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Ryan Rothstein: This deer hunter’s wish list for 2025? It includes eliminating cross-tagging of bucks in Minnesota
I hate New Year’s resolutions, and this year is no exception. So, rather than list things I should’ve already done (resolutions), here’s a wish list for 2025 from one Minnesota deer hunter’s thoughts from the deer stand.
A mild 2024-25 winter
I know a few DNR area wildlife managers who would grab hold and shake me for wanting it, but I can’t help myself. Truthfully, there are areas that need more deer harvest in this state. It’s getting harder for DNR managers to influence overall herd trajectories with declining hunter numbers and a reluctance by many hunters to shoot does, or to shoot more than one deer.
However, many permit areas are still reeling from numerous severe winters during the past decade, particularly north and east of Highway 10. The days of “up north” being a deer-hunting hotbed and haven of big bucks seems like a faded memory.
Although I remember those days, it’s almost hard to believe there was a time when deer were plentiful in the northwoods.
It’s going to take time for northern permit areas to recover and have a healthy, robust deer herd. The quickest way to achieve that are consecutive mild winters allowing healthy does to give birth to healthy fawns that grow up to be healthy does, and so on.
My fingers are crossed for this to happen. If it doesn’t, we’re going to see hunter numbers drop much sooner than current trends indicate. Deer hunting isn’t much fun if you never see a deer.
MORE HUNTING COVERAGE FROM OUTDOOR NEWS:
A large buck-doe harvest gap in Minnesota this year
Minnesota muzzleloader harvest up 1% from 2023; and is there any concern with crossbow harvest?
Many Minnesota hunters, managers report mediocre seasons for grouse, pheasants
Eliminating buck cross-tagging
Many hunters will probably bristle, but this antiquated regulation needs to go. Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota are the only states in the entire nation that allow a hunter to shoot a buck and place another hunter’s tag on it.
Directly from the 2024 Minnesota Hunting & Trapping Regulations booklet: “The intent of the party-hunting regulation is to prevent parties from shooting more deer than the available number of tags.”
Here’s an elegant solution to prevent parties from shooting more deer than they have tags for: Tag your own deer.
Pardon the sarcasm, but this rule frustrates me. When my father was my age, firearms seasons were two days, and many permit areas had lotteries for doe tags. Party hunting made sense. Many people relied on venison as food for the table back then.
But 2025 is not 1985.
Our seasons and licensing structures are dramatically different now. With a nine-day firearms season and a 16-day muzzleloader season, opportunities to harvest your own deer have drastically expanded.
Today, this regulation is a clever legal loophole for hunters to shoot another buck.
Minnesota is technically considered a one-buck state, but anyone who’s hunted here for more than a season knows that’s not really true.
Before you call this kettle black, I freely admit that I’ve benefitted from this rule in the past. I’m not trying to look down my nose and proclaim my purity. But party hunting is hurting far more than it’s helping.
Minnesota doesn’t collect age-specific data, but I’ve hunted enough in different states and talked to enough wildlife managers across the country to confidently say we are near the top in yearling buck harvest.
No, hunting isn’t all about big bucks. And no, you can’t eat the antlers. But Uncle John popping three yearling bucks after a hot doe walked by his stand opening morning isn’t making anyone’s hunting better.
We don’t allow party hunting for ducks, and turkeys. Why do we allow it for deer?
Simplifying deer regulations
I’m not knocking the DNR, because many states have more complex regulatory structures. However, small regulatory changes could make everyone’s lives easier.
For example, our statewide deer bag limit is five. Let’s say I mainly hunt in DPA 215 (three deer), and I tag three antlerless deer there. Under current regulations, I couldn’t tag another deer in any three-deer unit, and I’d have to travel a fair distance to hunt a two-deer DPA. If Minnesota had unit-specific limits, I could simply move to any adjacent unit and tag my remaining two.
Additional doe tags are meant to increase harvest in those units. Why keep hunters willing to tag does from moving over a DPA? There are many other examples, but I have other wishes to list.
Federal delisting of gray wolves
Quite frankly, this isn’t for our deer herd. Gray wolves are an Endangered Species Act success story. Wolves are ready to be managed by state wildlife agencies in the Great Lakes region. Population goals outlined under the species’ listing have been shattered, and federal protections are unnecessary.
I’m wishing this because I’m angry the Endangered Species Act has been bastardized by animal rights activists to maintain listing an objectively un-endangered charismatic species at the expense of species that actually need attention.
In Minnesota, we could focus our attention on elk, moose, cerulean warblers, red-headed woodpeckers, monarch butterflies, or Dakota skippers. We could throw all our energy and money at these species, and it would still be difficult to increase their numbers.
Instead, we get to waste time, energy, and money re-litigating gray wolves. We’re fighting unscientific and unserious organizations masquerading as serious, science-based entities focused on biodiversity, when in reality they are simply determined to never see another wolf killed.
We get to do this instead of spending time and money building habitat for species in real turmoil. Enough is enough.
A new federal farm bill with a massive conservation title
Our “current” 2018 federal farm bill technically expired Sept. 30, 2023. Federal legislators signed a one-year extension that expired Sept. 30, 2024. And last week, Congress released a continuing resolution to extend the government’s budget through March 14 – including a one-year extension of the farm bill.
What does that mean for wildlife in Minnesota? It means there are landowners wanting to enroll in CRP who are sitting on waiting lists at Farm Service Agency offices. Habitat isn’t getting put on the ground, because land that would otherwise have been planted to habitat couldn’t be enrolled.
Private-land habitat management and restoration is at a molasses-like pace because members of Congress won’t do their jobs.
It’s sickening.
RELATED COVERAGE FROM OUTDOOR NEWS:
Commentary: The U.S. farm bill expired (again), and the stakes are high for hunters and anglers
That’s why I’m wishing for a new farm bill including a massive conservation title in 2025. I want to see a CRP acreage cap increased to 40 million acres nationally, rather than the current 27 million acres.
I want rental rates increased by at least 30% to incentivize landowners to plant habitat on marginal ground that should never have been farmed. I want huge investments into payments for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program to get real forest management and invasive species-control done on private forest lands. I want billions invested in private lands for pollinator habitat.
Except for some areas in northern Minnesota that contain abundant state and federal forest lands, there is not nearly enough public land and available habitat to support thriving wildlife populations, particularly in the farm region.
We need investments in private-land habitat. We need a bigger habitat base, with large, contiguous patches of quality habitat. A new, robust farm bill is how we do that.
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17 thoughts on “Ryan Rothstein: This deer hunter’s wish list for 2025? It includes eliminating cross-tagging of bucks in Minnesota”
I agree with all of your resolutions in this article. I too have cross-tagged a buck in gun season, after harvesting a buck in October with my bow. It would be great to see all of them come true.
Can we also either eliminate the slug zone or allow straight-wall rifles (ballistically similar to sabot slugs) to it like most states have done. New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are the only other states that have not at least allowed straight-wall rifles. Slugs are going to be fading away. Allowing AR pistols (essentially short barreled rifles) in rifle calibers with 10 to 20 round magazines but not allowing bolt action rifles is ridiculous.
DNR in Minnesota are such hypocritical idiots, blame the deer numbers on weather and hunters?? While who is the blame for creating so many seasons and permits? The STATE and DNR and why? $$ is the soul purpose of the DNR these days actually all state govt agencies these days also the WOLF problem in the north trust me I bought hunting land there some years back which is now literally worthless
The weather doesn’t much matter while the wolves kill so many fawns every spring and summer.
Let’s talk about another glaring issue, the youth hunt defined as adults shoot deer with their kids along. Guys sitting in establishments bragging about doing this to shoot a deer before other hunters.
What a shame to teach our young people this unethical behavior.
I’ve known a lot of guys that do the youth hunt with their kids & NONE of them do that. Sounds like you know some people who need to get turned in. That’s just STUPID that they would do that.
I think we should be able to party hunt with friends and family for duck as it it a great way to have fun and gets old going by yourself
It took me a bit to figure out what you meant by cross tagging. In my 50 years of trapping, hunting, and fishing I’ve never heard that term. Everybody I’ve ever known calls it party hunting. The last time I read the regs. that’s what it is called there too. Anyway, getting rid of that would reduce already declining hunter numbers since it would reduce the chance of taking home meat. I can’t afford to hunt if I don’t get meat and without party hunting would likely be forced to quit deer hunting since without party hunting you greatly reduce the odds of getting enough meat for everybody. There’s still plenty of us that depend on our annual wild game harvest for a large percentage of our food. I save a lot every year by filling my freezer with wild game vs buying at the grocery store. I don’t care if everybody in my party of ten shoots one deer or one of us shoots ten deer. The more deer we get in our party, the more meat each of us gets to take home at the end of the season. You’re correct that it is not 1985 but many of us still depend on hunting to put food on the table. I love the outdoors and hunting but myself and others I know hunt to eat, not to collect trophies. And It’s also people like me that are and always have been the greatest practitioners of conservation even though foolish laws that are not thought through are making it harder and harder for us to survive.
Party hunting keeps are group hunting together with limited days to hunt because of work and school and the families loving to eat venison and non want to bow hunt or smoke pole hunt in our group
All eliminating party hunting would do is make the kill go down. A lot of parties the majority of the deer are killed by a few guys year after year. When in most areas we need more deer killed I don’t see the DNR wanting to do that.
Wolf season would eliminate the need to try and police the cross tag issue which is really a non issue. Less wolves = more deer= more hunters.
Great article. Thanks for writing it. I mostly agree.
Interesting article on cross tagging/party hunting. My question is if it is eliminated how will it be ensured cross tagging isn’t being done? Will the DNR hire enough agents to shadow every party hunting group to ensure there is not cross tagging. How about fingerprinting the shooter to verify the tag belongs to the trigger man. Maybe body cameras can be required. Footage of the actual kill shot needing to be submitted with registration. Yes this is foolish talk but so is the cross tagging ban. A law that cannot be enforced is worthless. Additionally, are the deer numbers really that far down? Last year I started using game cameras. What an eye opener. Without. The cameras I would have. Talked about how the deer numbers are down. Now that I see what is happening in the. Woods when i am not there I talk about how duo I get * different bucks of all sizes and the multiple does to come out in the daytime shooting hours. The deer of all sizes and sorts are there…at night…not during shooting hours. I don’t accept low deer sightings are the work of wolves and coyotes. We have both coyotes (lots of them) and some wolves in our area. My wish list is that we can hunt after dark with stadium lights. Leave the m off till the camera shows a deer than turn them on and have at it. Of course this is not serious …but it wold be fun if it were.
As far as eliminating the slug season in the western part of the state and opening it up to high powered rifles, I hunt the slug zone in west central Minnesota and to able to use a rifle would be a very bad idea. Safety for one, if you can see a deer you could shoot that deer. Park a vehicle on every corner of a section those deer don’t have a chance and whose to say I’m not sitting in a WMA where I’m not visible from 1/2 mile away. Slugs are plentiful, I agree they weren’t during covid but most ate back on the shelves. Not to many hunters out here use a TC Contender. Out here it’s flat with a grove in most sections and most guys walk. Absolutely no need to allow rifles…for what reason??
Would you have a problem with legalizing straight-wall centerfire rifles? Maybe even just bolt action or single shot rifles of this type. They are ballistically similar to sabot slugs but are less costly for the guns and the ammo. They also have less recoil. I think it would be a real benefit to be able to get a simple
Bolt action rifle/scope combo in 350
Legend for about 400 bucks for a new hunter. No more range than a good slug gun or muzzleloader. But less cost and less recoil than even a 243.
Love you Ryan. Congratulations on Ava!!! What a story.
Ryan is pretty spot on, except for party hunting/cross tagging.
Tell me how three people in a duck blind can ascertain exactly who shot which duck, much less a CO??? Until those three hunters have a three person limit, they can hunt and shoot as a party. It can, and should be the same with deer, as far as I’m concerned.
We have an abundance of deer in MN. We are far from over harvesting them. Thin that herd! Don’t restrict the harvest! There is no need to do so.
Forget 1985!!! I can tell you all about deer hunting from 1972. That was the season after Minnesota’s only closed deer season (1971). It followed the disasterous winters of the 1960’s, that I lived through, and still well remember.
There were half the hunters, and a fraction (1/4 to 1/5 (maybe even less)) of the deer numbers. Any and every deer was a trophy (kind of) and was celebrated. Deer hunting these days, five plus decades later, is so very much better in so very many ways!!! You ‘young hunters’ will never know, and can’t truly appreciate.
As for me, I truly love and appreciate the deer hunting opportunities we enjoy today. Thank you MN DNR for your management, for the abundance, and all of the opportunities we have to harvest deer (all three and a half months of it).
Party hunting should be allowed for antlerless deer. Anyone who wants meat can harvest antlerless deer and in many areas you can harvest multiple deer. Partying hunting for bucks just encourages people to shoot small deer. Plus party hunting is a grey area where most guys shoot a buck and have someone who isn’t hunting in the field with them tag it so they can keep hunting for a bigger buck. If you want to shoot a bigger buck don’t shoot a smaller one and have someone tag it, if you want venison whack a bunch of does.