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Saturday, October 24, 2009
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Slightly non-typical Hunt harvest numbers down a bit, but antlerless numbers - and one non-typical rack - help make the weekend Outdoors Editor Maybe it's the massive chunk of land in which these animals are allowed to roam. Or the fact that big bucks aren't out of the ordinary here - for the folks who know Camp Ripley best, such deer tend to blend in after awhile. And it has nothing to do with camouflage.
So unknown to all, it would seem, a big buck - even by Ripley standards - had quietly taken up residence in the southern edge of the impact area at Ripley. Had a bow hunter not been in the vicinity when the big buck decided to stretch its legs and shake the snow off its back after a night bedded down in the elements, no one still would likely be the wiser.
Scott O'Konek, 29, of South Haven - just south of St. Cloud - was in the right place at the right time and was rewarded with a 32-point non-typical buck the morning of the first day of the first early season bow hunt at Ripley on Oct. 15. According to www.fieldandstream.com, the buck's green score was conservatively estimated at 228 non-typical. The current state record for a non-typical buck taken by bow is 225 6/8 - by Glen Bullick in Yellow Medicine County in 1989. The rack will be officially measured after a 60-day drying-out period.
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There is plenty of space for hunters - and big bucks - to hunker down in Camp Ripley. According to Marty Skoglund, environmental supervisor at Ripley, about 40,000 of Ripley's 53,000 total acres are huntable, including "13,000 acres (for deer) to reside and not be pressured." Brainerd Dispatch/ Brian S. Peterson
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O'Konek's buck weighed 192 pounds field dressed and the highly symmetrical rack scored 183 7/8 typical, according to www.fieldandstream. com. Beau Liddell, DNR area wildlife manager in the Little Falls area, said the animal was about five years old.
Impressive, even for a non-typical rack. But not so non-typical for Ripley.
"The people who work range control and have their eyes on the deer have said there are more impressive ones than this one," Liddell said. "I don't think it will beat one that was taken here in 1992. And a few years ago there was the most impressive rack I've seen come out of Ripley. It was tall and wide and bigger in terms of mass and size. This had a lot of points. The only thing of note was that the brow tines were very long. But that was about it. Thirty-two (of the points) were an inch or more and there were a lot of little stickers coming off in all directions. It was a bona-fide 32 points."
According to Marty Skoglund, environmental supervisor at Ripley, about 40,000 of Ripley's 53,000 total acres are huntable, including "13,000 acres to reside and not be pressured."
"Absolutely not," he said when asked if he had any knowledge of the deer before the hunt. "That's why it's so puzzling. There's so much activity with range personnel. You would think it would trickle down that there was a monster like that out there.
"Where it was taken on the south edge of the impact area is a 5,000-acre area with fabulous landscape, rolling hills, wetlands. Everything a deer would want. And it's burned every year so there's a lot of regrowth. A lush area. It's not uncommon to see many deer out in the impact area grazing. As winter begins to break up you'll see hundreds of deer out there."
Allowing, perhaps, even a big buck to blend in.
"Time and again you see large, mature deer come out of Ripley," Skoglund said. "There was one 272-pounder that was harvested that was the largest weight-wise ever taken. And in the late 1980s we had a buck taken that, for a brief moment, was a new state record (non-typical), then shortly after it was surpassed. It was an amazing deer - similar to this one.
"My theory is a lot of guys come to Ripley that would like to shoot a trophy animal, so they often let the small bucks go by, and by default, that results in a quality deer management program for the area."
According to Liddell, 2,032 hunters harvested 171 deer Oct. 15-16 in Ripley's first two-day bow hunt of the season. A second hunt is scheduled Oct. 31-Nov. 1.
"It's not the type of harvest we've come to expect, especially for the first hunt. For the last six or seven years the harvest was a lot more than that. But it's still above the long-term average for the first hunt, which is 126," Liddell said. "It wasn't as good as recent years.
"The main mission is not a trophy hunt - it's to keep the population under control. But it was too cold and wet to stick it out. Especially the second day. Only 42 (deer were harvested) and normally it's at least 100. But they (the hunters) had enough. There's always a lot of guys who leave on day two, but more this year. But it was better than what we got prior to 2000, so all wasn't lost. And the antlerless harvest was at 71 percent. That's pleasing. It would be disappointing if it were only 40-50 percent like it used to be prior to when we started to allow bonus tags. But it's not for lack of deer. There's a lot of deer.
"There were at least five other deer 200 pounds or better and some nice racks," Liddell said of the harvest in the first Ripley hunt. "And one that was typical. I thought that was better than the non-typical."
But the 32-pointer was, of course, all the buzz. While in his blind in the opening hour or so of the hunt, O'Konek was surprised by the deer, which stood up from its bedding spot about 120 yards away. It slowly worked its way toward O'Konek, allowing him to get a 44-yard shot that immediately dropped the animal.
"I'm not saying anyone hadn't seen it, but I don't remember ever seeing this particular one," said O'Konek, participating in his fifth Ripley bow hunt. "But what draws me here - I hunt every day of the year I can - is the hunting itself. I would have been more than happy shooting a doe. It's the number of deer a person gets to see. One year I sat for 13 hours and saw 30-some deer.
"This is one of the only places that's remotely possible."
BRIAN S. PETERSON may be reached at brian.peterson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5864.
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