2023 Trail Cam Pics

The bucks I have been watching have seemed to vanish. Haven’t seen them since I last posted.

Bearcat89 wrote:

The bucks I have been watching have seemed to vanish. Haven’t seen them since I last posted.

I think the acorns have a lot of deer sitting in the timber instead of coming out to the fields where we can see them. I know all my cameras have slowed down, and when the bucks do come out it’s way later at night.

Bearcat89 wrote:

The bucks I have been watching have seemed to vanish. Haven’t seen them since I last posted.

It’s that time of year.
Food or water.
Everything is getting ripe. Acorns falling, apples, corn, nuts and berries. They will move closer to a food or water source. They’ll be back or maybe have only moved a short distance.
They need water in the heat we had. They moved closer to water on me last year. This year, I dug a couple holes and have tubs out all filled with water. The cams on the watering holes are really busy!

I have noticed the velvet is coming off and some already have hard bone. The bucks are sparring a little.

Buddy had a visitor in his backyard in Eagan!

Dayum!

What a hog!

Would he let a guy hang a stand on his fence post?

Awesome deer BigWerm! I have a friend in Eagan that occasionally sends a pic of a giant in his backyard as well. I’ve wondered what would go into getting one of the special permits from the police.

Bucks on the farm are still bunched up, and almost every one shed its velvet over the last few days. Season is getting close!

Big Werm – that is a shooter!
Prob the pics but look at the left eye and left leg.
Hurt?
Dunno but I hope you hunt there and get him!
Trophy!

hillhiker wrote:

I’ve wondered what would go into getting one of the special permits from the police.

As far as I know they (the DNR, not police control it) don’t do depredation permits for deer. I’ve looked into it a little bit, and a very select few cities have city hunts. You have to apply, take a proficiency test with your bow, and hunt the certain approved weekends. I think the majority of suburbs either do nothing or pay sharp shooters to come in in January to thin the herd. Seems like that would be a good opportunity for MDHA or MN Bow Hunters group to try and grow the amount and frequency of city hunts. The DNR could help out as well, by opening up bow hunting in more areas they control as well. Pretty low priority though, so they would need someone pushing for it.

BigWerm wrote:

I’ve looked into it a little bit, and a very select few cities have city hunts. You have to apply, take a proficiency test with your bow, and hunt the certain approved weekends. I think the majority of suburbs either do nothing or pay sharp shooters to come in in January to thin the herd. Seems like that would be a good opportunity for MDHA or MN Bow Hunters group to try and grow the amount and frequency of city hunts.

I have a friend who has participated in these special city or suburb hunts for years now. Its exactly how you posted. He has to pass a marksmanship certification (sometimes every year) to participate. Some of the special hunts are lottery-drawn. Some of them do not allow the harvest of a buck either, they are antlerless deer only and no limit. He’s piled up 5 anterless deer in 30 minutes before. They are all donated to a food shelf that the city or suburb organizes ahead of time. Sometimes he is hunting right in a city park and people walk past within range of his stand walking their dog and they have no idea he’s there.

Last year he drew a permit to hunt in the city of Shorewood and arrowed a massive 8 pointer that he sent me a photo of. I don’t have the photo anymore, but I posted it in the 2022 Live from the Tree thread.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
I’ve looked into it a little bit, and a very select few cities have city hunts. You have to apply, take a proficiency test with your bow, and hunt the certain approved weekends. I think the majority of suburbs either do nothing or pay sharp shooters to come in in January to thin the herd. Seems like that would be a good opportunity for MDHA or MN Bow Hunters group to try and grow the amount and frequency of city hunts.

I have a friend who has participated in these special city or suburb hunts for years now. Its exactly how you posted. He has to pass a marksmanship certification (every year) to participate. Some of the special hunts are lottery-drawn. Some of them do not allow the harvest of a buck either, they are antlerless deer only and no limit. He’s piled up 5 anterless deer in 30 minutes before. They are all donated to a food shelf that the city or suburb organizes ahead of time. Sometimes he is hunting right in a city park and people walk past within range of his stand walking their dog and they have no idea he’s there.

Last year he drew a permit to hunt in the city of Shorewood and arrowed a massive 8 pointer that he sent me a photo of. I don’t have the photo anymore, but I posted it in the 2022 Live from the Tree thread.

I took my proficiency paper and target test a few weeks ago. Like you said it’s only a few cities that allow for it and all shots have to be within 20 yards. It’s also a permit to hunt those special hunts as well.
When I made the mistake to buy my old house in Chanhassen, we had 2 huge bucks that visited my property often, and no one was ever allowed to target them.

Dang. All the horns on my property don’t add up to that rack.

1st year for my food plot and I think the deer are trying to eat every last thing that is planted. looked like 4 different bucks in it last night and a few does.

gimruis wrote:

I don’t have the photo anymore, but I posted it in the 2022 Live from the Tree thread.

I just went back and looked, it’s on page 11 and that thing was a tank!

Well first trail cam actually taking pics was a decent success, had this decent 10, a spike and some does/fawns. Only 1 set of pics of the bigger one, so I moved the cam closer to where I think he’s bedding.

I found that city buck he shot last November. It was a big 7 pointer. He thinks one point broke off.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>hillhiker wrote:</div>
I’ve wondered what would go into getting one of the special permits from the police.

As far as I know they (the DNR, not police control it) don’t do depredation permits for deer. I’ve looked into it a little bit, and a very select few cities have city hunts. You have to apply, take a proficiency test with your bow, and hunt the certain approved weekends. I think the majority of suburbs either do nothing or pay sharp shooters to come in in January to thin the herd. Seems like that would be a good opportunity for MDHA or MN Bow Hunters group to try and grow the amount and frequency of city hunts. The DNR could help out as well, by opening up bow hunting in more areas they control as well. Pretty low priority though, so they would need someone pushing for it.

I know how most of the metro hunts work, but wasn’t sure if it was handled differently in Eagan. On the city website it says the police can be contacted for a special permit. Many other cities either flat out say no or they link you to one of the metro hunt groups like you mentioned.

hillhiker wrote:

I know how most of the metro hunts work, but wasn’t sure if it was handled differently in Eagan. On the city website it says the police can be contacted for a special permit.

Oh that is interesting, I’ll have a chat with my buddy. I asked him if his neighbors would be cool with removing that nuisance deer? I offered to do it for free for them, as first time clients! (just joking of course)

I will say the cities that do manage their own hunting often times have open and closed areas, a minimum number of acres with permission, different setbacks from houses, roads and driveways etc. I imagine finding permission that meets all the requirments would be one of the hardest parts. I’ve been slowly looking into metro hunting over the last few years. At some point I’m going to jump in with both feet and start knocking on doors.

These 2 guys were hanging out all morning from 3 am to 630 when a pack of yotes ran them out. I’ll be irradicating the yotes if I find them . Been seeing them every morning lately

Those would work BC good luck!

BigWerm wrote:

Well first trail cam actually taking pics was a decent success, had this decent 10, a spike and some does/fawns. Only 1 set of pics of the bigger one, so I moved the cam closer to where I think he’s bedding.

Moved the camera a few hundred yards to where I was pretty confident the bigger buck was bedding, and only pics in the week were of yotes.

Pulled a card today on one of my public land spots after my first morning sit. Damn, it was hot! This guy showed up two days ago, the picture quality is poor, he came running through, but I think he looks like a good one.

Corn coming down and this guy showed up last night.

Here is a pic from my camera in NW MN today.
DT

Just north of Mille lacs last weekend.

Photos from the food plot have dropped way off thos week. Not a single photo tonight yet. Couple weeks ago some nights was over 200 photos.

Potential shooter showed up this morning. I would like to see how wide he is.
DT

Here is a comparison of one I shot and had mounted in 2020. The 2020 deer is on the left.
DT

deertracker wrote:

Potential shooter showed up this morning. I would like to see how wide he is.
DT

He looks HEAVY and pretty swolled up too.

Here is one that needs 1 to 2 more years.
DT