Current State – MN Deer Management

ganderpike wrote:

I feel the same way about bullheads as Bearcat feels about Gimruis. Id watch the Youtube series where they go fishing together.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>ganderpike wrote:</div>
I feel the same way about bullheads as Bearcat feels about Gimruis. Id watch the Youtube series where they go fishing together.

I have no idea what this even means.

I don’t mean to call you out on that or come off as rude. I was just pointing out what one says vs what one does

Bearcat89 wrote:

I was just pointing out what one says vs what one does

I understand. Maybe I misrepresented myself in one of the posts. I can’t figure out the youtube comment where we go fishing together for bullheads. Clear as mud…

You want more mature bucks you increase Herd size. To increase Herd size you reduce doe harvest. Land must have the holding power to increase Herd size.

You want the above and meat, shoot a small buck for meat.

a more realistic strategy to seeing more mature bucks is to become a better hunter and hunt where the mature are… I think most hunters are good at not seeing mature deer that reside within/near the property you hunt.

I got a buddy who is keeping tabs on several boones, camera and on site presence is one thing. Harvesting one is a completely different animal.

Folks think more walleyes in the sippi will make poor fisherman better fisherman… nope.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

You want more mature bucks you increase Herd size. To increase Herd size you reduce doe harvest. Land must have the holding power to increase Herd size.

You want the above and meat, shoot a small buck for meat.

a more realistic strategy to seeing more mature bucks is to become a better hunter and hunt where the mature are… I think most hunters are good at not seeing mature deer that reside within/near the property you hunt.

I got a buddy who is keeping tabs on several boones, camera and on site presence is one thing. Harvesting one is a completely different animal.

Folks think more walleyes in the sippi will make poor fisherman better fisherman… nope.

This is my thought process as well.

I was blessed last evening with the Smoke Pole.

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jimmysiewert wrote:

I was blessed last evening with the Smoke Pole.

I’ll say. Really nice buck. Tall antlers on that one. Congrats

nice one jimmy

dang……….thats a dandy!!!!!!!!

so…since this topic is about deer managment this looks like the place for this info.

I’ve aften been curious as to just how many anterless permits are filled, or not filled in our respected anterless permit areas. so i sent an email off to the DNR earlier today. got a response this afternoon, so besides all the bla bla about managing the herd this is what they told me!!!!!!

our group hunts in 2 seperate permit zones. 169 and 197, whhich is the leech lake reservation, and of course the DNR has
to share permits there!!!1

the past 2 years 169 issued 250 permits and 197 issued 500.
in 2021 175 adult females were harvested in 169 and 171 adult females in 197.

so far this year, 2022 with archery and muzzy still open the harvest of adult females in 169 is 173 as well in 197 was 173 also!!!!!

Was thinking about this today and 2022 total harvest ended up about 14,000 ish less than 2021.

And this winter is not only going to – but is taking a toll, especially north, on the already low population of deer. And after this rain we are getting here in the south today – when cold weather returns and freezes the snow rock hard – I am afraid it’s going to be difficult for many critters to scratch through for food.

But I will predict the 2023 DNR Response: “It was the weather”

Did you find any sheds Jimmy?
I didn’t find any.
I found this one though. Pretty recent. Not a mark on it so guessing just stressed from winter and maybe an old injury. His left side is a little wonky. I found a couple other dead ones too which tells me even here in SE MN winter is taking it’s toll.

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Schitty way to go. Can’t say I think shed hunting this early is very ethical.

ganderpike wrote:

Schitty way to go. Can’t say I think shed hunting this early is very ethical.

Depends. It was a warm day and I took the dog for a walk. I needed to get out too. I also pushed it towards a standing 40 acre corn field which just about every deer that was in my food plot has already moved over to the still available corn because they have eaten every last kernel of corn in mine.
The weather here is pretty mild right now. I wouldn’t do it if it was really cold and also, a lot of the snow shrunk with the higher temps and rain today.
A local farmer around here left a lot of corn in the field…always does but this year a lot still unpicked. I can’t wait to talk to him and see what kind of yield he got. The 3 – 40 acre patches all got hit hard by deer and every other corn eating critter. Guessing it saved a lot of wildlife in this area.

This is the 1st year in about 20 that I haven’t had at least a little corn left in the plot in March. This year it was gone as of last weekend.

Nature is going to take it it’s course regardless of me but if you choose your days and be smart about it, shouldn’t make a big difference.

Earlier in this thread, I said watch out for this winter. It is NOT going to be good on the wildlife. It started way too early and with a vengeance. That crap we had before Christmas and early January was bad. I noticed there were still people hunting in that stretch. Was that unethical too?

The farther north you go, I’m guessing it’ll be even worse.

This 1 died earlier. Wounded, stressed from rut, stressed from the early bad weather? who knows but it is dead.

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I did not find any as I am only hitting fields as I don’t want to push anything out and stress them. I will however send you a picture via text of my brother and a set of world class he found close by yesterday. Once in a lifetime find – although he is in the woods shed hunting probably more than anyone else!! I did see some in the woods driving and they do not look near as healthy as years past.

Deer must be able to smell corn a ways away. Havent seen any deer in my back yard like there normally is. I put a bag of corn out saturday evening, wasnt a track in sight. Less than half an hour later there was 4 deer eating it. I put the corn out for my chickens so im not spreading CWD. Thats my story and im sticking to it.

I walked out and removed cameras a few days ago. Tracks like no other but I didn’t seem to push anything luckily.

Anyone following deer harvest so far? I saw its only at 40k.

As the season is going, we could probably summarize it up into the same stories as every year:

1. Certain areas of the state don’t have “enough” deer. We can blame wolves, winter, DNR, and so on. There’s probably validity to some of the arguments but ultimately it is almost all out of hunters control.

2. Certain areas have too many deer and car kills, disease, crop damage is a major issue. This issue isn’t going to change either. Some of the large tracts of land that go without being hunted for decades and the copious amounts of ag land forage cause increased populations. In many areas tags are given out like parade candy and it doesn’t have much of an impact.

Almost every hunter who doesn’t see a deer will be upset. Some hunters who don’t see mature bucks will be upset. Some hunters will somehow be upset about what someone else legally harvested. Some hunters will just be happy to have been in the woods regardless of their success or other people’s success.

Feel Free to copy and paste it forward for next year’s MN Deer Management discussion.

I disagree it is all out of hunters control. Who you vote for and how loud we speak for change does matter!!

I have been driving the roads and talking to many hunters here in 342. Yes – there are pockets of deer but every person has said the same….TERRIBLE.

And the DNR said it’s the weather before the damn gun season even started!!!!!

I dont like this early anterless season one bit for adults. I get it for the kids having an early youth season, but the early anterless isnt necessary where I am at. I talked to so many people and they have yet to even see a doe. They have shot 5 bucks, but not one single doe has been seen. What is the DNR basing these decisions on because it isnt playing out in real life. If there are no does around then why is there an early season for them? Makes no sense.

I agree on the early antler-less season fully. Wait till after muzzy and if needed based on the kill to date – then implement at that time. I was on the SE MN Advisory Board years back. Their models included deer counts for example in the Frontenac State Park. Using that data in the models unfairly skew the majority of public and private areas in the surrounding areas.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I dont like this early anterless season one bit for adults.

jimmysiewert wrote:

I agree on the early antler-less season fully. Wait till after muzzy and if needed based on the kill to date – then implement at that time.

Bingo.

And… all state parks’ deer herds should be left out of overall deer population estimates.

It’s all about $$$.

Echo the above^.

I’ve been on some fun public hunts the last couple days, there is deer where the hunters aren’t typically looking.

However, I would say it seems to be a very slow season for most I know. The Pollocks I know in the New York Mills/Perham/DL area are all astounded by the lack of deer. Wolves, winter, you name it.

They didn’t have much of a response when I sent them their meat pole picture from last year they sent me then. 5 fawns, 2 yearlings and a fork.

Shooting half a dozen antlerless deer is bad no matter how you want to spin it. The 3 and 5 deer zones is appalling and shame on the resource managers for allowing it. MN is so poorly managed it is sad.

buckybadger wrote:

Certain areas of the state don’t have “enough” deer. We can blame wolves, winter, DNR, and so on. There’s probably validity to some of the arguments but ultimately it is almost all out of hunters control.

My zone is 1 buck only so I guess I’ll take wolves to complain about

ganderpike wrote:

Echo the above^.

I’ve been on some fun public hunts the last couple days, there is deer where the hunters aren’t typically looking.

However, I would say it seems to be a very slow season for most I know. The Pollocks I know in the New York Mills/Perham/DL area are all astounded by the lack of deer. Wolves, winter, you name it.

They didn’t have much of a response when I sent them their meat pole picture from last year they sent me then. 5 fawns, 2 yearlings and a fork.

Shooting half a dozen antlerless deer is bad no matter how you want to spin it. The 3 and 5 deer zones is appalling and shame on the resource managers for allowing it. MN is so poorly managed it is sad.

MN is definitely diverse in its deer population. I think it could probably be better managed in some areas, but it’s never going to be “ideal” for everyone.

My brother in law saw 19 last evening in his stand in 3 hours. It’s nothing to shine a spotlight out our front window on a 20 acre field and see 25 deer staring back. Our local county Sheriff mentioned last week that they’ve hit 7 deer with their squads this year already.

I think general hunting patterns have definitely changed over the years too. Just in my lifetime (almost 30 years deer hunting now), we’ve gone from a 10-12 man deer camp making drives regularly to no deer camp and nothing but stand hunting, just my Father and I. I think generally people used to walk more and sit less, whereas now everyone basically just sits. I think people are also a lot more selective on the deer they shoot. I know I am.

The addition of crossbow use during the archery season for the general population is certainly playing a role. It adds hunters during archery season that didn’t participate before, and that is added revenue in license sales.

I’ve never participated in the early antlerless or youth season. Neither one existed when I was younger.

I’ve been getting reports from customers and friends all over the state. As usual, deer numbers seen are all over the map.

A couple of factors that make this year different in many areas:

– In most of MN and Wisconsin, there was a HUGE acorn crop. On our farm it was like nothing I’ve ever seen, each oak produced bushels of acorns. And there were so many acorns that there are still plenty on the ground even last weekend. I’ve never seen an acorn crop last this long, usually even in a good year, they are all eaten up by mid-October. I’ve heard similar reports from all over in MN, WI, Iowa, Michigan, and IL.

– The weather has been very mild with the exception of last week almost everywhere.

With these 2 factors, I’d think there are many areas where the deer don’t have to move a lot because they have good access to acorns, water is plentiful, and the weather has been mild.

We saw very little deer movement on my farm this weekend, but the trail cams show that the deer are there, they just aren’t moving during the day or at normal feeding times, which to me says they are full almost all the time.

We’re getting increased buck movement and I’ve got some good pics of bucks sparring, but overall they don’t seem to in high rut gear yet.