Well Thats a Wrap

Well the 2015 firearm season comes to a close for me. other than my sis shooting a spike after sitting for 15min we got nothing. My brother passed on another spike and I passed on the same fork 3 times. I had one encounter with a real nice 8 point but he walked passed the end of my shooting lane and wouldn’t give me an ethical shot. I hunted it hard sitting 12 out of the 16 day season. Even though I didn’t get anything it was still a fantastic season. I saw quite a few deer, a couple grouse, and the biggest rabbit I have ever seen! I saw it when I got in my stand and I said to myself who brought a propane tank out hear? It looked like a 20lbs propane tank. I was sitting there for another 5 min then it moved and I looked in my scope and sure enough it was a snowshoe that was already white.

Other highs of the season is I broke the 600 mark on treestand Yahtzee with a score of 615! I heard mixed reports of success. A few of my buddies shot some real hogs with the biggest a 175 6/8 Gross green score 165 7/8 net score 12 point. The Duluth hunt I heard was tough but some still shot some big 150 class bucks. Also a huge positive is that I didn’t hear of an accident.

Well on to next year and to ice fishing. I hope to see some of the deer I saw on trail cam come back they should blow up. Good job guys on a safe hunt and get those ice rods ready we are making ice in a hurry up hear!

We don’t have anywhere near the pressure (on our opening weekend) by us that we normally have. We saw tons of does/yearlings and a lot of 1.5 year old bucks. I pulled all of my trail cams and they all have pics of the mature bucks being nocturnal from 11-11-15 through yesterday. I got my buck by having a neighbor walk back to his truck at lunch. 2 bucks and 5 does ran up into my field and stopped to look back at him. Sometimes pressure is a good thing when it works in your favor, but I still prefer deer on their natural patterns.

From a lot of friends that I have spoke with (both MN and WI) , they are experiencing the same as me with a lot of night activity and just does during the day.

Another MN season in the books for me as well. As usual, I did not hunt as much as I wanted to due to work schedules.

Next year I hope to have my own cabin on my property, so hopefully I’ll be able to stay just a short walk from being on a stand.

Because we’ve changed the property dramatically over the past year, as I expected this was the proverbial “rebuilding year”. Our stands are in all the wrong places, of course. The good news coming out of this is that we have a better idea of where the right places might be.

Another discovery was the joys of the ground blind! Lord, it’s just soooooooo nice to sit in one of these things when it’s colder and especially when it’s windy. Position it right so the sun hits it and heats it a little, it’s just so pleasant to sit there and watch the food plots. Must get another one for next year!

Overall, it was a little discouraging because with the deer numbers coming back, so did the hunting pressure. Not surprising, but it was disappointing that the neighboring properties bagged two of the bucks I’d been watching on cameras and was hoping to get them through until next season. Oh well.

Next year I’ll again have doubled the amount of food plot I have planted and worked on a sanctuary area. Hopefully this will give us some increased holding power and keep the deer from traveling too far.

I thought a lot about it and I’m seriously thinking of taking up the bow for next season. I just find myself longing for the more undisturbed hunting and being able to get a crack at the deer before the whole countryside is painted in blaze orange.

But there’s no such thing as a bad season, I still enjoy getting out there. We have a good herd of does on the property so breeding has been very successful. Now was have 5 or 6 does of breeding age who live on the property or nearby, so next year we hopefully will put more fawns on the ground than we have in any of the 3 previous years.

Grouse

Although the gun season is over, the rest of the hunt is still to come. We had what I consider a very successful gun season taking 2 mature bucks. I am now anxiously awaiting the muzzy season and then I really enjoy the quiet woods of the late archery season. Fishing stuff will have to wait for me!!

Sounds like a great season!

I sat in the box blind last weekend in the hopes of curbing the predator numbers. It was not to be but my girls and I had a pretty decent sit on Saturday night. A couple more weeks and I’ll be full on in predator mode. Another great season in the books and I was lucky enough to fill my freezer this year.

I should really get a bow to extend my season. The downfall is the bucks don’t show up until about two three weeks before rifle season. I don’t understand why I think late season would be good though, but also it seems that when the snow falls we get about four days before the bucks leave. We need a way to get the bucks to winter hear and get here by early fall.

I had a good season. I did hunt by myself on state land just north of isle MN. Well there were other people hunting there, but not too crowded after opening weekend. I shot a nice 8 pointer on the Wednesday after opener. There was a small 5 pointer shot in the same woods 2 days earlier. Wither I get one or not, if the weather is good or bad, deer hunting is fun and I enjoy sitting in my stand watching all the goings on in the woods and swamps.

I enjoyed success in Manitoba and should have a good freezer load and I am looking forward to Muzzy hunting these next 3 weekends. Our rifle hunt by the cabin, didn’t fare too well, although a buddy of mines girlfriend harvested her first deer on the last saturday, a nice spike buck We all seen deer, just not the right one’s I guess. Who knows, maybe a late season bow hunt is in my future too

Puddlepounder, pm sent.