JIms--
Here are a couple of emails I have sent out to some other guys--
My two cents on the late season hunts in Utah are this, some are fair-good and some are not worth it at all and I think run a risk of not killing a bull at all.
On the San Juan--we did take one guy last year and did OK see
, we will likely take one or two guys this year, 2006. This is what I think about the late season hunt on the SJ.
1--a fair hunt if you have less than 8 points and want to move on to something else. If I had ten points I personally wouldn't burn them on this hunt. I think there are much better units (Wasatch, Manti units for example) for late season hunting than the San Juan.
2--chances of harvesting a 370+ significantly less than in the rut hunt. I would say you would be crazy not to kill the first 340 bull that was within shooting distance especially if he was intact.
3--the majority of the bulls on the unit are off on private land on the SJ and or on the wrong side of the highway (south of 95/east of 161) where you can not hunt.
4--you run the risk of a bunch of snow making things much more
difficult--again I think this goes for a bunch of the units. Chasing a bull through a 1-2' of snow is not an easy task, I don't care who you are.
5--many of the bulls will be broken and missing tines--again I think this goes for many of the units but esp. the units they are managing for the older age class bulls.
6--definitely not as fun and as exciting. On the rut hunts you will see and get in on multiple 330+ class bulls on a daily basis.
I would recommend this hunt only if you would be happy with a 330 class bull. I think you could hunt long and hard and not likely see much better than this. The problem is most of the bulls head off the mountain onto private ground or down in the thick pinyon and juniper (cedars) making it a difficult hunt. Likely many of them will be broken from fighting and its just a hard hunt, if it were me I wouldn't burn 9+ points on this hunt. Now having said that, I do think that some of the other units, Wasatch, Manti units would be a fairly good hunt and much more likely to harvest a 350+ bull. If you are set on the SJ, I would keep putting in for the rut hunt. I would say that you have waited 9 years, what's a few more?
Todd Black
BTO