2nd season

Deercy said:
The plans to leave today took a hit yesterday when the inspector said he knows more than the engineer.
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The inspector was probably mad you are going hunting and he wasn't. Reading your post, raised my blood pressure. I don't miss the days of debating the merits of building codes with inspectors, especially when the inspector knows you need the inspection today or it will hold up other trade inspections. Fricking government workers!
 
Some camps above 9500/10k or so need to watch the weather and have a realistic look at how they got to where they camped if they are going to leave Monday, it will not get much freezing until wed/thurs. But it will get the deer moving for sure. Getting excited for 3rd.
 
Most of our yard bucks made it thru opening morning.
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Bluehair said:
I’m lost in the haze somewhere between lazy and busy. It was a slow summer for yard bucks, but a few have shown up lately. This is today and yesterday. They’re beginning to draw a crowd.

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Most of yours are two year ahead of mine. Cool. Some of the ones here got through it. I have three bedded here right now. Our general season hunt finished last night. Haven’t seen the two year old today. He may have gone home with a hunter last night.
 
2lumpy said:
Most of yours are two year ahead of mine. Cool. Some of the ones here got through it. I have three bedded here right now. Our general season hunt finished last night. Haven’t seen the two year old today. He may have gone home with a hunter last night.
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Well, the two year old surprised me blue. He got lucky and survived the hunt. He’s back this afternoon. Looking for those apples.

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There was a gunfight here last night…..ours have all disappeared. The good news is the hunters were able to recover the buck they lost last night. I guess.
 
2lumpy said:
I guess your’s are still venerable another 3 weeks or so.
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Yeah, it just started Saturday and goes on forever.

You should be able to sell the coordinates to that feller for big bucks next year. People will drive from as far as Vernal for a deer like that (y)
 
Bluehair said:
Yeah, it just started Saturday and goes on forever.

You should be able to sell the coordinates to that feller for big bucks next year. People will drive from as far as Vernal for a deer like that (y)
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So true, the bad part is, in Utah our bucks eat all of the feed and that causes our does to starve, so maybe we’ll get lucky and a car or a cougar will kill him as soon as the ruts over.
 
Just spent the week doing 2nd season deer. Just south of Gunnison. There were does and yearlings everywhere and a lot of small bucks. Saw two mature bucks, just couldn't close the deal.
If any weather moves in for 3rd Season it should be a slaughter.
 
ended up seeing a fair few small bucks and a pile of does. Never saw anything on public worth pointing at. There do seem to be a quite a few 2-3 year old bucks where I live.
 
We went 1 for 3 in filling tags. My boy ended up harvesting his first buck, a forky, on Friday. He was super excited and it made the trip totally worth it.

Most years those forky's felt like a rarity, but not this year. Lots of young bucks. A few nice ones on private still bachelored together. Maybe weather played a factor as it seemed hotter than the last few years.

Love your guy's state! Hope to be back next year!
 
Just got back from 10 days in NW, there were a lot more deer there than I thought there would be, saw 100 to 150 deer a day lots of twins and lots of small Bucks with the Does, I'm not going to start a pissing match here and say the winter wasn't hard on them, but there's more going on out there in the NW. I saw 20 to 30 bucks a day and not one good one, not one over 22' and nothing with any mass, so I guess people will say the winter got them all and I'll say BS!!! I have hunted that area for 40+ years and have been through a few winter kills and there were always mature Bucks that survived. DOW is who to point the blame at out there, not mother nature, you can't try to eradicate every mature buck by whatever means possible because someone sitting in a office reading a book on CWD thinks that's the way to get rid of it, I mean come on, it's not that hard to figure out what has gone on out there and it's a dirty shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
oljc said:
Just got back from 10 days in NW, there were a lot more deer there than I thought there would be, saw 100 to 150 deer a day lots of twins and lots of small Bucks with the Does, I'm not going to start a pissing match here and say the winter wasn't hard on them, but there's more going on out there in the NW. I saw 20 to 30 bucks a day and not one good one, not one over 22' and nothing with any mass, so I guess people will say the winter got them all and I'll say BS!!! I have hunted that area for 40+ years and have been through a few winter kills and there were always mature Bucks that survived. DOW is who to point the blame at out there, not mother nature, you can't try to eradicate every mature buck by whatever means possible because someone sitting in a office reading a book on CWD thinks that's the way to get rid of it, I mean come on, it's not that hard to figure out what has gone on out there and it's a dirty shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I agree with this more or less. I do think that last winter did take a pretty big toll. But I do agree that mature bucks still will make it through. In my travels I noticed smaller numbers of deer. But not by a whole lot. What I did notice was all the forkies to small fours I saw. So I do buy that most of the issue has came from our states idea of mike deer herd health.
 
oljc said:
Just got back from 10 days in NW, there were a lot more deer there than I thought there would be, saw 100 to 150 deer a day lots of twins and lots of small Bucks with the Does, I'm not going to start a pissing match here and say the winter wasn't hard on them, but there's more going on out there in the NW. I saw 20 to 30 bucks a day and not one good one, not one over 22' and nothing with any mass, so I guess people will say the winter got them all and I'll say BS!!! I have hunted that area for 40+ years and have been through a few winter kills and there were always mature Bucks that survived. DOW is who to point the blame at out there, not mother nature, you can't try to eradicate every mature buck by whatever means possible because someone sitting in a office reading a book on CWD thinks that's the way to get rid of it, I mean come on, it's not that hard to figure out what has gone on out there and it's a dirty shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I'm surprised about all of the deer you have seen - it is a pleasant surprise, compared to a couple of outfitters I know in NW CO and the areas around my home.

Elk though I believe it is a completely different story. I personally have seen several groups of 20+ cows and have seen ZERO yearlings, and no more than 10-15% of the cows have calves. Most of the calves I've seen, I would be surprised if they even weighed 50-60lbs. A buddy and I were looking at a cow and calf recently and we both said that we doubted the calf would survive if the cow didn't make it.

Any population growth for the elk in NW will have to minimal if not negative this year assuming we have a normal winter.
CPW should have never issued any cow/doe tags for deer/elk/antelope in this part of the state!

Thats my 2 cents and my opinion, but I live and hunt this area.
 
Thill said:
I'm surprised about all of the deer you have seen - it is a pleasant surprise, compared to a couple of outfitters I know in NW CO and the areas around my home.

Elk though I believe it is a completely different story. I personally have seen several groups of 20+ cows and have seen ZERO yearlings, and no more than 10-15% of the cows have calves. Most of the calves I've seen, I would be surprised if they even weighed 50-60lbs. A buddy and I were looking at a cow and calf recently and we both said that we doubted the calf would survive if the cow didn't make it.

Any population growth for the elk in NW will have to minimal if not negative this year assuming we have a normal winter.
CPW should have never issued any cow/doe tags for deer/elk/antelope in this part of the state!

Thats my 2 cents and my opinion, but I live and hunt this area.
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There should be no doe tags anywhere in the state.
 
I did not mention the lack of Elk, yes it seems that the Elk might have been hit even harder than Deer if that makes any sense we always see and kill Elk every year, in 10 days I saw 9 Elk total and no calves.
 

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