stovebolts
Member
Hey, do a google map on your hunting grounds and take a screen shot of it and post. Would love to see where you hunt
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Any hunters?
- Thread starter stovebolts
- Start date
This is a view showing the northern part of our state where we hunt. You can see the southwestern end of Lake Superior and I placed a red square around the area we hunt. Hope it shows up. This is on Minnesota's Vermillion Iron Range. We hunt just south of the Laurentian Divider.
View attachment 2808
The photo below shows a closer look at our hunting area. That area at the top of the photo is the USX open pit iron mine, formerly US Steel commonly referred to the Minntac mine. It currently stretches about 8 miles long and 1 mile wide and I would guess in the neighborhood of 400 feet deep give or take. Most of those blue lake features are inactive open pits from years ago but recently there has been some activity in reopening some of them. The area of water south of the highway is a reservoir managed by one of the mining companies.
View attachment 2809
View attachment 2808
The photo below shows a closer look at our hunting area. That area at the top of the photo is the USX open pit iron mine, formerly US Steel commonly referred to the Minntac mine. It currently stretches about 8 miles long and 1 mile wide and I would guess in the neighborhood of 400 feet deep give or take. Most of those blue lake features are inactive open pits from years ago but recently there has been some activity in reopening some of them. The area of water south of the highway is a reservoir managed by one of the mining companies.
View attachment 2809
I don’t deer hunt around my home unless I use my .44mag revolver. The farming country of Minnesota is shotgun w/slug only or legal caliber pistol. Something about hunting deer with a slug just doesn’t appeal to me for some reason. Every dark area you see in this photograph is a lake or pond. As you can see there is a lot of water around here. There should be approximately 150 lakes in the view you see below if you wish to count them. My property is located in the red box just south of Lake Osakis.
View attachment 2810
Here’s a closer view of my home area and you can see it is quite devoid of forest. People hunt deer around here in the lowland grasses, state owned WMA, and federal WPA land. Within 1/2 mile of my home I have access to nearly 1,000 acres of WMA and WPA land open to public hunting and other public use which I do use for pheasant hunting. Although this area is on the northern edge of pheasant country so they are not usually the easiest quarry to find.
View attachment 2811
View attachment 2810
Here’s a closer view of my home area and you can see it is quite devoid of forest. People hunt deer around here in the lowland grasses, state owned WMA, and federal WPA land. Within 1/2 mile of my home I have access to nearly 1,000 acres of WMA and WPA land open to public hunting and other public use which I do use for pheasant hunting. Although this area is on the northern edge of pheasant country so they are not usually the easiest quarry to find.
View attachment 2811
Sad Sack
Member
Looks like most of the discussion here centers around deer hunting. I don't have the knees for that anymore but my son and I like to get out each year for the Spring Turkey Season. Last season, we had hunted till about 9:00 a.m. with absolutely no sign of turkey anywhere. We started to think about calling it a day and decided to start back toward the pickup. We came across a couple of large lava boulders that offered us a more comfortable seat than the cold damp ground. We decided to sit there on the boulders a little longer. We were both dressed in camouflage that was a good match blending in with the surrounding trees and shrubs. After a few minutes I started calling to see if I could hear a distant gobble.
Suddenly, we heard rather loud running coming toward us from behind. I looked over my shoulder to see 3 Tom turkeys running at us through the brush. My son was sitting about 10 to 12 feet to my left. All 3 turkeys stopped on his left side. One turkey was literally 3 or 4 inches from my son's left knee. The 3 birds casually started grazing in the green grass and moving slowly away to our left. We sat motionless as my son inched his right hand to pick up his shotgun. I had no shot as my son was sitting between me and the birds. He finally inched his shotgun into position and took a clean shot at the closest bird, maybe some 20 feet away. It was his 1st turkey and he was so excited, he started jumping around and cheering. He never thought to get a 2nd shot off at the next turkey for me. It was a great day and a story we tell often. If I can figure out how to attach a picture to this reply, I'll add a photo of my son with his turkey.
View attachment 2812
God Bless!
Suddenly, we heard rather loud running coming toward us from behind. I looked over my shoulder to see 3 Tom turkeys running at us through the brush. My son was sitting about 10 to 12 feet to my left. All 3 turkeys stopped on his left side. One turkey was literally 3 or 4 inches from my son's left knee. The 3 birds casually started grazing in the green grass and moving slowly away to our left. We sat motionless as my son inched his right hand to pick up his shotgun. I had no shot as my son was sitting between me and the birds. He finally inched his shotgun into position and took a clean shot at the closest bird, maybe some 20 feet away. It was his 1st turkey and he was so excited, he started jumping around and cheering. He never thought to get a 2nd shot off at the next turkey for me. It was a great day and a story we tell often. If I can figure out how to attach a picture to this reply, I'll add a photo of my son with his turkey.
View attachment 2812
God Bless!
That must have been quite the experience! Thanks for sharing.
My brother had a somewhat similar experience once with a timber wolf. While deer hunting one time he was doing a little walking and being that it was a rather warm day he began to get a little heated up. He decided to stop and rest so he could cool off and so he sat down on the ground. He was sitting on the edge of a small clearing in the woods when he noticed a timber wolf stepping into the open across to the other side and working its way toward my brother. It was upwind of my brother and so it was unaware of his presence. My brother decided to just sit still and watch it. It continued to get closer and closer until it got so close my brother began to get a bit nervous so he readied his rifle just in case. That wolf eventually got within a few feet of my brother (10-20 feet if I recall) and still hadn’t noticed him sitting there. My brother decided he better do something to catch the wolf’s attention but without startling it into a defensive mode so he made a small movement with one of his feet. He said the wolf stopped, looked up at him, and its eyes got about as big as saucers. At that point it made and about face and skedaddled. He said it was the most nerve wrecking thing he had ever experienced.
My brother had a somewhat similar experience once with a timber wolf. While deer hunting one time he was doing a little walking and being that it was a rather warm day he began to get a little heated up. He decided to stop and rest so he could cool off and so he sat down on the ground. He was sitting on the edge of a small clearing in the woods when he noticed a timber wolf stepping into the open across to the other side and working its way toward my brother. It was upwind of my brother and so it was unaware of his presence. My brother decided to just sit still and watch it. It continued to get closer and closer until it got so close my brother began to get a bit nervous so he readied his rifle just in case. That wolf eventually got within a few feet of my brother (10-20 feet if I recall) and still hadn’t noticed him sitting there. My brother decided he better do something to catch the wolf’s attention but without startling it into a defensive mode so he made a small movement with one of his feet. He said the wolf stopped, looked up at him, and its eyes got about as big as saucers. At that point it made and about face and skedaddled. He said it was the most nerve wrecking thing he had ever experienced.
I’ll share another story like the one above.
I had a similar experience once with a deer. While bow hunting one late September day I took a position kneeling on the ground along the edge of some CRP acreage to watch a funnel between two wet ponds in the woods to my right. The grass was tall enough that I had to kneel upright so I could see over it. It was one of our typical cold and nasty late September days with light rain occasionally changing to snow and the wind was howling about 35mph. While sitting there I could occasionally hear what sounded like something taking short quick steps on dry leaves almost like a squirrel or chipmunk running along the ground. Thinking I must have been hearing things because it was too windy for me to pick out that kind of noise, I basically ignored it….for a while. Eventually I had to turn to have a look see. When I turned my head to look over my right shoulder I could see the nose of a deer within inches of my right ear! I about defecated in my pants right there, dropped my bow on the ground, and the small doe jumped back about 20 feet and stood there eye to eye with me. I froze and just watched her as she pounded her feet on the ground and blew at me.
One thing I learned from this experience is that you can never win a stare down with a deer. I had once heard or read that one thing a deer or any prey animal looks for in this situation is the eyes. A predator has both eyes facing forward whereas prey animals’ eyes on located on the side of its head. For this reason one should avoid eye to eye contact with prey. Well, it was too late for me and so my thought was to avoid blinking at all costs so here I had this deer within 20 feet of me and my eyes were beginning to burn. Eventually I couldn’t hold it back any longer and I blinked. That was all it took and she was gone in a flash. That was fun!
I had a similar experience once with a deer. While bow hunting one late September day I took a position kneeling on the ground along the edge of some CRP acreage to watch a funnel between two wet ponds in the woods to my right. The grass was tall enough that I had to kneel upright so I could see over it. It was one of our typical cold and nasty late September days with light rain occasionally changing to snow and the wind was howling about 35mph. While sitting there I could occasionally hear what sounded like something taking short quick steps on dry leaves almost like a squirrel or chipmunk running along the ground. Thinking I must have been hearing things because it was too windy for me to pick out that kind of noise, I basically ignored it….for a while. Eventually I had to turn to have a look see. When I turned my head to look over my right shoulder I could see the nose of a deer within inches of my right ear! I about defecated in my pants right there, dropped my bow on the ground, and the small doe jumped back about 20 feet and stood there eye to eye with me. I froze and just watched her as she pounded her feet on the ground and blew at me.
One thing I learned from this experience is that you can never win a stare down with a deer. I had once heard or read that one thing a deer or any prey animal looks for in this situation is the eyes. A predator has both eyes facing forward whereas prey animals’ eyes on located on the side of its head. For this reason one should avoid eye to eye contact with prey. Well, it was too late for me and so my thought was to avoid blinking at all costs so here I had this deer within 20 feet of me and my eyes were beginning to burn. Eventually I couldn’t hold it back any longer and I blinked. That was all it took and she was gone in a flash. That was fun!
Sad Sack
Member
Great stories WIP.
On another turkey hunt (maybe 2 years ago I think) my son and I had turkeys gobbling back at us but they were some 100 yards away and on the other side of a creek. There was no way we could approach them without being seen and they were not coming in to our calls. I remembered a trick I learned from a relative some years earlier. I slowly moved in the opposite direction of the gobblers calling every few minutes. The idea being that the turkeys would sense the calling hen was moving away from them. Most of the time this tactic results in the Tom turkeys giving chase. My son remained hidden in his concealed position waiting for the gobblers to come to him. Well, after some 30 minutes I decided that our trick didn't work. Rather than try to make my way back to my son and give away his position, I hiked back down the canyon to where we had parked the truck. Some time later my son came back as well laughing. I asked what he found so funny.
He told me that after I had been gone for some time and I had stopped calling, he rested his shotgun against a tree. He laid back in a reclined position on another tree that was leaning at an angle near the bottom. He said it was very comfortable and he was relaxing with his eyes closed, but not sleeping. He heard, what he thought, were my foot steps approaching from the direction I had gone. The foot steps got closer and closer then stopped. At this point, he opened his eyes and turned his head to tell me out trick hadn't paid off when he found himself nose to nose with a big Tom turkey. He described his reaction as jumping up to get away at first, then lunging to grab his shotgun, which he missed. He scrambled back into position and shouldered his shotgun but the turkey had run in the opposite direction and was just lifting off the ground as he took to flight. My son said he thought his heart would beat out of his chest from the shock. I would have loved getting that scene on video.
On another turkey hunt (maybe 2 years ago I think) my son and I had turkeys gobbling back at us but they were some 100 yards away and on the other side of a creek. There was no way we could approach them without being seen and they were not coming in to our calls. I remembered a trick I learned from a relative some years earlier. I slowly moved in the opposite direction of the gobblers calling every few minutes. The idea being that the turkeys would sense the calling hen was moving away from them. Most of the time this tactic results in the Tom turkeys giving chase. My son remained hidden in his concealed position waiting for the gobblers to come to him. Well, after some 30 minutes I decided that our trick didn't work. Rather than try to make my way back to my son and give away his position, I hiked back down the canyon to where we had parked the truck. Some time later my son came back as well laughing. I asked what he found so funny.
He told me that after I had been gone for some time and I had stopped calling, he rested his shotgun against a tree. He laid back in a reclined position on another tree that was leaning at an angle near the bottom. He said it was very comfortable and he was relaxing with his eyes closed, but not sleeping. He heard, what he thought, were my foot steps approaching from the direction I had gone. The foot steps got closer and closer then stopped. At this point, he opened his eyes and turned his head to tell me out trick hadn't paid off when he found himself nose to nose with a big Tom turkey. He described his reaction as jumping up to get away at first, then lunging to grab his shotgun, which he missed. He scrambled back into position and shouldered his shotgun but the turkey had run in the opposite direction and was just lifting off the ground as he took to flight. My son said he thought his heart would beat out of his chest from the shock. I would have loved getting that scene on video.
stovebolts
Member
Ha! Too funny Sad Sack LOL!
Well, tonight is the last night of shotgun. WIP, unless I want to travel an hour north, we can only use shotgun where I live. Oh yeah, the farmer cut his corn down last night, so here's hoping for this afternoon!
Well, tonight is the last night of shotgun. WIP, unless I want to travel an hour north, we can only use shotgun where I live. Oh yeah, the farmer cut his corn down last night, so here's hoping for this afternoon!
stovebolts
Member
Well, I havn't gotten anything yet... Except I did actually get a variable pay bonus which nobody was expecting this year so guess what I bought! I got a decent Traditions Perusuit muzzle loader and a Nikon 300 scope. Took me 19 shots to get it scoped in but I'm hitting an inch to the right of the bulls eye at 100 yards. When I was about 4 inches high, I clustered two almost on top of each other. I'm looking for the hole in the target scratching my head wondering how it was that I missed the plywood... and my son shows me the hole from the previous shot. Basically the second bullet widened the hole of the previous one! Amazing!
I only had 20 bullets and I had shot 17, so I dropped the scope down six clicks, shot, dropped it down 3 more clicks, shot and that put me an inch to the right of bullsyes.
We only have till the end of the month. It was just hitting dusk when I finished scoping the gun and we ran out to our blind... didn't see anything. Oh yeah, I did try to buy some more bullets yesterday and the store was completly out of 50 cal 250 grain! Now I'll have to drive about 40 minutes to the gun store for more, and today I'm going to see where it hits at 200 yards.
But right now, I'm getting dressed and heading out! Wish me luck! I bullet, one kill!
I only had 20 bullets and I had shot 17, so I dropped the scope down six clicks, shot, dropped it down 3 more clicks, shot and that put me an inch to the right of bullsyes.
We only have till the end of the month. It was just hitting dusk when I finished scoping the gun and we ran out to our blind... didn't see anything. Oh yeah, I did try to buy some more bullets yesterday and the store was completly out of 50 cal 250 grain! Now I'll have to drive about 40 minutes to the gun store for more, and today I'm going to see where it hits at 200 yards.
But right now, I'm getting dressed and heading out! Wish me luck! I bullet, one kill!
stovebolts
Member
Ha, Well, I stepped out my back door and low and behold there was 3 in the back field about 250 yards out. I haven't shot beyond 100 yards so I didn't want to chance it. I tried to sneak up on them by staying low, but I think they heard me crunching in the frozen snow. I only made it about 50 yards and I know they didn't see me because I was in a low section and was out of site.
After that, I went across to the other field and basically sat for the past couple hours...
After that, I went across to the other field and basically sat for the past couple hours...
stovebolts
Member
Ok, still no luck this year.... only a few days left too...
So I got new primers and bullets for the muzzle loader. I was hitting an inch to the right of the bullseye with the other combination @ 100 yards, but with the new, I'm almost a foot high.
I was trying to site it in earlier today and I learned a very painful leson. Make sure you run a mop through the bore affter cleaning it with solvent. Maybe even fire a primer by itself.... only thing I can figure is solvent makes one hech of a bang... and I have the ring of the scope cut around my eye to prove it. Man that hurt and talk about recoil. Wow... peeled the skin right back from around my eye next to my nose. I wonder if I'm gonna get a black eye too. Totally wasn't expecting that. Even with 100 grains its just a mild push.
So I got new primers and bullets for the muzzle loader. I was hitting an inch to the right of the bullseye with the other combination @ 100 yards, but with the new, I'm almost a foot high.
I was trying to site it in earlier today and I learned a very painful leson. Make sure you run a mop through the bore affter cleaning it with solvent. Maybe even fire a primer by itself.... only thing I can figure is solvent makes one hech of a bang... and I have the ring of the scope cut around my eye to prove it. Man that hurt and talk about recoil. Wow... peeled the skin right back from around my eye next to my nose. I wonder if I'm gonna get a black eye too. Totally wasn't expecting that. Even with 100 grains its just a mild push.
stovebolts
Member
Well, that could have been, but I saw where the fluid ignighted and crusted white on the outside of the breech and below where the locking mechinism is (its a traditions). Also, the bore had the same white crust and I couldn't believe how much carbon etc came out of the bore. It was aweful.
Anyway, I am going to have a black eye... but guess what? I was getting ready to go back out and finish siteing it in so I could go to my Spot when my wife called me to run to the store. I. Told her what I was doing and she told me to go hunting... but I was a bit gun shy so I went to the store... and on my way home just before dusk was a small herd of a half dozen or more just down from my spot... about 180 yards, which is exactly why I bought this particular muzzle loader and scope. Oh well lol, I had a headache anyway.
Anyway, I am going to have a black eye... but guess what? I was getting ready to go back out and finish siteing it in so I could go to my Spot when my wife called me to run to the store. I. Told her what I was doing and she told me to go hunting... but I was a bit gun shy so I went to the store... and on my way home just before dusk was a small herd of a half dozen or more just down from my spot... about 180 yards, which is exactly why I bought this particular muzzle loader and scope. Oh well lol, I had a headache anyway.
stovebolts
Member
dumb luck or my luck lol!
Today I had my son's wrestling tournament. He did pretty well, came in second. He'll take the kid next time around... Yup, we're entering wrestling season again. Tonight we had our older son over for dinner, so today was basically shot for shooting. Tomorrow we have Church, so ... I'm hoping when we get home I can finish siting in the scope and hopefully go out tomorrow evening.. If I don't get anything tomorrow night Monday is my last day.
Oh yeah, they eye turned black all right and it's got a huge scab where the scope hit me. Talk about dumb luck huh? But this morning when we were warming up for the tournament, I went to put him in a cradle and I got a knee in my other eye and it turned all red! So I'm walking around the tournament with one black eye and the other eye red... Unbelievable!
Today I had my son's wrestling tournament. He did pretty well, came in second. He'll take the kid next time around... Yup, we're entering wrestling season again. Tonight we had our older son over for dinner, so today was basically shot for shooting. Tomorrow we have Church, so ... I'm hoping when we get home I can finish siting in the scope and hopefully go out tomorrow evening.. If I don't get anything tomorrow night Monday is my last day.
Oh yeah, they eye turned black all right and it's got a huge scab where the scope hit me. Talk about dumb luck huh? But this morning when we were warming up for the tournament, I went to put him in a cradle and I got a knee in my other eye and it turned all red! So I'm walking around the tournament with one black eye and the other eye red... Unbelievable!