What happened to Merritt Mt.

NECALI · Oct 21, 2008

I'm not sure of the spelling, but my son and I hunted Merritt mt up by Mountain city and it was terrible.We talked to people that said last year there were deer everywhere.This year nobody was seeing hardly anything.We hunted up in the timber,in the aspens,and down in the mohagany thickets.We saw an average of ten deer a day and maybe one of those was a little buck still hanging out with mamma.We glassed,and walked our butts off trying to find deer and they were nowhere to be found.We did see tons of elk sign but only saw one bull.Others said they saw a couple of herds running out of the country opening day.So did the elk have the deer ran off to another mt.or what? My son did kill the biggest buck we saw which was a 20" 3 point,but it sure wasn't what we expected in Nevada.

kilowatt · Oct 21, 2008

Dean,
I hunted that same area back in 1989 and did not see many deer then either. Merritt Mtn was the same way then. But then on the morning of Oct.31st or late night of 30th it snowed like he**, woke up to about 6" on the white stuff.
Believe it or not, I was the "only" person out that morning hunting during that storm. I was coming back down from Merritt when a herd of deer were making tracks n/e across the road on the north side of Huber Hills. Must have been close to 50 deer in that group and only one lone Buck, a 4x4.
If you remember that corral on the northside of Huber on the west side of road, that is where I ran to and sat there to wait for a clear shot as the deer were headed towards the Duck Valley Indian Res. just north of that area. I tracked him clear back into the Ross Gulch area where he was in the bottom of the gully.

That was 19 years ago and still remember that COLD nasty wind as I was trying to gut that buck out there, but got it done and got out of there too.
Congrats to you on the buck though.

Brian

bryan21 · Oct 21, 2008

Merritt is becoming more of a winter area for the deer in areas 6 and 7 my cousin and i got pictures of some real nice bucks by mcdonald creek and the mahoganies and probably saw over 300 head of deer in one day but that was in december when the deer were migrating thru merritt and from the jarbidge area up to Idaho and we did run into a herd of about 200 elk the same day. So yes the elk are up there heavy as well. Congrats on the buck though a 20" 3 point isnt bad.

mevertsen · Oct 21, 2008

Welcome to deer hunting. Just because something was good last year does not mean it will be as good this year. Things change, animals die, weather changes, food changes, water changes, fires burn, etc, etc, ect. If I am hunting and don't see at least small bucks in an area by the second day, I move. Staying in one spot looking for deer that aren't there aren't going to make them appear out of nowhere. You just have to be mobile and make yourself move to where the deer are.

Congrats on the 3X3 by the way.

Later,

Marcial

lvgrizfan · Oct 21, 2008

I hunted east of there last year late deer hunt and saw alot of nice bucks and deer in general,I have talked to a couple of guys this year and they said the same thing, I think all the fires east of there this year in august has somthing to do with it, but then again the early deer hunt in Nevada is tuff.

mevertsen · Oct 22, 2008

All the fires east of there? The one 60,000 acre fire in Jarbidge? The wind blows from the west, and north, northwest, the smoke is going the other direction. That fire alone should't have had an effect on the deer around Merritt Mt. this year.

Later,

Marcial