You will find some big deer in the am in the northern part of the unit off divide road. But don't expect to see a lot off deer. Look for the dark timber near sage brush on the northern end dropping down to year round streams. Most hunters are hunting elk and look down on "deer hunting". When looking at sage brush gets boring, head south on divide road past the delta/nucla turn off and hunt the first 1/2 mile to 1 mile off the road. Should see some 24-26" 4 points here. Some huge deer sightings last season include a 28-30" 6 or 7 point. Saw one 28" 4 point taken off north end with excellent mass. A lot of 3 points, passed on two last season that were 20-22". Most does around 7200-7600 feet during Oct16-24 2nd season last year. Bigger bucks were seen on private land at 6800-7000 feet headed into montrose. Best hunting seemed to be up high. It snowed on Oct 17th, 18th and again Oct 21st of 04'. This seemed to get the bigger deer moving around in daylight up off divide road. Glassing can be effective on northern end but not on southern. Expect to do a lot of still hunting. I would still pass on smaller deer the first part of your hunt. Found the best access was out of Delta to put you in the middle of the unit. I will be leaving on 10/19 headed to Craig to hunt, didn't get drawn for 62 this year. Snow can be a problem off divide road, take a 4wd and go slow, up on top you can have white out conditions very quickly when a storm rolls in. Divide road is the top of the range(10,000+ft') One of our group took a 26" 4 point off divide road in the middle of the day so plan on hunting all day. Good luck.
Big_daddy
