62 3rd season deer?

[mulecreek]

I was wondering how others with this tag did in 2013?

I drew this tag as a NR this year. I had never been to the unit and due to work I ended up hunting the second half of the season. I officially got my butt kicked. I saw a total of 4 deer. One small buck. I hunted low in the Domiquez Canyon Wilderness Study Area. All tracks I saw were old and all appeared to be headed east. I kept working my way east hunting lower and lower but I never found much. On the last day I hunted higher up in the oak brush and aspens and saw fresher sign in the snow but still nothing on the hoof. I did find several nice 4 and 5 point bulls but I did not get a tag. I am wondering how others did this year. I know the deer are around but I couldn't find them.

I did see my first desert bighorn so it wasn't all rough.

 

[jbricejr]

A buddy and I did that same hunt in 2010, and my report would be the same as yours exactly, to the point of being scary. We also couldn't get there until after 3rd had been going for a few days. I hunted just a little higher than you, and my buddy hunted higher yet, on NF. 2010 was still very much in the shadow of the big die off a few winters before, but I would have hoped things would have recovered better there by now. However, I did some post hunt research, and it seems that despite the horrendous pressure near the divide road, most of the deer stay in that area. The cover is thick enough up there that they can feel some security even with all the orange. A few years back someone posted on here saying that if you were after big bucks hunt low, but I have to wonder if that was a big red herring. Apparently the deer and elk even winter pretty high in 62.

I was hoping for a re-match but if my buddy reads your post I'll never get him back there. It is cool country though, especially for someone not from the area. I'd like to hear what people saw during 2nd season.

 

[Shorty1]

I hunted it this year on 3rd. This was also my third time hunting it. It was horrible. The deer numbers were at least half of what we have seen in the past. I still have not shot a deer from this unit, I don't know why I keep going back! I guess I have a vendetta. We have seen some really nice deer in the past, but this year was bad. My group hunted for the whole hunt hard. I hiked and hiked. I went to places where I had seen good bucks before to find no deer, or to find elk hunters in massive groups. I love hunting this unit, but don't think I'll be back. At least not until i can draw it as a second choice or with 0 points. I drew it with 3 this year and it wasn't worth it.

 

[elkkill06]

I have been in this unit my entire life and have watched the demise if the muledeer in this unit. It use to be one of the best when it comes to big muleys, but with limited lion hunting, bears, and coyotes, they just can't bounce back. I talked with the new warden Mark just recently and he said the bulk of the deer migrate down around Montrose.

I quit hunting muleys in this unit back around 2000 and just hunt elk there now. I still see a couple of good bucks throughout the year, but deer are few and far between.

Quinton

 

[accubond]

LAST EDITED ON Dec-14-13 AT 06:28PM (MST)[p]I had a similar experience in this unit in 2009. I saw a great buck the night before the season and then went the entire hunt without seeing another buck. I saw doe's and several elk but not one single buck? I hunted some great looking country where the quakies start to run into the scrub oak and had beautiful vantage points for glassing miles of country. It was gorgeous country and from the vantage points I had in any other units I would have seen oodles of deer? Not sure what happened to it because people have had great success in there and I'm sure some continue to do so but it seems something else besides the bad winter affected this unit?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never has and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson