For the most part another Minnesota deer season has passed for us. Trying to summarize this year is a tough one. Luckily we really enjoy spending time outdoors and weren't depending on a Minnesota whitetail to fill our freezer.
After sitting day after day and not even seeing does, fawns or small bucks to take pictures of, anyone can get discouraged. After hunting each day I would check with neighboring deer camps in the area and what hunters hadn't packed up and went home empty handed had not been seeing much.
Now some will argue that the rut wasn't on and I think it really started the second weekend but that doesn't explain not seeing sign or does and fawns. Now, this is just my experience hunting and I realize some hunters had great luck. But if you are in an area where you can shoot two deer and bordering an area that you can take three deer, you would expect to see something. And not even hearing gunshots like usual, something is up. So what's the explanation? Either they gave out bonus tags to make some extra money, or possibly raised the numbers so more hunters would think there was more chance of getting a deer, again to sell more licenses, or whoever was in charge of doing the deer count this year needs glasses. There might be other explanations but this is all I could think of. And I do apologize for being a little negative, but if you are trying to get new hunters and kids into the sport, sitting in a tree for days gets boring quick, especially for kids. Well let's see how muzzleloader season goes, I could be totally wrong. We will see.
JAMIE DIETMAN, What's Up Outdoors, may be reached at 218-820-7757.
