What about northern MN herd?

I dont deer hunt in Mn but I do grouse hunt and it seems to me the Mn numbers are right there with Wi but the Mn DNR just hasnt seen the spotlight yet. Can some northern (and elsewhere) Mn hunters share their observations?

Personally, the last two years I have seen less deer up North and I was really bummed out and in the dumps about it and could not figure out why. I was maybe thinking the same thing, as the DNR did put us in a Lottery Unit this year, so lower deer population could be the cause. To top it off My plots did not grow that good this year and we did not see many deer at all and I could not figure out why. However, I found out during the last week of the season, the neighbor had put in a huge Clover field and has been seeing some real nice deer. So that gave me some inspiration and it is time to up my food plots. Time to make that tractor earn its keep this Summer.

So it may not be population as much as perhaps others (neighbors) being proactive and “upping” their game. Like what I believe had happened to me.

Just something else to think about.

I know in Central Minnesota for what ever reason the deer #’s seem to be falling more and more each year. Everyone seems to have a different idea as to why ( Over harvest, Wolves, Disease, Ect. ) However the one common comment from everyone I know is that there are many fewer deer. I just hope the DNR either starts to listen to the hunters or starts to see for themselfs that the deer #’s are not as high as they think in some area’s.

I get told every weekend to “watch out for deer!” on my way to Bemidji (like I wouldnt be watching, should be telling me to “watch the road”). Needless to say, I have seen very few. Most of the time, I am lucky to see 1 north of HWY 10.I was excited to get a half dozen bucks and half dozen does on my camera’s this summer but it turned into the same deer every single time. One decent buck and he died 2 day into rifle season by the neighbor.

I hunt area 154 and we went from Intensive harvest 2 years ago (5 deer) to a lottery area the last 2 years. I seen 5 different deer total in 3 weekends of rifle Going to area 222 this weekend, it is intensive harvest, so we will see

I hunt 209 which has been Intensive Harvest the last 5 or so years and also participated in early doe. 2 does in early season, 4 does in intensive harvest, 1 buck = 7 deer. Had the worst season in my 24 years of deer hunting. Time for a change.

In far northern MN we are seeing A LOT less deer and A LOT more wolves and wolf sign. This seems to be the general consensus in our neck of the woods…if we have another hard winter I can’t imagine how tough hunting will be for quite a few years down the road.

Did I mention we need to be shooting WOLVES in MN? They hunt them in Montana, which has roughly 1/5 as many wolves statewide as we do. I don’t know how hunting the prey and leaving the predators alone figures into good management techniques