Would you prefer a later firearm season??

[Mayfly]

Every year it seems this debate comes up. What do you all think? I hear a lot of complaints that the firearm opener should be later in November similar to states like Wisconsin. The main argument being made is that we hunt during the prime of the rut when most bucks are most vunerable. By having a later season not as many bucks would be killed and over time it would improve the quality of deer in our state as far as bucks go.

Thoughts??

[jigglestick]

I would like to see the muzzle loader season come first.
then all the pansies would just say skip it and the woods would be a much safer place. fudd.gif

[Merimac]

I would.  I like grouse hunting and I love snow on opening day of deer season.

My 2 Pennies

[JohnWester]

I would like to see the muzzle loader season come first.
then all the pansies would just say skip it and the woods would be a much safer place. fudd.gif

what he said...

[Ryan]

If you have the season later that would also give the bucks a chance to breed before they are shot.  That could be good or bad depending on how you look at it.

[h2ofwlr]

I'd love to see it 2 weeks later for S MN and 1 week later for N MN.

[rssheik29]

I think that would help out our situation emensly.  Plus bow hunting sucked this year.  Seems like my bow hunting area becomes an entirely different area come the heat of the rut.  Didnt have a chance to see that this year and considering it gets POUNDED by slugsters, it never will be that way this year.

[Realtree]

I agree, at least a week if not two weeks later of a season for the southern half of the state and probably a week later start for the north woods would make an incredible difference in the deer hunt for Minnesota.

I normally hunt southern MN section 463 opening weekend and it has been crazy dead the past 5-6 years especially. We normally still get some nice deer, but it's not like back in the late 80's-early 90's as far as quality of deer goes.

I think there would be more good to pushing the season back a week or two into the month than bad. Some will say that giving the bucks more time to breed will increase populations too much, or that it makes the bucks an easier target when they are locked onto trailing a doe, but i don't think the populations in the state overall are really as high as they are proclaiming them to be recently either.

If we would see a huge population increase if the season was moved back, then you just allow more doe permits in the lottery areas or increase the total harvest numbers in the heavier populated areas or across the state in general to level the numbers out. I am not, and have never proclaimed to be a wildlife biologist by any means, but it seems to make sense to me.

Take a look at what neighboring states are doing with their hunting seasons and how they manage populations and you will see that MN may be falling well behind our neighbors in management philosophies...

[tripnchip]

When I started hunting the season ran for 9 days and took in thanksgiving weekend. At that time there were few deer down south and everbody traveled up nort to hunt, and I mean nort, not to Milacs. It was not uncomon to have a foot of snow on the ground for season or maybe it was 6 inches and my legs were a foot shorter. At any rate the big cry then and the reason for the season change was that guy's were not home for thanksgiving, it was to cold and there was to much snow on the ground. The other part of the cry was that the bucks were done rutting and huntters were complaining about not seeing enough of them.  We look at what other states do but forget to take into consideration that other states have different crops, the lay of the land is different, natural food is different, soil content is different. Within this state alone there are a lot of differences from one part of it to the other that can make a big difference in the way the herd could be managed. The DNR is working with a state not a farm of a few thousand acers that they can put feeders out on, plant certain crops in picked places and put stands up where they want them and then tell the costumer what deer to shoot. Anyway I think the season is just fine for up here.

[rssheik29]

well tripnchip, I certainly respect your opinion.  Im not sure whos reply or what you were referring to when you basically stated the whole visual Texas game farm hunt.  But our state differs drastically from one end to the other.  I agree with you on that but so does South Dakota and North Dakota.  I just know other states make it work in a way that serves both the wooded rough terrain as well as the open prairie terrain and dont know why our state cant. 

ps. I work for the government and know what kind of act of congress it takes to change something like this but it can happen.

[Hank]

One major thing that I have noticed in the past few years is the amount of people.I hunt down in 343 and when they changed the seasons around allowing you to take does during the buck season we lost a ton of hunting land. I used to see 10-20 times the deer I see now. I don't know if it's less deer in the areas we hunt,or the amount of people in the woods,either way I would just as soon see the seasons back the way they were. If people need to see monster bucks around then put a restriction on the size of the bucks taken.

[thunderpout]

Im all for anything that would get me more time to grouse hunt, being october is the big month, thats just four weekends/outings a year then the end of Nov. or Dec. if it dosent get too snowy.....     -thunderpout happy2.gif

[ScottPugh]

YES - Gives me more time to fish in October and early November.