Northern rifle Book Cliffs deer

schoolhousegrizz · Sep 24, 2017

Went over and scouted this area. Saw some decent bucks, we are excited to go. Have a question for those of you that have hunted the northern rifle deer before. Would you guys suggest covering lots of area and seeing as many bucks as you can, or getting away from the roads ans trying to find some secluded areas?

honkerdwn · Sep 25, 2017

I spent the first couple days covering ground by driving and pretty much just learning the lay of the land. Realized I was seeing the same average bucks all the time. On the fourth day I decided to leave the wheeler and truck and hike in a ways. It didn't take long I was seeing better deer. Its the same old story for about anywhere......leave the road and the traffic and you will usually do a little better. Word of advise, don't go in blind. Make sure you have a compass or a GPS so you can track where you've been and how to get back out. There is lots of country in there and easy to end up farther away than you think. Especially when your on the trail of a big one.

HD

schoolhousegrizz · Sep 25, 2017

Thanks for the advice

Cheater · Sep 25, 2017

Honkerdwn makes a great point. That country is really easy to get turned around in. I also think that is part of what makes the area so unique and cool. Go in prepared and have fun.

TBoneCollector · Sep 29, 2017

Get off the road as much as you can. If you can get a mile from the road you will start to see better quality bucks for sure. I mainly hunted close to the roads the first half of the hunt and saw decent bucks until the last half we found a wheeler trail that hadn't been traveled much that took us down into a canyon that no one really had been in. We got off the wheeler and hiked down the canyon and we were seeing deer everywhere. The bucks where definitely bigger and smarter as well. Seems like there is always a couple slugs taken out of there each year and a majority of them come out of canyons where there aren't roads. Good luck and I hope to see a pic of a good buck in the next couple weeks.