Another Deer Hunting Season

$3800 of damage by a buck that must have had other things on its mind!

The 2019 Minnesota Deer Hunting season is pretty much over for me this year.  The ultimate irony occurred as driving to our hunting land on Saturday morning, a mile from our destination a buck ran smack into my GMC truck's front driver's side door before bouncing off and hitting the back quarter panel on the truck.  It sounded like the buck hit pretty hard so turning around and heading back to the scene of the collision, maybe I could tag a deer without even having to pull the trigger.  Approaching the scene,  the buck wasn't there however a quick look up and it was running on the shoulder ahead of me.  Originally thinking it might be injured, honestly I have never seen a deer run so fast.  After about 100 yards it veered off into the woods.  It didn't look like it suffered too much but I can't believe it wasn't pretty sore after that! Saturday was nice and warm yet it did start snowing mid afternoon.  Not willing to climb a tree stand anymore, I hunted out of a standard ground blind.  I saw deer and heard them behind me yet either it was too dark or I could not see them.  The pheasants were pretty active, and the Tundra Swans were really flying around as the lakes continued to freeze.  Although there was not a lack of deer in the area as the land we hunt is in an extensive harvest zone yet with so much corn standing in the fields, the shooting shut down pretty fast as those deer are pretty smart, except the one that ran into my car. 

Deer trail in front of my stand

Deer sign is all over as I set up my stand in a corner of a field/swamp/woods edge with a well used deer trail went by.  Unfortunately one never knows if these are trails used to move from one area to another at night.  Sunday morning there was a number of fresh tracks in the trail however as we used to say in Eleva, it's tough to make track soup.  Sunday was about the same, a few shots heard but it was pretty quiet from about 7:00 in the morning on.  Obviously the deer were deep in the corn as after talking to a number of hunters, the story was all the same, pretty slim pickings.  The snow had made the roads quite slippery as we passed a pickup truck that has spun out and rolled over in a ditch, just south of Richardson Corner.  The weather was headed for a significant drop in temperature in the next few days as throughout the day it was getting colder.  Even though all the lakes and swamps in the area were froze over, the predicted over night lows in the single digits, would definitey finish the job, and pretty early this year.  Staying at Jack's cabin on Platte Lake, one could walk on the lake without cracking the ice. 

Satellite view of Upper and Lower Red Lake

Speaking of cold weather and ice, Red Lake is progressing quite well for this early in the year. this is a satellite view of the lake from Modis Today.  It shows that Red Lake is completely froze over however it is very vulnerable to winds and changing temperatures.  This was a picture from Tuesday, November 12, it was reported today that a number of ice fisherman had to be rescued from unstable ice conditions on Upper Red Lake.  A few years back Mark Applen and I were able to drive out with our wheel houses on the day after Thanksgiving, and this year it is looking promising as the 10 day forecast has the daily temperature below freezing.  Although we are not in a particular hurry, as long as it is going to be cold, one might as well be fishing.  It will be great to see JR again but safety is always a priority.  That is of course if and when I get my Salem Ice Cabin back from the shop while my Ranger is still getting it's axle replaced, then it needs new tires and a few other things taken care of.  For now it's simply a waiting game, get the Salem, Get the Ranger put to bed for the winter, and wait for safe ice.