Where are the pheasants

Well for a change I decided to put up a link to where the pheasants are in Minnesota. This is a PDF file from the MN DNR and is from last year which can be found here. This is the roadside survey that the DNR does to get an idea of the pheasant population in the state. From year to year this map doesn't change much, but there are some slight changes each year but this one is representative of what to expect. Once the 2009 survey and map is out I will provide a link to it here also.

I have had good luck while hunting in the Benson area seeing birds, but in the morning my party went the wrong way and only saw hens while the other party got all the roosters. In total though we saw a large number of birds and the other party of got their limit on opener within 30 minutes. If I remember correctly my party saw about 2 dozen or so birds, with only 1 being a rooster though.

I have consistantly seen birds in the Tyler area (extreme south west minnesota) without having a dog. In a typical day it wasn't uncommon for 3 guys without a dog to flush 8-10 birds. Also this is prime pheasant teritory with the more prairy like setting and lots of grain farming. If you can find a field that is currently beign harvested and is next to public hunting land it is some of the best phesant hunting I have done as the combine drives the birds out of the field towards the public land.

I have even had success up in the St. Cloud area but there it is harder to find the birds and a good dog is pretty much a necessity. Typically I have had more success in the St. Cloud area later in the season since then the swamps have frozen and if you are willing to push through the swamp you can flush a lot of birds out of the cat tails in this area. Also hunting here after a snow fall is nice since then you can easily find their bedding area which is usually along a windbreak of pine trees.

Where are the deer?

Well I did some more searching on the MN DNR website and I ran across these 2 maps. They are for '07 and '08 and they each is a pre-fawn deer density map. Neither of these maps provides an exact number so it would be difficult incorporate the data in an accurate way with the harvest map that I created, since I would like to normalize the harvest data against things like the deer density or hunter density but I have been unable to find this data. Intuitively one could do some estimates based off of these 2 maps and the harvest map that I created that would provide some useful insight.

Note that these maps like most maps from the Minnesota DNR are in PDF format and require a PDF reader which you can get at adobe.com or my preferred PDF reader foxitsoftware.com.

Also if anyone know where I can get some of the raw data that went into creating these maps that would be helpful since.

1993 - 2005 Total harvest per square mile by area

This map is a map I made from the data that the MN DNR has made available through the DNR data deli. It is a color coded map of the deer harvest from 1993 to 2005 with the the darkest blue areas being the areas that have had the lowest harvest per square mile and the reddest areas having the highest harvest per square mile. The progression is from dark blue to yellow to dark red. Typically dark blue areas 0-3 deer are harvested per square mile each year while the darkest red area has between 10 -12 deer harvested per square mile each year. Also the deer areas have changed over time so for some of the areas that are shown on the map there may be multiple colors.

Click on the map to get a high resolution version. I offer this map for free for anyone who wishes to use it for non commercial purposes all other rights reserved.

2009 MN DNR Camp Ripley Archery Deer Hunt

So as an initial map I offer up the Minnesota DNR's 2009 Camp Ripley Archery Deer hunt map as the deadline for applying for this special hunt is quickly approaching. The deadline to turn in your applications for this hunt is due Friday August 14th. There are 2 hunts this year October 15 & 16, and October 31 and November 1. For those who are interested you can find the complete rules on the MN DNR web site here, and if you want the application it is available here at the MN DNR web site.

Welcome

Welcome to MN hunting maps. Why did I create this blog, well because I am relatively new to hunting and one thing that I have noticed is that there really aren't any maps that exist that tell me what I want to know. I do know how to create maps which I will be doing and plan on offering large nice maps that can be taken into the field for sale. At present I have not done this but as it is a ways out from hunting season, I still have time. I will be posting various maps up here that other Minnesota hunter may find of value. Some will be maps that I create, other will be links to maps from other sources as I do not want to take credit for maps created by other people or organizations.

So as a base reference map I offer up the Minnesota DNR's 2009 Camp Ripley Archery Deer hunt map as the deadline for applying for this special hunt is quickly approaching. The deadline to turn in your applications for this hunt is due Friday August 14th. There are 2 hunts this year October 15 & 16, and October 31 and November 1. For those who are interested you can find the complete rules on the MN DNR web site here, and if you want the application it is available here at the MN DNR web site.