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Taken on opening morning by M.C.Perell 2009. Nice 8 point buck. No record but none the less a great hunt.  Other then this boy the hunt was very slow in the Togo area this year.  Seemed to be less hunters then normal.  The logging was very extensive. This may have contributed to the slow action this year.

Minnesota vs. Wisconsin Border Battle Minnesota and Wisconsin often are rivals -- from their Favre and  Favre-less pro football teams to the annual Gophers-Badgers battles. But when it comes to deer and deer hunting, there's no contest: Wisconsin is No. 1. It has more deer, more trophy deer, more deer hunters and roughly twice the deer harvest as Minnesota. Cheese Land hunters have averaged nearly 500,000  deer in the past five years, while hunters in the Land of 10,000 Lakes have averaged 254,000. This from a state that's about one-third smaller than Minnesota. What gives? There's no reason for Minnesotans to feel inferior: Wildlife officials in both states say key differences in geography and landscape habitat fuels Wisconsin's  deer dominance. "Their deer habitat far exceeds ours," said Lou Cornicelli, Minnesota DNR big  game program leader. "The southern half of Wisconsin -- their core deer habitat  -- is better than anything I've ever seen in my life." Keith Warnke, Wisconsin DNR big game ecologist, agrees. "You have agriculture interspersed with woodlands; the habitat is absolutely outstanding when it comes to food, water and cover," he said. "The deer populations there have tremendous productivity potential. It's probably some of the most productive deer habitat in the country." Vast regions of Minnesota, by comparison, are flat and intensively farmed. "And the farthest northern point of Wisconsin is even with Duluth," said Dennis  Simon, Minnesota DNR wildlife section chief. "We have one-third of the state farther north than that.'' The northern third of Minnesota produces deer, but productivity there is relatively low and its whitetails are susceptible to severe winter weather.  "Wisconsin has higher reproductive rates and lower nonhunter mortality rates,"  Simon said. Which means more deer per square mile. "Their densities are far in excess of what we have," Cornicelli said. "I always say the top end of our deer densities is the low end of their deer densities." Consider also that Wisconsin has more deer hunters: Last year, it had more than 642,000 firearms hunters, compared with 450,000 in Minnesota. Those hunters  killed 352,601 deer in Wisconsin, compared with 193,000 in Minnesota. (Archers killed another 99,000 deer in Wisconsin, and archers and special hunts accounted  for another 29,000 in Minnesota.) And while Minnesota has recorded some monster trophy deer over the decades,  Wisconsin is the No. 1 trophy whitetail state in the nation. In the Pope and  Young Club record book, which tracks whitetails taken by bow and arrow, Wisconsin has 8,478 entrees. Minnesota has 2,295. The Boone and Crockett Club, which scores trophy deer taken by all means and sets a higher trophy standard, has 1,055 deer registered from Wisconsin and 849 from Minnesota. (Minnesota does rank No. 3 and Wisconsin No. 4 for nontypical trophy deer registered with Boone and Crockett. Illinois is No. 1 and Iowa is  No. 2.) Why are there more trophy bucks in Wisconsin? Again, habitat is key. "I always say three things impact antler growth: nutrition, nutrition and  nutrition,'' Warnke said. Southern Wisconsin offers whitetails everything they  need to grow impressive racks. Age also is a factor. And management practices that encourage hunters to shoot does allow some bucks to survive longer. All of which can add up to big bucks. But cheer up, Minnesotans. We still have Brett Favre.

Wolves Getting Brave In Northern Minnesota The wolves appeared shortly after Scott Wundinich shot and gutted a deer,  then climbed back into his stand. "Four or five, including a pitch-black male, came running out of the woods together,'' recalled Wundinich, 48, of Eveleth, Minn. "I looked to my left and  saw three more. There were three or four more on my other side. I was stunned. I  yelled and screamed, but they pretty much ignored me. They paced back and forth. They wanted my deer and the gut pile.'' Despite firing several shots to try to scare away the wolves, they lurked, sometimes howling and barking, about 50 yards from Wundinich's stand for 45  minutes. "I was scared,'' he said. "I've been hunting since I was 12 and I've never seen anything like this. It was a real humbling, eerie feeling.'' Afraid to get down, Wundinich hunkered in his stand until darkness descended on the woods near Lake Vermilion in northeastern Minnesota. Then, with his rifle still loaded, he cautiously climbed down. "I could hear them,'' he said. With a small flashlight in his mouth, he scrambled to his ATV about 120 yards  away. "I started it up and drove out of the woods as fast as I could go.'' Wildlife officials say the encounter with wolves was unusual. But Wundinich  and others, including some northern Minnesota conservation officers, say such  encounters and sightings there are becoming more common. "I'd say almost 50 percent of the deer camps I've checked have said they've  seen wolves,'' said Dan Starr, Department of Natural Resources conservation officer in Tower. "That has increased. They [wolves] are getting pretty  bold.'' Said Wundinich: "We have an unmanaged population of wolves in northern Minnesota. They are becoming a problem.'' Dan Stark, a DNR wolf specialist, said he hasn't received more calls about human-wolf encounters. Surveys done in 2007-2008 estimate the state's wolf  population at about 3,000. It's unknown if that number has increased since  then. He said Wundinich's experience is unusual because wolves generally don't stand their ground, even with food present. "I've walked in on wolves feeding, and they scattered,'' he said. But a  downed deer could affect their behavior. "I've had them bark and howl at me, but they seem to keep a certain distance.  I probably wouldn't get down from a stand and try to drag the deer off.'' Wolf attacks in North America on humans are extremely rare. But that didn't  ease Wundinich's mind when he was in his stand with a pack of wolves below Nov. 8. Here's what Wundinich said happened: With his dad and nephew hunting elsewhere, he shot a small buck about 3:50 p.m. He climbed down and gutted the deer. Because he couldn't legally operate  his ATV until after shooting hours (a half-hour after sunset), he went back into his stand. That's when the wolves showed up. He stood up and made noise. "They scampered off a bit, but it didn't scare them,'' he said. He shot his 30.06 rifle twice in the air. "They ran about 45 yards away on top of a hill and started howling.'' Unsure what to do, he used  his cell phone to call his dad at the cabin, who told him to call Starr, the  local conservation officer, whom Wundinich knows. "He [Starr] said fire some shots to scare them. I told him I had done that,''  Wundinich said. "He said to leave the deer.'' After a while, he fired two more shots, then reloaded his rifle. "I told him if I was attacked, I would shoot,'' Wundinich said. Wolves are protected and  managed under the federal Endangered Species Act, but people can kill them to  defend themselves. Sometime after 5 p.m. Wundinich finally climbed down, got to his four-wheeler  in the dark and sped to his cabin, less than a mile away. Armed with his rifle,  he and his nephew each drove four-wheelers back to retrieve his deer. "The gut pile was mostly gone and they bit into the hindquarters and neck and  chewed on an ear,'' he said. Wundinich said he was reluctant to tell anyone about the experience because  he feared no one would believe him. Starr, however, mentioned the incident in his weekly report, which is distributed to news media. He said he has no reason  to doubt Wundinich's story. "He was legitimately shook up,'' Starr said. Other conservation officers have received complaints from hunters, saying  there are too many wolves and too few deer. DNR officials say deer numbers are down because of recent tough winters and liberal hunting regulations. Stark, the  wolf biologist, said a lengthy DNR deer study in the Grand Rapids area showed that wolves kill about 5 to 10 percent of does yearly. Other studies estimate wolves kill 45,000 to 60,000 deer yearly. In recent years, hunters have harvested 220,000 to 250,000 deer. As for Wundinich, he planned to be back in his stand this weekend, the last  of the regular firearms season, with his wolf encounter fresh on his mind. "I'll never forget it as long as I live,'' he said.

Gun may have felled poached trophy buck Department of Natural Resources enforcement officials now believe that the world-record eight-point buck poached this fall in Goodhue County was killed  with a firearm, not a bow, according to sources familiar with the agency's  investigation. Testing of the animal's hide points to a firearm killing, said one source  close to the investigation. Enforcement officials also are weighing whether the big buck was killed near the town of White Rock in Goodhue County, as earlier believed, or instead might  have been poached with a rifle or shotgun, perhaps from a rural Goodhue County road, the source said. The firearms season wasn't open when the animal was killed. The DNR said last week that Troy Alan Reinke, 32, of Cannon Falls said he  killed the buck with his bow on Halloween evening. Reinke told the DNR that  earlier this fall he also had killed a smaller buck and a doe with his bow,  officials said, failing to tag either. Reinke could legally kill only one deer with his bow, and his failure to tag the first two rendered the trophy buck poached. The DNR said it confiscated meat from the three deer from Reinke's home and also took the big buck's antlers. The DNR wouldn't confirm whether its investigators have found gunpowder or similar residue on the buck's cape. Assistant Goodhue County attorney Dave Grove said Wednesday that he has spoken to the DNR about its investigation, but that conservation officers haven't given him test results confirming a firearm  poaching of the deer. If he receives such results, Grove said, "I would have to review [the  information] to see if the charges would have to be amended." The antlers of the big buck are believed to be the highest-scoring eight-point whitetail rack ever taken anywhere by a bow hunter -- or would have been, had the animal been killed legally. Reinke has been charged with 13 misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors and faces  fines of $2,000 or much more, as well as jail time, if convicted. He could also  lose his hunting privileges. According to a complaint filed in Goodhue County, Reinke told DNR  conservation officers Tyler Quandt and Kevin Prodzinski that he killed the buck  just before dark on Halloween evening, and that his cousin Matt Pientenka and  Pientenka's girlfriend helped get the big deer to Reinke's house. Reinke told the officers that he butchers his own deer and that he took the  massive buck -- which reportedly field-dressed at almost 270 pounds -- to a  local taxidermist the next day, intending to have the head and antlers mounted. The taxidermist "caped" the deer in preparation for mounting and the animal's  hide was stored in the taxidermist's freezer. It's that hide that investigators have studied to determine whether the animal might have been killed by a firearm. Court records show Reinke has been convicted of illegal alcohol consumption, gas theft, marijuana possession, traffic offenses, fighting and domestic  assault. The DNR also previously cited him for fishing with an extra line and, separately, issued him a written warning for not carrying a fishing license. A person who answered the phone at Reinke's home Wednesday said he was unavailable. His first court appearance will be in December.

Almost 101, northern Minnesota hunter still  lives for deer season WILLIAMS, Minn. Leon Wilson didn't fight in World War II because Uncle Sam said he was a bit too long in the tooth. "They told me I was too old and couldn't take it," Wilson recalled last  week. He might have been too old for World War II in 1943, but barely a month shy  of his 101st birthday, Wilson's not too old to hunt deer. According to the  Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Wilson, of Baudette, Minn., is the  second-oldest licensed deer hunter in the state. He was the oldest until a day or two before season, when another hunter  bought a last-minute license and aced him out by six weeks. Wilson will be 101 on Dec. 24. And judging by the sparkle in his blue eyes,  the excitement of another deer season still gets the blood flowing. It's been that way, Wilson says, since he first hunted. But he's not sure when that was, exactly. "Oh Lord, I don't know," Wilson said. "I was maybe 10 years old." Little did he know he'd still be hunting 90 years later. "I never expected to make it to 100, believe me," Wilson said. On a roll Wilson's age certainly hasn't been a detriment to success. Since 2000, he's  hunted in a heated stand on his son-in-law's property near Williams. He shot two deer last year and one deer in 2007 using the same 6mm rifle he's hunted with for more than 30 years. As for this year ... well, Wilson said, he had a chance Nov. 8, the second day of deer season. "My rifle fouled me up," he said. "I got something in the gol-darn chamber.  It wasn't closing all the way, and if it ain't closing, it won't shoot." Just like any good deer hunter, Wilson's got a theory about what went wrong. The past two years, he said, he went to church those Sunday mornings during deer  season and ended up shooting deer in the afternoon. This year, Wilson said, he didn't go to church on Sunday. And look what  happened? The deer's still out there. "That's where I made the mistake," Wilson said. "He was quite a ways away, but I was shaky compared to what I've been. At my age, I shouldn't get buck  fever. ... I just wasn't on." 'Keep moving' There haven't been too many off days during all of those deer seasons. Ask Wilson how many deer he's shot over the years, and he just laughs. "I wouldn't even try to guess," he said. Growing up near Williams, the second oldest in a family of seven boys and  four girls, Wilson said deer hunting wasn't so much a form of recreation as a means of survival. "It was a different time and we used the deer," he said. "We needed the  meat." Wilson said he credits his longevity to his mother, who lived to be 94 years old. "She said whatever you do, keep moving," Wilson said. "Don't sit down in that  chair." And he rarely does. Wilson regularly goes to dances Friday nights and he still drives a car. He's also a pretty mean bowler, although an injury several years ago forced him to learn how to bowl left handed. He bowled a 224 at the  age of 99. He still lives on his own in Baudette, where his daughter, Grace, has him  over for dinner every day and sends supper home for him at night. On his second cat Daughter Judi Senkyr of Williams said her dad also has had luck on his side  in surpassing the century mark. If a cat indeed has nine lives, she said, her  dad is now on his second cat. "He's had so many things that happened," she said. Wilson, who retired at age 69 after 40 years with the Lake of the Woods  County Highway Department, said he almost died in 1943 after contracting  pneumonia while driving an unheated snowplow. The disease nearly destroyed one  of his lungs, and if the nurse hadn't administered strong doses of sulfur until  the doctor arrived, Wilson said he probably would have died. "He told me I owed her my life," Wilson said, his eyes tearing up at the memory. Twice, Wilson said, he had vehicles fall on him while working underneath. He escaped serious injury both times. "A guy should know better than to have the second one fall on him," he said. Then there was the deer season in the early 1990s when Wilson pounded nails  into two adjacent jackpine trees so he could climb up for a better view of the  surroundings. He was getting ready to come down when one of the nails pulled out  and he fell 16 feet to the ground. He would have been about 85 years old, give or take. "I was shook up and didn't know if I was going to get up or not," Wilson said. He'd lost his glasses in the fall and the impact apparently had ruined the scope on his rifle. "I came walking home and my daughter said, 'Where are your glasses?"' Wilson said. They went back with a flashlight and found the glasses. "Well, when I found my glasses, there was nothing wrong with the scope," he  said. Many changes Wilson said the advent of the scope is probably the biggest change he's seen since he started hunting deer. That, and the new rifle he got before  retiring. "After I got that new rifle with the scope, the deer didn't have a chance,"  Wilson said. He has the evidence to back that up. "I've got 17 or 19 sets of horns since I turned 70," Wilson said of the bucks  he's shot. "I had a lot more before that, but I never saved them. After I was  70, I started saving them." He has yet to top, though, the 14-point buck he shot years ago. Besides an impressive rack, the buck weighed 238 pounds field-dressed. But he'll keep trying throughout the deer season. Except for Mondays and Wednesdays; those are the days he and daughter Judi play pinochle at the senior  center in Williams. "Pinochle comes before hunting," Wilson said. "I figured I'd take our card playing days off. I only hunted three-four days last year, and I shot two  deer." There were years, Wilson said, when he hunted in 20- to 25-below zero  temperatures wondering why he was that dumb. "But I came back again the next year," he said.

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