Minnesota Rifle Season and Montana Mule Deer Hunting in 2013

This post is long overdue as I have been busy hunting and enjoying the Bison Football Festivities!  First, I would like to go back to Saturday Nov. 1st.  On arguably the best bow hunting weekend of the year (weekend before rifle opener), I decided to sit on one of my fields stands adjacent to the swamp.  About an hour till dark, I had 10-15 does and fawns on the field when several more ran under my stand.  To my surprise, they were being chased by a coyote!  It wasn't long until he presented me with a 30yd shot and my arrow found the mark!

Later that evening, I found out my good friend Pat Peltier had stuck a decent buck around the same time I shot the coyote.  Little did we know, the buck turned out to be the deer he had dubbed the "Big Show" from early velvet trail camera pictures.  He had no post velvet pictures and wasn't sure if the buck was still in the area.  I was fortunate enough to trail the deer with Pat and his wife Katy and lots of high fives and pictures were taken upon walking up on the deer!

Minnesota Rifle Hunting

 

The Bent Horn buck is down!  Old Guy (Dave Rud) was able to harvest this behemoth of a deer on opening morning!  The buck weighed 225lbs field dressed!  Congrats Dad! (more pictures to come once the European Style mount is done)

 

 

 

 

(if you were wondering, the deer was taken by rifle...)

 

Montana Mule Deer Hunting 2013

The annual Montana Mule Deer Hunting trip was again the highlight of my Fall!  We went 6 for 7 on filling our buck tags and I was lucky again to shoot my second coyote of the year! 

Below is a picture of a nice 2x4 mule deer buck we debated shooting mid way through the hunt.  We decided to pass on him.  The picture was taken through my binoculars with my phone using a special phone case that connects to the binocs!  At the time the picture was taken, the deer was around 500-600yds away.

We arrived home from our Montana trip the day before Thanksgiving.  Not that five straight days of mule deer hunting was enough for me, I decided to hit up the bow stand on Thanksgiving night.  Sitting in the same stand of which the coyote was shot, I harvested a mature doe pictured below. 

Just days ago, one of my fellow Montana hunting party members, Erik Tumberg, scored on this nice Mn Muzzle loader buck!

Below are some random pictures I've acquired via text, email and facebook from local hunters and friends who've harvested deer in ND and Montana as well.  Enjoy!

 

Bull Elks taken in ND and WY along with some Trail Camera Updates

Harvesting a Bull Elk is one thing I would like to check off my bucket list someday!   For a few of my NDSU friends, they were able to make that a reality on their September Elk hunting trips.
  
Mike Svaleson and Nathan Housey were able to take down some nice Bull Elk while bow in Wyoming.  Mike is a former NDSU Track & Field teammate of mine and is an avid outdoorsman.  Congrats men!

Mike Svaleson (left) and Nathan Housey (right) stop to take a pic with their Bow Bulls

Side profile with Mike Svaleson (left) and Nathan Housey (right)

Mike Vipond was also successful on his Elk hunting trip.  He was able to make good use of his once in a Lifetime ND Resident Bull Elk tag by Harvesting the nice 5x5 pictured below.  Mike graduated from NDSU and is a Co-Worker of mine at Houston Engineering Inc.  Congrats Mike!

Mike Vipond with his ND Bull Elk

Another angle of Mike Vipond and his Lifetime ND Resident Bull Elk

Congrats Mike!



After sorting through several weeks of trail camera pictures/videos (felt like a kid on Christmas Morning), I was excited to see appearances from the Bent Horn buck and the Big Eight!  But what was even better, is that they were caught on camera during hunting hours!  Granted they will likely become more and more nocturnal, daytime pictures of nice bucks are a bit of a rarity during this time of year and provides some hope of harvesting one of these brutes mid-October.  Most of us know that once the rut begins, then all hell breaks loose... but that's not for about another month.  So lets get to the fun part and start looking at some of the Pictures/Videos that September threw our way!

You may recognize the photo on the left as the Bent Horn buck from my last post.  Well, he is back and has his signature "Deer in...Trail Camera... Headlights" pose.

The Bent Horn Buck does not have much mass, but the unique characteristic of a bent G3 lands him on my bow hunting hit list.

Bent Horn Buck Makes an October Appearance during shooting hours.

 Along with the previous pictures of the Bent Horn Buck, I have my Cuddeback Attack IR rigged to first take a picture, then a 30 second video clip.  Both of the videos below correspond to the pictures above.

The Big Eight makes his first post-velvet appearance on 9/21/13 during shooting hours.  The grazing picture below does not do him justice... which is why you will want to see the video that follows.  The mass showcased by the Big Eight has landed him atop my 2013 hit list at the No. 1 spot.   

Big Eight post-velvet

Now, if those videos didn't have me excited enough, the addition of an October Turkey hunt definitely put me in the hunting mood.  Not to mention, several Toms & Jakes have been making appearances on all three trail cameras.

Stop Turkeying Around!  In addition to the pictures, the following videos made for another surprise.  In what appears to be a turkey sumo wrestling match, Toms are going beak for beak in shoving matches.  I'm somewhat of a novice when it comes to turkey hunting... 0 for 1... but I thought it to be somewhat odd that they would "fight" in this manner rather than using their spurs?  If anyone has a better explanation, please feel free to reply below!

Turkey Fight 1

Turkey Fight 2

Turkey Fight Royal Rumble

I hope you enjoyed this post!  Good luck hunting all!

2013 Bow Opener

Opening day and already the weather doesn't want to cooperate... darn rain.  At least I was able to hunt in the morning and managed to see several deer.  I had a Spike Buck and a fawn walk within feet from the tree I was sitting in and saw several deer throughout the morning.  Early on, I was able to spot what I thought was the Bent Horn Buck at ~ 220 yards away.  He was grazing on an alfalfa field and left within minutes of good shooting light.   I had one doe within range (35 yds) but am waiting a bit longer before using an intensive harvest tag.
Since my last post, I have acquired  a Bushnell Trophy HD trail camera and am very impressed with the Quality of Video.  Currently, I have an old Moultree Camera, the Cuddeback Attack IR and this new Bushnell Trophy HD.

Its been a couple weeks since last checking my cameras but the Bent Horn Buck, the Big Eight and some new bucks make an appearance!  Pictures & Videos Below

Bent Horn Post-Velvet

Bent Horn Buck

The Big 8 makes another appearance

Eight JR and his close up

New 9 point buck as velvet begins to come off

Oscar (Trash Rack)

Oscar with a better view of his Trash on the Left antler

A Crane, Two Bucks & a Turkey

August Trail Camera Videos and Pictures (Bear and Bucks)

Bear and Bucks

 

Here are a few Pictures and Video's from my Trail Cameras Prior to September.  A few nice looking deer and a decent size Black Bear made an appearance.

 

The deer I'm most impressed with to date is a Big 8 point buck.  He is out to the ears and looks to be sporting some hefty antlers.  Hopefully we get some more pictures/videos post shedding.




A screenshot of the Big 8 from the video below



A picture taken of the Big 8 as he walks by the Cuddeback

Video of the Big 8



 

 

Also, out and about is this Black Bear.  Wishing I would have seen him during the two years I had a bear license...

 





Black Bear on 7/31/13



Black Bear on 8/22/13

Black Bear on 7/31/13

















Below are a few more nice bucks that we have on Camera... including the "170+ inch Monster" (According to Elman Becker)... okay maybe not 170 inches but not a runt either.  I'm hoping to get a few more pictures of this buck as well.  I have another picture on my other computer that hints at this buck being a 9 pointer with 4 on his right antler (smaller looking in the picture below) and 5 points on his left antler.



Elman's Big Bastard

 

The buck pictured below has some potential... if he can make it through the season.

Nice 8 point

There are still a few bucks from last year that to my knowledge haven't been shot, including a thin antlered 14 point with split G2's...  if he made it through the 2012 hunting season, he has potential to be one of the biggest bucks on our land.  I also made a purchase of a new Bushnell Trail Camera HD from Scheels the other week so that will be fun to play with and see how the 720p video turns out.

Biggest Bucks shot in 2012 Minnesota Rifle Season!

Both of these Non-Typical bucks taken in the 2012 Rifle Season have a good shot of being placed on the top 15 Biggest Bucks in Minnesota All-Time.

The first buck was shot near Osakis, MN by Osakis' Josiah Hetland and Alexandria's Aaron Gould.  The huge non-typical whitetail buck had 22 Scorable Points and green scored 236 6/8 Inches.

 

Josiah Hetland (left) and Aaron Gould (right) with the "Red Willow Buck"

 

More about their hunt can be read here - http://www.theosakisreview.com/event/article/id/9870/

 

 

 

 

The second buck was shot near Sebeka, MN by Dylan Beach and was a buck I covered in an article a few weeks back.  Dylans buck has 27 Scorable Points and is rumored to have green scored around 241 Inches.

 

Dylan Beach and "The Cornstalk Buck"

 

 

More about Dylan's hunt can be read here - http://brainerddispatch.com/outdoors/2012-11-06/27-points-success

 

 

 

As the Minnesota Record Book stands, anything above 234 1/8 would put either of these Non-Typical brutes in the Top 15.  Below are more Trail Camera Pictures of Dylan Beach's Cornstalk Buck!  Enjoy!