Southwest desert mule deer?

[Sergio4195]

According to draw odds on go hunt I have a good chance of drawing the general season deer for this unit. Question is anyone who has hunted it for deer have any knowledge of what this hunt is like and expectations?

 

[Cavo]

Tough hunt with low deer density. Every water will have multiple cameras.

the portion of the unit I hunt has an influx of deer just prior to the muzzy Hunt. No idea where they come from. Or where they go, they are gone before the rifle starts.

 

[MuleyBuck]

Yep it certainly can be a tough hunt. Definitely low densitys with a LOT of big country, It can be intimidating. It's very possible to not even see a deer some days, definitely have to have a positive attitude and be dilligent out there. I'd definitely scout the unit as much as possible, not necessarily to find bucks but to narrow down areas to focus on and to learn the lay of the land as well as the ins and outs of the area. Not many amenities around either, pack extra fuel and other necessities as there is no running to the store while hunting out there. Scout and glass as much as possible if you decide to pull a tag there.

 

[deadibob]

There are some nice bucks but as stated earlier they are few and far between. Between my kids and I we've hunted the unit each of the last five years for antlerless elk and once muzzy hunted for deer. I first went out there in the late 80's and have spent lots of time on the unit since then.

You can spend a lot of time and not see a deer. This last December we did see a group of 30 deer, a few smaller bucks among them. That's the most deer I've seen at one time there since my limited entry elk hunt in '99. On that hunt I did see a few very good bucks including a bachelor group of about 15 bucks on top of Mountain Home.

The year before last we got into some fresh sign of two big bucks in the snow but never saw them. We also saw a lot more fresh deer sign than I've seen in quite a long time out there.

There are a few hot spots where you can find them as in most units. It just takes quite a lot of time to learn that unit, it is a big one.

Now if you want to do a wild horse hunt that's another story ;-)

 

[BIGJOHNT]

I hear horse meat taste good ! My boy got some from a Indian kid he works with. I guess they eat it on the reservation all of the time. We need a few more pony tags out that way. As far as the South west desert deer herd. My daughter got a good buck out they a couple years ago. But her and husband run cattle out there. There is a lot of country out there to cover. So if you don’t spend a lot of time out there you may not find what you are after.

 

[Trix4me]

I’ve eaten horse meat before. Not bad. I didn’t know that it was eaten on the res. Amazing what a guy can learn on MM

 

[BeDawg]

If you have eaten tacos in Mexico, you have eaten horse meat. Cheaper and just as tasty as beef.

 

[desperatehills]

In-laws are from Denmark, they eat horse meat

 

[Nevadahunter]

This should help out:

https://kutv.com/news/local/over-1700-wild-horses-in-nevada-and-utah-removed-relocated

 

[nelsonccc]

I'd echo the same comments the others have. I had a late cow elk tag there in November a few years ago and was there, camping, for 7 days straight. I was hard at work scouting an hour before dawn and after sunset every day. I routinely hunt the Nevada side of this unit (#231 archery deer) so I was checking out a bunch of stuff beyond just the cow elk. Sitting on water holes, following game trails, etc. Mostly focused on what the deer are doing that late in the year as it relates to movement between Utah and Nevada.

In any case, I glassed up a maybe 5-6 bucks in that time. All in burn areas. Antlers were nice enough at 500-600 yards but I wasn't too focused on them unless they were moving in and out of Nevada too. For comparison I glassed up at least a dozen nice bull elk in that same time period so I would say to expect the deer hunt to be difficult and the density is low (at least to what I saw). I do believe the deer had for the most part moved down in elevation. So perhaps an earlier deer tag would see more numbers.

Also there was an absolute fook ton of horses out there and I never once saw deer going to a water hole that the horses were using.

Hope that helps!

 

[deadibob]

I'd echo the same comments the others have. I had a late cow elk tag there in November a few years ago and was there, camping, for 7 days straight. I was hard at work scouting an hour before dawn and after sunset every day. I routinely hunt the Nevada side of this unit (#231 archery deer) so I was checking out a bunch of stuff beyond just the cow elk. Sitting on water holes, following game trails, etc. Mostly focused on what the deer are doing that late in the year as it relates to movement between Utah and Nevada.

In any case, I glassed up a maybe 5-6 bucks in that time. All in burn areas. Antlers were nice enough at 500-600 yards but I wasn't too focused on them unless they were moving in and out of Nevada too. For comparison I glassed up at least a dozen nice bull elk in that same time period so I would say to expect the deer hunt to be difficult and the density is low (at least to what I saw). I do believe the deer had for the most part moved down in elevation. So perhaps an earlier deer tag would see more numbers.

Also there was an absolute fook ton of horses out there and I never once saw deer going to a water hole that the horses were using.

Hope that helps!

My son had a muzzy Pronghorn last year. One evening we sat in a blind on a big water tank. We counted well over a hundred horses come into water that evening and they wouldn't let anything else come near when they were watering.

It's crazy how they interacted. One stallion and his little group would water and there would be about four or five groups lined up in the distance. As soon as one group was leaving another would come in. This line lasted all evening. A few times a couple groups would get too close and the stallions would fight.

One stud discovered us and he was pissed. He kept circling around the blind for about twenty minutes, keeping about 50-100 yards from us the entire time.

 

[Tikka]

My son had a muzzy Pronghorn last year. One evening we sat in a blind on a big water tank. We counted well over a hundred horses come into water that evening and they wouldn't let anything else come near when they were watering.

It's crazy how they interacted. One stallion and his little group would water and there would be about four or five groups lined up in the distance. As soon as one group was leaving another would come in. This line lasted all evening. A few times a couple groups would get too close and the stallions would fight.

One stud discovered us and he was pissed. He kept circling around the blind for about twenty minutes, keeping about 50-100 yards from us the entire time.

How did your sons antelope hunt go?

 

[deadibob]

How did your sons antelope hunt go?

TAG SOUP. We passed up a couple decent bucks on day one that in hind sight we should have gone after. We only hunted it for three days because my kids had four muzzy deer tags going on at the same time.
So after deer hunting we broke deer camp around midnight before the last day of the hunt to get home and grab my other boy(triplets) for the last day of his pronghorn hunt(he is my one kid who isn't much into hunting, more of a computer geek/science nerd). He gave me the excuse he was sick and couldn't go. Oh was I pissed. We could have been deer hunting for one more day.

Everytime we have a fishing/hunting trip he is sick. I told him to at least respect me enough to use a different excuse from time to time. That reminds me, does anyone need another boy He is great at turning wrenches and will probably end up working for NASA.