Excellent year of hunting?

2111 Views 16 Replies 17 Participants Last post by goofy elk, Oct 22, 2015

Huge29

Discussion Starter · Oct 21, 2015

Maybe people are just sharing more pics, but it seems like this year has been a killer year not just for overall harvests, but for crap loads of very nice bucks and bulls. I am sure that we can credit the improvement to proposition 2 or whatever it is that created this crap of a 29 units. As predicted back in the spring due to two very mild winters and a very wet spring it seems to have been an accurate prediction. I cant say I have seen anything great, but we have seen deer in our fields for much of the winter and on Saturday in our fields where we had never seen them before.
Hopefully you have all had great success and created great memories with your fams and friends.

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ridgetop

· #2 · Oct 21, 2015

I have to agree. Many people I've talked to have seen more bucks this year than in years past.
It also seems like the percentage of mature bucks is higher than it has been in many decades.
I personally killed the biggest buck of my life yesterday and I doubt I'll ever kill one bigger.:shock:
So I'm happy the way things are going currently.

Reactions: 1

MWScott72

· #3 · Oct 21, 2015

Yep - more deer and better age classes as Ridge has said. I also killed my personal best mulie this year, but I would bet he is a fair share smaller than what Ridge killed.

I would attribute it to favorable weather and a blown opener a couple years back where a storm screwed things up for hunters than any management plan. Is the plan spreading out hunters? I believe it is doing that.

Reactions: 1

morvlorv

· #4 · Oct 21, 2015

im glad you guys are having success, thats awesome!!
Im on the flip side though, haha. been hunting hard this month. Didnt see any elk during the elk hunt, and didnt see any bucks at all during the buck hunt.
I did see a ton of hunters though, and I even hiked a good distance back in the woods.
But hell, a failed hunt still beats a day in the office, thats for sure!

Hopefully this weekend is my lucky weekend. One last try for a buck and some meat.

Congrats to all the people that have had successful harvests!

BUL_KRZY

· #5 · Oct 21, 2015

ridgetop said:
I personally killed the biggest buck of my life yesterday and I doubt I'll ever kill one bigger.:shock:

I won't believe it's any better until you show us pictures of said buck

LostLouisianian

· #6 · Oct 21, 2015

Kind of amazing how a mild winter or two and some good spring rains can have such an effect on big game populations....who woulda thunk it.

Nambaster

· #7 · Oct 21, 2015

Ya it's great! I love going out with all these hunters imagining what it would be like if I had a tag. (I hope you can detect sarcasm) I observed 18 different bucks on this opener and I got to snap shots of them with my camera. I am pretty upset still about not being able to draw a GS for the Cache unit. I also put in for the muzz as a 2nd choice and even 4,5,6 as a 3rd choice never did I imagine in my wildest nightmare that I would not have been able to draw one of those simple tags.

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longbow

· #8 · Oct 21, 2015

It looks like it's been a great year for everybody. I'm more impressed with all the pictures of the youth this year. Seems like like there's a lot more mentors introducing youngsters this year than in the past. Good year for all!

Reactions: 1

DallanC

· #9 · Oct 21, 2015

Ended the year with 2 deer, 2 antelope and a cow elk.

Deer hunting sucked from ML through Rifle... as few of deer as I've ever seen in our area. I'm going to be looking for a new spot... so you guys seeing lots of deer but few hunters are free to ping me. We'll help with that :mrgreen:

-DallanC

Brookie

· #10 · Oct 21, 2015

The division said (on their website)that everything has been about the same as last year or a little less at checking stations. Also, if permits don't go up how are we going to keep the youth interested if they don't draw or a parent doesn't draw.

Reactions: 1

Vern21

· #11 · Oct 21, 2015

I Personally have seen more animals this year than any other, but I also don't go to the same spots everytime. I've been from the Cache to the Books, to Henry's. I personally like that I can't draw the Cache every year. I have seen more mature bucks shot up there this year than ever before. I credit the DWR for the smaller units its better to have 3500 hunters up there than the 7000 there used to be and I think that might be a low guess

Packout

· #12 · Oct 21, 2015

Yep, lots more deer and mature bucks in the herds this year. Reports North to South and East to West all are the same. We have had incredible growing conditions for deer the past 4 years-- which means those doe fawns born 4 years ago gave birth to today's yearling bucks. It is sweet to see the growth in the herd-- now pray for favorable weather to sustain the gains.

Oh and Ridge-- wow.

utjer

· #13 · Oct 21, 2015

Ditto here. I have seen more bucks this year than the previous few. I also tagged out on the archery hunt with my biggest to date. Scored 143", not a monster, but definitely a trophy in my book.

Reactions: 1

jhar6862

· #14 · Oct 21, 2015

I have personally seen a lot more deer this year in areas that we don't typically see many deer. The area we elk hunt typically has 2 or 3 bucks hanging around. This year we decided to hunt the same place for deer as we do elk. We saw at least 10 bucks on elk hunt which is a lot more than usual. We ended up seeing 9 bucks opening morning of the deer hunt and harvesting two of them. In years past we would be lucky to see a two point and few does in the same spot. I can only draw out every other year on my unit which is fine, as long as the quality of deer is better when I do draw out.

swbuckmaster

· #15 · Oct 21, 2015

ridgetop said:
I have to agree. Many people I've talked to have seen more bucks this year than in years past.
It also seems like the percentage of mature bucks is higher than it has been in many decades.
I personally killed the biggest buck of my life yesterday and I doubt I'll ever kill one bigger.:shock:
So I'm happy the way things are going currently.

Photos or it didn't happen

Reactions: 2

middlefork

· #16 · Oct 21, 2015

It has been a fun year so far. Maybe not so much for those sitting at home without a permit though. You can credit me for the improvement one buck at a time for the last ten years :grin:
Amazing what a little good weather will do for the herd. Option 2 still sucks.-O|o-

goofy elk

· #17 · Oct 22, 2015

Opt 2--Good for deer.

Control tags---Bad for elk.

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