General public land question
Minnesota
I'm collecting general data across America about public land deer hunting.
In the last ten years, have sightings of mature bucks increased or decreased?
Do hunters in your state hunt for meat or antlers?
Would you say the overall genetics of your mature bucks have gotten better or worse on public land?
Has the pressure on public land in your state for deer increased or decreased over the last ten years?
What could your state do to make deer hunting public land better?
I would echo many of the comments left on the Wisconsin thread pertaining to this question. Wolves in the northern region continue to go unchecked and are impacting the herds quite a bit. During the bow season public lands are fairly busy (especially around the twin cities). I believe bow hunters in general are more likely to hold out for the mature deer. Again, echoing what was said in the Wisconsin forum, the gun season can often feel like the wild west. People everywhere, and definitely more of a "brown its down" mentality.
I think if people wanted to see an increase in mature deer sightings we need to enforce the antler point restrictions again. Forcing people to pass the yearlings and shooting more does to fill the freezer instead.
The biggest gripe I have though is that the gun season is during the peak rut time. I think a later gun season similar to Wisconsin's would be more beneficial not just to the herd but to bow hunters that ultimately miss out on the rut action due to competing with the orange army. I doubt that will change as I know many hunters that do both Wisconsin and Minnesota Gun seasons. I'm sure they wouldn't want to risk missing out on license sales. Especially, NR sales.
I moved from MI to MN in 1991 and have been hunting public land for most of the years since I moved here. I've seen no change on the public lands where I hunt. It is an act of God to see a mature buck. No way you'd know about how genetics have changed. Once the orange army combines the public land, what you see the next fall are yearling bucks, fawns and some does. I usually go on a week long out of state public land hunt and I usually end up seeing more mature bucks in that week than I've seen in my career hunting in MN. And MN is better than MI.
I'm collecting general data across America about public land deer hunting. In the last ten years, have sightings of mature bucks increased or decreased? No change.
Do hunters in your state hunt for meat or antlers? Bow hunters are more likely to hunt for antlers. Gun hunters on public land shoot what they see.
Would you say the overall genetics of your mature bucks have gotten better or worse on public land? No way to know but I would assume no change.
Has the pressure on public land in your state for deer increased or decreased over the last ten years? No change for bowhunting. Gun hunting has increased locally due to fewer deer up north and increased gun seasons (early antlerless seasons).
What could your state do to make deer hunting public land better? Manage public land differently and more conservatively than private lands. Also, I agree that APR would help, but that would take legislative action outside of SE MN.
Move to Mn in 06 from Wi 33 yrs living there. Primary hunt above Hwy 1 of northern Mn., low hunting pressure from hunting Wi. Central forrest area and will not go back now to hunt Wi. either with the x-bow factor that is impacting the public. We deal with the wolf up north but still have a higher % of taking a decent buck. the weather actor can be a problem also but deal with it.
I hunted on the east central edge of Mn for five years. I saw one eight point, probably 115” ( on camera but never saw him in person) and a few does, small bucks and a few yearlings. The area gets hammered with rifles. This was private ground. I quit hunting there and only hunt in metro cull hunt in Mn. Years ago, I hunted public land here. I hunt other states but have pretty much written of Mn for deer hunting. The main thing I would change here if I was king, would be to move the gun opener to Thanksgiving time frame.
