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.