My family hunted in unit 59 for many many years and we took several great bucks back in the early - mid 90's. Each year there seemed to be a few more motorcycles and trucks on top of ridges and mountains, something that I had never seen to this extent anywhere else in my life. In 1998, we hiked in as far away from the roads as we could get (several miles), only to find a 4x4 ford pickup and 3 motorcycles parked on top of the ridge. We turned around and left and nearly got shot by the 700 doe hunters in there on our way out. I remember some years where it seems like they gave away 1,000 doe tags. That probably hurt the unit as much as anything. Guys would drive around with 5-8 hunters in the back and they would slaughter 10 deer at a time, whether bucks or does.
I've always believed that the country on the northern side of unit 59 is some of the most beautiful deer country in the whole world. I would love them to close the entire unit for 5 years and let it rebuild, it certainly has the terrain to hold great bucks with the rim-rock and high mountain peaks only 10 miles apart! We have actually sent letters to the Fish and Game and the state legislator's asking them to do something before it is too late. They respond that unit 59 is a historic hunting ground for families and it would cripple the eastern idaho hunting opportunity to shut down unit 59. I believe they could offer a 2 point only hunt, or even manage it as a limited entry hunt with 200 buck tags each year. Maybe then, people would start to get more selective as to what they drop the hammer on. (Similar to what they did down in the Owyhee's back in the early 90's).
Shoot me a PM if you'd like to see some of the bucks we shot in unit 59 in years gone by!
