Kaibab 12BW Early

[backcountrybutcher]

Hey All,

If anyone has hunted 12BW early rifle, i'd like to talk. I hunted 12bw late rifle a few years back and had an awesome experience, but I know that's an entirely different hunt.

Thanks!

 

[backcountrybutcher]

haha thanks for all the help! Anyone willing to chat?

 

[Blank]

Basically a road hunting forkie season, hunt on top of Buckskin. If you get rain, they will come to the puddles in the two tracks. Leave the roads and look into every tight draw you can find. Be very careful on the state line, as they do watch it close. You can keep an eye across the highway, and pray for cold bad weather and the Pauns deer to run early; then you can hunt the low cedars and PJ's. Wander thru the thick stuff and look for fresh sign, and big tracks - take a stool and sit for an hour or more, every time you move. Buy a rabbit's foot!!

 

[backcountrybutcher]

I can assure you people aren't burning 12pts to hunt forkies on the Kaibab. I know forkies have been shot on the early hunt, but 250"+ bucks have also.

Do you think the Pauns deer typically show up before the 12AW high country bucks?

 

[Blank]

First, you're not hunting the Kaibab. You are hunting right up to it, and the 12A boundary. What you are doing is hunting close to it, and hoping/praying heavy storms come early and move the deer down onto the desert North of the Kaibab. Several times that has happened in the past, and the early hunt was better than the late one. There's a big difference in what moves 12A-E and 12A-W deer also.
Second, the genetics are there, even if the deer aren't. You can luck into a big one anywhere but AZGF will tell you it's a crap shoot. The UT deer can be down there anytime after Oct 15th also. 10-20 years ago, the chaining were the places to be but not anymore. Plenty of outfitters and guides are happy if you will settle for a realistic buck of 170-180. I have personally been 5 minutes late to both a 194" Typ, and a 234 NT on that hunt, and they have been killed by accident.
I think there are more big ones hiding in the canyon than there are on the plateau, myself.
Lastly, people aren't burning 12 points on the early hunt, since there was 130 tags last year (about 400 applicants), and they only issued around 85-90 to people who actually hunted. With a 38% success, they weren't all big bucks either!

I have had both early and late tags, enjoy the area, and it is my second choice if the season works out for me timing wise. The weather is better than WY too. I'll be back there next year if they will give me a tag.

 

[LIK2HNT]

Blank, if you had a choice would you take a 12B early or 12AW early tag?

 

[backcountrybutcher]

I'm just giving you a hard time for calling it a road hunting forkie hunt

And yes it technically not "on the plateau". I had the 12BW late hunt in 2017 and wow.... the deer were there and it was a great hunt. I had a few chances at 195+. @LIK2HNT most people would say the early is better on the 12aw side where there are actually resident deer. Unlike 12b, where they are either there or they aint.

For a NR, it actually takes 14 pts to draw 12BW early now, 24 for late. i drew one of the few random tags.

On the late, i hunted the southern portion of the unit almost the entire time. @Blank.... you are saying i should target the migrating pauns bucks for the early instead of the 12aw ones?

 

[Blank]

L2H: I have spent quite a bit of time there in several of the units, but not much in 12A-W in the trees. That would intrigue me, but I think I would still Take 12BW. If you could wish for a dream tag, it would be the unit wide 12B tag, and look to the Paria!
As for road hunting, there are more camps with residents, riding the roads drinking beer, and having great big bonfires than just about anywhere I have experienced (except Unit 8 elk). Lots of parents with their kids! The dozen serious NR's may go big or stay home, but I will take old mature deer also over score. Again, the UT deer at weather dependent, but when they cross into AZ early, there are some big ones

 

[bpbigperm]

L2H: I have spent quite a bit of time there in several of the units, but not much in 12A-W in the trees. That would intrigue me, but I think I would still Take 12BW. If you could wish for a dream tag, it would be the unit wide 12B tag, and look to the Paria!
As for road hunting, there are more camps with residents, riding the roads drinking beer, and having great big bonfires than just about anywhere I have experienced (except Unit 8 elk). Lots of parents with their kids! The dozen serious NR's may go big or stay home, but I will take old mature deer also over score. Again, the UT deer at weather dependent, but when they cross into AZ early, there are some big ones

Blank,

I have drawn a 12 AE muzzle loader, How would you rate that tag compared to 12 AW and 12B. I am NR and drew in random.

 

[Blank]

Uh hello, Earth calling BPBI... Talking apples and oranges here. Haven't you kinda answered that yourself already. You put in for one of the best and hardest to draw hunts, only 15 tags in the rut, so no competition, and the weather pattern for the next 3 weeks looks to be perfect to stay up with the deer, And on a random?? I'd stick my rabbits foot in with my rangefinder, and go give it hell!!!! Should be amazing time, and can't wait to see pictures.

 

[bpbigperm]

Uh hello, Earth calling BPBI... Talking apples and oranges here. Haven't you kinda answered that yourself already. You put in for one of the best and hardest to draw hunts, only 15 tags in the rut, so no competition, and the weather pattern for the next 3 weeks looks to be perfect to stay up with the deer, And on a random?? I'd stick my rabbits foot in with my rangefinder, and go give it hell!!!! Should be amazing time, and can't wait to see pictures.

Haha. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[wetmule]

Always found it strange that G&F only gives the muzz hunters 7 days for this hunt. Good luck

 

[Bwht4x4]

Haha. I'll let you know how it goes.

Bryan,

I have some experience on the 12ae late hunts. Shoot me a PM to discuss.

 

[backcountrybutcher]

headed out here in a couple days. Any update on the deer movement or local conditions? Where are people seeing deer in UT? Off the top of the Pauns i hope!!

 

[SlowElk]

I was just up there Oct.6-10. Warm days, cool nights. I took my grandson up for junior turkey hunt. Saw three forkies, near the recent burn, lots of does. We were north of the 212 road. Weren't really looking for deer, but the deer we saw were in that area. Sadly no turkey this hunt?

 

[longranger]

Looks like Sunday gonna be nice and chilly. Little bit of snow. Not sure how that effects things there but cooler weather is always good.

 

[backcountrybutcher]

Thanks guys! hunt is on, this storm blowing in should help! ill let you know results when i return

 

[Bwht4x4]

Thanks guys! hunt is on, this storm blowing in should help! ill let you know results when i return

It may help with Utah deer coming down, but not Kaibab deer moving into 12bw. I had a 12ae late tag years ago and mid way through the hunt we got nearly a foot of snow up on top and after that snow there were still a lot of deer up there. I thought it being late Nov and nearly a foot of snow would send them flying off the top...it didn't.

 

[Largebull]

Well they got 6 " of snow , lets see if that helped!.................BULL!

 

[backcountrybutcher]

Hey all, thanks for the help! I came home without a buck. Passed a dozen smaller bucks including a solid 150-160 on day 2, saw a really big buck @ 400 yards for a split second Friday at first light but that was it. Also saw a 8x7 cactus buck get killed Thursday, but everyone up there talked about the extremely low deer numbers this year. My theory was that the hunt was a bit early this year and the feed was so good up top the deer didn't move off till later.

 

[LIK2HNT]

Hopefully next year will be better

 

[Bwht4x4]

....everyone up there talked about the extremely low deer numbers this year. My theory was that the hunt was a bit early this year and the feed was so good up top the deer didn't move off till later.

I don't think it's a low deer number year...IMO the deer just aren't there. Also, there will be deer up on top even during the late hunt. IMO there needs to be a fair amount of snow well prior to the late hunt to get them all moving off the top. As I've said before I had the late hunt years ago and we got 12+" of snow on top during the middle of my hunt and I didn't notice any movement downslope over the next couple of days. In fact, other guys on my hunt actually went back up on top during the hunt and after it snowed and killed a good buck up there.

 

[backcountrybutcher]

Yes, that's what I meant by low deer numbers (in the unit 12bw). The migration just wasn't in full swing yet and the deer hadn't made it all the way down to 12bw yet. i think 12aw had alot better hunt from what i heard. I hunted the buckskins 1 evening but stayed down lower mostly as the buckskins was a zoo.