Deer unit 101-109

How were the deer in unit 101-109 this year? We drew the mid rifle hunt 3 years ago and it was a tough hunt. We hunted our tails off and I pulled a 170" buck. I am thinking of applying for this hunt again this year, and am wondering what experiences people had last year.

Thanks
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Wish I could help. I considered drawing that exact hunt this year and bought a point instead. I haven't heard anything other than the hunting was tough due to weather, but that seemed to be common across all states. How was the deer herd three years ago?

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Three years ago the hunting was decent. It took us 3 days of hard hunting and hiking our butts off to find a pocket of deer. Once we did we concentrated on that area primarily and went 2 for 3 on decent bucks. Didn't see any monsters but had fun trying to find them.

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LAST EDITED ON Jan-16-17 AT 08:16AM (MST)[p]I had the early tag this year. It all depends on what you are looking for. I just wanted to fill the freezer and was able to do that about an hour into my second day. Was able to help fill my buddies tag the next day. Both were 3 X 2, but his was a couple years older. Before my buddy shot his, I scared up a nice 4 X 4, but somehow my friend never saw it. Seemed like as soon as I got off the road and started hiking there were deer everywhere in the wilderness area. My one wasted day was hiking around in 103, outside the wilderness where there were roads everywhere.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-09-17 AT 09:47PM (MST)[p]The Area10 deer herd is the worst I have seen in my life, over 40 years of hunting there. populations were low in the late 70s. But the overall pressure and other factors make this a sea change in Nevadas largest deer herd.

My guess is that it will never recover to be anything like it once was. Yes you can hunt hard and find a few bucks. But personally I wouldn't waste the time

Piper, they dropped the tag number significantly in 2016 - hopefully this helps, let's get it a few years.

Very poor genetics also. 2x3 4x3s if it's a 4pt it's 20 inches.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-13-17 AT 10:36PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Jan-13-17 AT 10:27?PM (MST)

Deerlove, I know what you mean by lots of young deer. With the tag cuts, maybe we will see some age eventually, there was good - great bucks coming out of the Ruby's in the 80's and 90's. Do genetics evolve? and...if I remember correctly didn't the biggest buck in Nevada come from area 10 in 2015? On the fun and reward factor with archery tackle, it's a good hunt, if you're into working hard.

Tough hunt?

I would have to disagree with the poor genetics comment... It's been a few years since I've been up there but some of the biggest bucks I've ever seen were in area 10. Some giants still get killed out there every year and even more get seen and not killed, it's just a tough unit to hunt.

Mid season is tough especially with the hot weather and so many tags in the field. But decent bucks are around and your best bet is to get up high and glass as much as you can. Late season is where you'll see the true potential of the Ruby's and into the late archery season. I'd say the potential of taking a big buck is even better in the late archery season then it is in the mid rifle season.

Been thinking about trying it

I was considering putting in for this hunt but not after looking at the tags being dropped. WOW! The NDOW must know their population is hurting big time.

Early Hunt: 2012=158 nr tags // 2016=50 nr tags
Mid Hunt: 2012=132 nr tags /// 2016=40 nr tags
Late Hunt: 2012=34 nr tags // 2016=7 nr tags


That is the NDOW basically shutting down hunting. That is NDOW admitting it SUCKS in 101-109.

We hunted there a few years ago and it was so bad. We pushed hard and hit multiple back country basins. Best buck was a 22" 3 point. I thought the Wasatch was bad here in Utah until I hunted the Rubies. Not thanks. Good luck with your deer herd you let go to waste.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato

I sure hope 10 keeps getting talked about so poorly!


I have it as one of my only 3 choices this year for the muzzle loader hunt.


Deer numbers go up and down. Is it a great unit? Maybe not by a lot of standards.

Some very nice bucks stick out in my mind from there. The most recent was in 2014 or 2015 while helping my dad when he had a doe tag.

I would love the opportunity to glass some up again!

Just a few years ago the muzzy tags were in the leftovers.

I hunt 6 states for deer. Including the Rubies. I wont go back. You can have both two points that reside in the unit.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato

Please tell all your friends about that, too. That way I can keep drawing it as a 5th choice when I don't get any of the early tags and still have a great hunt.

I think Nevada sent the message loud and clear to everyone.

When they cut tags by 70% I think we all get it.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato

If you don't like the unit , don't apply . I hunted 10 in 2015 archery and had a blast . I didn't fill my tag , but definitely the best archery hunt I've been on.

I grew up hearing the stories of the Rubies and came to find them all true . Beautiful country that can produce a good buck .

What is the success rate for hunters in the Rubies?

I have hunted them as hard as anyone. Guaranteed. But, they simply hold less deer than they once did. Beautiful place to hunt...perhaps the most beautiful I have ever been to. However, take a quick peek at the stats for the unit. Population....waaaaaay down. Harvest rates........in the toilet. Buck to doe ratio's......worst in 10 years.

If Nevada keeps those tags down for 5 to 10 years they will have a great unit again. But, not now. The stats dont lie. You can say the Rubies are great but the stats dont lie. Why else would the cut tags by 70%. They took away 70% of the tags.

And No, its not as simple as you saying......"well if you dont like it then dont apply". The point is, I love the Rubies, want to apply, one of my favorite places on Earth, have family memories there, backpacking over peaks and fishing in remote lakes, but...........I wont get that back unless you and the state faces reality and cuts tags and gets the deer herd back. So no, it isnt just....well dont apply then.....it is....lets all admit what we have and fix it. The state has done that. If you think the Rubies are even a shadow of their former self then you are just plain missing the data and the boat. The state agrees with me.....the unit sucks....so they cut tags in an attemp to fix it. Piper lives there and will tell you as much.

now......lets hope the state is smart and leaves those tags low for a few more years to create a robust population of mulies again.

Can you still find a big buck in the Rubies?...yes
Does that mean it is as good as it was.....NO!

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato

I'm not really sure what your beef is. How does me facing the reality that the unit isn't what it was 10 years ago magically make it better? As long as they give out tags there, I will apply.

I am pretty new to hunting, so maybe I haven't been spoiled on expecting a trophy every year, but compared to going with my older brother growing up in Utah, there are a ton more bucks here. In two days of hiking the Rubies in the early season, I saw 6 bucks. One 4 point, two 3 X 2, two 2 points and a spike.

This is only my 3rd year hunting deer, so either I got a lot better than everyone else who likely have been doing it much longer than me, or there is some other way to explain success rates. Perhaps a lot of other people are holding out for the big one. Maybe they are holding out for that one to jump out in front of them as they are driving their side by side. (This is personal guess. I only saw one other group of hunters out hiking while everyone else just drove the roads.)

Whatever it is, I'm not concerned with what success rates for the previous ten years are, or what tags have done in that time span. As far as I'm concerned, it's still a great unit, even if not as great as it once was.

Geo I think you just proved Aspen's point. You could have turned those bucks up in a couple hours or less not days in the rubies. I dont think he has a beef or is upset with you, just doesnt want people pumping up an area that is by all accounts suffering. Just my 2 cents worth. I would love nothing more than to hunt the rubies but at what cost? I am willing to sit it out a few years and hope the DOW can get the herd trending in the right direction.

To each their own, I guess. If that is what the unit was, then hopefully it gets back there at some point. I don't think me avoiding hunting it will have any impact on that one way or the other, though. I also don't see the point in trashing a unit that has more deer than any other unit in the state.

All I'm trying to do is convey what the unit was like for me last fall. I happen to be of the experience level/expectations that what I saw in it was quite good. If that's not good enough for someone else, then at least I have let them know. If that steers a few people away from it, then all the easier for me to keep drawing the tag.

I have hunted area 10 for 27 years. The Rubies are my back yard. Yep, definitely not as good as it used to be. A result of too many tags over the years. Still big bucks, but just not what it could be. Only thing we can do is show up to quota meetings coming up and voice our opinion. Even then, the state does what they want. Either that, or accept what they give us and hope they get it right. I put the late rifle as my last choice this year. I have Archery hunted the early and late seasons. Muzzleloader and rifle hunted it too. I think it will come back if the state don't f it up. May take a few years.

It's true, there are no deer in area 10. Just joking, lol. I actually had a decent year last year archery hunting in area 10. But most of my hunting spots require a minimum of 4 hours of hiking up hill to get to base camp.
Geo hunter, good to see your passion as a hunter. Let me explain how area 10 used to be several years ago. I used to be able to hike into a canyon and see over 20 bucks running together in a single group. If you did not like any of those bucks then you could skip a canyon or two and find another 20 bucks running together. Nowadays in those same canyons you might see 4 or 6 bucks running together. So you can see the frustration that some people are expressing. Area 10 definitely has the largest deer herd but this year even area 6 is giving more tags in certain hunts. So the population has certainly gone down.
With that being said, I appreciate your enthusiasm and would love to see more from more people. Rock on brother. Fatrooster.

Ya, I dont have a beef with anyone....just saying lets all agree to fix it. Now that you have said you are young and inexperienced in the Rubies I can understand where you are coming from. I really hope they get this hunt back on track. Let me tell you how it went for me in 2004 on a hunt there and then you will understand.

Preseason scouting - backpacked in and saw over 20 bucks in the first basin I looked in. 3 of those bucks were pushing 28 inches and one possibly 30. Nothing with nontypical points. The rest were decent bucks but only a few were 2 points. There were bucks on the right...left....and in the bottom of the basin.

Backpacked in 4 miles set up basecamp by a beautiful alpine lake. Got there on day 2 of the hunt. On the way in a guy is packing out a buck said he shot the basin up and nothing was left. We start glassing and hunt a 28" buck...a 24" buck...and a bunch of other smaller bucks. They were in the cliffs and rimrock of a 10,000 ft peak. We literally chased them through the cliffs and took a few shots. Didnt realize we had them at 40 yards when they were looking at us from below. We had overdone it and come in too high. Buddy on the radio and scope didnt know how to use the scope....learned some tough lessons that year about who you trust to be your eyes...

Then went back the next week....other side of the mountain range. Hiked in a crazy wind storm. Stayed the night. Next morning catch a group of deer migrating from a high basin area. They were on the south face in the buck brush to get out of the snow. Over 2 ft of snow up high. In 4 hours we saw over 40 bucks. We shot and missed a 25" 4 point. Beautiful tall amazing rack that almost touched on the tips. Then we decided to pass on a 32 to 34" 2 point. We would have taken him but were hoping for something bigger. Tried to sneak in on a 5 point with awesome inlines.......but like young bucks we decided if it was this good low we would really find the big ones up high. Got to the top...60mph winds...2 feet of snow....no deer. That is when we learned even the big guys drop when the weather gets that nasty. We were young and wanted to get after it. Figured the non typical bucks would still be high....ooops.

So we go back down...last hour of last day...we sneak in on a 24" heavy 3 point and decide a bird in the hand is worth ....you get it.

Amazing trip. I didnt have a tag. My friend did all the hunting. I decided to get a tag and go back...and it progressively got worse every year since.

The Rubies are amazing but when I have limited time and I love big bucks I can only go so many places. I have been focusing on Wyoming....Utah....Colorado....and it has been good to us. Last year took a great buck in Idaho. An over the counter tag in Idaho had better bucks than what I found in the Rubies.

If we all agree there is a problem we can fix it. If we bury our noses and beg for tags.....like we are currently doing in Utah. Then the herd suffers. But at least we get our tag and the state gets there cash for the biologists.

I also hunt behind my house above Salt Lake here in Utah. Actually what they call American Fork Canyon. The bucks have dropped off so badly. In the 90's I was watching huge bucks in every basin. Now there are none. Literally none. I am lucky to find a 2 point in some basins. Back then we had a few hunters. Now we have 40 or so camped by us 4 miles into the backcountry at 10,000 feet. Everyone wants a tag every year so we turn a blind eye and hope the big boys will pop out. Or, the state wants to make sure the deer dont eat the roses in the city in December so they haul 5000 hunters into a small unit to take care of the "deer" problem. Then they sale us that 18 bucks per 100 does is a great population. Buck to doe ratio's have nothing to do with population size. The population on the Wasatch and the Rubies is half of what it should be....and 30% of what it could be.

So, attend the meetings....still apply for a tag....and vote to reduce tags until the population bounces back....trust me bud....the story above about all those bucks can happen again... I just hope I dont have to wait too long for it to happen again.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato

Ok, I get it now. If that is what it was, and what it could be again, them I'm in. I spend a lot of time in the Rubies as they are my back yard now, too. The best shed hunting I have ever had, and a pretty good hunt on top of that. If all of that could double or triple in quality, then heck yeah! Let's do it!