Current State – MN Deer Management

Youbetcha wrote:

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

It’s at just under 73 K right now.
Curious how that stacks up compared to last year at this point.

https://www.echopress.com/sports/northland-outdoors/minnesota-opening-weekend-deer-harvest-down-13-from-2022#:~:text=Minnesota’s%20firearms%20deer%20season%20opened,year%20mean%2C%20DNR%20statistics%20show.”

Looks like it’s down all around from last year.

It’s the weather……

ganderpike wrote:

Echo the above^.

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.

poop, if we could get down to only shooting half a dozen antlerless deer in my chunk of 646, I’d be happy. That would mean we finally made a dent in the damn population and I wouldn’t be losing 20%+ of my crops to them.

We’ve consistently taken between 20 and 40 deer every year off about 500 acres for 25 years.

M F wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>ganderpike wrote:</div>
Echo the above^.

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.

poop, if we could get down to only shooting half a dozen antlerless deer in my chunk of 646, I’d be happy. That would mean we finally made a dent in the damn population and I wouldn’t be losing 20%+ of my crops to them.

We’ve consistently taken between 20 and 40 deer every year off about 500 acres for 25 years.

Well it sounds like you would be open to having some hunters come help with that?

and where would they fit? My group alone has 15-20 hunters depending on the year. Add in the bits of neighbors lands we share and it’s closer to 30-40 hunters on these lands.

The lands we hunt aren’t causing a population issue, it’s the rest of the private land that no one ever shoots more than their “trophy buck” that causes the issue.

Stats in my area are showing good numbers NE of 94 in areas that are two to three deer limits every year. In 213,239, and 240 we are at about half of last years harvest right now. 270 is a little less than half and 273 is at half right now. Seems like it’s right on track. I’m surprised because over Covid we had hunters everywhere. They were parked on the side of the highway and you could see them through the trees. Deer were running everywhere because of the amount of people in the woods with nice weather and nothing else to do.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/deer/management/statistics.html

Currently sitting at 88,000.

Currently at 125,600. Based on last year’s 3B season, muzzleloader, late archery and CWD hunt – and if harvest rate is the same, looks like we should end the year between 145,000 and 150,000 for a total harvest vs. last year’s 172,265 total harvest. Pretty significant drop overall and 4th drop overall year over year. Only one year in 24 years (2014) have we had less than 150,000 for a total harvest.

Wow. 6 pages on this topic. Think the only time I’ll have to read through all this is while I’m sitting in the deer stand.

Can’t even find a doe to shoot at my place north of Mille lacs. So has anyone commented yet on what effect last winters record snow fall had on the deer?

Mike W wrote:

Wow. 6 pages on this topic. Think the only time I’ll have to read through all this is while I’m sitting in the deer stand.

Can’t even find a doe to shoot at my place north of Mille lacs. So has anyone commented yet on what effect last winters record snow fall had on the deer?

Going to go out on a limb and say it probably didn’t help anything lol.

I know I know, nominate me for the PST all you want…

Mike W wrote:

Wow. 6 pages on this topic. Think the only time I’ll have to read through all this is while I’m sitting in the deer stand.

Can’t even find a doe to shoot at my place north of Mille lacs. So has anyone commented yet on what effect last winters record snow fall had on the deer?

My buddies quit hunting that area because of that very reason. 1 doe they would see between 5 guys.

Our group in 159 did ok this year, most of the guys saw less dear than normal. We did shoot 3 doe and 2 small bucks out of 7 guys. I personally only saw doe and had a chance to harvest several, went ahead an took a real nice size one for the freezer.

Area 155 harvest is down close to 50% so far this year. Surprised to hear the state harvest is only down 5%. Did someone just randomly pick that number?

I am going to say that additional harvest via crossbow is making a difference this season. Early in the season, the DNR had reported a 40% increase in harvest of deer during the archery season, presumably because everyone can now use one.

I would expect crossbow participation and harvest to continue to rise in the coming years too if it follows numbers similar after Wisconsin allowed them.

I’m trying to understand Mike W. Where you heard the state harvest is only down 5% YTD honestly. Total deer harvest is sitting at 125,579 according to the most current deer kill statistics on the DNR website. Are hunters going to harvest another 50,000 deer be the end of the hunting season? Past data doesn’t even say close.

181. we did not see many deer this year. we were lucky if we saw 1 per sit out of our 3-4 stands. each year has been getting notably worse the last 2-3 years

Using that number and that 80% of the yearly deer harvest is done that should put state wide numbers down roughly 17% this year. Area 155 will be down 40% roughly. Areas to the north of that look worse.

It was local news the other morning that reported the 5% drop in harvest rate. They did add that some parts of the state were at 7% decrease.

Mike W wrote:

It was local news the other morning that reported the 5% drop in harvest rate. They did add that some parts of the state were at 7% decrease.

I would guess they have access to total harvest by date from 2022 and are comparing it to the same dates. I would imagine this years end number will be drastically worse than last years.

Here’s an article that breaks down the Minnesota harvest by region for the first 9 days of firearms season.

https://www.fox9.com/news/minnesota-deer-hunting-fewer-deer-harvested-in-first-9-days

156 is currently sitting at roughly 50% of last year’s harvest, and it wasn’t like last year was exactly “off the hook”.

What I think you’re going to see quite a bit more of with the crossbow hunters is a decently higher number of does taken. The guys who historically only gun hunted in bucks only or lottery units now have the ability to harvest a doe with that crossbow where they couldn’t with a rifle. Is that going to be a significant change or a drop in the bucket? Meh, time will tell. But given what I’ve seen the past few years, killing more does isn’t going to do us any favors.

waldo9190 wrote:

156 is currently sitting at roughly 50% of last year’s harvest, and it wasn’t like last year was exactly “off the hook”.

What I think you’re going to see quite a bit more of with the crossbow hunters is a decently higher number of does taken. The guys who historically only gun hunted in bucks only or lottery units now have the ability to harvest a doe with that crossbow where they couldn’t with a rifle. Is that going to be a significant change or a drop in the bucket? Meh, time will tell. But given what I’ve seen the past few years, killing more does isn’t going to do us any favors.

There are definitely areas where an increased doe harvest is going to hurt populations. Crossbows do make it easier in theory, but there’s no longitudinal evidence to really tell what crossbows will do to hunter success/selection or doe harvest. There are some people I know who hunt with crossbows who still aren’t shooting anything that doesn’t get shoulder mounted. There are others who are out for meat.

For our local area along Pool 4, we need more does killed down here. I hate the concept of “earn-a-buck” when we went through that on our WI land in Buffalo County, but it’d probably help here to lower numbers in Wabasha County where we also hunt. According to Grouse’s link our harvest here is pretty typical so far.

Just to remind everyone, be careful of committing gross calculator abuse when comparing deer harvest numbers.

You can’t draw a straight line between reductions in harvest and use that % as “evidence” of a similar % decline in the population.

Because many areas went from “hunters choice” to bucks only or bucks only with limited antlerless permits, a harvest decline of XX% doesn’t mean the deer population is down by that same %. Since the harvestable population is roughly 50% lower in a bucks-only area, that is going to produce a big decline in the harvest regardless of the population size.

IMO the DNR may have learned a lesson from the disastrous “foot on the gas” years when they continued hunter’s choice designations and massive numbers of bonus tags in areas that were seeing an obvious plateau or decline in overall populations. And then they got burned by the harsh winters of 2012 and 2013 and the populations crashed due to the over-harvest combined with massive winter kill.

waldo9190 wrote:

The guys who historically only gun hunted in bucks only or lottery units now have the ability to harvest a doe with that crossbow where they couldn’t with a rifle.

I thought the bag limit and ability to harvest an antlerless deer was governed by the zone, not the weapon. If the zone is bucks only, its bucks only for everyone, regardless if that person is using archery, firearm, or muzzle loader, isn’t it?

beardly wrote:

I hunt 118 and 605. Both zones have far different different habitat…. Zone 118 has been on a significant downward trend for deer sightings and harvest the last 5 years. There has never really been alot of deer but we are now seeing more wolves or wolves sign than deer. This year was the worst year for us and many camps in the zone. Many of us hunt dusk to dawn and don’t see a deer over the week we are up there. Sometimes this is a normal occurrence for hunting but not for every person at multiple camps….

Zone 605 has been decimated with the CWD management. When I first moved here it was either sex with bucks having antler restrictions (had many nice bucks on cameras), then 2 deer, then about 3 years ago all restrictions were removed and you could kill as many as you wanted. The neighbors were having contests. Every small buck was shot. Now we are a 5 deer zone with no restrictions. The deer heard in the area is not even close to the same for numbers or caliber. Our closest cwd positive deer is well over 20 miles from us. Just a shame what happens in these cwd zones.

Even worse this year…

The neighbors are even complaining that there isn’t any deer around…. same ones who were shooting literally anything/everything. Weird.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>waldo9190 wrote:</div>
The guys who historically only gun hunted in bucks only or lottery units now have the ability to harvest a doe with that crossbow where they couldn’t with a rifle.

I thought the bag limit and ability to harvest an antlerless deer was governed by the zone, not the weapon. If the zone is bucks only, its bucks only for everyone, regardless if that person is using archery, firearm, or muzzle loader, isn’t it?

I think he is referring to lottery zones. With an archery tag you can harvest either sex. Bucks only is still bucks only for everyone.

beardly wrote:

Just a shame what happens in these cwd zones.

Agreed! Most of the CWD zones are because of captive deer too. Where we hunt its been a CWD zone for like 10 years or so from a captive deer. The rancher had the option to destroy his herd and then there would be no restrictions, but he chose not to and here we are. THen another of his deer tested positive and he had to destroy them anyway. To my knowledge no wild deer ever tested positive in our area.

Youbetcha wrote:

I think he is referring to lottery zones. With an archery tag you can harvest either sex. Bucks only is still bucks only for everyone.

Oh gotcha

Found this quite humorous – but can almost relate to MN too!!

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Hunters must be desperate here in SE MN. 3rd day in row need to go on Poachers Patrol on my road and chase poachers shining at dusk. Pretty pathetic scum actually. One group even had the balls to tell my son it wasn’t his property after he busted them and they had the balls (little I bet) to say, we are just eyeballing up for tomorrow “. In all my years I have never seen it this disgustingly bad.