Weather puts crimp on deer season opener

Cold, snow and wind appeared to hinder the deer harvest on the opening weekend of Minnesota's regular firearms season.

The weather made it difficult for some hunters to remain in their deer stands for long periods, and it also likely kept deer movement to a minimum.

Conservation officers reported that unharvested corn in some areas also hampered hunters, providing a safe haven for deer. Deparment of Natural Resources deer harvest information wasn't available Tuesday because of the Veteran's Day holiday, but based on conservation officer reports, weekend harvest likely was down.

Harvest appeared to be down in places such as Wheaton, Osakis, Alexandria, Morris, Glenwood and Two Harbors. Hunter numbers also were reported down in some areas, though in other places, such as Grand Rapids and Park Rapids, it was busy in the woods. Near Waconia, officers saw more hunters, but they complained of seeing very few deer.

"Several large groups of hunters were checked, with none of them having more than one deer,'' reported officer Steve Walter.

There were the usual bizarre incidents reported, too.

Two hunters in the Aitkin area went into a store to buy guns on opening day, and an officer suspected that perhaps they had lost their guns because of a hunting violation.

"But no, the story was that one of them had shot a deer and the two got down out of the heated box stand to field dress the deer,'' reported officer Bob Mlynar of Aitkin. "As they were doing so, they heard a crackling noise [and] turned around to see their stand ablaze.''

Near Pelican Rapids, officer Gary Forsberg handled a call about two deer locked together. They were in a slough, in deep water, with electric fencing wire wrapped around their heads and antlers. One deer already was dead. Forsberg waded into the water with a wire cutter and freed the live deer.

DOUG SMITH