Northern Minnesota for hunting & fishing real estate

[Highbrass]

I have been looking to find a decent recreational property as the prices in Texas are being driven sky high. Deer hunting leases are looking to be a thing of the past. So ... just been looking on the internet and it seems there are some nice sized properties that could be had for reasonable prices. I wouldn't even mind going far North as what I have in mind would not be a permanent residence? I have even seen some properties that could possibly have timber cut for a bit of income ? What would the negatives be ?

 

[diggler1833]

I think a lot depends on how much land you want, and how deep your pockets are. I personally would never look at a "recreational" piece of property as anything that could be sustainable regarding making money to cover cost or even yearly property taxes.

 

[Pbgt]

When you have the property logged, they will prep the wood for what is best for their market..ie: if chips are paying well, loggers will send big, solid trees thru to fill the trucks.....most folks do not realize how little you will actually get till its done. Some of the loggers are slobs, leaky hyd equipment( hundreds of gallons sometimes) and a rutted mess, stumps will be just tall enough you will have to drive your atv around them.

 

[diggler1833]

When you have the property logged, they will prep the wood for what is best for their market..ie: if chips are paying well, loggers will send big, solid trees thru to fill the trucks.....most folks do not realize how little you will actually get till its done. Some of the loggers are slobs, leaky hyd equipment( hundreds of gallons sometimes) and a rutted mess, stumps will be just tall enough you will have to drive your atv around them.

I've 30 acres of Hancock land that borders me on one spot. They came and thinned it this winter.

Went looking for a couple of cows in it a week ago, and they (loggers) left at lest four solid trails 10' wide of at least 2' deep buildup of old pine branches and needles. It was like walking on a trampoline going down them. Not to mention the branches and needles between each row of trees.

If there is a fire, there will be no controlling it. I don't expect the trees to be able to withstand the heat unlike a controlled burn, so we'll have a canopy fire that makes it over to my property and into my hay barn and equipment.

Buying any property and logging it us going to require a separate clearing service and a lot of money.

 

[xdeano]

Mn is nice. I'm just across the border in ND. If there is land up near lake of the woods or the arrow head of MN those would be decent spots. But there are tons of lakes in MN. Some are just glorified sloughs.

Things to think about.

Do you like having snow for 6 months of snow? Balls deep at very minimum, if you're lucky. Further north and it will get deeper.

Taxes are higher in mn than here in ND.

Not sure how they compare to tx.
Bugs are stupid. Black flies, biting flies, mosquitoes, ticks, etc etc. And the mosquitoes are like birds.

With the number of wolves in northern MN in the past 15 years they've about killed all the game species. There are still black bear.

ND on the other hand has some strange quirks. If you're not from here the locals make you feel like an outsider. Might be that way in MN also.

Daylight in the winter is 830am to about 430pm.
Summer its from about 5am tell 1030pm.

It's probably cheap for a reason. To good to be true, than it might be.

Did I say they have lots of fishing, but even still there are tons of mn, WI, MI, ia trucks and boats that come over here to devils lake. There's a reason for that too.

Deano

 

[diggler1833]

The grass is always greener.

 

[Highbrass]

True ..but no Moose in Texas

 

[xdeano]

True ..but no Moose in Texas

Not many in MN either. Between the wolves and brain worm its cut numbers significantly.
Deano

 

[Mr. Z]

Mn is nice. I'm just across the border in ND. If there is land up near lake of the woods or the arrow head of MN those would be decent spots. But there are tons of lakes in MN. Some are just glorified sloughs.

Things to think about.

Do you like having snow for 6 months of snow? Balls deep at very minimum, if you're lucky. Further north and it will get deeper.

Taxes are higher in mn than here in ND.

Not sure how they compare to tx.
Bugs are stupid. Black flies, biting flies, mosquitoes, ticks, etc etc. And the mosquitoes are like birds.

With the number of wolves in northern MN in the past 15 years they've about killed all the game species. There are still black bear.

ND on the other hand has some strange quirks. If you're not from here the locals make you feel like an outsider. Might be that way in MN also.

Daylight in the winter is 830am to about 430pm.
Summer its from about 5am tell 1030pm.

It's probably cheap for a reason. To good to be true, than it might be.

Did I say they have lots of fishing, but even still there are tons of mn, WI, MI, ia trucks and boats that come over here to devils lake. There's a reason for that too.

Deano

The trucks from WI are chasing the 2.5lb perch they saw being caught on a fishing tv show that was filmed 15 years ago. The next step in their maturation is to find themselves on Gogebic. The fishery there isn’t what it once was either.

“You shoulda been here yesterday!”

 

[xdeano]

The trucks from WI are chasing the 2.5lb perch they saw being caught on a fishing tv show that was filmed 15 years ago. The next step in their maturation is to find themselves on Gogebic. The fishery there isn’t what it once was either.

“You shoulda been here yesterday!”

There are still lots of fish in devils lake. I went out last year with my son and daughter and picked up 12 northern, 5 walleye and a couple white bass in just a few hrs. The northerns were from 3-5lbs. The walleye were 16-19" and the white bass were dinner plates. Didnt pick up any perch which would have been a lot better than the white bass. Not a huge fan of them. I'm not a big fisherman and these were all caught off an abandoned bridge.
There are lots of decent fish.

Deano

 

[diggler1833]

True ..but no Moose in Texas

Depends on what bars you frequent...

 

[Earnhardt]

True ..but no Moose in Texas

UH, you really need to Google Minnesota moose season

Not many in MN either. Between the wolves and brain worm its cut numbers significantly.
Deano

The understatement of the century… The biggest impact that Timberwolves have had is not only on the moose population, but an absolute decimation of the deer population in the northern wooded portion of the state

 

[Mr. Z]

I was just painting the targeted species for most when it comes to a trip specially to Devils lake.

 

[Highbrass]

Are the wolves still protected ?

 

[xdeano]

Are the wolves still protected ?

Under state control now I think. But that changes like the wind. Back and forth from state to federal.
Xdeano

 

[Earnhardt]

If you think the wolf protection is going away ANY TIME SOON, and they'll have a very limited hunting season on them like before... think again.

And oh ya, even though it's been 8-9 years since we had a moose season here...

...How many moose licenses could you acquire in a lifetime when there was a moose hunting season?...

You are way better off paying a huge chunk to hunt them in Canada, or Alaska....Hunting moose is not like hunting deer on your 160 acre chunk. You need ENDLESS amounts of land to hunt moose. Ever watch them hunt moose on TV? How far do they fly in, and go up and down the rivers to find one? Dude, we are talking many square miles (hundreds maybe thousands of square miles)

Also, have you been paying attention to lumber futures?... Remember the wood on that land isn't worth what people are paying in the big box stores/lumber yards.

 

[xdeano]

I had a buddy tell me that the deer population in northern MN is completely demolished. The same guy said that he was out sledding last winter and found a huge amount of wolf tracks and blood, followed it and found a black bear den. From what it sounds like is that the wolves were hungry and got after a black bear, killed it and ate it. He said there wasnt much left.

If I was going to hunt moose it would be alaska.
Moose, elk and bighorn are all once in a life time here in ND. Done by draw. You either get really lucky and draw the first year, or you'll be so old that you'll need to have meals on wheels bring you out to the field.

Deano

 

[PinesAndProjectiles]

I've hunted Northern MN for almost thirty years.

The last few years have been very tough hunting whitetails.

Last season, I saw two does over the course of ten days sitting in the deer stand. That was it.

There were no shortage of wolf tracks. I didn't see any, but others in our party did, and I have over the last three or four years.

With all the outspoken condo conservationists living in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, there isn't a snowballs chance in hell there will be another season for them any time soon.