CamoMan
Well-Known Member
Yikes! What part of MN?
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Minnesota Deer Hunting
- Thread starter Letemgrowitllshow
- Start date
Wadena area
tcmetrohunter
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2019
- Messages
- 447
Nice work!
followed the blood trail way back into some private land, but it started to get dark, and with that bear in the area i didnt dare continue to trail him in the dark.
the blood on the arrow is good, not brown but not bubbly pink either. im gonna go back in the morning and see if i can pick up the trail again. im just distraught right now
Letemgrowitllshow
Well-Known Member
Gotta do our part put there
MN_Bowhunter4
Well-Known Member
Any option for a blood tracking dog? You could check out United Blood Trackers if you don’t know someone personally.
Ive been there man. Keep you head up and stay positive. Keep us posted!
Trackers by State - United Blood Trackers
The closest tracking dog may be in an adjoining state. Also there are trackers working out of states that currently do not allow tracking dogs that are willing to travel to assist you in recovering your wounded animal so look there also.
www.unitedbloodtrackers.org
Depending which way from town there's a possibility you can get an over the counter tag for a no quota zone for bear... I think. You'd have to check the zone map for bear.
Iron_llama
Well-Known Member
That's mostly moose and bear country up there. There's a deer herd near Gunflint Lake that mostly eats the corn put out by cabin owners, but you won't see many deer a few portages in. I spent 9 years on the North Shore and in my experience the deer stay pretty close to Lake Superior, say 10-15 miles. You can get BWCA bear tags, which would be a unique hunt, but i wouldn't plan on seeing very many deer.
Ya I've seen bear, moose, and wolf up there but never any deer. I think I recall hearing the Wired2Hunt guy saying he wanted to hunt the BWCA so that's what put the idea in my head. Thanks.
Iron_llama
Well-Known Member
I don't want to pour water on your hopes, or talk you out of at least scouting for a trip. Most of my experience is in the Eastern part of the BWCA, Gunflint and Arrowhead Trails area. There might be more deer off the Sawbill, or the Fernberg. I know there are moose and bear by Finland and Isabella. I'd suggest some calls to outfitters to get started.
Every year or so I'd hear about a guy who would come to the Arrowhead to go into the woods and be Grizzly Addams, or ride out the apocalypse, or dodge his ex-wife and parole officer, or whatever. They came back out of the woods after a few days severely disappointed that there wasn't a deer, eagerly waiting to be poached, standing behind every tree, their mountain of brand-new gear filthy but unused.
Lots of neat animals, and excellent fishing, in the BDub. But in my experience a deer hunt there would be a very deliberate undertaking, requiring a lot of scouting and research. Good luck!
About 20 years ago I had doe walk into camp up on Fourtown. Only deer I saw on that trip though. Was much easier to live off of the fish and blueberries.
tcmetrohunter
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2019
- Messages
- 447
Out in the tree for the first time this year. Hoping something walks by in range!
Rjschatts
Member
I’ve seen a decent amount of deer during the summer up there while camping and off-roadies, always wanted to try and hunt but haven’t yet. Maybe this year maybe the year... they aren’t very densely populated in my experience though.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good morning Minnesota
My take is that it'd be one heck of an experience to do a BWCA deer hunt, and one where I would not expect to return with a punched tag.
BWCA is zone 117 and 118 I believe. Possibly parts of 126/131 (which stretch to lake superior) In the most recent population survey, 117 wasn't modeled and 118 was 5 deer per sq mile. 126/131 were 2-3. These are some of the lowest numbers in the state, and because of the wilderness nature, not artificially concentrated (the only other similarly low numbers are in e.g. flat ag country where there's no widespread cover but local pockets of deer. Unless you're following up e.g. a fire or something, there's not much to concentrate deer, and a great environment for moose, wolves, etc.
Not necessarily *that* different from e.g. zone 119 where I've hunted forever (8/square mile), but not a high-population or a population that's locally concentrated. I'd view it as an excuse to camp in the BWCA during that time period, and a way to hunt with minimal other hunters around, and view most any harvest that came out of it as a trophy.
My recollection is that Mark did the hunt, enjoyed the hell out of it, and didn't get a deer.