LAST EDITED ON Mar-21-08 AT 08:19PM (MST)[p]I hunted 3rd in 05 for deer. A group of Wisconsin guys were hunting elk and took either 4 or 5 bulls for 11 hunters. Not bad for OTC. I saw a dead 37.5, 209 buck BUT I'd never deer hunt that unit again. Unscrupulous landowners. Claiming public as private.
The La Salle range in Utah runs into 60. If feel if I guy had horses and learned that part of the unit, he could get into some good bulls regularly as the 1st has good draw odds and 2nd/3rd are OTC.
I know I'll get PMs on 60 cause of this so I'll just put it out there now and answer all the questions at one time.
05 I bought a landowner tag from a guy that had tried to draw 61 tags for us. He located the 60 tags as a favor. He guided in there 20+ years ago. He told us EXACTLY where to hunt. Game warden told us the same. 3 days before season we show up with horses, backpacks, maps, directions, etc. Found the BLM access point but the tag seller had told us to talk to the caretaker of the ranch in the Sinbad valley. So we did. He told us that they had done a land swap with BLM and they now owned al the way to the cliffs. 1500 feet, verticle. We relocated. Day 4 we came back and found out, 1) the guy that had sold us tags had come looking for us the day after we left to show us around, 2) that we'd been lied to about the land swap by the caretaker, 3) that family of the caretaker's wife, from Oregon, had taken a 37.5, 209" buck and a 28.5 inch buck. I saw the bucks and held them. Same exact genetics, forked eye guard on same side, same stickers off of the same fork. Smaller buck was just a year or two younger. Those bucks were exactly where we were initially told to hunt.
We then hunted the edges of the valley, ON PUBLIC LAND!!! We were on the public side of some new BLM markers by 400 yards when after watching some other hunters on the ranch for awhile, they started yelling @ us. They claimed we were on private!
I think I ended our conversation with "while calling the sheriff, you might want to call an ambulance too!" They left us alone after I/we didn't bluff.
When I was in that neck of the woods last year, I kept an eye out for that caretaker. Wanted to find him in some ways but didn't really want to spend time in a Colorado jail cause of my occupation. I'm still pi$$ed at that guy and although I admit I have some anger management issues, I'm thinking when I retire I might just look him up.
Sysnopsis: Great potential for both good bucks and bulls but I don't enjoy that type of situation.
