Feb. 17, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
203 
Deer Hunting in Minnesota 
By HENRY JOERG 
H urrah, boys, it’s time for the train!” 
These words were spoken on Nov. 7 to 
the boys, who all had a longing for the 
pure air of the pine, cedar, balsam and spruce 
forests, the real balm for lungs, nerves and blood; 
the purifying of the whole system. After work¬ 
ing hard all the year, this trip to the woods is a 
real recreation. 
Arriving in St. Paul, we bought the extras 
needed, as we had four hours’ time to wait for 
the Duluth flyer for Moose Lake. From there 
we took the Soo train at noon for Remer. This 
new line, just built, saved us a fifty-mile drive 
over hills and valleys to the real deer and bear 
hunting country. 
This year the bears had all been denned up, 
for cold comes early at Remer. We bought our 
provisions for the balance of the month and 
started to our camp, fourteen miles distant. My¬ 
self, J. L. Kunz, Frank Seymour and a couple of 
other men joined us later on, but their names 
I will omit, for reasons given later on. 
We were met at the train by our old friend, 
the wood chopper, war horse and logging camp 
owner, Alex Gilmer, who had for about twenty 
years taken us in and out each season. The old 
boss would have it no other way but to go to 
his camp over night, and after supper a general 
conference was held on the location,- the game 
seen, their notions and acting, as the deer seem 
to understand the hunter better every year, they 
being more cautious since the use of high power 
rifles. 
In the morning early we started in a drizzling 
rain, arriving at camp about ii o’clock. We 
were surprised to find the door and window 
gone, one-half the roof off, the chinking between 
the logs mostly gone, part of the stove missing 
and the inside full of water and ice. It was a 
job to put all this in line, and it was midnight 
before we were ready to turn into our bunks. 
This camp is on the beautiful shores of Thun¬ 
der Lake amidst the most picturesque surround¬ 
ings I have ever seen, and I think it the nicest 
spot on earth. The frequent rumbling, seemingly 
under the lake, which sounds like far distant 
thunder, is a phenomenon never explained by scien¬ 
tists so far. Many a time as I sat on a stump 
close to the water I would hear this mysterious 
rumbling, but no quiver of earth or air cou d 
be felt. 
On opening day we took a stroll, each one by 
himself. During night it had turned very cold 
and all leaves and bushes were full of ice. The 
rising sun made everything look as if crystalized, 
but walking was so noisy on the frozen leaves 
that we soon gave up hunting and returned to 
camp to gather wood for, the season. By that 
time it clouded up and started to snow. Later 
there was a regular blizzard and we had to work 
to get wood in. By dark, we had enough to 'ast, 
we thought, a week. How we got fooled! 
Next morning our water pail had three-quar- 
, ters of an inch of ice on it in the camp, and the 
air was so cold that we had to work to keep 
warm. The first cold snap is always felt more, 
but one finally gets used to it. In two days all 
our wood was gone and there was about eigh¬ 
teen inches of snow on the level, but the fourth 
day it was clear with the temperature iS degrees 
below zero. When we started out it was a little 
hard on cheeks, ears and noses, but we followed 
the valleys all we could, taking in swamps and 
other places. Tracks seemed to be plenty, but 
we could not get near any deer that day, nor the 
next six days, when the temperature fell to 30 
degrees below. We noticed that the deer had 
left these hills, going for the big timber. We 
then decided to move to a place eight miles 
away which we did the next day, and when we 
got up next morning, the weather was fine and 
the day seemed the right one for hunting. Five 
rods from the shack we found three fresh tracks. 
One man stayed there while the other two went 
THE P.\KTV .V.xn ITS G.\ M E. 
around in a circle to head them off, but when 
the driver returned they had gone through. As 
the tracks were only a short way from there, I 
told the two boys to wait three-quarters of an 
hour, then follow the track. I knew of a hil - 
side where they all used to cross. When I got 
there I found the storm had blown over a large 
hard maple whose leaves were still on, and 
which made splendid cover. Nothing was seen, 
so I started for another place eighty rods fur¬ 
ther on, but when I had gone about twenty yards, 
on looking over to the place where I wanted to 
stand, I saw three flags drop over a hogback. 
The boys were there when I got to the run¬ 
way. The deer had passed very close to them, 
hut were not seen. They followed the tracks 
clear to Bog River, while I made for the swamp 
where I found a dandy open place, lots of wind¬ 
falls on one side, cedar and tamarack on the 
other and the side on the swamp with thick 
alders. I watched all around for five minutes 
when a slight cracking of a twig reached my 
ear. I turned slowly to see a big buck coming 
down hill right-quartering toward me. Putting 
the rifle to my shoulder I turned, but could not 
turn far enough without sliding off the log, but 
I fired and the buck jumped up high, while I 
landed in three feet of snow, legs in the air. 
When I got on my feet, no buck cou’d be seen. 
I crawled over the windfall to the place where 
I had last seen him and from there the track 
was eight feet wide. Lie went fifty-seven yards 
from where I shot. The bullet struck close to 
the shoulder joint, cut the bottom of the heart 
entirely off, and went out on the other side. 
When I skinned him at home this piece of heart 
was between the skin and the ribs. The meat 
was nice. He was fat and had a nice even set 
of four prong horns. 
Next morning we all started again, and a 
quarter of a mile from the shanty we saw fresh 
tracks. I sent one of the b'oys ahead while I 
made a drive, and fifteen minutes later we had 
another nice deer hanging up. Only three shots 
were fired. As it was only 9 o’clock a. m.. we 
decided to take a recess for two days, and went 
fishing. There are thirty-five lakes in the vicinity, 
and from the high hi’l near Thunder Lake one 
can see nearly all of them. We got a nice bunch 
of partridges and spent a couple of days free and 
easy. On the third day we got up very late to 
find that the weather had moderated. It was 
thawing some. The deer do not smell so good 
when it is damp and they are lazy, too, on a 
warm day. One of the boys took the hill, one 
the swamp; I took a circle and in half an hour 
all had their lawful number. In a grassy spot 
near a tamarack swamp one of us jumped six 
deer. 
When our other parties came they asked us 
to show them some deer and let them shoot, so 
we decided to help them. Of course, it is fun 
to watch a green hunter, and I decided to have 
a good time with them. We cire’ed after putting 
one man on a pine stump at the edge of a swamp 
near three runways. We all started on the other 
side of a bad bog where at every step we sank 
one to two feet. That is the way to break them 
in. There were three islands on the bog and 
they always harbor some deer. Presently we 
noticed five tracks going toward our man, who 
had a .40-65 rifle. We heard no shooting, but 
he was awfully excited, shouting: “I got them! 
I got them!” These five deer passed within five 
rods. I winked at the boys, who understood. I 
made a circle, went back and found all his 
loaded shells. Lie had pumped them out of the 
rifle in excitement, never thinking of aiming or 
pulling the trigger. It is certainly comical to 
see those greenhorns the first time they see a 
deer. Many a time have I watched from a safe 
p'ace. Once in a while I made a funny noise 
. a little distance away. Really, the poor fellows 
were nearly scared to death and ready to leave 
the, woods. 
This year as usual we stayed out two full 
nights to watch nature and the animals. Many 
a time a deer came within reach of my foot. 
It is fun to hear the unmerciful yell the bob¬ 
cat emits .when it gets one’s wind close by; then 
the crackling and thundering of the ice on all 
the lakes. It is not pleasant to be out all night 
in real cold weather, but it pays to see and 
hear all that is going on, especially the fun the 
deer have playing. I tell you, one month in the 
woods is the real life, and every man owes it 
to himself and to his family to keep well. 
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