LAST EDITED ON Jan-27-09 AT 11:47AM (MST)[p] I agree with KTC about the Dutton. I hunted it last year on archery. A few things that have not been mentioned are very important.
The Sheep SUCK. A local sheep herder, who happens to be very friendly, moved a couple thousand sheep (I have been told it was over 5000) through the top of Deer Creek, North and South Deep Creek, Pine Creek and Forest Creek. This was during the archery hunt. Just moving that many sheep does affect the elk but add to that the sheep herders ridding horses around the sheep all day and shooting off guns to keep the bears away from the sheep. By the way there are a LOT of bears on the Dutton. This also greatly affected the elk. Then the Coup de gr?ce was the government trapper who was called into the area to kill the bears who had been killing the sheep. The guy ran hounds through Deer Creek, North and South Deep Creek, Pine Creek and Forest Creek. He ended up Killing two bears.
I don't know if it was a bad year as far as bears but I have been told the Sheep thing happens every year. The people I know who killed elk on the Dutton (years previous to 2008) were very lucky. One guy thought it was an easy hunt because he had a 370 + bull run in front of him. He was ridding his quad and a big bull ran across the road. He killed it and tells everybody what a pig shoot the Dutton is. Another friend killed a great bull on a wallow. As it turns out, he hunted hard, but the bull hitting that wallow was luck. He had not seen the bull all season and he had given up on the wallow and was walking away talking when he looked up and saw a 380 bull walking to the wallow. He killed it, but as I said he was walking away from the wallow talking when the bull showed up.
Between 2007 and 2008 the wallow locations must have been given out on a web page because every wallow I located had a least one trail camera. Most had two or three.
Even as road less and inaccessible as the Dutton is I saw people everywhere. I think the added spike hunters will only hurt the number of people. As it was, I had numerous archery deer hunters walking all over the mountain using the Hocie Mama to see the big bulls. I herd more people calling than elk calling.
The Dutton is a beautiful place and I would hunt it again in a second but I would be going in with my eyes wide open. I hunted an area with GREAT bulls with a chance a great hunt and I now wish I had used my points to hunt an area that had a great hunt with a chance at a big bull. Not sure if that makes sense but that is my thoughts.