In a boost for local youth outdoor education, Cuyuna Range Whitetails, established in 2001, recently partnered with the CRES Firearm Safety program to enhance accessibility for student trapshooters and hunters going through the Firearm Safety program.
If you've ever watched the sun come up from a deer stand, shared stories around deer camp, or helped a young hunter tag their first buck, you know deer hunting is about much more than filling a tag.
For many years, the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association and our chapters across the state have believed that one of the best investments we can make is in the next generation of outdoorsmen and women. That belief is why MDHA and its local chapters have proudly supported the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League since its earliest days and why we continue to make that support a priority today.
For more than four decades, the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association has played a major role in shaping Minnesota’s outdoor heritage. While MDHA is best known for its advocacy on behalf of deer hunters and wildlife habitat, our organization’s influence extends far beyond the woods each fall. Through conservation projects, habitat restoration, outdoor education, fundraising events, and support for hunting participation, MDHA contributes significantly to Minnesota’s economy and quality of life.
MDHA keeps growing, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome the new South Washington County Chapter to the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association family.
For more than four decades, the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association has been committed to protecting Minnesota’s deer habitat, preserving hunting traditions, and ensuring the future of our outdoor heritage. One of the most impactful ways we do that is through Forkhorn Camps — a program designed to introduce young people to the outdoors, conservation, and safe, ethical hunting.
Like many of us raised in Minnesota, I started hunting as a pre-teen (at the age of eleven) and have been at it ever since. Some highlights include my first ruffed grouse (1978) and first deer (1981). Years later, my first contribution to Whitetales, a story (“Whitetail Deer Evolution”) in the Spring 1995 issue. During the subsequent thirty-plus years I’ve been privileged to write/contribute an additional 42 Whitetales stories.
Spurred on by a combination of factors, including the growing interest in long-range shooting, availability of high ballistic coefficient bullets, new powders, rifles with fast-twist barrels, and the popularity of AR-15 style rifles, there has been a surge in the development of small-caliber cartridges over the last 20 years.
No rest for the wicked, or so the saying goes. We’ll quickly be staring down summer weather with all it’s drudgery, including ticks and mosquitoes, but there’s plenty of work to be done before then. Here’s how to triage spring chores that should be done now.
My grandma was a bona fide hoarder. Back when I was a kid, I was afraid to bring my friends to her house. There was stuff stacked floor to ceiling with just a deer trail leading between the rooms.
I love deer hunting. I love the preparation. I love the hunt. I love the camp. But, why let it end there? If you drop your deer off at the processor, then your hunt is truly over. In a future issue I will write an article on cutting up your deer, but for now, suffice it to say making your own sausage will extend your hunting experience. Not only that, you will save money and enjoy good eating for the rest of the year!
When winter settles in across Minnesota, sometimes early, sometimes late, other times in the middle, temperatures will vary from moderate to bitter lows throughout much of the state. For sure, the days will become shorter until the winter solstice on December 21 or 22, and more often than not, our lands and lakes will lay quiet under a blanket of snow of varying depths. In these often brutal conditions, survival is a constant challenge for white-tailed deer. Yet, they have proven to be remarkably tough.
Minnesota Deer Hunters Association
460 Peterson Rd
Grand Rapids, Minnesota 55744
