Cove Mountain Slaughter

[Grizz]

Small bucks running all over the place. A few 3's & 4's in the mix. My son was waiting for the monarch so we slowly saw the rejuvenated buck herd dwindle day by day. New hunters kept showing up and the little bucks went down. Now where did all these hunyers come from ? Maybe other parts of the unit were poor and they got wind of a few bucks in this area. I'm not sure but it's kind sad after seeing a hopeful comeback only to small bucks taken like this. Remember this was the worst unit in the state. Give it a chance. I know all you experts hate the 3 point or better but that would have helped or at the very least keep the number of hunters down or spread the hunters out. Anything but what I saw take place. I'm not sure why there was a resurgence .... less yotes or some other factor but at least I'm hopeful of a future if we'd just let Bambi grow up to be a nice buck. I'm not talking trophy. I'm talking harvesting something worth taking home.

 

[hornkiller]

That's why I hate ut! They kill a 2 point just to say they killed one...

 

[Vanilla]

Not everyone bases their success in the field on inches. Some people are just fine taking a 2-point. What is wrong with that?

 

[cannonball]

All the buck have not been shot. We fished up there after all of the hunters had left. We saw two small spikes and a smaller two point.

 

[Grizz]

Nothing wrong with taking a 2 point. That wasn't the point. This range had essentially lost its deer herd. It was great to see a comeback with lots of little bucks. To sustain the herd for the future I think too many bucks were taken regardless of the size. Every hunter that had a permit had every right to take a buck. I just think they gave out too many permits in order to sustain a viable herd.

 

[Grizz]

That makes me hopeful for the future...lol

 

[deerslayer88]

I think they should close down a unit like take 3 Units a Year CLOSE them for the single year and don't add those tags to a different unit. If we did that we would be guaranteed to have good deer every couple of years. The reason being is we would have the yearlings and two year old bucks each and every year.

 

[BeDawg]

I am not against people taking a 2-point but if people would pass on immature 2 points and spikes sucking on thier mommas nipples, we would have a whole crop of 3-4 points in place of the smallers guys. We are shooting ourselves in the foot for the sake of getting a deer with horns. Sacriface a year and let the boys grow some horn.

 

[2lumpy]

Grizz, I'd sure like to see more deer on Cove as well. Kind of breaks my heart this time of year not to be able to see those big herds moving onto the winter ranch. Now days if we see a hundred deer between Glenwood and Monroe it's a good morning. Seems like it was just a few years ago we had thousands. Time passes quickly I guess.

On a positive note, I do know of two hunters that wanted to take home a couple of bucks really bad due to some health issues that wild game helps with. Between the two of them, I know they let 7 different young bucks live. There weren't too many hunters in that particular drainage on the last weekend so I would guess most of the 7 survived the last weekend. Hope so. We need them doing their thing in a couple of weeks. Of course, if they'd have taken a couple home I'd have been just fine with that too, I believe if you have a deer tag you get to make that choice but it does give me comfort that if a guy decides to let one go now, there is at least a better possibility than there used to be that the deer might grow the herd for another year. Humping up to that critical mass level again is a darn tough job for these mule deer, hope we have a deer friendly winter this year.

Think I'll take the spotting scope out and see with I can see on the Long Ridges before dark, so I better get going.

Keep the faith Grizz!

DC

 

[Vanilla]

Grizz,

My comment was more for the statement of the guy that hates Utah because people shoot 2-points.

 

[2lumpy]

A doe and two fawns on the Flat Ridges tonight. Didn't get to the Bell Rock intersection until to dark to see so there may have been some on the mahogany ridge that I missed.

DC

 

[Grizz]

Well Dc you can count on one thing... soon old Numbers will be showing up at Bell Rock. I love that at least one old buck gets the better of us old diehards. Speaking of Long Ridges... i'm still a little perplexed. Shouldn't the contractor be responsible for all that thistle that came up with the grass. The other thing that really disturbed me, was the fact that the contractor told me the seeding was for the benefit of cattle and not the deer herd. Explain such an expenditure from the fed/state ?

 

[2lumpy]

Grizz,
Regarding the juniper chaining and the grass for cattle on the Long Ridges: That seems to be the norm in these chaining plots, however on a more hopeful note: for the last two summers a bunch of us have picked up bitter brush seed from the DWR folks and walked pretty much all of those lower chainings, planting bitter brush seeds every 5 to 6 feet apart. I can't speak to the upper section but I will check with the biologist and if those haven't been done, I'll see if they'll give us the seed to do those too.

Naturally, grass is planted thicker and grows faster and taller than newly planted brushy forbs so it will be a few years before we'll know if our re-seeding has taken root but I'll say this: there won't be much eating on it for a long time so if it sprouts and takes off it will grow pretty much unmolested for many many years. There hasn't been but a handful of deer use that ridge in the last 20 years.

DC

 

[Grizz]

good work... that shows how citizens can be part of solutions instead of just whining like I like to do.

 

[elkassassin]

I have nothing agains a 3 Poiint or better Rule!

Now just show me how you're gonna enforce it?

I seen it tried in the Book Cliffs & it Failed Miserably!

Due to U-Tards shooting before they took a close look!










I used to know of places worth Hiking in to for Elk & Deer!
Thanks to Illegal Bastards & the USFS not enforcing Rules you can Zing in to them Places on Wheelers now & not see a Damn thing!
But by GAWD it don't take long for them U-Tards to get there with all the Unethical BS and the New Technology!

 

[2lumpy]

When you have a couple hours I'd like to discuss the Book Cliff's experience in detail with you BobCat.

Many, many years ago there was a hand written report that was done by the DWR folks that worked on the unit. The report details the outcome on the Book Cliffs 3 point or better hunt. I had a copy of the report for years but it's disappeared. BobCat do you happen to have a copy of that report.

Your right, the conclusion statement of the report was there were a large number of illegal kills (less than 3 points) left in the field to waste.

As I recall, but might be wrong, I think they said there were more illegal kills than there were legal kills. (Don't quote me on that part because it's been nearly 30 years since I read the report.)

However........................there is, in fact, "the rest of the story" as they say. Without the actual document it would be unproductive and pointless to discuss "the rest of the story".

Here are a few previously unanswered questions that I think are relevant to the "waste" issue on antler restriction management, they are:

"Are there does and illegally killed bucks left in the field to waste by hunters, each year, on the general season unit hunts?"

"If there are, how many are there?"

"If someone knows how many, where is that data set, who collected it and what method did they use to gather it?"

"Why is "a degree of waste" a program stopper for one method of deer harvest management and nobody but nobody ever asks why "a degree of waste" is never remotely considered as an issue on a different management method such as buck only?"

"Has anyone ever provided us "the degree of waste there is on spike elk hunts, or on Limited Entity Management hunts?"

"Are we to believe there isn't any "degree of waste" on these kinds antler restriction hunts or maybe, for some reason I don't understand, there is a valid but as yet unrevealed reason why it acceptable in every other case but never on a mule deer 3 point or better unit. If so, what would that rational be"?

DC

 

[deerslayer88]

I know with the current system it could work if we did some tags that were any buck, or any deer, and some that were point restricted tags. Maybe give the point restricted tags first choice. Oh and do away with the damn stick flippers.

 

[2lumpy]

LAST EDITED ON Nov-03-13 AT 11:04PM (MST)[p]Sorry, we'll never see general antler restriction management on any general units, ever again. The folks that wanted it to end did a near perfect job of discrediting any use of it in Utah 25 years ago. For better or worse, it's toast for the foreseeable future. Some you win, some you loose. That one's been in the coffin for a long, long, long time time.

Regarding antler restriction, I'd still like my previous questions answered, for my own satisfaction.

And, sorry again, archers are just as entitled to hunt as any of the rest of us.

DC

 

[elkassassin]

>I know with the current system
>it could work if we
>did some tags that were
>any buck, or any deer,
>and some that were point
>restricted tags. Maybe give the
>point restricted tags first choice.
>Oh and do away with
>the damn stick flippers.

That ought to Stirr some Shite!













I used to know of places worth Hiking in to for Elk & Deer!
Thanks to Illegal Bastards & the USFS not enforcing Rules you can Zing in to them Places on Wheelers now & not see a Damn thing!
But by GAWD it don't take long for them U-Tards to get there with all the Unethical BS and the New Technology!

 

[elkassassin]

Hey Lumpy!

Ya!

It was one of the Saddest things I've ever seen in the Field!

I use to go to the Book Cliffs on the Late Tag you could buy if you didn't fill your Rifle Tag!

I done quite a bit of Hiking,finding many,many Sub 3 point Bucks that had Rotted due to Slob Hunters that illegally Bucks that were not legal!

Puts a Bad taste in a Guys Mouth!

I'm all for a 3 or 4 Point or better Rule if We could get these Trigger Happy TARDS to Obey the Rules/Laws!

But they won't,seen it with my own eyes!

If the UDWR woulda Imposed a 50,000.00 fine for the offense,alot of the BS woulda stopped!













I used to know of places worth Hiking in to for Elk & Deer!
Thanks to Illegal Bastards & the USFS not enforcing Rules you can Zing in to them Places on Wheelers now & not see a Damn thing!
But by GAWD it don't take long for them U-Tards to get there with all the Unethical BS and the New Technology!

 

[Grizz]

I know this discussion is pointless. I have a friend who accidentally killed a 2 point. He owned up to it but was treated very harshly by the DWR. Confiscation and all that. I think we just need to impose a $25.00 additional tag with an emergency number so it was part of the data collection process. It might eliminate the waste and still allow a few younger bucks get through to the next year. It does I think make for a better hunter if ya have to take a good look before ya shoot instead of these herd shooters i've seen this year that shoot way too away into a herd.

 

[quest]

Just brake the tags up into what hunters want to harvest. If you want a 2 point heres your tag if you want a 4 point heres your tag. I'm curious how many hunters would want which tag?

 

[Grizz]

3 point or better here

 

[4x4elk]

I grew up in Utah when the 3 point rule was in affect in the cliffs, what a horrible failure that was and was dead set againest it. But about 3 years ago in the unit I hunt in Wyoming they put 3 point or better rule in. This past hunting season I have noticed the quality of bucks is coming up. I think if it managed properly it does work. I hope Utah can figure out what to do before it is to late if it isn't already to late. I would love to return someday and hunt a genral unit with my freinds and family down there.

 

[why]

same on south slope yellowstone to many hunters very few deer and bucks small hit the dirt.