Minnesota Hunting Location

M

M70

New member
Curious to know if anyone of you Minnesota hunters have tried the Rum River State Forest or the Mille Lacs Wild Life Managment Area for Yotes? MN DNR verified this morning that there are two packs of Timber Wolves in the area, not sure many yotes are still hanging around.
 
I'm not far from there but might go down and try it. Hmm, so I should leave the .17 Remington in the truck, grab the 12 ga. with #4 buck, the camera, and use the fawn in distress call then? Use the 12 ga only if really necessary....
 
My son and I hunted the Rum River State Forest for Whitetail on the opener and the following weekend -- got two. MAN-O-MAN, I came across what was left of a whitetail after some critter got to it -- yote droppings in the immediate area but no tracks apparent. All that was left was the lower jaw, parts of the hide, a chewed up ribcage/spine and 40 acres of hair. Opening weekend, the carcass smelled just a little bit and the bare remnants of meat were still red -- I suppose about three days dead. The second weekend, things were stinking a bit more /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif the weather has been unseasonably warm here this fall. So, I'd be very interested in meeting up with someone wanting to explore Rum River State Forest a bit more. It's about a 40 minute drive from home. Let me know!

Ron
 
I am going to try it this Friday. I plan to be there just before daylight. I really do not know the area so my plan is to go in on Highway 20, find a place to park and start walking. Hope the wind's in my favor. If anyone else is intrested in going, let me know, I will meet up with anyone.

If anyone has any better ideas how to acces this piece, please let me know as well.
 
M70,

I have a deal at the Dome with my daughter at 3:00 PM, but let me check to see if I can get out for a few hours at daybreak. It was my impression that the forest is quite a bit larger than the adjoining Wildlife Management Area (WMA), but that it is more broken up. The WMA is one solid piece. If I can make it, we can meet somewhere off site if you want and drive in together. I wonder if anyone else would be interested in joining us?
 
Hey Guys,

Lights and I have plans to call that area on friday also. Maybe we should meet up so we don't step on each others toes. It will probably be pretty busy up there due to the holiday. I've been calling that area for a few years and if you can get in an area that hasn't been over run by other hunters you can do well but the coyotes are pressured pretty good from deer season on until after it gets really cold and all the couch jockeys are back in their warm homes or ice shacks.

There are also some other large WMA not too far from there and also some good state forest areas.

I was planning on starting early. We should find a place to meet. Maybe in Ogilive at the crossroads of HWY's 23 and 47. Drop me a PM if you are intrested.

Tim
 
Just wondering how the Rum River State Forest/WMA research went. Any coyotes sited? Finished the dome deal and got home about 1:30 AM -- back up 3-1/2 hours later for the whitetail muzzleloader opener at Rum River. I bumped into a guy in the forest who said he had spoken with someone looking for coyotes Friday. I'm thinkin' that was someone from PM. Let me know how it went!

Thanks,
Ron
 
Lights and I hunted the Mille Lacs WMA and saw one red fox but didn't have a shot. We really didn't see any coyote sign just a lot of deer hunter sign in the form of trash and tracks. We hunted several very promising looking stands and several so-so ones. We never hooked up with M70 and besides some looky-loo's we didn't run into anyone. I think the orange army has really put a damper on the public land hopefully M70 did better. I think he was hunting south of 20 in the Rum river state forest but I could be wrong.

Anyways now that muzzleloader is open you have to wear blaze orange so I won't be going out until it's over. Too bad since cat season just opened.

How's the deer hunting?

Tim
 
We didn't see a single whitetail all day -- dawn to dusk, but there was plenty of orange (like you say). I wonder, too, how coyote hunting will be on public land. Twelve more days of deer hunting and the orange will be gone -- a few bow hunters, but things should settle down. Thanks for asking!
 
Did you guys call in the woods or did you find more open areas? I tried some bushy areas on Thursday toting a 12 gauge with #4 buck. I figured I'd hear em coming before I would seen them. The leaves were really crunchy. It turned out I didn't hear a thing.
I did call in a coyote on Friday morning but he disappeared as soon as I saw him about 150 yards away.
I'll try again next weekend. I need to take the farmers son out. I really want to see the kid whack one.
 
We called in timber, fields, swamps, clear-cuts, and about every other type of cover we have. Nada. What do you do about the Blaze orange restrictions during muzzleloader season?

Tim
 
I think you need a blaze orange hat as well. Everything above the waist except your arms have to be orange. I would be interested to know if the orange camo works. I can't stand the thought of not hunting for the next month.
 
I already have the hat. Didn't think of posting that..
I have another theory that I will be testing this weekend. It is, with the snow cover that we now have, the blaze orange may just blend with the snow (in brightness level anyway). If coyotes are indeed color blind, the blaze orange may just show up as a light gray to them. Against the snow, it may not make a difference. Anybody have any experience with this?
Another thought to ponder too is, since deer hunters are limited to hunt 1/2 hour before sunrise to sunset here in MN, do we need blaze orange if we are hunting coyotes from say 9:00pm to 3:00 am? Deer season is technically closed during these hours? With the snow cover we have now, night time hunting may be the ticket. At least we have a chance of seeing them, even on a moonless night.
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top