Hotspotoutdoors

I hunted permit area 172 and the deer population to me is way down from recent years or the ten year average. Seen only a couple of deer and very few scrapes. Your area compared to other years was what?

282 was way down, but about 75% corn was still in the field.

178 seemed way down to me.

i also hunt 172 and it was way down.

180 seems down. Haven't seen any mature bucks during the day and only a few at night. I live and hunt in the zone and believe the numbers are down. This isn't a bad thing, because a few years ago we had so many deer that they were doing some pretty serious damage to the forest, especially plantations. I also am not ready to say the sky is falling on the deer herd, because we have had some unusually weird weather conditions this fall.

175, north of Chisholm. Fewest shots heard and deer seen since '97. We're 3/4 so far with just my wife hunting now.
Not many deer seen, but have taken advantage of the few opportunities we had.

hunt area 246, this was a great year for us, seen 14 deer out of 4 hunters in 2 1/2 days of hunting. I am not ready to say the population is up from last year or recent years because we only hunt a dot of land in the whole scheme of things.

Same for me. zone 342 Still plenty of deer out there.

We hunted 245.....and it was not anything to brag about! Out of 9 people in camp, only 1 deer was taken. My stand lead the way with the deer shot and 5 others seen. Pretty poor overall. I counted less than 10 shots from noon til dark on opening Saturday, very unusual.

On another note, I was reading the DNR website, and as of 13 Nov, they say the deer harvest is down 14% from last year, but overall buck harvest was only down 2% from last year.

Hunted 239, first year we have been in a lottery for many years and I saw more deer this year than the last two when it was a managed area. Who knows though, maybe we were just lucky this year, but we have tried to improve different areas in the woods for bedding and created a couple sanctuaries the last couple years too so maybe that has actually worked.

I have a cabin in zone 172. The pop is down, no doubt. The nasty weather during the time when fawns were born especially the snow two years ago has something to do with it.

215 was good. We shot lots, saw lots, and heard shooting all day long.

Another dismal report for 172 here. Worst season I've seen up there in the past 10 years.

Zone 213, went to a lottery zone this year. I thought the numbers were fairly good, are only reasons for our hunting parties lack of success was alot of corn standing, poor markmanship, and, a big change for our hunting party, we did not shoot anything that was brown. Hopefully, this will continue during the muzzle loader season. I wonder if we might now start to actually see some bucks with more then 6 points next year.

Area 107 is down and people around us didn't have much luck but we had a great year, 5 for 7. Four bucks 8 points and bigger along with one doe.

Zone 230 was very slow! But then again I would say 50% corn is still in. we saw 5 doe and one buck. We got the buck. I would say that alot of the deer in our area are in the corn and I think it is a good thing. Lots of signs that there are plenty of deer, so maybe it will help for next year or few more years to come. Not suck a bad thing inmy mind that few deer were shot. In my mind our area has been down for years and a slow year may have been what it needed to get a jump start for the next few years.

Also 107, my sighting were down by about 40%, very few deer shot in our area. It was pretty slow last year too, it might take a few years before things turn around.

area 184 way down itasca park way down

I hunted 244. I would say it was slightly better than last year. Down from the glory years but not as bad as I was expecting. We did see deer every day.

I should add that we also saw a huge increase in the number of scrapes and rubs. I think that's because the population is down and the bucks had to work for the ladies.

184 way down and very few scrapes or rubs, starting to feel like 96 and 97 all over again even the early 80's in Zone 4.

105 way down from our observations. We went 0-4, I can't ever remember that happening in our camp. I know it must have, but I don't rememeber it.

245 --very slow

213 was very slow for us, but the deer are still there. We saw them bowhunting, just didn't see much once gun season opened.

[quote=MUSKY18]We hunted 245.....and it was not anything to brag about! Out of 9 people in camp, only 1 deer was taken. My stand lead the way with the deer shot and 5 others seen. Pretty poor overall. I counted less than 10 shots from noon til dark on opening Saturday, very unusual.

Bret did you hunt the paul bunyan, along side of the refuge??