Minnesota deer hunting news of the weird

A collection of vignettes from  Minnesota conservation officers from opening weekend:

CO Karl Hadrits (Crosby) investigated a truck that was accidentally shot in the engine area and disabled by a first time youth hunter as he shot his first deer.

CO Bob Mlynar (Aitkin) found a hunter lying on the ground that had taken a fall. However it proved to be a young hunter who was too tired to stay awake an hour into legal shooting time.

CO Randy Posner (Brainerd) checked one hunter who was from Alaska who had complained that he had not seen any deer. CO Posner talked to the rest of his hunting party who explained that their friend did not see an 8-point buck that had walked by him because he was sleeping.

CO Lloyd Steen (Ray/Kabetogama) checked deer at a registration station and talked with Twin Cities hunters who wanted to register their deer first, before asking where the nearest hospital was. Inspection of the back of their vehicle revealed a prone hunter with multiple breaks to his leg, but a very good splint job done with rope and large balsam branches!

CO Mark Fredin (Aurora) was at a local store on deer opener when a person drove in behind Fredin’s squad truck and parked. Fredin was out talking to another party who was registering a deer and when walking by the truck behind his squad, saw a rifle in the passenger side barrel pointed down and in an unzipped case where the stock was fully exposed.
Fredin asked the driver if he could check the rifle to make sure it was unloaded and was told “sure.” The driver reached in and took hold of the rifle to pull it out and Fredin told him to just open the bolt to show it was empty. He then pushed the rifle back into the case and BOOM it goes off sending a 300 WIN MAG thru the passenger floor out towards the wheel. After getting his feet back on the ground, Fredin ordered him to the back of the truck and Fredin took the rifle and unloaded 2 rounds from the magazine and the spent round. Fortunately no one was hurt and the man informed Fredin he had not used the gun since last fall’s hunting season. He was verbally reprimanded and issued a citation for transporting a loaded firearm. Reports coming in of deer being shot from the roadway and the local deer processors reporting more deer than last year at this time being brought in.

CO Marty Stage (Ely) worked on deer bait violations. One camp in particular had a bunch of stands surrounding the cabin where the deer feed was piled. When Stage began contacting the hunters and seizing all their firearms, he quickly found that the Illinois hunters hadn’t bought any deer licenses. Their rationalization was that they were just party hunting off the cabin owner’s license. Got bait? Lose your guns, and in this case, lose your hunting privileges for three years and pay a hefty fine.

CO Paul Parthun (Lake George) took a complaint during the Deer Firearm’s Opener regarding a man with a compressed air horn. The man was in the woods sounding the horn and harassing hunters.

CO Gary Sommers (Walker) received a complaint that a hunter had shot and wounded a 10-point buck on Saturday, which he was able to locate on Sunday. The hunter left the deer to retrieve tools to process the animal. While he was gone, someone had removed the head and antlers from the deer. The issue remains under investigation.

CO Kipp Duncan (Duluth) reports a ten-year-old made the claim he will need to see a chiropractor after all the “high fives” and back slaps he received when returning to camp with a trophy 9-point buck.