November 9, 2007 - TOP STORIES
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Strong harvest during Camp Ripley bow hunts
Crack shot CO spares trophy buck
Stillwater high school students tag deer to monitor movement
Facts About Minnesota Deer Season
Governor shut out on opener
Minnesota tradition of Governor’s Deer Opener started four years ago
Photos in the November 9 issue on newsstands now!
HIBBING, Minn. (AP) – Thousands of hunters hit the woods Saturday for the state’s deer hunting opener.
At least one came up empty.
Gov. Pawlenty says his group didn’t even see a deer during a four-hour stint in the woods Saturday morning. Pawlenty hosted the annual Gov.’s Deer Opener in the Hibbing area last weekend.
Despite his tough luck, Pawlenty says it was still a worthwhile trip because the sky was clear, the air was fresh and it was a good day to be outside.
Pawlenty says he sensed a strong turnout among the state’s hunters and expects a banner weekend. He says 70 percent of the deer killed in season are taken in the first four days.
Pawlenty hasn’t had much luck during the annual opener, and he joked that it might be because he shares a deer stand with his brother, who talks too much.
But Pawlenty also has missed some opportunities on past openers. In one case, he let a doe and some fawns walk by his stand hoping a buck would follow. That buck never came, according to Mark Johnson of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association.
“I have to get a deer this year. We got skunked last year and didn’t even see one,” Pawlenty said before a dinner on Friday evening, which featured about 120 people including legislators, officials from the Department of Natural Resources, members of the Deer Hunters Association and the general public.
“But this is a great Minnesota tradition and something that we started four years ago and it has been wonderful,” he added.
Pawlenty, speaking at the dinner, said the idea behind the Governor’s Deer Opener, was to promote hunting and the outdoors in Minnesota and to highlight the economic impact hunting has on the state.
“We miss something as a people and miss something as a society, if citizens disconnect from nature,” Pawlenty said, adding that the governor’s opener promotes a healthy outlook and outdoors stewardship.
The governor also said deer hunting helps Minnesota’s economy, particularly in rural areas.
Johnson said each hunter spends $1,000 to $1,500 per year on related expenses. “If you times that by the number of hunters, it’s a half a billion dollar intake for businesses,” Johnson said.
Strong harvest during Camp Ripley bow hunts
DNR News
Archery hunters enjoyed excellent hunting weather and another successful two-day hunt on Oct. 26-27, at the Camp Ripley Military Reservation near Little Falls
Archers harvested 245 deer during the hunt (compared with 243 last year), and took six bucks weighing near or more than 200 pounds. There were 231 deer taken during the Oct. 18-19 hunt, for a total of 476 deer harvested during the two weekend hunts.
“Due to poor weather conditions during the first hunt, this represents a 7 percent decrease from last year’s record take of 514 deer, but is similar to the third best take ever in 2005 of 477 deer,” said Beau Liddell, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Little Falls area wildlife manager.
A total of 5,014 permits were issued for both two-day hunts, with 4,296 hunters participating. Hunter success over both hunts was slightly more than 11 percent, identical to last year and about 3 percent higher than the long-term average of 8 percent. This year, for the fourth year running, hunters at Camp Ripley were allowed to take up to two deer and use bonus permits to increase harvest of antlerless deer.
“We’re very pleased with the results the past two years,” Liddell said. “Although Camp Ripley bow hunters have historically been very selective for bucks, we saw a high proportion of does and fawns taken this year.”
In the end, the proportion of deer taken at Camp Ripley that were antlerless was identical to last year and much higher than the long-term average (53 percent) with about 68 percent of this year’s harvest comprised of does or fawns.
The largest buck taken during the Oct. 26-27 hunt was also the largest deer taken over both hunts. It weighed 255 pounds and was taken by Matt Losen of New Market.
Other hunters who harvested large bucks were: Scott Schlangen, Richmond, 212 pounds; Ron Scegura, Avon, 201 pounds; James Halupczok, St. Cloud, 197 pounds; Ken Paulson, Savage, 195 pounds; and Alan Gilson, Fort Ripley, 191 pounds. Steven Opatz of Avon harvested the largest doe, weighing in at 117 pounds.
The archery hunt at Camp Ripley is an annual event. The DNR coordinates the hunt with the Department of Military Affairs, which manages the 53,000-acre reservation.
Crack shot CO spares trophy buck
See photo on our Reader Pics Page this week!
DNR News
When Minnesota DNR Enforcement’s pistol team enters competition, they can count on Conservation Officer Greg Oldakowski of Wadena for both his accuracy and focus on the firing line. The burly former Marine was among the CO team that took first place for the fifth consecutive year in a multi-state pistol competition earlier this fall. Officer Oldakowski recently used his shooting skills in another trophy situation where the prize thankfully got away.
While working north of Wadena recently he received a call of two large bucks with locked horns.
One of the large bucks, a 10-pointer weighing about 180 pounds, was already dead. A 14-pointer that weighed probably over 200 pounds was dragging his dead sparring partner out of some cattails.
“He still had plenty of fight left in him when I arrived so there was no way he was going to let me get close enough to free the dead deer,” Oldakowski said. “He was throwing the 10-pointer around like it was a rag doll.”
Because of the strength and agility left in the 14-pointer, Oldakowski made the decision to attempt to shoot the tines off the dead animal to free the live buck.
Using his .40 caliber pistol, Oldakowski closed within 15 feet of the deer before blasting off one tine of the dead deer. A couple of other shots missed their mark.
Using his .40 caliber pistol, Oldakowski closed within 15 feet of the deer before blasting off one tine of the dead deer. A couple of other shots missed their mark.
“The 14-pointer was trashing around quite a bit by this time; when I got another clear shot I fired breaking off a second tine of the dead deer,” Oldakowski said.
Finally free, the 14-pointer ran away unharmed except for maybe some ringing in his ears, but with no broken antler points. Oldakowski said it was one of the biggest deer he’s ever seen.
“With the firearm deer opener about to begin I really wanted to save him,” Oldakowski said. “I thought it was worth a shot.”
Stillwater high school students tag deer to monitor movement
By Elliot Mann, Stillwater Gazette
OAK PARK HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) – Stillwater Area High School senior Bryce Rosenbower crouched down next to an unconscious deer, put a stethoscope on the animal’s chest and recorded its heartbeat.
“It was cool. You could hear her breathing and her heart rate was going really slow,” Rosenbower said. “(At home) they come up really close, but I’ve never been able to be that close.”
As part of science teacher Andy Weaver’s advanced placement biology and field biology classes, students tagged a live deer at the high school’s Environmental Learning Center recently in hopes of tracking its whereabouts and determining the animal’s range.
The female whitetail deer, caught in a live trap along with a young fawn, was given anesthetics by naturalists from the Forest Lake-based Wildlife Science Center. While the animals were sedated, students listened to their breathing and also took their temperatures before fitting the doe with a radio-transmitter, looped around her neck.
The two deer were tranquilized for nearly a half-an-hour before the naturalists gave them the antagonistic drug, which reversed the anesthesia. In two or three minutes, Weaver said the deer awoke, albeit groggily, and went on their way.
“Now the real work begins,” Weaver said, and the students will monitor the deer’s movements in its habitat.
The students will check data a few times each week until November and then start monitoring again in the spring, assuming the doe lives through the winter.
“Next spring, she will drop a fawn somewhere and I expect her home range will probably shrink,” Weaver said, noting that the deer will spend most of her life in about 50 acres.
Peggy Callahan of the Wildlife Science Center said the organization tags hundreds of deer every year.
“The whole point is to figure out how much space they need,” she said.
Weaver received grants from the Forest Lake and Stillwater chapters of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association to provide for the radio transmitter and the cost of having Wildlife Science Center employees on hand. In years past he obtained the radio transmitting equipment from another grant. Without that funding, he wouldn’t have been able to offer the program.
“There’s just no chance,” Weaver said of the nearly $800 donated to his class this year. “There aren’t schools that do this to the degree that we do. Kids actually collecting the data? That’s pretty much unheard of.”
For the past few days, students have been viewing the trap’s activity, captured by remote cameras in the Environmental Learning Center. The deer caught this day had been to the trap before to eat some of the corn left as bait.
“It’s fun to know who is feeding in our traps,” Weaver said. “The trail cams don’t lie.”
Students particularly enjoyed touching a live deer, as many said their only experience with the animals was from at least 20 yards away.
“It sounded like a cool experiment,” said Joe Vue, a senior at Stillwater Area High School. “I’ve never touched a live deer before.”
Rosenbower said she appreciates Weaver’s enthusiasm and commitment.
“He gets involved in so many different things,” she said.
Kyle Palmer, a student who would have been heavily involved in the tagging, was absent because of prior commitments as the vice-president of Stillwater Future Farmers of America. But his mother Diane turned out to videotape the experience for him.
“It’s an unbelievable experience, especially in an urban area. It sparked Kyle’s love of wildlife and forestry even more,” Diane Palmer said.
Her son will be especially interested to see that two deer went into the live trap.
“This is what Kyle anticipated – it’s like having two golden nuggets.”
Facts About Deer Minnesota Season
Here are some facts and figures about deer hunting from the Minnesota DNR
DEER: THE ANIMAL
• Minnesota’s deer population, 1.2 million, ranks number 8 nationally. Texas is number 1 with 4.7 million deer
• adult female white-tailed deer weigh about 145 pounds, males 170 - the average weight of female and male humans
• the biggest white-tailed deer ever recorded was a 500-pound Minnesota buck
• a whitetail’s home range is about one square mile.
DEER HUNTING
• last year, 43 percent of Minnesota hunters successfully harvested a deer; about 39 percent were antlered bucks
• 70 percent of Minnesota’s firearms deer harvest typically occurs during the first three or four days of the season
• the average hunter spends 4.79 days afield during Minnesota’s firearms deer season
• last year’s total deer harvest was 270,800, the second highest on record; 2003 was the record (290,525)
• there are 43 Intensive deer permit areas, covering roughly one-third of the state, where hunters may harvest up to five deer
• Minnesota’s average deer harvest of 239,920 ranks number 12 nationally. Wisconsin is number 1 with an average harvest of 487,685
• the largest typical whitetail buck ever taken in Minnesota had a Boone & Crockett score of 202; shot by John Breen in 1918 near Funkley, Minn.
• Minnesota’s number 1 nontypical whitetail buck had 43 points; shot by 17-year-old Mitch Vakoch in 1974.
DEER LICENSES
• Minnesota ranks number 6 nationally in number of deer licenses sold; Pennsylvania is number 1
• in total, 692,037 Minnesota deer licenses (all types) were sold in 2006
• 98 percent of deer licenses are sold to Minnesota residents
• the DNR Information Center remained open two hours later on the day before last year’s deer opener to answer more than 2,000 telephone inquiries, most of them related to the firearms opener
• staff members from the DNR Information Center and License Center will work extended hours this weekend to handle additional phone calls from deer hunters; phone lines will be open Friday, Nov. 2, until 6:30 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 3, from 8 a.m. to noon.
• The DNR Information Center phone number is (651) 296-6157 or toll-free 1-888-MINNDNR (646-6367).
DEER: TOP 10 HUNTER VIOLATIONS
1) uncased/loaded firearm
2) tagging
3) license
4) baiting
5) shooting from road or motor vehicle
6) shining
7) no blaze orange
8) fail to register
9) ATV/snowmobile closed hours
10) closed season/hours
© 2007 Outdoors Weekly Corporation