LAST EDITED ON Dec-04-06 AT 02:05PM (MST)[p]That is interesting to hear about the hunter problems they had to deal with, but there is probably still a lot more to the story than just that. I will say that Adam's guides were some of the hardest working guys out there, we almost never saw them near their camp when we drove past it. They were always out early, back late and hunting all day. About the only times we'd see them was when passing each other on the roads.
After the big winds blew, nobody was finding bucks where you'd expect to, including his guides I'm sure. We hunted up 211 into the #####'s Combs and saw no tracks and only glassed up 3 does. Up the Saddle Mtn. trail, never saw a deer and no tracks. Up North Canyon trail, no deer or tracks to speak of. Before the wind, we were hunting to the north of the 631 road, and there were good numbers of deer in there, but the best bucks we saw were three different ones that were in the 20"-24" range. While glassing those deer, we could often see Duwane's camp, along with two others that were camped along that road in our glasses while looking at those deer. They killed that 195 buck out on the flats during the first hour or two of the season, basically out of the pickup. Most of the hunters were working the cedars or out on the flats and while guys reported seeing deer, nobody was seeing many good bucks. After the winds blew, deer sightings dropped significantly and the toughest part was that while we were seeing groups of does, most either had no buck with them at all, or had a yearling or small forkie or three point with them. We heard pretty much the same comments from everyone we talked with, plenty of does and young bucks, but no mature bucks in the 4+ year class for most guys.
After using the big glasses a bunch early on, we began hunting how and where some of the guys who'd finished early suggested as they were leaving. We started driving the roads through the cedars looking for deer, or tracks to follow. We literally saw almost no tracks crossing the roads, and saw very few deer. When we did find the buck we shot, he was found by my buddy who was sitting up high glassing while we were out looking for deer or tracks several miles away from him. He was able to get in touch with us and direct us to the general area where he'd seen the buck. My son ended up sitting in a good glassing spot in that area for about 4 hours and the buck came back, chasing a hot doe. After hunting all day for nearly 7 days, the whole thing took about 5 seconds from the time the buck showed up until it was over.
While we saw some mature bucks chasing does during the first few days of the hunt, this was the only mature buck we saw chasing a doe after the third day. We saw plenty of does, just no big boys with them. It was unfortunate to see that most of the bucks doing the chasing during the latter part of the season, at least during daylight hours, were forkhorns or three points. We got very lucky and found a hot doe with a rut dumb buck on her heels.
Duwane may have had good hunting on the west side, we did hear that it was quite a bit better over there, but the east side was tough for everyone, including his guides.