muzz or rifle

[hhunter23]

i have always had a huge desire to hunt the book cliffs, i was wondering what season seems to be better? muzzy or any weapon? ive heard many things about the unit being more of a summer grounds unit for deer, but that there are a lot of 24-26" four points everywhere, during the seasons. i was just thinking about changing my weapon choice to muzzle-loader instead of rifle, for next year. what do all you fellow MM members think?





"Shoot Straight"

 

[shed1]

It depends on what part of the books you are hunting?

 

[BrowningRage]

You are right about the summer being a hot bed for bucks... If you wanted a nice velvet Muley, I recommend the archery hunt. You will have great success. Now back to your question...

As you may well have heard, this is a migration unit. The deer move off of the top area down to the lowlands in the fall. (I have close family friends that live in Fruita and watch the migration every year). Anyway, I have heard that the muzzy hunt dates usually catch the deer in the middle of their migration. Meaning that they can be up on top one day, and gone to the lowlands the next. The difficulty with the migration is the terrain through which these deer move is steep, and difficult to access, and you have to hope that they make it out.
My recommendation from experience is to do the rifle hunt...

"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!" 2 Ne. 28: 24

 

[swbuckmaster]

IMHO You will have a chance to kill the best bucks on the books in this order, archery, muzzy, rifle.

the archery bucks are easy to see so you will see lots of the better quality bucks but can be harder to kill with short range weapon.

the muzzy bucks are probably the hardest to hunt due to terrain but they probably kill the best bucks because they are really the first rifle season.

the rifle hunt is a piece of cake with the deer on the winter range and loads of trails to ride but hard to find anything you want to shoot because the better bucks have already been harvested by previous hunts.

There are no big bucks in Utah! LOL

 

[hhunter23]

well it being a limited entry tag, and the way my luck goes. if i draw the tag, whatever the weapon, im going to work my butt off to try and kill a nice respectable deer. but i just dont want to draw the lesser tag. and honestly im not a very good archery hunter and i would worry about being able to kill a good buck. so im leaning towards muzzy or rifle. i guess ill watch this year and keep tabs on all the bucks that are killed during each season.
thanks for your input.




"Shoot Straight"

 

[justr_86]

Out of all 3 muzz would be my last choice. I've spent a lot of time there and was a guide for all 3, muzz being by far the worst. But all 3 years I was a guide for the muzz hunt they were right in the middle of the migration it all depends on the weather. If you see a buck you better get moving because you won't see him again! I'd suggest picking up a bow or sticking with a rifle.

 

[heartshot]

+ 1 justr_86

Also the north side migration is 10+ miles

 

[Smokepole]

I liked the muzzy hunt. Can't wait to do it again.

Smokepole

 

[hhunter23]

did you have a hard time finding deer or keeping tabs on any with whats been said about them being migrating? that is a cool deer too by the way.




"Shoot Straight"

 

[Smokepole]

This one and a few others were still high almost right along the divide road. It was dry going in before the hunt but, got wet opening day. I was able to sneak in on a few bucks and took the one in the photo late in the afternoon.

Smokepole