I became acquainted with Bri Stacklie, the Minnesota Deer Hunter Association event and publication coordinator, through writing articles for her. She invited me to attend their 2017 Minnesota Governor’s Deer Opener, which sounded like a great event. Who hasn’t heard about the legendary “deer camps” in Minnesota.
I thought it might be fun for the readers out west to hear about a hunting organization/event that took place back east. One thing that I noticed is the excitement in the air the day before deer season.
Here’s what I think is the difference. In Idaho, we have deer, elk, antelope, bear, wolf, bighorn, rocky mountain goat and moose hunting all going on at once so our hunters are all fragmented every which way. In Minnesota, the whole team is on the field at once.
It surprised me but there’s a good bit of public land, too, which opens it up to the common Joe. That’s a good thing. Of course, they don’t have as much as we do out here, but it’s enough so people can go hunting.
But let’s back up and cover the event. I flew into Hibbing, Minnesota, at noon, jumped in a rental car and ran over to Grand Rapids. Then I checked into the Timberlake Lodge where the event was being held.
I got there early, which is the norm for me. They were just getting everything set up so I was able to get the lay of the land. I met Bri in person for the first time and got signed in. They had a big event tent set up outside that housed numerous booths. Cabela’s had a youth archery range set up in there.
Outside, there was a trailer set up by Fish and Game and a cowboy giving horse-drawn rides. Inside they were giving seminars on various topics, such as chronic wasting disease and other topics. Then at 6:30 the banquet started.
Wow, it was a lot bigger than I thought it’d be. I don’t know how many people were there, but it was packed. They had a lot of interesting speakers lined up on up to, including the governor. Most of them began their talk by recalling fond memories as a kid growing up in a deer camp.
The night soon drew to a close, and at 5 a.m. the next morning they served us breakfast and had a room set up for radio interviews. I didn’t count, but there had to have been seven to eight outdoor radio stations interviewing outdoor writers, game wardens, etc. I had five interviews scheduled.
It was a fun event. They were a lively bunch and it sounded like all of the radio hosts were raised in a deer camp. Most of the interviews were live. I was surprised at how many outdoor radio stations Minnesota had. I’m sure there’s more, but I only knew of one here in Idaho and it went under years ago. So the radio interviews were fast and furious and then they scattered.
I then jumped into my rig and headed for the woods to experience a Minnesota deer camp. I was going to hunt with Ed Schmidt, one of the founders of the Minnesota Deer Hunter Association and editor at the MDHA Magazine. His sidekick, Roger Grosslein, was in camp helping out, as well as Javier Serna, editor at the Outdoor News.
I hit camp right at lunch, and Ed whipped us up something to eat right fast, and then we went out to check out our blinds. Roger and I went to check out ours and Ed and Javier went to theirs. My blind was in the woods with about a 40- to 50-yard view. There was 6 inches of snow and tracks seemingly everywhere. It looked promising. We hung a little more cloth on the outside and then headed back to the cabin.
A big limb had fallen off and punctured through the roof of the porch on the cabin. It was stuck pretty good but I was able to whack on it for a bit with a chainsaw and get it out. We then had a big dinner and sat around telling stories. I’ve always heard how cool it was to canoe in northern Minnesota. Javier does it quite a bit and was telling me about it.
The next morning we got up early and hit the blinds. About 10:30 we all met at the cabin for breakfast. Ed makes his own maple syrup. Wow, that stuff is worth dying for. We shot the bull a minute and headed back out to the blinds. It spit either snow, sleet or rain most of the day, and the deer just weren’t moving too much. I knew the weather would be bad so I’d taken my Mossberg Patriot rifle with a Leupold scope and was using Nosler Trophy Grade 250-grain ammo. I knew all three would hold up to the weather.
It soon got dark and we headed back to the cabin. We had a big dinner and then sat around shooting the bull and listening to a Minnesota radio station called The Green Cheese. Great time experiencing Minnesota.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.
