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Texting in the great outdoors

By Sam Cook Duluth News Tribune | Posted: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 6:20 pm | (0) Comments

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ROBIN LOZNAK A deer pokes its head up from a hiding place in a field along Garden Valley Road near Roseburg, Ore., on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008. (AP Photo/The News-Review, Robin Loznak)

DULUTH, Minn. -- The young hunter came in from the woods after a morning of deer hunting. It was opening day. Excitement ran high in Minnesota's firearms deer hunt.

She put away her rifle. She peeled off layers of blaze orange gear. She grabbed a snack.

She had spent four or five hours on the stand, sitting alone in the hardwoods near Grand Rapids, Minn. But she could tell you how 10 of her friends or relatives had done that morning.

The text messages had been flying back and forth, she said.

Deer hunting is still a solitary pursuit for most Minnesota hunters. They sit by themselves in the woods hoping the right deer will stroll by. But the hunt is not nearly as solitary as it used to be, not with cell phones in a lot of hunters' pockets.

One hunter came in from the field last Saturday morning, and on her cell phone already had a photo of a friend's buck taken earlier that morning.

None of this should be especially surprising in an era when information and images are zipped anywhere instantly. Still, it seems something of a dichotomy the way this traditional hunt has intersected with the high-tech world.

"how r u doin"

"nthn yet. u?"

"saw 2 ptridg"

"slo"

Texting, or even calling a friend, is a nice way to kill time while you're waiting to kill a deer. But hunters must be careful in the way they use cell phones while hunting, said Kipp Duncan, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer in the Duluth area.

"You can't use phones or radio equipment to assist in the taking of wild animals," Duncan said.

If hunters text one another to say they're ready for lunch, that's a non-issue, he said.

"But if they text someone and say, ‘Hey, I missed what looked like a big-bodied deer and it's walking your direction,' now they're breaking the rules. They can do anything but help with the hunt."

One hunter can ask another, "Did you get one?"

But one hunter cannot text another, "Stay in your stand, I'm going to make a drive toward you."

Are hunters texting illegally?

"There's no doubt they're doing this," Duncan said. "Yet, short of taking a phone and looking at the texts, we're kind of out of luck. We're just hoping people do things the right way.

"I can't say I've caught anybody doing it, but I have had people tell me they have texted each other and said, ‘Hey, I'll be at your stand in half an hour. Heads up.' They don't realize they're doing anything wrong."

And the young woman I referred to earlier wasn't doing anything wrong, either. She wasn't communicating with others in her hunting party about deer movements or hunting strategies.

Like a lot of other cell phone use, texting from the deer stand is often done out of curiosity or boredom. And it can come in pretty handy.

"buck down. get dad. need wheeler."

Sam Cook is a columnist for Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, Minn.)

Posted in Sports, Outdoors on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 6:20 pm Updated: 7:37 pm. | Tags: Outdoors, Hunting, Texting

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