Ultradog

This morning.

Strut10, It seems almost inconceivable to us here in cold country that you could have so many deer. Not that I dont believe you. I do. And I know in a lot of southern areas they are practically begging hunters to kill more deer. I hunt in central Minnesota where it gets pretty cold, there are very few farms anymore so forage isn't as available - it's mostly woods and swamps and lakes there and we have significant wolf and coyote populations there. There just aren't that many deer. In the last say, 40+ years I have drawn maybe 15 doe tags. Ten times we've had hunter's choice and twice we could take a bonus deer. And it seems like every time we can get a bonus tag we get a hard winter and we're back to bucks only and does by lottery for a few years. The population must be up again. I didn't have time to buy a license on the 1st but looked online and it's hunter's choice this year. Nice! I'm not complaining mind you. That's just how it is here. And I still love to hunt deer. Opening day is equal to Christmas, New Years and your birthday all rolled into one and you look forward to it every year. The fire in the belly thing. It is why I joined this place and why I'm still here - even after most of the folks have forsaken the place.

8/1 has always been a hunting related day around here.. First day you can buy your licenses for the coming season/s and get the booklet with hunting regs in it including any new laws, etc. The booklet also includes what you can harvest in your zone and area ie. bucks only, hunters choice (either sex) or even bonus deer - once in a while. Even though our rifle season doesn't open till early November we always bought our licences early as you have to have your application in by September 8th or so to get into the doe permit lottery. I will probably cruise up to Fleet Farm later and get my license and booklet today just to see what's the scoop. 96 days till the opener here. Whoo Hoo!

Shucks! I missed the 4th. Was my birthhday too. Wasn't paying attention tho so I didn't get any older.

I went up Monday morning and plowed up our plots. Then disced, seeded and dragged. Wasn't sure what to put in this year. During the drought we had last year nothing grew except for some kind of wispy weed which proliferated. So i put in winter rye. Am hoping it can compete with that weed if it comes back. If the rye does okay I will bush hog it off this fall when it is ripe and disc the seed back in for some browse late fall and early next spring. Will do something else If it doesn't do well. Sitting in an unmovable blind means you Must have something to bring the deer in or you might as well stay home. I always look at Memorial day as kind of the halfway point till the opener though I know it is a couple weeks over half way. Any way, I everyone here will give a thought to the servicemen who didn't make it home from the wars which is what this holiday is all about. And keep counting the days. The hunt will be upon us again soon.

It was a darned long and very cold one this year. And it's seeming like a late spring to boot. But you know that it'll warm up eventually. It always does. We're starting to think about our deer plots. Last year's plots were a total disaster on account of the severe drought we had. So we're eating pork, chicken and beef this year cause I didn't get a deer last fall. Anyway, I have checked in occasionally but haven't posted in months. But like the frogs that come out after the cold is over and start peeping again, I'm back and glad to see most of you still around. So hi to all. It is only 212 days till the rifle opener here.

Neither Mike nor I got a deer this year. The first time in at least 15 years we both came home empty handed. Our area of MN had a severe drought this year and our plots were a complete failure. The worst ever. Without good plots there is nothing for the deer to come in for. But there was still good food, good friendship, good beer (and a little good brandy) and some great games of cribbage. And... There is always next year.

Nice to see them just doing their thing. The leaves here have not all fallen yet. I wonder if it has to do with the extreme drought we had this summer. More leaves left on the trees than any year in my memory.

A friend of mine is a dairy farmer near Ladysmith, Wi. All 3 of his kids participated in the youth hunt this weekend. It was his 10 yo daughter's first year. Watch the video for her results. Not quite Realtree quality filming as you don't get to see the button buck she took go down. But we've all seen that plenty of times and her hunt is a wonderful thing. Enjoy.

My cousin's son lives in a 3rd tier suburb of St. Paul. It is a bit wild and wooly there. Lots of swamps, ponds, a couple of small lakes and other non-buildable areas. He snapped a few photos of this big boy from a bedroom of his house. I'm thinking he must be in the 180+ range. What say you guys? 43 days till the rifle opener here.

I hang out on forums quite a lot. A couple of tractor forums mostly but also a few hobby machine shop and Airstream travel trailer forums. Have been on my main tractor board for over 20 years where I have more than 26K posts. I don't see a downturn in traffic there or at the other forums much at all. I had an alias on Fecebook for about 10 years but never followed any hunting stuff there so don't know if that place pulled any traffic from here. I do agree the software updates here were a huge cause of the loss of traffic. Also, I have said this before - and it wasn't recieved well then and likely won't be now but the focus here has always been on hunting big bucks. I have always thought that a greater acceptance of guys who just want a legal deer would have helped. It isn't like we here didn't accept that type of hunter but our enthusiasm for them wasn't there. And enthusiasm does show. Yeah I know, I sometimes get a bit weary with all the noobs and boobs who ask dumb questions about 8N Ford tractors but I learned to be patient, helpful and welcoming to those guys because from THEM the place has built a huge traffic base and and within that base is a solid cadre of really excellent members who have moved far beyond those antiquated 8Ns. Another analogy, this one from the retail shopping world would be: Guys who really are in to hunting spend a lot more on hunting stuff than the average weekend hunter. But if you are a retailer you know that it is all those thousands of weekend hunters that keep your doors open. I don't know how we here can ever get this board's mojo back. This place is hosted by a very fine company and is NOT laden with crappy advertising like so many other sites are. You would think the lack of advertising alone would bring people in. I bought the RT MB vids for a dozen years but now am pretty far removed from anything RT is doing on TV or video. Does the old David, Bill and Michael bunch still make tv programs and vids these days? If they are, all it would take is a few mentions of this place to bring the traffic back. But we old timers would have to reach out more and do our part to keep folks coming back.

Maybe should be in deer hunting but more action here. I've gotten to know a fellow that lives in SE Iowa pretty well. Never met him but we've talked a lot over the last few years. I've helped him a bunch with his Ford tractor as he restored it. His land is right on the border between IA and MO. In fact the border cuts his property in half. Anyway, he has a lot of big deer down there and invited me down to rifle hunt for all the help I've given him. So I started looking at non resident license fees and was shocked at the cost. It would cost upwards of $650 for me hunt there. Wow! I was thinking more like the cost to hunt in WI. ~ $150. Do regular people really pay that much to hunt in other states? Or has that become another pass time for the wealthy? No way I would pay that much! Since he has land in MO too I am wondering that it would cost to rifle hunt there. I haven t looked up MO yet but it is on my mind today.

Thanks for the good wishes fellas. I will be getting a pretty good birthday present this year. I finally signed up for Social Security about 6 weeks ago and will be getting my first check (direct deposit actually) on the 11th of August.

My 68th birthday on the 4th. I will be flying the flag on the front porch and enjoying my inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I'm a little late here so doubling down on the best wishes Wm. You'll have a buck in your sights again before you know it. God Bless you!