New to Minnesota

[MinneWis35]

I am new to Minnesota (Twin Cities area).  Up to this point, all of my hunting has taken place in northern Wisconsin.  While I still intend to hunt in Wisconsin, I would like to give Minnesota a try this year.  Due to time constraints, I only intend to hunt during rifle season. I have not spent any significant time in northern Minnesota.  Can anyone recommend a general area with public land, lower hunter pressure and pretty good deer population?  I obviously am not looking for specific locations, but I would like to know the pros and cons of the various general locations (northeast, northwest, north-central, etc.).  While I will spend time scouting in the fall, I would like to narrow the search to a general geographic area sometime this summer.  Thanks in advance.

[MN_Prairie_Prowler]

Welcome to MN MinneWis35.  Cant help you much with an area to hunt because I hunt the southwestern area. I did live in Ely for three years and hunted deer up there. Did shoot a couple bucks but hunting was hard due to the hard winters at that time and the high wolf populations.
Hope you are sucsessful in finding a area though!

[Patriot]

MinneWis35,
I bet you could check the MN DNR website for some help.  I wish I could help you more. 
 
Like Prairie Prowler, I also hunt in SW Minnesota (live in Twin Cities).
 
Keep us posted.

[dewey]

MinneWis35,

First of all welcome to the forum. I hunt in NW MN and I have had good success in going to the county offices and getting plat books and then talking to farmers and getting permission to hunt on their land just by asking. I prefer to hunt on private land just because I never have to worry about other people and what they might do. In NW MN there is also a antlerless deer season and it is October 10th and 11th, it is obviously for does only but it is good to put meat in the freezer and to do scouting and other activities while hunting. Another thing in MN is the lottery, managed and intensive harvest areas. The lottery areas (blue) are for bucks with a general tag and you have to apply for a doe tag, with a bag limit of 1. The managed areas (red) are either sex tags and the bag limit is 3. The intensive areas (green) are either sex and have a bag limit of 5. The statewide limit for bucks is 1 buck per hunter, unless you party hunt-which I won't get into.

The information I just told you is based on last year's regulations and you should look in the new reg's to see if anything has changed or if I am incorrect on something.

Here is a link to the MNDNR's website, the new regulations are usually up by the end of the month.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/deer/index.html

If you have any more questions feel free to PM me.

Dewey

[69Viking]

Welcome to the forum MinneWis35! If you're in the twin cities area I would take a serious look at SE Minnesota. I grew up in the Rochester area and SE of Rochester it is very sparsely populated and the SE portion of MN has a history of big bucks! The area I'm talking about is between Rochester and where MN, WI, and IA all meet. It's mostly just farmland and woods! Rochester is only about an hour drive from the twin cities so most areas you could hunt would be 1-2 hours away. Good luck wherever you decide to hunt, I'll be looking for your reports come this fall!

[sbertram87]

Hi MinneWis35, i hunt and live in central MN and i would sugest you do the following. Go to
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/regulations/ ... index.html
and look at the Minnesota Hunting and Trapping Regulations Handbook and in there is a look for landowner hunting. What Minnesota does is gives away a licnese to a land owner who opens up their land to the public for hunting. The land owners name and numbers are there for you to contact them. Next, i would look at the map that tells you what type of zone an area is. Such as lottery, managed, etc. Based on those numbers i would plan around that. You can also look around on the link below
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/deer/index.html

look at the winter severity index Deer density and Deer harvest maps and use that info to find a spot.

good luck

[MinneWis35]

Thanks sbertam87 -- that is really helpful.  I will look at the information and do some calling around.  If worse comes to worse, I am going to pick a chunk of federal or state land and treat it as a "scouting season" (scout in the morning while it is cold and find a good place to sit in the afternoon).  Doubtful I will get anything with that approach, but at least I will get to know some land.  From what I can tell, Minnesota has very complex rules (different season dates, managed vs. lottery, no doing this, no doing that).  I guess I will figure it out if I live here long enough.  Thanks again.

[sbertram87]

Hi MinneWis35 glad to help. Do not feel bad on the rules there are people who have hunted here for years that still get it mixed up
Good luck this year

[buckhunter21]

Welcome to the forum!  I hunt in Wisconsin just east of the Twin Cities, but have heard there is some good hunting in northern MN.  Best of luck!

[MinneWis35]

I have decided to head to Orr (never been there, but seems like a pretty good spot to start).  I will head up once in late September for a scouting weekend.  As for the season, I will head up Thursday night before the opening weekend and hunt for the first four days of the season (possibly the second weekend if necessary).  Accordingly, I will have a total of three days of scouting (one weekend and the Friday before the season starts).  If anyone has any suggestions, please pass them along.  And I know you are not supposed to scout the day before the season, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.