Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

Watch yo mouth foo.

Besides, they don't have to close it. There's nuttin' to shoot.

'magine that?

I saw lots of deers on the way home, out of the TB eradication zone.

Bovine TB

A farmer's cattle tested positive, I don't recall exactly what year it started, probably around 2005. I think in the end there were 12 farms that tested positive. Area farmers with cattle had to go to high fences and take precautions to keep wild deer from feeding in the same area as the cattle. Then the DNR started testing deer for TB, I don�t have the exact numbers but I think since 2005 they have found a total of around 27 deer that they figure tested positive for bovine TB. As I understand it this test is somewhat subjective rather than a true positive true negative test. Sample quotas early on were large, like 1800 or so. I believe they were looking for 500 samples to test from this fall but I don�t think they have reached that number.

I spoke with a store owner (registration point) in our hunting area on Friday about registration numbers so far this year, he figured about 100 deer total. I asked him how many were actually from the forest where we hunt vs deer hauled in from out of the area to try to help reach the quota so the DNR doesn�t rev up the gun in the sky and kill the few deer we have left. He figured maybe half�

50 deer for this area? For the entire regular centerfire rifle season? That�s ridiculous, not too many years ago 50 deer would be tagged in the opening hours of the season as the sun came up.

I stopped by the same store last night and asked him how many deer were registered on this 1st weekend of muzzle loader season. He said none.

So, there ya go.

Tzone, RWS and myself were right on par with every other muzzle loader hunter in our area this last weekend.

A big old zero.

Come to think of it that�s pretty close to the number of shots we heard fired over the weekend too�.

I thought you guys said the woods was empty of everything?

Sounds a lot like deer hunting in The Arrowhead back in the last 60s and early 70s.

Right on the money ND. I pulled this off the DNR website:

Minnesota has taken aggressive action to eradicate bovine TB from the state's livestock and wildlife. Thanks to the cooperative efforts of state and federal agencies, cattle producers, hunters and landowners, the prevalence of bovine TB remains low and is confined to a relatively small geographical area.

No deer tested positive for bovine tuberculosis (TB) in 2010, but surveillance efforts will continue in northwestern Minnesota when the firearms deer season opens Saturday, Nov. 5.

"We are encouraged by last year's test results," said Michelle Carstensen, wildlife health program director for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). "If this fall's testing efforts do not detect any more positive deer, that will build confidence that TB has been eliminated or is at an undetectable level."

It remains vitally important to continue to obtain enough samples to draw conclusions about the level of the disease in deer. Future deer management will be based upon ongoing assessments until bovine TB is eliminated.

This fall's surveillance goal is to collect 500 samples for testing, Carstensen said. At least 200 of those samples should originate from within the core area of the disease management zone.

Maybe if there were even close to 200 deer left in that area, they might get 10% of that sample. If their lucky.

Hardly, although rough grouse population is also currently down, most everything else seems to be doing well. Bear, coyotes, wolves, snowshoe hare, cotton tails, weasels, martin, fox, bobcat, some lynx, red squirrels, some flying squirrels, raccoons, porcupines, wood chucks, beaver, muskrat, fisher cat, owls, hawks, ravens, eagles, blue jays, lumberjack birds, woodpeckers..... Plenty of critters in the woods.

A person could have a lot of fun with a trappers license out there right now.

The deer situation is rather frustrating though.

I can imagine it is frustrating in the extreme. I remember those days well. But now you have the DNR between rock and a hard place. If they allow the deer numbers to recover too soon and the TB comes back you will slaughter them (the DNR). If they hold the pedal to the floor to be sure they beat the TB thing once and for all (or at least for a while), you will slaughter them.

Meanwhile, they are trying to census for something that might not be there, or is at least damn rare, and yet they have almost no samples. That necessarily makes it all but impossible to make the right call scientifically, meanwhile, they get hammered on all sides politically and in the public media. It must suck to be a DNR guy doing his dead-level best. Take mercy on them. They cannot win.

I thought the DNR killed all the deer due to an outbreak of Bovine TB in the herd or something like that? Maybe I was mistaken, but, while there wasn't a ton of deer like down in southern MN, there used to be a bunch of deer up there co-existing with the wolves.

EDIT: I could have just kept reading the thread before opening my yap. DOH

I dont know what the best path forward is, but I can tell you this.....I really feel for the Chickenbuckaroos! I wish I could export some of our deer up there.....well, the does anyway!

Hang in there folks, it will get better....I think.

I must confess, I am a rifle addict. Cabela's has the Vanguard on sale right now and I could not resist. I went to cabela's today and got a 257 Roy. For 350 I used some points and got it without anything out of my wallet. Now to start loading for it, 38 to 75 a box is crazy.

Dave, Hope they get that bovine TB taken care of so you folk see some deer #'s go up.

Cool TJAY. Did they have stainless ones yet?

You can't go wrong with the way you got that one. I did the same thing with my Browning Buckmark. I had a bunch of Gander cards that I got for Christmas and birthday's. No money out of my pocket. I like it that way.

Yikes! Warning sent. Glad y'all got through that. Hopefully hew will too if he's so unlucky, God forbid.

4

tzone

They have a SS package with a Cabela's scope for 650 I think.
They aslo have the new Vanguard for 452$.

wolves and deer did coexist (before we settled there), as long as the wolf numbers were kept in check by natural selection. around the turn of the century, man replaced the wolves. we killed the wolf, took his place and started to kill the deer. people reintroduce wolves, yet still try to hunt deer and are baffled when the numbers are down. coexist can be a dangerous word.

When I was home for Thanksgiving, I read an article in The Farmer that said that MN had been declared TB free. Hope it takes some pressure off of your area.

I picked up a .257 Roy from SKANE a few years ago. It drops pronghorns like they're electrocuted.

Yes it's good for the beef business that we are again TB free as a state.