Wife drew deer for it in 2001. Me and the wife and our then 1 year old boy went on down. Landowners are very friendly and its a big property. We arrived early the day before they schedualed us to hunt, a bit earlier than I would have liked. They had running water in their little campground area which was nice. We offloaded the camper and drove around that evening on the main roads to learn the area and spot.
We stopped at all the watering holes and checked tracks, there wasnt a single darn deer track anywhere around them. Lots of elk tracks and we saw tons of elk on the south end. No sign of nothing on the northern half. You can get in a few places where you can glass for miles up there... I dont recall seeing a single deer that evening but we did see elk.
Other hunters rolled into camp about 11pm and set up a tent... LMAO it was seriously like -2 degrees that night, our camper was toasty warm... in fact too warm. The next morning we got up early and the other guys came out to meet us and discuss gameplans. They asked if the camper got very cold because they froze their A$$ off. I felt guilty and instead of saying "no it actually stayed about 80 degrees in there all night" I lied and said it was ok but a tad chilly
. They wanted to go north east of the camp area where alot of people say is good hunting. I told them we didnt see squat the night before there and we were heading west then south. They said good luck and headed out.
We went down the ridge line scouting everywhere you could look off and not seeing anything other than a few elk, passed a couple big water tanks with no tracks... finally we ended up on the low country on the west side and glassed back up into the hills. Saw a few more elk /yawn ... finally saw a deer! It was a couple miles away and a doe but hey, thats better than nothing!
Another 10 min goes by as I keep scanning, I finally see a few more deer along the southern edge of the property. Then I saw horns! It was only a small forky but for some reason he was on a dead run and I watched him cover a mile before dropping out of site. Never did figure out what spooked it, no hunters were anywhere near that area.
We drove back up on top and glassed some more... then decided to go down a road they had just reciently bulldozed. It was really crude but as we scraped our way down it we came into a small clearing and there was a Huge freaking 2pt standing there looking at us from maybe 15 yards away. I ask her well theres a buck... she was torn as we hadnt seen much and he did look big being that close but she decided to look around a bit more. We drove further on down and found a 3x2 that was even wider but he wouldnt wait up for a shot and was headed towards the property line.
I'll have to admit at this point I was coming down with a nasty flu and was probably more than a little grouchy... so as we came back up the road she suddenly says "wait a minute, I want to see something". I stop in thick brush and she walks out fo site then I hear *BOOM*. LMAO that same big 2pt was still in the same spot just standing there bored. She dropped it with a single shot. I didnt even see her aiming. So we dressed it out and headed back to camp ... I was feeling much worse so IMO, I was happy to see the hunt end quickly LOL.
The other guys were back from their morning hunt... and they looked like they were beat up, and very disappointed. They had hiked miles up into the small canyons north east of the camp and never saw a track nor dropping. While they were hoping to tag nice big deer, they were pretty impressed with the antlers on my wifes. I told them where the 2x3 was and where we saw the other deer and wished them good luck, loaded everything up then came home. Overall it was a fun low pressure hunt but I was disappointed in the number of animals. It looked more like an area where they would winter rather than be year around. But its pretty and has that classic "deer country look". Sage and Oakbrush along with lots of quakies and some pines.
Side note: My brothers Father in Law bought himself and his boy deer tags on Old Woman that same year. They didnt get anything even though they hunted weeks later than us.
Hopefully that was just a non-standard poor year for critters and you will run into alot more. Its a pretty place though and I think you will enjoy it.
-DallanC
