Stone, Camp Ripley is located in Morrison County. The nearest town is Little Falls. They have 2 seasons there and they are for 2 days each. The first season is during the second to last week in October, during the MEA school break, so it is on a Thursday and Friday. The second hunt is during the last weekend in October. This is the one that we usually go for because it is closer to the rut. It is a BOW ONLY hunt, no hanguns, rifles,or shotguns.
Ripley is a very large military sancuary, I believe it is listed at 144,000 acres. It is all open for hunting except for a few resticted areas. I truly think it is one the best places to harvest a trophy whitetail in Minnesota. They send out 2500 permits per hunt to the hunters that were successful in the lottery, but unly 1700 to 1800 of them actually show up and about a 1/4 them aren't around for the second day of the hunt. to say the least, the second afternoon is pretty quiet.
gruhotbigracks, how did you get a name like like that? Pretty cool, I like it! If you apply this year, don't be disappointed if you don't get drawn, a lot of times you have to apply twice to go. If you aren't drawn to go then you will be put on preference list and you will get to go the following year if you apply. A lot of time we only get to go every other year, once in a while we get 2 years in a row. So don't get discouraged and keep applying. Watch the DNR website for times you can apply. You can usually apply between July 1st till about the first week in August.
Good luck and hope this helped you some, just ask if you have other questions. Good Luck