NW MN deer scouting trip

[dewey]

Hey everyone I just thought I would post some pictures and other information from my scouting trip last Friday, September 17th, in NW MN.  First thing I did was to make sure I can still hunt the land I have hunted before and I can so I headed out to find where the beds, trails, tracks and everything else is at.

All in all it was a good trip and I think I have about 6 or so locations to hunt the deer once rifle season opens and different locations to hunt in various wind conditions.

Good luck to all of the bow hunters out there.

I am going up there again October 16th to build a stand or two and do some scouting at dusk.
 
Picture #1 is the West edge of the soy bean field looking South.


Picture #2 is the area between the edge of the field and the Red River of the North.  There were a LOT of beds in the 30 yards or so between the river and the edge of the field that the deer use to move around and in & out of the soy beans.


Picture #3 is a large track we came across, they were everywhere.  The business card I had down is 3.5" wide.  I really would like to see the deer that made this track.  Some of the tracks had the dew claws in the back and some like this one I could not tell for sure.  My question would be is this a buck, a doe or cannot you not tell without either seeing the deer or the lack of dew claw.  I assume a 3.5" wide track is from a very large deer, is this right.


Dewey

[bowman12]

Looks awesome!
I don't know alot about what you're asking about the track, but what I've read is bucks tracks are more rounded at the toe, looks like that one is, the space between the front legs will be wider because they have a wider chest, and looking at the size of the track I would say it's definitely a large deer. Good luck!

[dewey]

Thanks for the information bowman12.  I did not know that about the tracks, looks like I need to do some more research.
 
I will be going up ther the weekend of October 16th and hope to have some more pictures of my stands/blinds and tracks.
 
Dewey