Ripley Hunt!

[MNBucKKiller]

We shouls all thank our lucky stars that he is not in the mno deer contest! 

your telling me... those 350 points would be hard to beat...

[HD]

From what I heard, they estimated it at a 5 1/2 year old buck.
That is a very nice looking deer! 

[Misky]

 Well for my first ever Ripley Hunt it lived up to the hype, a lot of deer and people!

The first day we got up there around 7:30 and were in by 8:10 and to the north end by 9:00.
I found a trail that no one was down yet and went on a ridge 200yds or so in and found a nice spot and set up.  1/2 hour in a nice big bodied 6pt came in on the edge of the ridge @ 44 yds I drew and let go...the arrow hit a Oak branch about 10yds in front of the deer. I got down and found my arrow about 2ft in front of the deer’s tracks. I was sick... I thought, Man I just blew my one opportunity at Ripley, boy was I wrong, just then my brother in-law called to tell me he had filled his bonus tag, and my buddy called and said he had seen 6 deer already so I was feeling a little better about seeing another deer, which I did. I saw a big buck up on the ridge quite a ways out, don’t know how big but I could see rack, BIG rack. I tried everything to bring him in but, no bingo. Later that day a 4pt came in with a button buck, so I thought do I fill my bonus tag or wait? I thought again, well we are here to help thin the heard so I took the button buck. Not the most glamorous but a deer none the less. He was nick named the Iron buck, I made a dubble lung shot and he still went over 150yds!

The next day was totally different! We got to the same spot early and found people everywhere! There was a guy hunting 15yds off the trail over my gut pile. I asked him if he minded me walking by to the next ridge, and he said no so off I went, I ran into 3 more of his group on the same trail, not even a deer trail, the trail I drug my deer. I backed out and called my brother in-law and he ran into the same thing so we decided to move. As I was walking out I tried to tell the one guy to move his stand where mine had been yesterday as all the deer I seen were running the same ridge (witch nobody was on) but he just said he liked where he was at which I replied "Well good luck!"
We drove around for 3 hours and every time we stopped and walked in we found people, people and more people. By the time I got on stand I only had about 3 hours to hunt and had 4 guys walk by me. 

I got both the good and the bad Ripley had to offer and have to say it was worth it, I had fun and seen a lot of deer,  Including a monster 10pt as we were driving out, and a little meet in the freezer.

[HUNTER2]

A guy at work said one of his hunting partners shot a 17 point that weighed 265 this last weekend at Ripply.

[Misky]

Ya The sign on sunday said it was 268lbs! I bet those guys had a few that night

[HD]

It's good that you enjoyed the experience Misky!

I've been there several times, and enjoyed the hunts with my friends. Just to many people for my liking.

[mnnate]

The 14pt from last weekend. 17pt. 265lb. 18 3/4 spread. 190 gross score. Wow I can't believe how big that body is. I guess it only has 14 legal points not 17. Still a heckuva deer

[Cody Gruchow]

that is a big boy

[dakids]

One word. "STUD"

[The General]

A couple things from a great trip.  I saw 3 of the biggest bucks in my life, never shot one but still fun to see.  Would have been nice if they graded the road where you drive in .  This was my first time using a climber stand.  I knew nothing about any of them.  A buddy of mine had a Lone Wolf that I borrowed.  I was hunting with a group of 6 guys and everyone had different kinds of climbers and they are all junk compared to the Lone Wolf (according to them).  These guys all tried the Lone Wolf stand and all wished they ponied up the cash in the first place to buy one.  So my advice is to mow a few more lawns and save the extra cash before you buy.