Steelheader,
My buddy and I drew the later East side. We camped just North of the Bennett Hills sign. Put a lot of miles on our boots over two weekends - total eight days. We both hunted with flintlocks - his a .50 Lancaster (custom) and mine a .54 Lyman GPR. He shot a small buck. I missed twice. The first on a small forked horn but the second...
I saw the second one when I missed the forky. Guessed he was around 26", 4x4 with about a 6" dropper on the right beam. I watched where he and his harem went, with the forky. My buddy's son and I followed them over a ridge and into a half bowl. They ended up in a slide area - no cover to sneak. We watched the big guy chase the forky away from the harem into some quakies and he layed down in some sage so that the forky couldn't get back to the girls. After watching, crab walking to cover and sneaking around the back side of the bowl's ridge (2 1/2 hrs) I was above them and had about a 110 yards shot on the 4x4. I heard the ball sing off into the blue - shot a little low, grazed a large rock in front of him. Never touched him. Watched them top over a higher ridge and let them go for the day. My buddy saw him a couple of days later in another wicked slide around the ridge from where we last saw him. It was my last trek out, so maybe he will be there next year.
We saw quite a few bucks. Most were three point. I saw a really nice 4x4, around 30" wide on a rim above me - 250 yards and no way to get to him as he was standing, watching us. He was a beautiful buck on the skyline. We didn't run into many hunters.
There were only a handful of camps and most were travelling the road on four wheelers to wherever they were hunting. I did talk to a F&G CO that had a nice non-typical 6x5 head in his truck. A couple of trad. muzzleloader hunters were stalking on him when a guy with a center fire rifle took him out from under them. They called the CAP line and reported him. The CO cited him and took the deer as there was no open season except trad. muzzleloader.
I went a bit long but I hope that it answered your question. Do you know if this trad. muzzleloader hunt will rotate to Unit 52 next year? We are already discussing what to apply for.
Ray