Anybody from Federal Dam area? Wife's aunt and uncle own a cabin up there. Looking to do a DIY bear hunt in a couple years. Any advice would be appreciated.
finally got a couple of cams up last week and this week, my bowhunting will be limited this year as i want to focus on bird hunting with the dog since we are getting down to his last few prime years. I'll be hunting all public land around Baxter. cant wait to see whats on the cams next week! jsteph- the federal dam area has unlimited amounts of public land as you probably already know, i love that area, great mixture of swamps, I would think you'll be able to spread out and get away from other baiters given the large tracts of land
Well I worry every year and once again this year as well get closer to fall I gain more does, getting pictures of a doe with twins recently, up to 8-10 breeding age does coming to the camera each night. Also learned that this year it is a single tag year, seems like every other year they offer more than 1 tag.
BTW; the DNR just released the deer map http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/deer/map.html the areas I'll be hunting is all hunters choice; my rifle zone is a 2 deer limit this year which I have uneasy feelings about, the area doesnt seem to have enough deer as is
I was surprised I did notice lower deer numbers this spring and early fawning like to think the DNR's survey was accurate vs if they just do an every other year thing. I do have my best years when I only get to shoot 1 arrow per season.
Desperately seeking.......I hate to do this but do any of you from around central MN (Clear Lake, Zimmerman area) have any leads on private land for myself and my daughter to hunt. I've been banging on doors the past 2 weeks with no luck. I'm 59 and my daughter is 24. We're not troughy hunters, mainly meat hunters looking to shoot a deer or 2 to fill the freezers. I've done the public land stuff in the area and I'm done with the uncertainty of that.
Hey Marco, I have no leads, but another option is you could look into WIA's near you as those seem to be overlooked and harder to find. although, come pheasant season, it may get pounded. Or, you could find out who the landowner is of that WIA and see if they own other land that just wasnt enrolled into the program and they may allow you to hunt a different chunk of land
Jmnhunter, Thanks for the info. But I've wasted too much time on public land. I'll skip the hunting season before I venture back out on public land.
Why? Like seriously, why? Public really isn't that bad if you're in the right area. Maybe it's just packed in your current area, but I can tell you for a fact there are a couple places NE of you a ways where the pressure is very low. My family shared a camp for well over 30 years that was about 2,000 acres of public, and only about a dozen of us total. Each of us had a large area all too ourselves. I've moved on, and so has my family to hunt other areas and other states, but I'd gladly point you out in the right direction.
For sure, alot of great land out there, I'm assuming Marco wants something close to run to after work during the week and such?
Well, he was asking about the Zimmerman area, so assuming that's his home area, the place I'm talking about is only about 45 minutes away from him. It's just another option that is not only a safe place, but also a very large tract of land.
What kind of activity have people around the state been seeing? I've actually been getting daylight activity on cameras from nice bucks. Earlier than I typically do around here.
Been seeing a ton of does and fawns with a few young bucks mixed in. Saw a nice 4 year old on the 17th but no mature bucks since. My cameras seem to have more daylight pics than usual though... Tomorrow should be good! pressure will be almost 30.4!
doe/fawn activity in the oaks; plan on checking some cams tomorrow after a good 1 month soak. I f'd up on a yearling doe the other night
Only sat one night so far and didn't see anything. Cameras haven't been checked for a couple weeks but the last time I did the activity completely died.
SE MN here, hunt private land east of Plainview. Started to get some nice bucks on cam in early September, haven't checked cams in three weeks now, excited to see if they are still hanging around or if some new ones show up.
