My First Public Land Buck - MN

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nater
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My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby nater » Thu Dec 18, 2014 3:57 pm

This was my first year hunting Minnesota after moving from Indiana last year. I may summarize my season sometime this winter, but here are the brief details regarding my first MN and first public land deer.

Last Tuesday I hunted a new WMA that is in the process of being converted to prairie. It's a large property split by a small river valley where I'm told 100-200 deer will herd up during hard winters. We're not yet having a hard winter but I thought I might get lucky and catch some deer that either moved in early or never get pushed out during slug season. My first sit was from the ground in the northwest area of the aerial (the spot I sat Tuesday is not marked). I saw a doe and a fawn in the cut beans walking out that night but no other deer. However, I did follow a four-finger buck track that made me think there was a solid deer in the area. Hunter pressure appeared light based on bootprints in the snow--I saw dog prints with every human print, suggesting that only bird hunters had been there since Muzzleloader season.

Thursday I returned with the goal of sitting downwind of the largest/nastiest bedding area on the north side of the river. The area inside the river bend has been cut over by beavers and has the normal floodplain detritus of logs/sticks/etc. everywhere. I picked the straightest cottonwood I could find and quietly climbed about 15 ft up in my climber for an evening hunt.

Around 4:50 a small buck walked SE from his bed right along the river. I saw him at 30 yards and shot him at 20 with my muzzleloader. No real drama, just a straightforward setup and a long,3-hour trek going back and forth to my car to get my cart and haul the deer out over firebreaks, lightly drifted snow, and the crop field that will be filled with grass next year. I was just lucky that the cart held together despite having 3 cotter pins pop off during the haul out.

Success! It was late that night by the time I got back home and I wanted to skin the deer while it was still warm, so we completely spaced the hero shot.

This is the 11th deer I've killed in 5 years of hunting but I'm probably proudest of this one. The others were all on prime private land with friends to help and driveable lanes for retrieving deer. I worked a lot harder for this one and did it all on my own. I honestly couldn't care less that he's a tiny little 1.5 year old!

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Last edited by nater on Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.


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Milk Weed Seed
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby Milk Weed Seed » Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:05 pm

8-)
[glow=red]Happiness is only a gut pile away[/glow]
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby john1984 » Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:08 pm

Sweet

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Longbow
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby Longbow » Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:09 pm

Nice job!

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PK_
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby PK_ » Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:27 pm

Awesome man, congrats.

2 things about the cart, 1)Bring it most of the way into the woods with you 2)Wrap some electrical tape around the ends of those cotter pins!
No Shortcuts. No Excuses. No Regrets.
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby AttackMode » Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:28 pm

:clap: :clap:
I just kill mtn bucks
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby dan » Thu Dec 18, 2014 10:15 pm

8-)
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby U.P. bownut » Thu Dec 18, 2014 10:52 pm

Cool man and good job!
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby Bigdaddy-yoyo » Thu Dec 18, 2014 11:13 pm

:clap: :clap: 8-)
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby Jeff G » Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:59 am

:D :clap: :dance:
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Jackson Marsh
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Fri Dec 19, 2014 2:01 am

Nice!!

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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby JROD157 » Fri Dec 19, 2014 2:21 am

Hard work is rewarding! Nice job!
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headgear
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby headgear » Fri Dec 19, 2014 2:50 am

Congrats!
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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby Motivated » Sat Dec 20, 2014 2:15 pm

Congratulations! Great work!

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Re: My First Public Land Buck - MN

Unread postby bigwoodsmn » Sat Dec 20, 2014 2:22 pm

Nice job Nater!

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