. So I should have 1100 acres of public land to myself. If I do run into anyone, they are local. I shoot more deer on the public than the 4 people combined on our "80". This year I am taking a co-worker for his second deer hunt. He wants to sit in a stand and wait. Nothing wrong with that, but not how I do it. I am forcing him to tag along after a morning sit on a spot and stalk. Which is how I get 95% of my deer. My goal is to get him one. If need be, Ill go either muzzleloader season or SE 3B season. I am looking forward to getting up there. I didn't bow hunt this year again. The river bottom land I hunt (Federal Public land) someone bagged a huge 14 point a few days ago.Good luck to you guys this weekend. Lets see some pics.

 

[MN Public Hunter]

Good luck tomorrow ! I had a 120ish buck wind me Wednesday at 3:45 and I will out all day tomorrow. Let's hope he brings his larger buddy with him this weekend

 

[recon6036]

Ben, I have no doubt we'll be seeing a pic of you next to a great buck soon! Can't wait for the report.

 

[pointingdogsrule]

Good luck. Things are SLOW here in northeast Iowa. At least today (Saturday). 8 doe and no buck behind them. What's going on??

good luck to all
the dog

 

[cornfed]

Good luck guys. I loaned my slug gun to a coworker to take to Minnesota. Maybe someday I'll get to take it up there myself.

 

[StrutNut]

I was bow hunting in WI all week. We decided NOT to hunt this weekend in MN as this weather is just too warm. Decided to rifle hunt in WI instead. I know as of right now the rest of the crew has yet to shoot a shot in MN. This warm weather isnt helping with deer movement. I only seen a couple of small rubs and no scrapes at all in the week I was in WI. Very slow deer activity. I talked to my buddies in SE MN as they were also bow hunting all week and none of them had a shot at anything descent. We are also going to hunt MN with blackpowder to try to catch better legal shooting light activity.

 

[streamer]

opener for central MN was pretty good alot of nice bucks taken and they were moving even with the warm weather. I took a nice 8 on saturday and was 6ft from a dandy 10 in a corn field 4 days before season No bow on me, i do believe he was killed on sunday 150+

 

[jvanderlinde]

Central MN area also for me and had some great deer movement, seen lots of deer with a nice one spotted and a decent one taken.

 

[JohnCushman]

I'll be up in St Paul the first weekend of December..I hope there's as much hunting as there is drinking

 

[StrutNut]

I liked St, Paul better than Minneapolis. Enjoy your trip here! I might be able to get together for a happy hour during the week if you have time. It would be fun to meet you. Typically by Friday night I am off to some part of the woods chasing deer.

 

[pointingdogsrule]

I'll be up in St Paul the first weekend of December..I hope there's as much hunting as there is drinking

John: If you like to eat as much as I do then make sure you hit Cossettas (ITALIAN). A cafeteria type menu

9. Cossetta's can safely be called a downtown St. Paul institution, where you're fed for a song, there's abundant romance and sense of place (and cannoli!), and where the Lady and the Tramp meets Minnesota Historical Society décor (push aside the faux prosciuttos some night and look at those black-and-white photos)--and where, finally, you're never, ever disappointed by the forthright Southern Italian-American cuisine. Sausage and peppers or Veal parmigiana, anyone? And with a $10 million expansion in the works, it's only going to get bigger and better. Upcoming additions are rumored to include outdoor seating, an expanded menu, an on-site bakery, and a possible wine cellar. This is your one-stop Italian shop.

211 W. 7th St., St. Paul; 651.222.3476 Website

good luck to all and sorry for hijacking this thread in the name of FOOD.

the dog

 

[MN Public Hunter]

John: If you like to eat as much as I do then make sure you hit Cossettas (ITALIAN). A cafeteria type menu

9. Cossetta's can safely be called a downtown St. Paul institution, where you're fed for a song, there's abundant romance and sense of place (and cannoli!), and where the Lady and the Tramp meets Minnesota Historical Society décor (push aside the faux prosciuttos some night and look at those black-and-white photos)--and where, finally, you're never, ever disappointed by the forthright Southern Italian-American cuisine. Sausage and peppers or Veal parmigiana, anyone? And with a $10 million expansion in the works, it's only going to get bigger and better. Upcoming additions are rumored to include outdoor seating, an expanded menu, an on-site bakery, and a possible wine cellar. This is your one-stop Italian shop.

211 W. 7th St., St. Paul; 651.222.3476 Website

good luck to all and sorry for hijacking this thread in the name of FOOD.

the dog

John,

FYI - Gasthof Zur Gemutlichkeit was sold, no good German food for you ! There are a couple more places, but IMO not as good as this place was.

 

[GSP4EVER]

We did pretty good. My co-worker I took with me shot his first ever deer a little over an hour after hitting the woods. I took him to my spot on public land. Had two does coming in and he ended up shooting a yearling. He could only see one. Thought he missed when he seen the tail of the second (and much bigger) as she was leaving. I think he had tunnel vision on the first deer he saw.

Fir the first time while I was in the woods, I had a buck come into my doe pee I put out. I didn't notice him until something spooked him and he took off. I had it placed about 80 yards from me. The next morning I wouldn't have noticed him again at the scrape/doe pee if he wouldn't have grunted on his way in. So I took a pretty decent buck. And by decent I mean good sized body on him. I ended up with 90 pounds of meat after deboning him. His antlers had been broken off sometime during the year. I should have taken a picture of it. Then my "step brother" got him self a good sized 4 point. Still two tags to fill, but my dad and his buddy are going back for this weekend. Lots of deer taken in this area the first few days and some pretty nice ones. Which is good for a change. The last 5-6 years have been pretty slow in this area.

 

[NoWiser]

The last few years I've canoed into an area in NE MN to hunt, but the deer population crashed so much that we decided to give it a year or two break. I don't mind hunting in a low density deer area but when you hunt 3 days in a fresh snow and don't cross a single track, it's tough to keep the spirits up.

So, I ended up hunting with the old crew up in the Leech Lake area. It was crawling with deer up there, even with the warm weather. Every single person in our party of 10 saw deer from their stands, and most saw 6+ deer. Having no time to scout, I threw up my stand next to a random swamp the evening before opener. I ended up seeing 8 deer by noon and shot a small 8 pointer. Our group of 10 received 0 doe permits so it was the year of the small buck. We ended up going 5 for 10. It was great to be out in the woods. With the low doe permit numbers if we have a mild winter, the deer population is going to be nuts next year in that area.

 

[StrutNut]

We gotta get preds in control before anything will come back. We let a trapper into our small crp in southern MN. in 2 weeks he has taken out 13 yotes and there is still plenty of them there he said. He as coming back in after the gun season to thin them out even more. We only have 20 acres of CRP but we are next to another 100 on the neighbors. He finally got into there too and got another 2 before the deer season hit. Thats a lot of 24/7 pressure that was on our deer out there. In WI we had a wolf show up on trail cam just outside of Turtle Lake and often here packs of yotes running at sunset. Mild winters will help but we need to thin out preds too. I will second earlier comments about Cossettas - awesome place. Too bad that pasta bar on the other end of downtown closed. That was also really good.