Bad year for UT, CO, ID, and MT - How about NV?

[GoHigher]

Hunted on several hunts in UT (my tag and brother's). We talked to a game processor and a taxidermist. Both said that it has been the worst year for bucks and bulls in decades. They are hearing this from others that hunted in several western states.

I didn't draw anything in NV, but wanted to see what you all thought. Was it a good year, bad year or average year for deer and elk in NV?

 

[Sallaberry]

Only went archer deer with my uncle and saw 5 big bucks one big bull so I'd say Nevada had to do well.

 

[mevertsen]

I am not sure what you mean by "bad year."

Numbers?

Buck Quality?

Bull Quality?

I saw more deer this year, than I have in a lot of years. 80 deer on opening day of archery season, including at least 10 bucks, 1 of which was a solid 4 point, as well as a couple other nice bucks. Tons of does and fawns. Triplets in some cases. Groups of does and fawns typically had more does than fawns (one group during my daughter's hunt had 13 deer - the buck she killed, 5 does and 7 fawns).

I killed my buck on the second day of archery. My daughter hunted a total of 4 hours for her buck, and we saw 3 others that day. We didn't leave the house until 1230, and she killed her little buck at about 5 pm. We saw one "Nice" buck prior to that, and a couple bigger fork horns.

I have seen several nice bucks since then, including a nice mature (but broken) four point chasing does on Saturday.

Antelope are healthy and are at least average for this are for the number and size of bucks, as well as fawn numbers and herd numbers.

Not much to say on elk, but I have seen quite a few on the Interstate 80. If those are an indication, it has certainly been at least a "good" year.

 

[DeerHunter53]

I can say the weather was a factor as it was 67 during the daytime so they were going to bed down early. Also there is a ton of feed and water in the mountains and no snow to drive them down. The Big Bucks seemed to stay really high.

We saw maybe 10 bucks a day but all were little ones two and three points. But all of the does seemed to have either one or two fawns so the next couple of years should be good.

Overall not a good year.......

 

[Carnage2011]

I'd say you got some bad info. MT has been absolutely phenomenal this year. There have been a pile of 400" bulls killed and a ton of quality mule deer. Utah has produced giants as always. I can't speak for ID or CO as I didn't hunt either of them this year.

 

[3TOE]

>Hunted on several hunts in UT
>(my tag and brother's).
>We talked to a game
>processor and a taxidermist.
>Both said that it has
>been the worst year for
>bucks and bulls in decades.
> They are hearing this
>from others that hunted in
>several western states.
>
>I didn't draw anything in NV,
>but wanted to see what
>you all thought. Was
>it a good year, bad
>year or average year for
>deer and elk in NV?
>

As for NV, I can only speak on the one unit that I drew a tag for... I hunted a total of 8 days & I saw 2-5 great bucks each day & averaged seeing 10-15 bucks total per day. Mind you, the unit that I drew has low density numbers on the deer herd & not known for high trophy potential.
I was absolutely covered up with elk regardless of where I hunted in the unit. Good bulls!!! So much that it affected my ability to make stalks on a number of occasions.

A friend of mine helped some of his friends / family (somewhere up north) with their hunts & I can say they all did well based off of all of the pictures that I saw.