Book Cliffs

[hunter03]

Wanted to jump on here and find out what everyone's experience has been like on the archery hunt this year. My brother has the tag this year and it has been a lot tougher than years past. Even last year with the terrible water year and growth wasn't the greatest there were at least more deer in the areas we typically see them. We have been seeing 50% less deer in the areas we normally hunt. Just wondering if this is what other people are seeing the same. We did see 9 bears opening weekend with 6 bears in the canyon we normally hunt so maybe that had something to do with at least that specific canyon.

I've been wondering if the deer are more spread out among different elevations this year due to the good feed and water we had. Maybe some of you more seasoned Book Cliffer's have some insight on what is going on. I get the quality has been going down out there over the years, but its hard to believe the numbers dropped so much from last year to this year. Maybe I'm wrong though as I don't claim to be an expert out there. Another brother had the tag back in 2013 and it was significantly better, both in quantity and quality than last year or this year.

Any insights and suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[elkassassin]

It's Hard for me to even believe but there's been a few better Bucks taken this year already!

I Could Give You Names of a Few that Haven't Helped the Herd any this year already!

The Feed/Water Has Helped a Bunch!

But the Herds/Deer & Elk are in serious Trouble out there!

Keep Fairly High if you're Archery Hunting!

Good Luck!










I know so many people in so many places
They make allot of money but they got sad faces

It Ain't Easy being Me!

 

[hunter03]

Thanks! Yeah, I have seen some pics of some good bucks taken this year already out there. We have spotted a few that would fit the bill for my Brother to notch his tag on with one bomber buck that was still alive as of yesterday (hopefully still alive and in the same location in a few days).

Its just been a little bit of shock not seeing any deer this year in places we saw 10-15 bucks last year on the hunt. That's why I was curious to see if anyone else is seeing the same stuff and wondered if the feed/water has them spread out even down into the mid-elevation country. We have been and will continue to hunt the higher stuff.

 

[jrbCO]

Been up there 40+ days. Bucks have added 15?+ over last year. I am seeing more bucks as well. Definite step up over last year which is the worst I've seen for deer and elk for a long time.

Elk, well that's another story this year.

 

[JRABQ]

I hunted first 8.5 days and it was tougher than expected. The 2 best bucks I saw were day before opener, don't know if they got shot but never saw them again. Young man camped next to me killed a great 190 class buck, I have not seen anything that big.

Had a big screwup on a ~160 on day 7.

Going back for last 5 days, still hoping to get it done.