Book Cliffs

[tgmulie]

I'm disappointed about the lack of discussion on the Book Cliffs this year. Let's see some bucks that have come off the Cliffs this year! It'll be a few years before I draw again to hunt deer out there again. I need my fix!

 

[Muleymonster]

I was kind of excited when I shot this 26 3/4" buck

until I got back to camp and my dad had shot this 25 1/2" buck

all three of us with our bucks

 

[Gator]

Now that a good group of bucks, I hope I draw next year and I get a nice one too.

 

[YukonDall]

GATOR....SENT YOU A PM....YD.

 

[Foreman4x4]

How many points did you guys burn to kill those bucks? Thanks for any info.

 

[Muleymonster]

I had 3, my dad and cousin had 3 but were called as alternates.

 

[tgmulie]

Awesome group of bucks. Thanks for sharing. What are were you hunting in?

 

[peakfreak]

Great pics...Looks like you guys had fun.

 

[South_slope]

Looks like you guys are one of the only ones who found anything over 21". My father in law runs a butcher shop in the area and most of the deer coming in were between 18" and 21".

I have to say it was a tough hunt, but i think it could just be my perception of where we were hunting. The last day we were there we found a total of 2 deer, both were bucks and alone.

 

[Muleymonster]

I shot my buck in wolf den, my cousin shot his on Atchee ridge, my dad got his at big park just north of Cooper Canyon. Htere were a ton of deer around the bitter creek area as well.

 

[cumminsboy97]

I just got back from the Books. I thought I would check MM to see how others had done out there. We had a great time out there. I will be enjoying a nice steaming bowl of tag spoup this evening.
I really wanted to shoot a 170-180" buck, or something that was just a real cool looking mature buck. I hunted all week and never ran into one.
Honestly, I expected to see bigger bucks. There were a ton of 18-20 3 and 4 pts. It was rare to see bigger. I did see 3 or 4 bucks that were over 24" but were real crabby.
I didnt see too many other hunters that were coming out with big bucks either. Most camps had 18-20" bucks.
I think that it was due to the warm weather, but who knows.
Overall it was an amazing hunt and I am still amazed at the amount of bucks we saw over the week. Had to of been over 300.
If anybody had good success please post...it will help me choke this soup down.
cummins

 

[Foreman4x4]

LAST EDITED ON Oct-26-08 AT 05:03PM (MST)[p]Sounds about right for the Bookcliff's, lots of crab clawed, willow horned 18-22" 3x4's, and the pictures I've seen so far this year confirm much of the same. If it cost a guy 2 - 4 points, fun hunt. Eight or more, you're nucking futs!!....

 

[ktg]

Yep, all but 1 I've seen come from there this year have been crabby.

 

[Daxter]

I love the Book Cliffs, it is an awesome area and there are tons of bucks. That being said, finding "big" bucks out there is tough. I think that lots of hunters assume that the number of points it takes to draw a unit is an indicator of the size of bucks or bulls they will see. That is not always the case.

This fall I have heard of bigger bucks coming off the Cache on the general hunts that I have the Book Cliffs, but how many Cache hunters saw 300 bucks on their hunt? I wish there was a little more variety of LE hunting opportunity in UT to spread applicants out and help drawing odds. I would love to hunt the Book Cliffs, but with the way point creep is going, by 2010 it will take 12+ points to draw a rifle tag out there.

When people start using that many points to draw a hunt they have certain expectation, and often those expectations are not realistic. I happens to some Book Cliffs deer hunters, and I think lots of LE elk hunters are disappointed when after burning a mountain of points they don't find 380-400 bulls.

I hope that everyone who hunted the Book Cliffs this fall had a good time and enjoyed seeing the sheer number of bucks you see hunting out there. Let's see some more pics.

 

[Foreman4x4]

I'd rather see four or five GOOD bucks during a week's hunt, over 300 crab clawed 3x4's, but to each his own I guess.

 

[gon4elk]

I hunted the Book Cliffs this year - hunted Atchee Ridge, wolf den too and most of the deer were hanging around the 2 stock ponds next to the roads, never seen anything like it. 50+ deer trying to get a drink at the same time just before dark. I knew when I put in for the tag it was a quantity hunt rather than quality and I guess I'm still a little disappointed. Shot a 22" 3X3 that has a real unique Whitetail shaped rack. Missed a real tall, deep forked 4x4 that was by far the best looking buck we saw. Saw a 26 - 28" 2x3 that was just right down ugly and alot of big 2 points and misc. 3x4's etc. I guess what disappointed me most was there are trails everywhere, every ridge, every draw. Try to go out for a hike only to run into ATV noise. If your tired and lazy this is the hunt for you. I'm sorry but I'm anti social as hell and like to get away from people and ATV traffic and dust (good Lord I'm still coughin and fartin dust). Anyway, I think this hunt is great for youth hunters, ladies and Grandpa and Grandma, great for somebody to cut their teath on hunting. I burned 8 points on this hunt, knew I'd never draw Henry Mtn. in the next 40 years and besides I wanted to get putting for elk again.

 

[nbjbhunterman]

SWEEEET

NBJB

 

[thebeav]

It sounds like to me that you should have hunted the roadless or hunted somewhere else besides all of those trails. I have no problem with those trails because without those trails you probably wouldnt be there. So instead of complaning about the atv trails and roads get out there and hunt, and quit crying about your little buck that you killed.

 

[albubba]

beav,
Do us all a favor and not post any more until you sober up or grow up.

 

[Silentstalker]

I know that most bucks out there are crab clawed 3x4's but don't think for a second that there are not giant bucks out there. I know of several 200" bucks that were killed between last year and this year. 2 of them were archery bucks. You just need to hunt hard and have a lot of patience and good timing! Congrats to those of you that killed bucks this year!

 

[tgmulie]

Why not make this a management unit as well to alleviate some of the bad genetics?

 

[Foreman4x4]

>Why not make this a management
>unit as well to alleviate
>some of the bad genetics?
>

Because if you killed everything off with bad genetics, there wouldn't be anything left...

 

[gdog]

I had a muzzle loader Books tag last year. Hunted every day of the season except one and killed my buck on the last morning. It was not the biggest I saw during the hunt and far from it during scouting.

It's a fun hunt. Henry's nope..but there's some damn nice deer out that way. Too many roads..just get off the roads and walk, there's so much land out there it can be overwhelming. All the guys I saw during my hunt who ended up shooting a 20" deer did so within spitting distance of a road...go figure.

Certainly not a 200", but I was never expecting one going into the hunt. Would love the opportunity to hunt it again, but that more then likely won't happen...

 

[swbuckmaster]

Here are a couple of 2008 Bookcliff archery deer a few of my friends killed

Cody Powell

Rick Powell

I was out there with my friend Brad, for a few days also. Brad passed up at least 50 bucks a day, which he could have shot at from the road. He ended up missing two bucks over 170 and ended up eating tag soup. He defiantly could have taken a 4 point but he wanted one of the better ones. He had no ill feelings for not taking a deer. My friends buddy was hunting the first few days with a guy that purchased an auction tag and he took a buck in the high 180?s low 190?s on opening weekend. I never met him but I think his last name was Valdez or something.

Randy Ulmer also hunted out there this year and took a 190 plus monster on public land not to far from us.

The Bookcliffs is a bow hunting paradise.

Archery is a year round commitment!!

 

[backinthegame]

>beav,
> Do us all a favor
>and not post any more
>until you sober up or
>grow up.



Agreed. That was a ridiculous post there beav...

 

[swbuckmaster]

Archery is where it is at on the bookcliffs. The bucks are near the roads, stupid, and out all day long.

Muzzy hunters have it the worst, bucks in the thick stuff hiding, nocturnal.

Rifle hunters get an easy hunt on the winter range but get what's left for quality.

So pick your poison/weapon.


Archery is a year round commitment!!

 

[thebeav]

Why is that post so ridiculous? I get sick of people that complain about roads and atv's. This unit has a ton of roadless area and people complain about people riding around on atv's trucks etc. I was trying to get the point accross that there is plenty of area to hunt so why bring the atv and trails into the picture. I hunted this unit with a friend last year and we had no problem with people driving around and hunting, that is there choice. So I really dont get why I need to grow up, and ps I dont drink either. Congrats to Cody and Justin on there nice bookcliffs archery deer.

 

[albubba]

LAST EDITED ON Oct-29-08 AT 08:22AM (MST)[p]If you re-read the posts you will see that some were a little disappointed with the hunt. I don't take that as a complaining.

I don't know you. You may be a great person, but you came across as an a$$.

 

[thebeav]

Sorry you think that but lets get back to the topic, and I will try to keep my posts as positive as I can, Have a good one.

 

[Newt04]

I was lucky enough to have a tag out on the books this year and have already posted my buck I killed in a thread called "bookcliffs buck". The buck I killed was by no means the biggest on the mountain but I am very satisfied. I passed 4 bucks over 28 inches in the first few days and the only reason i did that is because I had the entire hunt to spend down there and I really wanted to find a non-typical. It was a blast everyday I was down there, tons of deer everywhere and plenty of room to hunt. I put a lot of miles on my boots and I was able to get away from the roads and trails but to be honest with you....all the big bucks I found down there I found from the road. thats the great thing about hunting, you just have to be in the right place at the right time..... and sometimes the right place just happens to be on the road. I have attached some photos of the 2 bucks we killed down there this year...