Bryce Hjelle is among the successful hunters in Borderland, so far this season. Northern Minnesota hunters have a couple more days to find deer. The firearms deer hunting season in Borderland ends Sunday at dark.

Hjelle shot a 12-point buck Saturday near his family’s cabin off County Road 1.

The buck sports the largest rack of any deer Hjelle has shot, but it’s not the largest deer he’s ever harvested, he said. In 2006, he shot a 215-pound, five-pointer.

Hjelle had been sitting in a stand Saturday morning when he saw a doe and two fawns with a small five-pointer and a spike chasing the doe. He told The Journal he’s familiar with the deer because he’d previously captured photos of them with his trial camera.

“Knowing this doe was in heat, I was pretty certain my stand was going to be a hot spot for the day,” he said.

He went to the cabin for lunch about 11:30 a.m. and returned to the stand as quickly as he could, sitting there again at about 12:30 p.m.

Hjelle reported that about half an hour later, he saw one of the fawns and the spike he had seen earlier, so he believed the hot doe as still in the area. The doe and the other fawn came out after another half hour, with the spike trailing, and crossed the three main shooting lanes in front of him, he said.

“I was a little bummed thinking the doe was going to move on and my chances of luring in a big big buck would be gone,” Hjelle said. “Knowing her scent was still in the area, I still had some hope.”

His hope was rewarded about 20 minutes later.

“I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye where the deer previously had gone in, and out stepped this bruiser,” he said. “As soon as I saw the spread and tine length of this guy there was no questioning whether it is a shooter or not.”

The deer came out about 75 yards from Hjelle and began walking toward him. At about 20-yards away, the buck looked up and saw him with the gun out the window of the stand. He aimed between the shoulders and pulled the trigger. The deer ran about 100 yards down the trail and cut into the woods.

“I was pretty confident with my shot, but you never know when a big buck like that steps out and your shaking like a leaf in the wind,” Hjelle said. “I got out of the stand and found the tracks in the mud from the deer, but there was no blood, not a single drop. I went to where I thought it ran in the woods, thinking I somehow missed. I took two steps into the woods and saw a back of a deer laying on the ground about 10-yards away. I looked up and all I could see was the massive spread and tine length.”

Since the start of the firearms season Nov. 7, Minnesota deer hunters have harvested about 96,000 deer, according to a Nov. 13 report by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

This number is consistent with expectations from the DNR, which predicted the harvest would be down from last year as a result of a slightly smaller deer herd and fewer opportunities for hunters to take a deer of either sex.

The statewide antlerless harvest is down 14 percent from last year and the buck harvest down 2 percent.

Minnesota hunters harvested about 222,000 deer last year. The peak harvest was 290,000 deer in 2003.