unit 70 3rd and 4th report

I have asked multiple people on this site about these hunts, so I thought I would give feedback on the hunt I had. Let it be known that I am not a great hunter, but I try and work hard when I hunt.

I decided this year was the year to burn 13 points on 4th season. Talking to guys who hunted it last year, I did not get good reports, but figured it was the weather, and maybe some of the good bucks did not get killed, so it may be real good this year. Some friends and other locals had hunted the unit before, so I had some good intel on the unit. I was able to help my brother in law and good friend pick up third season tags on the returned list. Felt like that was going to be a big bonus for me going into the hunt. 2 guys scouting it for a week for me, while they hunted. I ended up hunting first weekend with my brother-in-law, then he went back 2 days later and hunted to end of season. My friend did the same. Neither of them ended up killing a buck, and neither saw a good buck. These to guys are both good hunters. There were 4 other local guys hunting 3rd season and non of them killed bucks either. All of these guys would have been looking for 160+ bucks and a couple of them would have been holding out for bigger deer.
I rejoined my brother in law for the final 2 days of his hunt, spent the next 2 days scouting and hunted my 5 day hunt. I ended up spending 11 days on the unit, and saw one buck that may have went 150 and nothing bigger. I was going for a wall hanger or nothing, so tag soup it was. I would see 10-15 bucks a day and usually over a 100 deer total each day. I just could not turn up a good buck. I have tracked deer my whole life, and I had a difficult time even finding a track that I thought was a good buck. I hunted multiple ways, walked and glassed, road and glass, and sit and glass. the 15x were being used by both my son and I religiously. The last night there, watched 15 bucks off of one hill, most rutting hard, but nothing even close to a shooter. I am not sure if it was the weather, or if there is just not many good bucks there. I think I was more disappointed in the lack of 23-25" 4 points on the unit. I loved the country we hunted, enjoyed the experience, never had problems with people. I never even saw a good buck in a camp or in a truck, but I was usually hunting all day, so maybe I just missed them. I am sure some good bucks had to be killed. I would love to hear if anyone else had a 4th season tag and know what they thought of the hunt.
I was really disappointed for awhile, and to be honest some feeling sorry for myself, but looking at the bigger picture of life in general and some lessons that were reinforced in my mind, about why I really hunt and what my life is really about, I am okay with it.

I hope this report is helpfut to others who may be thinking about this hunt.

I am not surprised, I'm hearing much the same for 61 from guys who hunted it for elk, no deer or no good deer. I hunted 62 for elk 3rd season, I never saw a decent buck.

Thanks for sharing your journey with us!!!

Thanks for the update and story. Hard to burn 13 points for that. But as you said the experience is what counts.

Great attitude, you are looking at it correctly. It still hurts burning that many points, but if you were seeing that many deer, you must have been doing everything right. I'm sitting on 15 points, but I don't think I'll use them in this unit. I appreciate the insight, thank you!

That's a great way to look at it, and there's always another hunt to look forward to! You did just confirm what I was already thinking about this unit, and I won't be going here either with my points.

I hunted it during the 3rd, and I would say you summed it up perfectly. Very disappointed in the unit as far as big deer went. I don't get it, lots of deer, awesome habitat, there were a lot of hunters, but so much thick hard to hunt area there has got to be some giants. That being said I didn't see or hear of any.

I saw 4 bucks killed that were 24 inch or bigger but heard it was tough hunt.