Skull Crack CWMU

[Ticks N Tines]

Just a question about this CWMU.
Why is there only 1 public tag availiable for the draw? I thought that the DWR issued tags according to the population of the herd on the property. The deer population is huge on there and there are a ton of nice bucks. So why do some CWMUs that are half the size issue 3-5 tags and this one doesn't?

 

[ForkWest]

I think it has to do with how many commercial tags are given to the CWMU. 10% have to go to the public, so if there is only 1 public tag, there are 10 paying customers, which may be all the unit magagers wish to have per season.

 

[muzz]

There is a crap load of deer up there but there so called guides up there screwed with my sister-in-law that hunted it. Piss pore operation the way they treated her.

 

[Ticks N Tines]

LAST EDITED ON Sep-10-08 AT 11:32AM (MST)[p]I was under the impression that the DWR allocated tags by the amount of deer on the property. Deseret gives out a lot more tags because it is a much bigger property and has a huge population of deer. The smaller CWMUs with less deer get less tags.

There should be at least 5-10 tags givin out in the drawing for Skull Crack. I drove up through there last year and had to stop every 50 feet for deer to cross the road. Saw 50+ bucks just driving a 10 mile road.
They are in the process of building a huge hunting lodge up there too. I know that they have tons of clients and are making tons of money. They have to be selling a lot more than 10 tags per year. The DWR needs to look into this unit and find out what's going on.

 

[OmegaMan]

>
>
>There is a crap load of
>deer up there but there
>so called guides up there
>screwed with my sister-in-law that
>hunted it. Piss pore operation
>the way they treated her.
>
>
>
>
>


What happened with your sister in law?

 

[ForkWest]

With out knowing the CWMU operators personally, its a crap shoot.

Some are just banner and treating just like a 10,000 dollar paying customer.

Others roll their eyes, lie, and just have to put up with the public hunters just to meet status quo.

Who is running Skull Crack?

 

[muzz]

I wont get into it ut I will tell you they would not let them hunt with out one of there yahoo's right on there ass. one goes with them and tells them they cant hunt one area then the next day another goes with them and tells them they can hunt it. We hunted it for a few years and knew he boundries and there yahoo's didnt. They had no clue where there property boundries were. Screwed up!! ITs prime country with great animals. They even stopped them one morning from going up top to hunt because there "guide" wasnt with them or ready.

 

[Ticks N Tines]

The names in the proc change every year. Sometimes it's john hansen, other times it's Clint Menke. I have met Clint and he seems to be a good guy. John on the other hand is impossible to get a hold of. I have called him on numerous occasions for info about my cow elk hunt on another CWMU he manages. His number in the proc leads to his Real Estate office number and his secretary always answers and has no idea what you are talking about. She gave me his sons number (John is always too busy to talk), his son had no idea that they even ran cow elk hunts on the property. I finally had to call a freind that guides in that area and he gave me Clint's number and I finally got a few things worked out.
Skull crack has tons of prime area for deer and tons of deer period. It's a huge unit and there are tons of deer that the public should at least have a decent chance at hunting. 1 tag seems ridiculous to me, there must be an explanation for it.

I would call the DWR to find out, but usually I have to talk to some lady that works at the front desk and has no idea what she's talking about. You would think there would be a hotline for the DWR to answer all of our questions, but I guess that would be too easy.
Whatever, I give up on all this crap.

 

[Ticks N Tines]

Sure would be nice if the DWR purchased some of these awesome CWMUs in Northern Utah and managed them for the Public. There's plenty of places for Rich fence hunters to hunt. Us Ogdenites are surrounded by all these dumb CWMUs and usually end up following the train up to Monte.

 

[neverdraws]

The DWR gives tags according to the number of hunters allowed on the CWMU, not the number of deer. They are required to give 10% of tags to the public, so they only have 10 tags or less total. I think when I looked up past years they only had 9 tags total, so 8 went to their paying clients and 1 to the public hunter. I have a friend whose son drew this tag about 3 years ago. They let him hunt the whole property, unguided, along with one guest to accompany him. He didn't see anything great and ended up killing a 170's class buck. I know there used to be bigger ones in there. Back in the late 80's I saw one of the biggest bucks I have ever seen on that property. You have to remember that it is private land. The public has no rights to enter it at all to hunt or otherwise. It is lucky that the owners are a part of the CWMU program, otherwise there would be no hunting for the public at all. As has been said numerous times before on this site, do your homework before applying for any CWMU. Contact the operator. I have talked to many of them, some are really good guys and want the public hunter to have an equal chance as their paying clients. Others just weren't too friendly or helpful and I would never put in for their hunts.

 

[Ticks N Tines]

I know it's a privilige to hunt the CWMUs and that they open a lot of great private access for the public to hunt.
Have you ever looked at the Ogden area topo map and outlined the CWMUs? It's seriously about 90% CWMUs. I'm just saying that I wouldn't mind paying an extra $2 per tag every year if the DWR would buy a couple CWMU properties and make them LE or something. It just seems like a waste to have all that property to hunt and the only people that get to hunt it are rich road hunters. Also, I thought that one of the rules of the CWMU program was that they could not build on the land. Skull Crack is building cabins and a big lodge up there, so how does that work? Just seems like a fishy operation.

 

[neverdraws]

I know all the private up there. I spent most of my younger years fishing and hunting around Huntsville with my dad, who grew up there. I used to deer hunt the area just south of the monastery which is now a CWMU as well. I wish we could have access to all that land too. The DWR doesn't have the kind of money needed to purchase the properties. It would take several million dollars, probably 10's of millions, to purchase a ranch the size of Skull Crack. I don't know the provisions of building on a CWMU, but it is still private land and a person can build on their land if they want to. Where is the lodge going to be? I know the east end of Skull Crack already has quite a few cabins on it when it used to be Causey Estates. Those people still have access and own their cabins, but lost the hunting rights back a few years ago. Now that would suck. You own a cabin, were able to hunt the whole property, then the lease on hunting rights runs out and is sold to someone else who turns it into a CWMU. Now you have a cabin in a great hunting area but can't hunt it anymore. I would sell the cabin...

 

[Ticks N Tines]

There's a big road (Private) up from the monastary (New, I think) that will take you through Skull Crack and over to Folley Ridge. You pretty much end up overlooking Croydon and Lost Creek. It's an awesome road, and like I said before "Deer Mania".
Anyway, I understand the CWMU program and I know that the DWR would never purchase the land (Just me daydreaming again).

I think the CWMU program really wants to improve the way the public hunts are run and provide more access for public sportman. I have been looking at the CWMU association site, and I have seen a lot of good things happening. Check it out!
http://www.cwmuutahwildlife.org

 

[BrowningRage]

No way... A CWMU that appears to have shady operation practices??? I just don't believe it... LOL

 

[257Tony]

"I'm just saying that I wouldn't mind paying an extra $2 per tag every year if the DWR would buy a couple CWMU properties and make them LE or something"

2$ a tag isn't going to buy anything. If they added $2 to every Buck Deer tag, that's not even $200,000. Those ranches would sell for many millions. You're looking at $10 a tag for up to 10 years or more just to buy one ranch.

 

[Ticks N Tines]

Just a thought, don't get your undies in a bundle. : )

 

[tooele]

Actually, the state of Iowa does this very thing and it works quite well, they are slowly buying private property back and turning it into state run public access land. It is a great idea. In fact in Utah, with all the public LE hunts going to these same private clients through auction, perhaps the MDF etc would donate some of this "habitat" money back to this state fund, allowing faster purchase of these lands. As the program became better funded, perhaps donations of money and land would increase. It is a good idea and would eventually restore a lot of private to the public. A $5 habitat fee on all hunts would certainly allocate a significant amount of money in a few years to such a program.

T

 

[Ticks N Tines]

Good Point!
I wouldn't mind paying a $5 habitat fee to get some awsome land back. The only issue is getting the current owners to sell, and that would take some serious $$$.