San Juan/ abajo mtns #1521

[ruthunter]

LAST EDITED ON May-20-14 AT 01:20PM (MST)[p]Hey guys I drew hunt # 1521 archery deer as a non res. What kinda bucks should I expect to see and where is a good place to start my scouting? Thx for any info.

 

[Bluestone]

LAST EDITED ON May-21-14 AT 12:55PM (MST)[p]I drew the same tag (as res) for three years now...this year included. You will see lots of 2 points (2x2 in non-muley parlance) and a few larger bucks. The large deer are definitely there, but hard to find. I generally have reserved my shots for deer larger than 3 points. I've seen a couple extremely nice bucks on the Abajos (Blue Mountain), but they were well out of archery range and I could never get close.

For scouting, there are deer all over the mountain and each year has produced a variety of deer each area of the mountain that I've hunted.

It will be a fun, but tough, hunt for large bucks.

 

[deadibob]

The bucks you should expect to see on the Abajos would be mule deer

 

[ruthunter]

I've been told to hunt up at the top by the towers. Can I expect to see some 160"+ bucks? Is crowding an issue?

 

[Bluestone]

LAST EDITED ON May-21-14 AT 09:35PM (MST)[p]Yeah, I'm aware of that...I've never even seen a whitetale in Utah, let alone in San Juan county. I spent quite a bit of time in the midwest and I kept getting confused when they mentioned the "points" because they count both sides when they describe antler size (a 7 point being a 3x4, etc). I thought my deer mule deer were tiny compared to their whitetales until I figured out their way of counting points. Bad habit of clarification even though I'm on a mule deer forum.

 

[Bluestone]

You will probably see a few 160+ bucks. The towers are hit and miss with crowding. I've been up there and seen 2 or 3 trucks on a weekday and then none on a weekend (and vice versa).

 

[carbonnation]

Often there are bachelor groups of bucks on the Abajos the can be glassed up pretty easily. Getting close is a whole other problem as they are in open steep terrain with thick pine forest close at hand. From my experience crowding is always an issue and as always the farther you get from the road the few people you will see, but there are still people everywhere.

the lower oak brush country holds some good deer, but they are harder to see and thus harder to hunt. It is gorgeous country and always a fun place to hunt. Towards the end of the archery hunt the bulls will start to bugle.....and the elk rut on the San Juan is something to behold.

 

[TRC]

LAST EDITED ON May-26-14 AT 11:51AM (MST)[p]Lots of people first 7 days of the hunt. Camps at every pull off and 9 million ATVs and UTVs driving the roads and 2 tracks. That being said I agree with the above posts as to the quality of bucks and what to expect.

In my opinion they need to cut down the amount of tags or split the Archery hunt up into an early hunt and a later hunt. Overall though I'm happy to have a tag in my pocket. It's the only hunt I drew out of the 4 states I applied in. That stings a lot more than dealing with a crowd of camping road hunters!!

TRC

 

[7rum]

LAST EDITED ON Jun-16-14 AT 03:16AM (MST)[p]My family hunted this unit last year and there can be good deer by the towers but if you want a toad head to the very far west edge of the unit to the causway and hike in on the N side of the Blue Mountains or hunt the drainage from the causway back to Blanding. I think a 200" was taken on general in there. Though country no roads hike in only and boarders the ELK Ridge where I had my deer tag and took this buck.

 

[Gator]

That's a fine buck. Nothing wrong with him.
Steeper and nasty the country the better the deer.
Bring a extra set of lungs for the climbs.

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".
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