Region K Help

[madmax88]

Well, it has come down to begging. I am here with my dad and it is his first and maybe last muley hunt. I really want to try and get him on a nice buck. We have been hunting the HMAs and have been seeing way more hunters than deer. We are willing to get off the roads and burn some boot leather. I was thinking about trying out Flaming Gorge Reservoir, but not really sure where to start. Any help would be greatly appreciated, even just what kind of vegetation to hunt. Shoot me a pm, I would be happy to share blacktail info to any who can put us on some bucks. Thanks, Scott.

 

[hornkiller]

Welcome to wy general season.

 

[nontypical]

There is not suitable habitat by the Gorge for mule deer unless you hunt near the Utah state line. Very minimal deer populations in that country. There are also a few deer that roam the Lost Dog country just south of Green River. Good luck finding them.

Find the nastiest most rugged terrain where you have been hunting and start glassing. If you can find some remote country away from roads that fits that description, you could find some bucks there. Glass, glass, glass.

Like Hornkiller said: Welcome to Wyoming general season deer hunting.

 

[nfh]

Being close to Utah im sure those utards migrate up

 

[norcalhunter]

Heading out that way tomorrow. Never hunted that area but will be looking in the high sage, I think.

 

[norcalhunter]

Madmax did you get your buck? I have not seen much other than a ton of does near the quakies.

 

[madmax88]

Same here. Lots of does and a few small bucks. We are packing up today. We put a lot of miles on and seen one good buck, but some other hunters ran him off. Doesn't look like I will be hunting K again.

 

[jr8fish]

Sorry.... I saw this too late... and at that I dont think I have much to contribute. My dad and I drew K tags this year and remembering our experience in K 4 years ago, we were both very excited. 4 years ago we drew and hunted the Knights Ridge HMA. I killed a good 4 pt and my dad killed a killer 3 point, probably would score higher than my 4. Well, we found out that Knights Ridge has all but gone away for mule deer hunting so we resorted to hunting the Divide HMA. All I can say is hollllllllllllllly shiit. There were people/hunters/RVs everywhere! We are from Utah and have gotten sick of the hunting pressure during the general rifle deer season here.... We have hunted some pretty popular areas here in utah and seen a lot of pressure but I honestly have never seen pressure like we saw on the Divide HMA. It was absolutely ridiculous. My dad and I are foot/hike/glass type hunters and we tried to find the most remote/roadless area we could. I will just tell you it is impossible to get away from the roads on the Divide. We thought we had a good place figured out by looking at maps but after hiking the couple of miles in we got up on the butte and there were 2 trucks and six hunters right up on top. The road they used was not on any map so we didnt know about it. That was frustrating to say the least. We found a little seclusion and were on two four points for two days but between the quakies and the service berry/buck brush the shot opportunities were miserable. Had one good opportunity at the bigger of the two but jumped him at about 20ft and my scoped was too zoomed in and I could not find him in the view. Lesson learned... dont push quakies with your scope zoomed way in! DUH!

I ended up taking a 2 point the night before we had to leave. In all, it was very pretty country and we saw at least 100 does/fawns/spikes every single day. We saw a total of 5 shooter bucks, 3 of which were in huntable positions. Some two points but overall buck numbers were really really low and hunting pressure was ridiculously high.

I definitely wont be recommending the Divide HMA anytime soon.