Early rifle vs late general deer rifle

[BrianID]

I’m thinking about cashing in my 6 nonresident general season points this year and was looking at the draw data in more detail than previous years.
I’m surprised the odds on early rifle are significantly better than late rifle in some units especially for residents. Why is that?

I understand slightly longer season at the end of October vs mid October. End of October will likely have slightly colder weather with the possibility of bucks having more pre rut activity. However, the 1st rifle in NM is almost always more difficult to draw than the 2nd rifle because hunters want to hunt bucks before they have been pressured as much.

I’m guessing most of the leaves will be off the maples and quakies by October 13th in Northern Utah. When do the Maples, Quakies and others loose their leaves in Southern Utah?

 

[travishunter3006]

I think it just boils down to most people wanting the longer season.

 

[257Tony]

The 13th is early for all the leaves to be off. Don't generally see them all gone until the end of the month. I don't think your odds are going to be much different regardless of the season you choose, the Bucks get plenty of pressure from archery and muzzy hunters before the rifle guys get there.

 

[jims]

Here in Colo deer are scattered over giant areas during the summer months. They tend to be impossible to find in late September through October...the reason many of these tags are easy to draw. Once snow drives them down out of their summer ranges there are generally more deer concentrated in a smaller area. Bucks are often more visible once they come out of hiding for the rut. Mature bucks may not show themselves during daylight hours in with does so that obviously complicates things.

The toughest time in the entire year to locate monster muley bucks is after they loose their velvet. They tend to move into seclusion and are totally different animal once this happens. I followed a number of giant bucks all summer on game cams and they watered during daylight hours when they had velvet....sometimes in the middle of the day! As soon as they shed velvet they were like ghosts and changed to watering at night and some bucks moved locations. Locations where I saw bucks every time I checked on them all summer long while in velvet they pretty much vanished. I found several of the largest bucks but nearly had to step on them to get them to move. Once the rut kicks in November whopper bucks tend to suddenly start appearing in winter ranges for the rut.

 

[BrianID]

257Tony,

NM also has a muzzleloader and archery hunt before the rifle hunts so I'm speculating that hunters like their traditional late October hunt and 2 weekends vs one weekend of hunting. If the early rifle hunt was the first hunt of any kind in a unit I'm sure it would have much higher demand. Do you think many of the leaves are off the trees by mid October or are they a little more delayed in Southern Utah?

Jims,

Mid September to late October can be a very difficult time to find bucks. The old bucks that live in an area with high hunting pressure find places that they can avoid hunters during that time period or they still wouldn't be alive.