I’d hate to ruin a guys deer hunt, and most years is the past I’ve stayed away and opted to bow hunt Wisconsin. (which I’ll do again this year) I debated grouse hunting this year instead, as Ive been really happy with the numbers Ive been finding. That said, we bird and deer hunt west of floodwood and there really aren’t many deer to hunt, in our immediate area, and fewer guys seem to be hunting them (no one will even be at our camp on opener this year) so I think with the use of some
judgement on the covers I hit, I dont think It would be an issue.

I have been feeding 3-4 hunting dogs for the last 20 plus years, switched to kirkland (purple bag) chicken, rice and vegetable, about 10 years ago, $37 ish bag- (40lbs I think)… there are certainly better foods out there but Im very happy with it from a cost/benefit standpoint.

In addition to the bead I also add a quick change weight snap which I think buffers bead and allows for weight adjustments

We love our dogs.. I get it, I have 3 with one on the way. For MY dogs who are hunters and family dogs (in that order) and 2 kids to send to college.. NO way do I put that money into a 9 year old dog- especially with the probability of the other needing to be done. Many 3 legged dogs do just fine. Id obviously follow vets’ advice but sounds like there is a good chance it can live reasonably w/o surgery. Just figured Id throw out a different opinion. Skewer away!

Always appreciate other’s updates- so here’s mine. Made a run down to Red wing yesterday, put-in at bay point and fished mostly from everts up to the damn. Decent amount of guys for a Wednesday but not crazy. Not fast and furious but enough to keep me interested, and fill the box. Mostly smaller saugers but several 18-20’s with a few walleyes mixed in with a couple in the low 20’s but nothing bigger. Minimal current and clarity was good(for the river), a healthy wind actually pushed boats upriver so boat control was a challenge. We did best with as vertical an approach as possible. fat-heads worked better than plastics for us and the fish we caught were generally deeper (16-26fow) and pretty spread out. I heard bigger fish were still closer to the head of Pepin which makes sense and I meant to head that way after filling the box but ended up staying upriver and just enjoyed being out.

Minnetonka is going fast, Grays bay and St Albans Bay are 100% ice free, Excelsior bay also (thanks to the ice breaker boats). Main body still has ice but some big gaps along shore in many areas

I love to read- lots of great options already mentioned- cj box, William kent Kruger, and Peter hathaway Capstick for sure.
Bigwerm brought up Shadow Divers which is excellent- same author (Robert Carson)he also wrote Pirate Hunters. Ship of Gold by Gary Kinder is another excellent read in that vein.
couple of my all time favorites not mentioned yet -The power of one and Shantaram

Gimruis- I can constantly kill at 50 plus. The loads certainly have the power beyond that but my pattern starts to wash out beyond 55 where its not a sure thing. A different choke may be able produce better long range results, but Im more than happy with 50. The only drawback Ive had is the number of pellets which at longer ranges are more likely to put some in the body- which directly resulted in some dental work (crown) 2 years ago…..those #9 are a lot harder to track down in the meat than a #5

I switched to the tss a couple years ago- In my SBE2 I use the same after market turkey choke (the jelly tube I think) and it patterned really well- dont even mess w/ the #7’s, use the #9’s, the pattern density is insane. Just picked up a 410 and patterned the tss#9 and a field load lead 7.5 in the extra full factory tube. The lead pattern was pretty so/so and spread out at 30yards (40ish ” circle) while the tss was really tight like a basketball at 30. My personal view is its awesome in the 410 or other sub gauges but not needed in a 12 other than to really extend your range

not sure why pic didn’t attach…..

I more of a lurker than a contributor but especially appreciate seeing everybody’s dogs- Here are mine. Norman the pudelpoinetr is 3, Archie is 10 and auggie is 1- we are all ready for fall!

Fished the gravel on the south side, Thursday afternoon/eve. Very little wind and full sun. Found a few but it was slow. They picked up closer to sunset and we ended up catching a decent number but most were small (like 6-12″) only 4 fish were over 16. Friday am moved out to the mud. we had a little breeze and bit of haze so pretty good conditions. Fishing was tough! only managed 2 in about 4 hours, but the one was 26″. the few fish I did see caught were all guys fishing off their live scope. Made me a bit jealous as I haven’t bit that bullet yet…. It was great to get out and the bugs were not bad (I was a little nervous from what id been hearing) the fish were there but tough to get to bite. On the way in I stopped and casted around some eastside rocks for about an hour with plastics and a slab rap for smallies- caught several-nothing huge, and a couple small eyes.

Thanks Guys! Very Much appreciate the input. I’ll report back what I find.

Count me ready also- one bright spot is with relatively little ice we may at least get an earlier ice out…I’m hopeful anyway.

Love my B&W- 2″ and 2 5/16″ combo, stays on truck 24/7 but
can fold up under truck to take away the the “shin issue” when not in use and can handle all of my trailers from heavy enclosed tool trailers to light duck boats/utilities.

I was out there Thurs-Sun. In the Aberdeen area. Private ground. First trip of the year. I was anticipating better numbers after hearing reports. We did fine-I would say about the same as last year(which I was happy with) but not significantly better. My father-in -law hunted the same area in late October and was very pleased with birds he saw, he definitely thought there were significantly less birds around at Thanksgiving. They had a brutal ice storm a few weeks back and Im curious if that knocked some out- I did find several spots where a bird had clearly died but not an overly large number and that isn’t uncommon no matter what. Thankfully the warm-up gave the area and cover a reset. I will say the Cattails are as thick as I’ve ever seen then-and Im a die hard Cattail hunter. Absolutely brutal in them. The Sand lake hunt is mostly cattails- I can’t say about other areas of the refuge but they did a large CRP burn on the South end so its literally only cattails on the south end. There are birds in there but you will earn them! Frankly 95% of guys (and their dogs) won’t/can’t work that hard- just want people realistic about the style of hunting that’s out there.

Im in Wayzata and I’ll take them. Not sure how to PM. Matt