Originally Posted by
sconnyhunter
What part of Zone 1 are you in? May I ask.
I hunt south of Grand Rapids, myself and we went 1 for 5 this year. But that's pretty good for us, given that we started out hunting EXCLUSIVELY public ground.
After we moved to some private land about 20 years ago. We started getting about 1 deer a year. Seeing maybe about 5 all year. Mostly because my dad refuses to leave the "farm". While I move around, all season long. I still hunt the farm, but I go to the local public land as well.
Deer MOVE AROUND.
That is what I have learned after 30 years of hunting.
Area 155 - a few miles south of Aitkin. It's only about 17 acres but it's been enough for two guys.
MN DNR says only about 37% of the tags are filled in any given year. That is the state wide
average.
In the 15 years I've owned the place we have always beat the state average. Like close to double that %.
I will say my plots were lousy this year. I put rye in a year ago August. Had good forage that fall. Rye came back up this spring, had a good crop. I had intended to bush hog it off and disc the seed back in this August but missed my "window" and the seed fell off and rotted. So not much forage to draw them in.
We still SAW deer though in years before I started plotting.
Dunno. As you know, the season started late this year too. Maybe that had something to do with it.