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My killing predicament

Loopwing said:
You guys have some very understanding wives. If I go 2 weekends without a deer. I start getting comments and looks when I talk about hunting again. Let alone if I tell her I passed on a deer. She made the comment last year "I can never ever remember you grilling up a set of antlers."

Also you said one area you are allowed one buck, but the area you live in you are allowed 3? So if you shoot the one in the one deer area, that means your whole season is over???
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In MN you are allowed one buck, period, statewide. Depending on where you hunt you can shoot variable numbers of does.
 
Loopwing said:
You guys have some very understanding wives. If I go 2 weekends without a deer. I start getting comments and looks when I talk about hunting again. Let alone if I tell her I passed on a deer. She made the comment last year "I can never ever remember you grilling up a set of antlers."

Also you said one area you are allowed one buck, but the area you live in you are allowed 3? So if you shoot the one in the one deer area, that means your whole season is over???
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I'm aloud 1 buck state wide. I can shoot 3 deer in my area, but if I shoot a buck up north, then I can't shoot a buck in my home area (or anywhere else)
 
I feel your pain. I passed on a spike and a few does early on and now I'm regretting it. I have an empty freezer and a family that consumes three to four deer a season. The last deer I killed with a compound was five years ago. I shot a small 7 point and 10 minutes later a much bigger buck stepped out. MO only allows one buck before gun season.
 
MN_Bowhunter4 said:
The good thing about high pressure WMA is you don’t have to worry about bungling a spot or saving your best spot. Someone else is there to do that for you! You can just hunt. I find the archery pressure to be alright. Gun is intolerable.

Definitely check out MBRB. Not sure why the person you knew discouraged you from it, but I think it’s pretty cool. I’ve seen really nice bucks every year I’ve done it.
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Yep, you have to categorize the advice you get online based upon what that particular person is talking about.

High pressure WMAs, I think you are best to hunt them aggressively during the early season. Staying 200 yards from a bedding area and being super worried about intrusion (playing it safe) won't get you as much. Best to play your play with the best chance of success regardless of if it will hurt future opportunities. Then just move onto the next one and rinse and repeat.
 
I think you meant to post this in the no shame thread.

I think what you meant to say is “I consider myself a trophy deer hunter. But I got so tired of nature observance, I shot a younger smaller buck. I feel really good inside because of it. But I’m ashamed to tell people I didn’t kill a “mature” deer.”

I think we all meant to say “good.”
 
Don't take this the wrong way but.....

Hunting should be fun. Shoot what will make you happy and maybe ignore all the "let em grow" guys. They've been hunting much longer and probably shot their share of dinks.

I hate seeing guys who shoot young bucks complaining about never seeing big ones. And I hate seeing guys passing on small bucks complaining about getting skunked.

You learn from every kill. Shoot a dink... there are plenty of deer and they make more every year.
 
Nutterbuster said:
That sounds like hell, and one of the reasons I'm opposed to managing a herd for trophies at the state level.
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I don't feel like MN manages for trophies really. feels more like manage for population and limited harvest in the North and trophies in portions of the south (APRs and more liberal doe quotas).
 
mattsteg said:
I don't feel like MN manages for trophies really. feels more like manage for population and limited harvest in the North and trophies in portions of the south (APRs and more liberal doe quotas).
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I missed the 3 doe limit. That definitely sounds more like population control.

But I have a buddy from Minnesota and he makes it sound like there are deer everywhere up there, and has pics of tanks. Must be a regional thing.
 
Nutterbuster said:
I missed the 3 doe limit. That definitely sounds more like population control.

But I have a buddy from Minnesota and he makes it sound like there are deer everywhere up there, and has pics of tanks. Must be a regional thing.
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There are a lot of deer in some areas, much lower numbers in others. In the SE with largely mixed ag/forest numbers are high and you get a lot of tanks. If you get up North and NE, there's essentially no ag and mostly mixed forest (aspen, spruce, pine, ash and cedar in the swamps, a few maples, no oaks or other mast trees), with deer feeding on browse and the only real concentrated food sources would be cutovers. It gets cold - the herd up there is still recovering from several harsh winters with a lot of winterkill - and the wolf population has rebounded/spiked.

The southern part of the state doesn't have those concerns.

The local hunting tradition is generally a 16 day/3 weekend firearm assault with copious hunting camps, legal cross-tagging, and last year a 22% success rate (for the permit area my parents live).

I'm less selective hunting up there (I pass deer primarily to keep hunting), especially if I can talk a cousin into tagging my deer.

Beautiful country, home, and has held more deer in the past.
 
You guys have eased my mind. I grew up rifle hunting private land. My dad preached wall hangers only, so naturally I thought that killing small bucks was bad. I didn't kill a buck the first 4 years I hunted because we were "trophy hunters". I killed a basket rack 6 point finally in when I was 15 because I was tired of not being able to shoot it unless it was a "wall hanger".

I think I've gotten stuck in that mindset again, but this time I'm bow hunting public land. I need to quit looking at the rack and just kill what gets me all jazzed up. Like @dlist777 said, hunting should be fun.

Might have to change my username tho ...
 
Letemgrowitllshow said:
You guys have eased my mind. I grew up rifle hunting private land. My dad preached wall hangers only, so naturally I thought that killing small bucks was bad. I didn't kill a buck the first 4 years I hunted because we were "trophy hunters". I killed a basket rack 6 point finally in when I was 15 because I was tired of not being able to shoot it unless it was a "wall hanger".

I think I've gotten stuck in that mindset again, but this time I'm bow hunting public land. I need to quit looking at the rack and just kill what gets me all jazzed up. Like @dlist777 said, hunting should be fun.

Might have to change my username tho ...
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Trophy hunt if you want the trophy, or as an excuse to hunt more. But shoot whatever gets you jazzed. Hunt what you want.
 
Letemgrowitllshow said:
You guys have eased my mind. I grew up rifle hunting private land. My dad preached wall hangers only, so naturally I thought that killing small bucks was bad. I didn't kill a buck the first 4 years I hunted because we were "trophy hunters". I killed a basket rack 6 point finally in when I was 15 because I was tired of not being able to shoot it unless it was a "wall hanger".

I think I've gotten stuck in that mindset again, but this time I'm bow hunting public land. I need to quit looking at the rack and just kill what gets me all jazzed up. Like @dlist777 said, hunting should be fun.

Might have to change my username tho ...
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OP mentioned my roadto20. It's not just wanton killing. I'm a firm believer that most hunters, myself included, don't have enough deer under their belt to be good at picking the shooting window, post shot analysis, recovery and tracking, and butchering.

In the past 2 years I've killed 16 deer. Before that I had killed about 20 in roughly as many years. 27 yo me is leaps and bounds a better hunter than 25 yo me because I gave myself the opportunity to learn those skills. I'm calmer under pressure and I have a lot more faith in myself as a deer locator, killer, and recoverer.

And, in 3 years I've gone from being lucky to get a buck a year, to hitting my 3 buck limit, to hitting it in archery season and kicking myself. Most likely I'll be much more selective on bucks in the future because I've proven to myself that I can be.

You can't skip steps. You gotta learn to find them before you can learn to kill them, and you gotta learn to kill deer in general before you can learn to kill big ones. That's my take on it anyway. It's gonna take some folks longer than others mainly due to available free time and state regs, but you gotta lay the foundations.

Kill some deers. Kill 'em til it's still fun but you don't get the rattles. By then I'm willing to bet you'll be onto some nice bucks.
 
Shoot whatever is legal, excites you, and gives you an easy, ethical shot opportunity.

For years, I passed on tons of smaller bucks because I wanted to shoot a giant. The long dry spells started to mess with my head and made me question why I was even out there.

Now I shoot the first decent buck that provides an easy shot opportunity. I enjoy my time afield 10x more than I used to. This is also partly due to my discovery of the saddle 4 years ago.

Carrying a 20+ lb climber in and out everytime and coming home unsuccessful started to wear on me. I would be burnt out and spiteful halfway through the season.

Now I wear my saddle in, strap my hybrid stick/platform to my pack, hunt better locations, see more deer, and rappel down when I'm done. Even if I don't get anything, I still have fun because climbing and rapelling makes it feel like an adventure each time.
 
Here is my solution to this problem if you aren't willing to shoot smaller bucks: fill your doe tags. It looks like you get 3 and thats a lot of practice and meat every year if you are putting them down. I usually get a chance to shoot a buck each year, but those does can still get my teeth a chatterin. Just plain fun to hunt them down and get on them.
 
Being another MN hunter I think the one buck limit is a bit silly. But it sounds like you're filling the freezer with does so you're getting plenty of meat. If you shoot two does and then you're hunting the rest of the season looking for a booner but don't find one personally I think you succeeded. Especially because if it gets near the end of the season you can shoot another doe or a small buck and fill that last either sex tag.

In regards to the MBRB this is my first year at it. I participated in one of the hunts already this year and met some cool ass dudes. I got skunked due to my own lack of skills in picking a spot but still had fun. I can't wait to get out and try again next month at the second hunt. Basically you can count me in for the MN Cull Hunters Association.
 
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