My 04' Wyo Buck

hunter1975

Active Member
Messages
191
LAST EDITED ON Jan-17-05 AT 12:42PM (MST)[p]My 2 buddies and I drew again and having learned from the previous year, we decided to pack our camp in on our backs for about 3 miles the day before the hunt opened to get ahead of the pressure. We ended up seeing this buck that night right next to camp. Opening morning I found myself glassing the open country around camp. I saw one 22" 4pt that morning running for cover but it was otherwise rather uneventful. Then as fast as I could blink a snow storm hit. We spent the afternoon holed up in a tent. I went out to glass in a few inches of snow that evening and turned up a buck busting out of some brush below me. It was getting pretty dark but I could tell he was a decent buck. With only two days to hunt I decided to take him. Low and behold he was the same buck we saw next to camp the night before. It was a fun hunt.

Luckily I had a friend in town with horses that came up the next day to pack him off. We didn't find anything better that day for my buddy's so I was glad I took him when I did. I think next year should be better with the 4 point or better restriction in place. we'll see... but the bad part of it all is I know there was at least two bucks shot and left because people didn't understand the reg's. We found a 3 point that had 2" eyegaurds shot right in the heart just left to rott. We couldn't find the guy who shot it either. "In wyoming a 4 point or better on one side can include counting the eyegaurds". What do all think about the 4-point or better idea?
41ec11022bcb964e.jpg
 
I think they should make it 3 point or better. You would get less mistakes like that. If you see a two point, chances are it does not have eyeguards so you would not even risk it. One of the largest deer i have seen was a 3x3 with no eyeguards. Congrats on a nice buck!
 
I agree with your logic wyoaces, the 3-point rule instead of the 4-point rule. I know we saw some nice 3 points that we were trying hard to put eyegaurds on the second day of the hunt. Although, I did hunt in a 3-point or better unit a few years back and I still saw a lot of 2-points get shot and left, so I guess you could still have a problem either way. I'm just wondering if the 4-point rule is going to produce bigger bucks over the years.... or.... just cause more people to hold out and kill the bigger buck around the corner. It seems like you could end up with a bunch of young 3-4points every year, that were 2-points the year before, with very few mature 4-points left after a couple years.?
 
naw, by the time they grow that second rack, they've learned alot. alot more will reach maturity under 4 points or better. the area i hunt was that way for years and years, and the hunting was always great. now they all get blasted as fork horns. we had that same snow the day before the opener this year, and it was a slaughter. not gonna be many small 4 points next year, there is hardly any forks on the winter range, and they were everywhere before the season. older age classes will be alright next year, but theres gonna be a dry spell in a couple years where i hunt.
 
Nice buck.
If i am out of line here let me know cuz this is just an idea. With the elk in utah they made it a spike only in some areas. I dont know for sure but it might work if they did that with deer too. If you want to kill a good buck every year then you will have to draw, but if you want it to get to where there are big bucks to look at then you might like this. Not all deer are spikes in there first year with horns. Half or more are two points. So you will start to get bigger buck because more than half of the first year bucks will survive the hunt, and not every spike will get killed. I dont know if it would work or not... let me know what you think of my idea, thanks for any input.
Later,
40
 
I hunted deer for many days last year and I bet I only found 3-4 true spike deer(of course I wasn't looking real hard for spikes). The rest of the yearling's (probably around 40) were 2 points on at least one side. With this in mind I think you would have to make it 2 point or smaller and then limit the 2 point tags as well as the 3 point or larger tags. It may actually help elminate some of the large 2 point gene's that are out there and never get shot. I think it would be very hard to control the quantity of deer that are shot and left with two limited hunts in an area at the same time but you could do the hunts at different times. Some food for thought anyway.
 
Wyoming has a lack of management on mule deer. We don't need point restrictions, we need limited quota areas for mule deer. Funny that all antelope areas are limited quota, most elk areas are limited quota and just a few deer areas are limited quota for residents. We don't need point restrictions, we just need to shoot fewer bucks and let them get into the older age classes. And shooting does like they do here in the eastern part of the state is ridiculous.

I've watched the quality of Wyoming's mule deer herds decline over the past 25-30 years. It gets worse every year and every year Game and Fish blames a drought or some other disaster. It's time for them to change management to help the mule deer.

From what I can see, it's all about money. Game and Fish will not cut license numbers because they are afraid they'll sell fewer licenses and won't have as much money. Too bad; it's a sad state of affairs for the mule deer.
 
I agree.. Then they raise the prices and still don't set limited quota areas like they should. I think colorado and nevada and done a good job doing this.
 
TRUE! Too bad some other states with good resources have not followed suit. Too oten it is about money insted of doing a good job with the resource base.
 
Great looking deer. I love the front forks on that guy as well as the eyeguards.

Congratulations.

Chef
"I Love Animals...They're Delicious!"
 
4 point or better is good in theory, but if you get a good harvest for a few years you end up with a lot of large bucks with 3 points or less, and get an inferior gene pool. I've seen it happen on some private property I've hunted, the landowner lets only 4 point or better come off the property, so he has alot of 20-27 inch two points running around.
 
nice one, 75...congratulations...it might just be me, but the size of that head makes me think that was a really big bodied buck...anyhooo, congrats again and thanks for the pic...
 
Thanks little...We estimated him to go about 250lb's on the hoof. It was a nice deer. The buck I shot last year was about the same age but probably went closer to 300lbs. I shot both of them approx. 400yds from each other. I guess they just know how to grow big bodied deer in wyoming.
 

Click-a-Pic ... Details & Bigger Photos
Back
Top Bottom