Old Woman Plateau

pookiebar

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I know there was a post regarding this hunt earlier in the summer. I drew this tag and the place sucks!! I hunted it hard for two days in October and literally didn't see a deer.

No I was not just road hunting, got out and hiked a good deal of what looked like prime habitat. I mean you should see some does and fawns in the evenings and morning at the very least. But I saw none in October.

Figured maybe it was more of a wintering ground, so went back on Tuesday, Nov. 9th. After the earlier storms and some cold weather I figured there should be something that moved on there. Well, still saw nothing! Late evening I saw one doe on the southwest corner of the ranch.

DO NOT put in for this hunt! DWR should close the place for the deer hunt. I saw elk, but no deer. Wondered if the other hunters on the unit had the same experience? Did anyone get a deer off the place?
 
My family's cabin is about a half mile away from that cwmu. used to be a great general hunt about 10 years ago but has steadily decreased. this year was horrible all year long on every hunt, even during the summer you could tell it was going to be a bad year for deer. there's a lot of predators and cattle on that unit and a ton of hunters so i dont see it getting better anytime soon. elk on the other hand are doing pretty well.
 
I wouldn't take it over a (gulp) General Southeastern tag. There used to be a few deer out there, but not any more.
 
Pookiebar, how were the CWMU managers to deal with?

I met one of them in Gunnison and thought he seemed really accessible and public hunter friendly.
 
The manager was very nice, very willing to help. But NO deer on the ranch means that there was nothing to shoot.

Plus three sets of lion tracks in the snow kind of shows where any deer that used to be there may have gone. I think the DNR needs to shut it down for deer. I would have been pissed if I had points and lost them for this hunt.

Elk seem to be doing good though, and I would be happy to draw a tag for elk.
 
If I was looking to draw a CWMU unit I would have called the manager of the unit to find out a little info. I know the folks that run this CWMU and they will come out and tell you the unit sucks for deer.

Next time you might want to get a little info before putting in, just saying.

At least you didn't burn any points!!!
 
I have hunted it a few times for cow elk. The place is crawling with elk in every corner. As far as the deer go I have seen some monster bucks on the CWMU where it meets close to I70. I was out looking for elk but it was pretty hard to ignore a beast of a buck bedded down alone down in the flat stuff on the southern end of the CWMU. We really didn't see too many deer but we weren't really looking.

The Labrum's are awesome. If the way they run Old Woman Plateau reflects how other CWMU's are run I would be putting in for them on a regular basis, but I have heard a lot of nightmare stories from Units that are not run by the Labrum's.

Sorry to hear that you couldn't find a buck on that unit. I appreciate you discouraging other hunters from putting in for this unit for next year. When I saw that it was under drawn last year I almost returned my general season tag for a shot at it.

I will be putting in for it next year...
 
There might not be too many tags to draw. I spoke with the Fish and Game director for the Salina Canyon area today. He said the number of deer in that entire canyon has been going down for the past few years. I guess there are 5 or 6 CWMUs in that canyon and they are looking at really limiting the deer tags on those units for the next few years.

On a plus the DNR is really encouraging the owners of the various CWMUs there to allow predator hunters access through the winter and spring.

If you get a tag, good luck!! PM me if you want to know where I would have concentrated all my time if I had it to do over again. I unfortunately was out of time when I found access to that area of the unit.
 
Ungulate, There is a reason they can't give these tags away. Do a search on here. The few people that have hunted it have been really dissapointed. They might be nice people, but that don't mean you will shoot a deer.
 
A friend of mine hunted it last year, well his wife had the tag. Anyway, although they did not see a lot of deer, she was able to take a nice 4 point on about the 5th day of hunting. He also had nothing but good things to say about the unit managers.
 

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