Book Cliffs North or South???

BrowningRage

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Well boys, this year I'm feelin a bit anxious about burning my 10 LE Deer points. As some of you know, I have spent a significant amount of time in the Book Cliffs over the past few years, all in hopes of hunting there with a rifle one day and finding and taking an exceptional muley. My family has hunted 2 of the past 4 years there with a rifle. Both hunts ended successfully, and both hunts turned up some good bucks, and a couple of great bucks.

My dilemma is this. We have hunted what is now the South unit. During the hunt, as I mentioned, we have seen some good deer. Frankly, in two hunting seasons, totaling 12 days of hunting, we have seen exactly 4 "taker bucks". Each hunt consisted of seeing a great buck early in the hunt that we were unable to harvest, followed by several days of lesser bucks, and ending with nice bucks on the 6th or 7th day. During each of those hunts, we saw only 4-5 other hunters, and we never saw another soul after the 2nd day of the hunt. We always assumed that those hunters were discouraged by low deer numbers in the area and moved camp over to the North area where there are significantly more deer harvested. With seeing a few good bucks in the South area, and having such little competition, I have always been good with returning there; but now it seems that a significant number of tags are to be allotted just for the South unit. Increased pressure and competition, combined with low numbers of solid bucks has me worried about putting in there.

So, I'm asking what you guys would do. If you would prefer to PM me, please do. I'm looking for any input. Thanks guys. :)

"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!" 2 Ne. 28: 24
 
I was just about ready to ask this same question. My brother and I have 13pts each. North or South??? I would hate to blow all these years waiting to hunt there and pick the wrong area.

I live in San Diego so there is no chance I can scout before the draw.

Thanks for any help you guys can give.
 
Well, If your familiar with the South, I would go South. I don't think the Book Cliffs will get better in the future with this split. It has been slowly declining from what I have seen. I think it is going to get hit hard in the next couple years and head downhill fast.

I think this is a Grand Strategy to start taking Limited Entry units out of the pool and justify turning them into General Season, just like the Thousand Lakes unit.

Eventually every unit in the state will be General and the better areas will naturally be harder to draw. The only problem is your lifetime license holders will get their choice every year.

I can't predict the future but it seems to be heading in that direction...
 
Do you know the split yet on the number of tags in each unit?

Everything you have said sounds about right. I think stay with the South if you are familiar with it. I am still curious why they split up this unit, yes it is big, but that is nice. It gives hunters options.
 
This is the delima and another reason why Utah can make me a little pissy sometimes. They split a unit up like this (which isn't all bad) and make everyone make a decision on which side before we even know what the tag allocations will be for each side. We wont know the split for tag numbers until April. Long after we gamble on which side. My wife is in the EXACT same spot as you guys.
 
The Book Cliffs Unit during the rifle hunt is essentially two units anyways.

It is not an easy effort to hunt both sides as 1 unit.

The problem I have with the split is along the same lines as the Thousand Lake area.

Thousand Lakes maintained 18 Bucks per 100 Does as a Limited Entry by allowing roughly 50 Tags. This was not good enough for Limited Entry Standards and being that it met the General area numbers they changed it.

Well Thousand Lake should have been the easiest unit to appoint tags to but no they go and issue roughly 400.

They know the exact numbers of who hunted the Book Cliffs and where they harvested the deer based on harvest surveys.

I see the same things happening here. They end up issuing more tags than they should, Buck numbers declined, meet General requirements and there you go, Lets make it a General Unit.

Sorry to Hijack your thread. I'm just concerned with the process here. I think you should hunt where you know the unit best.
 
I heard from a Guy from Myton that said:

For an Extra 50.00 the DWR will issue you a Stamp that'll let you Hunt both North & South!:D:D:D












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LAST EDITED ON Feb-06-14 AT 07:51AM (MST)[p]There are pros and cons to both sides. Some of these are both pros and cons depending on what your looking for...

North - Pros = bigger huntable area, more total deer, more roads, milder terrain, can access deer even if migration is late. Cons = more roads, more hunters, smaller top end bucks, flat tires ;-)

South - Pros = bigger top end bucks, fewer roads. Cons = very migration dependent, smaller huntable area, fewer total deer, fewer roads, rougher terrain, very crowded on the few roads there are where deer congregate.

To me, the last 2-3 days on the South is your best bet for a top end buck, but that being said I think the hunt on the North is more enjoyable. Good luck whatever you choose.


Dax

There is no such thing as a sure thing in trophy mule deer hunting.
 
Daxter I've never hunted the Books and probably never will but that's a nice little break down on the 2 sides.
Thanks
 
Dax,

Thanks for your help. I still don't know what to do. Flip a coin and hope for the best????

Curt
 
If you're the kinda guy that doesn't mind working very hard, passing up a lot of small bucks in hopes of finding that giant, and taking the chance of going home with tag soup then the south is your unit. There are some whopper bucks that come off the south, but it takes a whole lot of work, luck and patience to be successful on those. If you're hunting the south you want your schedule to allow you to spend the entire hunt there. I see a lot of guys get frustrated early and kill 20" 3x4s cause that's the best they could find. Scouting won't do much good on the south because of the migration. Some years the deer all move off in a matter of about a day, some years it takes a month for them to all come off. It's a gamble.

If you're more about the experience, seeing a lot of deer/bucks, going home with a decent buck, or on a limited amount of time to hunt, then the north is your better bet. It's a lot better for involving family and friends in your hunt. It's also a lot more accessible.
 

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