Book Cliffs Muzzy Hunt

[Ticks N Tines]

I have always heard that the Book Cliffs has gone down hill as far as quality goes. This was my first year going down there to check things out. My buddy's brother drew the muzzy tag, and we were excited to go down and try and get him a buck. We set our standards around 170 thinking that if we hunted hard, we could find a few in that class. However, we sorted through 100s of bucks each day and couldn't find anything over about 150. The amazing thing to me was how many bucks we saw in camps and trucks that were little 3x3s and 3x4s. We must have seen 30 dead bucks come out of there that were just dinks.

Did anyone harvest a good buck on the muzzy hunt? This was about the best buck we saw. There was one other bigger, but that's about it. Pretty disappointing hunt.

http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos2/2803book_cliffs_buck.jpeg

 

[BrowningRage]

I'm sorry to hear you had a tough hunt. I think the muzzy hunt is the hardest in the Books for locating good deer. The big ones have been pursued and pushed around by the archery hunters and move into hidden areas before migrating lower right around the rifle hunt in late Oct.

I've seen a harvested deer photo of a 30" 3x3. I'd guess he scores around 160" as a 3-point. It's a nice buck for sure. Would have been a solid 180" deer if it had the genetics to be a 4-point.

Why are you guys home if the hunt didn't end until today..?

"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!" 2 Ne. 28: 24

 

[Ticks N Tines]

I had to come back to work. The hunter stayed. I think he took a buck today. Not sure how big.

 

[shadowhunter88]

HJB I have to agree with you. I spent 7 days muzzy hunting the Bookcliffs and was very disappointed with the lack of quality mature bucks. Seen one comparable with the one in the picture and over a hundred small 2 and 3 points. Ran a bear out of camp and had 5 coyotes cross paths through out the 7 days. I have seen a picture on facebook of a 170ish buck taken by an Outfitters daughter. I would like to be out there during the rifle hunt to see what the migration pulls out of the wood work.

 

[stillwaitin]

We were down hunting elk, and didn't see much for quality of bucks either. About the size of the one in your pic was the size we saw.

 

[Ranger1]

Sorry to hear the news on the hunt. I passed a lot of bucks bigger than yours pictured on the bow hunt. Now I didn't see tons of bigger bucks but did see them off the road. The deer seem to move farther down the ridges during the muzzy hunt. The key I found was to glass a whole canyon from long distance to see the bucks.

 

[goofyelk]

I've been in the Bookcliffs many time over the last 25+ years..

Truth is, It was better deer hunting back in the 80's ,
General season with antler restrictions....

The limited entry now is about a ten year wait!!!!!!!!!
NOT worth it IMO ......

 

[BowHuntr]

We drew the tag back in 99, the first year the unit opened back up after being closed. Oh my....what could have been. The books could have been incredible for big deer, but they opted not to manage it that way.

 

[LakeDrifter]

200 plus tags don,t help much either!!!!!

 

[Ticks N Tines]

We thought about taking this buck on the top left, but someone pulled up and shot him while we were watching. I had a much better angle on the buck and watched him tumble head over heels down the hill. Then......He got up and walked off like nothing happened. He had a big red spot on his neck, and didn't seem to be bleeding real bad.

The amazing thing is the guy that shot him walked up to where the buck dropped and didn't see him. When he saw that the buck was gone, he walked back to the truck and left. AMAZING! We went and tracked the buck for a couple hours, but couldn't find him. I should have kept watching him, but I was trying to get over to the shooter to tell him what happened. I can't believe he left after looking for 10 minutes. Unreal!

 

[Ticks N Tines]

Here's a few other pics from the trip:

 

[Joel_Rifkin42]

The Books were never designed to be a trophy unit! It's a unit where one can see a ton of deer, and if you get off the road a ways, one can still find a decent buck. For some reason, people think it's supposed to be like the Henry Mountains or the Paunsaugunt.

The Books are great in that they put hundreds of people through the point system each year. If the Books were managed to be a Trophy Unit, it'd even take more years (decades even) to draw any limited entry deer tag in Utah.
I also had a Muzzy Tag this year and hunted for 3 days. I got as far away from the roads as I possibly could without horses, and saw 20+ bucks each day. Of those, I found 3-5 bucks that were 165"+?funnest and best hunt I've ever been on!

 

[Sticknastring13]

I saw a picture of a monster main frame 3 point that was shot on the books this year during the archery. It had matching cheaters on his back points to make him a 4 point but it was just a main frame 3. It had unreal mass. I was told it scored 190ish.

 

[Sticknastring13]

>
>I've been in the Bookcliffs many
>time over the last 25+
>years..
>
>Truth is, It was better deer
>hunting back in the 80's
>,
>General season with antler restrictions....
>
>The limited entry now is about
>a ten year wait!!!!!!!!!
>NOT worth it IMO ......
>
>

My dad has a picture from their deer camp when the unit first opened back up as 4 point or better. They had 8 tags in camp. After opening day they had 7 legal bucks in camp. By day 2 my dad filled his tag to make it 8 total bucks on 8 tags. Many of the bucks were in the 20-22 inch range with some of them 3x4 but it sounds like that is about the quality of buck many people are taking with a book cliffs tag nowadays.

 

[pumaguy]

LAST EDITED ON Oct-04-14 AT 11:50PM (MST)[p]http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos2/3205dscn2615.jpg

Here is the photo of the buck mentioned. Ths is the daughters 171" buck.

 

[pumaguy]

LAST EDITED ON Oct-04-14 AT 11:57PM (MST)[p]

I can't get some photos of the three point with extras to load. You can see some video of him a couple weeks before he was taken on the archery hunt on our facebook page: GT Outfitters. There are also some pictures of him there. Just can't get them to upload for some reason.

 

[elkun]

the books could be a lot better!!

 

[pumaguy]

Agreed on the Bookcliffs could be a whole lot better. 5-10 years ago things were a lot better. Had hunters taking bucks over 200" and many others with opportunities to take great bucks. The age structure of bucks now is way to young. Coyotes are thick, bears are abundant, and way to many tags. The lions have been thinned down big time and are not the problem. We can go back to the quality after the Bookcliffs were closed and see how it came back as a great unit, but now with to many tags being issued we are nearly back to the same way before the closure. Granted, there is a good buck to doe ratio, but the bucks are not getting a chance to grow up. I know many say they get frustrated and can't draw a tag, but I think waiting a couple more years to draw and having a chance at a true trophy is worth a couple years. It's not like you plan on drawing every five years. I don't see why it can't be a "trophy" area like the Henry's and Pansagaunt. It's sad that the quality has dropped, but we keep giving out more tags than it can sustain.

 

[elkassassin]

You Hear that elkun?

"""The Lions have been Thinned down & are not the Problem!"""

Ya!

I know!

Maybe cantkilladamnthing will Chime in & Blame the Bears!

Bears are Hungry!

They'd Best Hurry if they're gonna get em before the DWR does!










[font color="red"]From My Smokin Cherry Red Hot Barrel & My Dead Cold Hands I Shall go down Fighting for American Pride & Rights!
I Know I'm Out Numbered by Pusssies & Brainwashed Democrats that'll Throw Their Hands in the air & I know I can't Lick the U.S. Military by Myself when they Turn on us but I'll make
you one Guarantee,They'll be Enduring a Situation where I Hope to Hell All Americans become True Americans once again & Stand up for their Rights!

 

[WhiskeyDog]

Here is a summer velvet picture of my sister's buck posted above

And, here are some pictures of the big 3 mentioned above. He was 32" and scored 192"

I found both of these bucks during the summer and kept track of them. A friend of mine had a hunter booked for the archery and I got them on the big 3, then we were able to get my sister on the pretty 4 during the muzzleloader. But, like others have said, the quality on the unit is going down. There are way too many tags given out. Unless they cut back on tag numbers it's going to keep declining.

 

[elkassassin]

Always Amazes me that the HOUNDERS can Figure it out but nobody else can!

Perty Simple Arithmetic!

I've seen the Book Cliffs Shot clear out!

Maybe they'll do it again?

Nice Job Webster Boys!










[font color="red"]From My Smokin Cherry Red Hot Barrel & My Dead Cold Hands I Shall go down Fighting for American Pride & Rights!
I Know I'm Out Numbered by Pusssies & Brainwashed Democrats that'll Throw Their Hands in the air & I know I can't Lick the U.S. Military by Myself when they Turn on us but I'll make
you one Guarantee,They'll be Enduring a Situation where I Hope to Hell All Americans become True Americans once again & Stand up for their Rights!

 

[Ticks N Tines]

Those are both great bucks, thanks for sharing.

 

[goofyelk]

No qeaston Bess,
I agree..
95% of all the hunters are eating Houndmens dust !!!!!!
The guys running dogs all winter have a better feel of
whats going on with wildlife THAN ANYBODY!!!!! JMHO.

 

[backinthegame]

I hunted the Book Cliffs this summer with an archery tag, it was a fun hunt, lots of bucks. I never did find what I would consider to be a truly big, mature deer during scouting or hunting...saw some decent bucks, just nothing really special.

Either way, the Book Cliffs is a great unit for what it is. Suggesting that "opportunity" LE hunts are a good thing isn't a very popular opinion on this site, but I think getting tags in hunter's hands is a good thing in our state. Not every unit sure, but letting people hunt is a good goal for some areas.

 

[Broadside_Shot]

I have been a part of the Book Cliffs for 40 years. Seen the 4 point or better areas, Seen the 3 point or better years, Seen the Any Buck slaughters, Seen the limited Entry put in place, and now have seen the road paved all the way to the top.

Some of the trends I have noticed with the deer are:

When you had the 4 point or better areas there were not alot of trophy hunters. Most people shot the first buck they saw and went home. There was no talk of score ever. Those that were trophy hunters found great bucks every year.

When they changed it to 3 point or better it forced everyone to hunt for bigger bucks. In the first two years there were some incredible bucks killed. Most would not have shot them but were forced to pass on the yearlings. By the end of the 5 year plan the bucks shot were much smaller on average. The Big 2 point genetic was not very prominent. I remember being a teenager and seeing a 24" two point and could not believe he didn't have a third point. Now there are tons of those bucks around.

The 3x4 genetics have always been there.

After the 3 point or better years they changed it back to any Buck and almost all of the bucks were killed. My dad hunted the entire rifle hunt the year before they closed it down and saw two bucks total. Didn't shoot either.

Two years later they opened it back up to limited entry. I drew an archery tag that first year and was completely amazed at the amount of bucks. not many big ones but alot of little 4 points.

It looked like it was going to be great but the tags continued to increase and the trophy bucks were targeted again and now the inferior genetic bucks are surviving and slowly taking over.

In my opinion it is hard to manage general units with trophy mentality. I am beginning to buy into a management hunt out there. You cannot issue so many tags and target the largest animals year after year, you will kill them off and it leaves the less desirable bucks around.

I would continue to put my family in for they don't care about size and it make for a great family youth hunt. My daughter has a tag this year for the rifle and we will probably target one the biggest two points I have seen.

 

[BCDEER]

I had the rifle tag 2 years ago and burned 12 points to get it. I shot the 29th buck I saw and although a 4 point he is not on my wall. Lots of bucks but the trophy quality wasn't there.