Archery Opening Weekend

Opening weekend has come and went. Here in Minnesota, our archery opener was September 16, 2023. But, before we get into our field review of this last weekend, let’s rewind a bit and talk about what has been going on lately.

A little over two weeks ago now, was Labor Day weekend and as you might have guessed I spent it in the Northwoods with my family. Some last-minute deer prep was necessary that weekend which included getting the tree stand out of its store package and set up out in the yard of our cabin. Believe it or not this is the first treestand that I have ever put together, and I’d rather not admit that it took quite some time to assemble. As some of my readers may know, I am hunting public land this year for the majority of my hunting season; that said, state regulations say that I cannot leave a permanent stand out on public land. So, a ladder treestand was the choice I made in the offseason as it is stable enough for me to climb, and light enough for me to disassemble and move if necessary. I was able to purchase Big Game The Hunter HD 1.5 Treestand when it was on sale and so far, so good.

Along with getting the ladder stand out and assembled, I was getting ready to set out some trail cameras. Unfortunately, that weekend I found out my cameras were done for; and, since I got them from my dad’s collection, it was time to replace them. After that weekend, my gracious wife allowed me to spend some MORE money on hunting gear and we stopped over at Scheels to pick up a new set of cameras. But alas, I was unable to get them set up prior to opening weekend.

And then the last thing that we did Labor Day weekend, was to scout a few more locations that I may want to hunt. Which, if you have ever done anything with non-hunters out in the deer woods, scouting is probably not a task you want to tackle with non-hunters in tow. Now I love my family but taking them on a hike in 90-degree heat apparently makes them want to sing and laugh and talk so loudly I think it may have been more of a distraction to me than an actual productive outing. Regardless, I was able to locate a few different spots on some public land that seem hard for a person to get to, but buck signs were prevalent.

Fast-forward to the Friday before the opener, I woke up around 4:30, showered, loaded up the car with my coolers and bow, and puppy, and started my 3 hour drive out to the cabin… during pouring rain. But the good news is that by the time I got out to the cabin, the rain had stopped, and it cleared up into a great day. My father-in-law was kind enough to help me get my ladder stand set up and trail cams on and working that afternoon. We then headed back to the cabin and waited for the ladies to arrive.

Something I didn’t remember from when I was a kid was how excited I would get the day before season opener; I was so wired it was hard for me to sleep that evening. I got into bed early knowing that I would be getting up at 4:30 AM to head out to my stand. I must have woken up two or three times that night thinking I had overslept and hadn’t heard my alarm(s). But nevertheless, I woke up and got my bow into the truck along with my backpack full of Little Debbie’s snacks and poured me a coffee as I was walking out the door to head out to my stand.

As a little back story, I set up my ladder tree stand out on public hunting land owned by the county. It’s about a mile’s drive from the main dirt road, and about three-hundred yards from the logging road turnaround. It’s set up on a pine tree island overlooking a clear-cut field to my right and left. When we scouted the area, we saw this island was right in the middle of a deer crossing. Some of the signs that we saw were multiple droppings, along with deer tracks, and two scrapes. It seems that deer are moving along this island heading to and from a bedding area in the thick woods to our east and traveling to water sources to our west.

As I was heading out to the stand, I got stuck behind a small skunk so my journey took a lot longer than it should have taken. Sunrise was at 6:46 AM at that location, meaning legal shooting light should have been around 6:16 AM. Although, I wanted to be in the stand by 5:45 AM, that did not happen! By the time I got to where I was going to park, got my bow out, my backpack and my climbing harness on, the sky was starting to get a little bit lighter. I had about a 15-minute walk, and I was in the stand at 5:58 AM. And that was ok! Twilight lasted longer than I expected and by legal shooting time, it was still too dark to shoot. I sat all morning and didn’t see a thing. Unfortunately, that is how the whole weekend went.

I hunted Saturday evening, Sunday Morning, Monday morning and Monday evening. All resulted in seeing close to nothing Out of all the sitting we did that weekend, we saw two does, a fawn still with spots, and what was a possible spike buck. While I cannot shoot does in my hunt area, the spike buck may have been legal to take, but he was at least 200 yards away from where I was sitting. I believe the reasons for the low deer movement, was simply it is early in the season as the does are not in estrous, the weather was warmish with no relative cold snaps yet, and that weekend happened to be the ruffed grouse opener. Saturday and Sunday we heard so many shots throughout the day from the grouse hunters.

All in all, the opening weekend was productive even though we did not harvest a buck. We saw great deer sign, including tracks and scrapes, we set up two trail cameras overlooking high-traffic areas, scouted for two more hunting spots that we will try to set up on during our next outing, and saw a few deer, not to mention I went out Sunday evening for some grouse action, blog post and recipe coming soon.

Stay Safe & Happy Hunting!