Special Report: Where’d the deer go? Hunter frustration grows in Minnesota Northwoods

[Nicoli7153]

I've spent quite a bit of time hunting the Seney refuge and I have never had a more desolate deer hunting experience anywhere - and I've hunted in 8 different counties in the UP in the past 10 years. A shadow of its former self, if you listen to the people who truly knew it in the 90s and earlier. I have been reading quite a bit of the literature on how wolves are more effective hunting off of roads and trails lately (I think inspired by another thread here), and that has 100% been corroborated by my experiences in the upper Midwest, but especially on the refuge. Wolves run the dyke roads that separate the pools while they split up and play the wind, and they can cover the entire 95,000 acre refuge in a matter of a few hours - if that. The roads are perfectly designed for efficient wolf travel, and they take advantage of it.

And the deer in most of northern parts of the UP yard up in the winter making them vulnerable. I would assume the same happens in Northern WI and MN.

 

[BrentD]

You guys don't seem to remember the winters of the 60s and 70s and what they did to MN deer numbers. There were only a few wolves back then. But of course, everyone blamed them, though not quite so much as they do today - then again, they didn't have the internet to whine with.

Somehow those deer populations exploded in the 80s and 90s even though the wolves did the same. Now the pendulum swings back again. Back and forth. So it goes.

 

[Nicoli7153]

You guys don't seem to remember the winters of the 60s and 70s and what they did to MN deer numbers. There were only a few wolves back then. But of course, everyone blamed them, though not quite so much as they do today - then again, they didn't have the internet to whine with.

Somehow those deer populations exploded in the 80s and 90s even though the wolves did the same. Now the pendulum swings back again. Back and forth. So it goes.

Yes, not much remains constant in nature (in the short term)

 

[NoWiser]

Anyone who started deer hunting in the early 2000’s in northern MN has a very unrealistic perspective of what the hunting “should” be like up there.

NE MN is one of the best places in the US to deer hunt. It’s also one of the worst places (and not because of wolves) in the US to kill a deer. I like it that way.

 

[BrentD]

Anyone who started deer hunting in the early 2000’s in northern MN has a very unrealistic perspective of what the hunting “should” be like up there.

NE MN is one of the best places in the US to deer hunt. It’s also one of the worst places (and not because of wolves) in the US to kill a deer. I like it that way.

Could not say it better.

 

[SAJ-99]

I wonder if the wolves are using bait piles the same way the hunters are?

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

I wonder if the wolves are using bait piles the same way the hunters are?

baiting is illegal in MN, but I hear they use the snowmobile trails....

 

[SAJ-99]

baiting is illegal in MN, but I hear they use the snowmobile trails....

Yes, I have heard that they use those trails to cover a lot of ground. I know baiting is common in UP. If it works for one hunter it probably works for the other.

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Yes, I have heard that they use those trails to cover a lot of ground. I know baiting is common in UP. If it works for one hunter it probably works for the other.

Anytime I walk the logging roads near my place I see wolf tracks and scat.

 

[cheeser]

I wonder if the wolves are using bait piles the same way the hunters are?

yes they are and they do, big reason I don't bait for deer. I did draw a bear tag this year and I got video and pics of wolves pulling logs off bear baits to get to the sweets I had, many other bear hunters had the same thing happening. This was a first for many bear hunters. There was also a fair share of bears taken at the bait piles.

 

[SAJ-99]

yes they are and they do, big reason I don't bait for deer. I did draw a bear tag this year and I got video and pics of wolves pulling logs off bear baits to get to the sweets I had, many other bear hunters had the same thing happening. This was a first for many bear hunters. There was also a fair share of bears taken at the bait piles.

Interesting. Never thought they would actually eat the stuff, although who doesn’t have a sweet tooth? I was more thinking they would use it as an ambush point given the deer keep coming back to it (grain bait that is, not sweets for bears).