Tough Early Rifle Hunt

Founder · Oct 12, 2020

My boy has the early rifle hunt for here above the house and it was his first year of no 4-point success. I think we only saw a handful of yearling bucks total.
He still ha the regular general season to hunt, but I was surprised we didn’t see a single 4-point.
We really didn’t even see a lot of deer period.
Did any of you find it to be better or worse than years past?

rmanwill · Oct 13, 2020

Muzzle loader hunt was very slow with a lot less bucks out and about. Very few large bucks being out and seen. Seems that with it hot and dry they just stayed off the tops and down in the canyons and lower benches after they were pushed by all the bow hunters. Very little grass on top in the openings and sage flats. Most of what we found were that they were eating acorns and there was more of them off the beaten paths and in the heavy oak cover. They seemed to just stay in the oak brush during day light.

copple2 · Oct 13, 2020

Between the heat and the moon, I think a lot of deer were moving at night and hitting the cover early. That's what we saw down in So Utah. Not a ton of bucks out. I'm sure the pressure from the muzzy (single shot rifle) hunt one week before has some effect as well.

ridgetops · Oct 13, 2020

I saw the same thing.

dogdoc · Oct 13, 2020

Although my hunt ended very well, it was the worst year I have seen on the Pine Valley unit in the last 10 years. Really sad.

rmanwill · Oct 13, 2020

dogdoc said:
Although my hunt ended very well, it was the worst year I have seen on the Pine Valley unit in the last 10 years. Really sad.

dogdoc, let's see your buck. I agree, worst year on Pine Valley in years.

elkassassin · Oct 13, 2020

So?

Founder Sr Can't Find Jr a 200"+ Buck in TARDville?

Kinda Nice going to Wyoming & Colorado where at Least You know Some Survive Ain't it?

Good Luck to Jr!

Founder · Oct 13, 2020

elkassassin said:
So?

Founder Sr Can't Find Jr a 200"+ Buck in TARDville?

Kinda Nice going to Wyoming & Colorado where at Least You know Some Survive Ain't it?

Good Luck to Jr!

Nope! I couldn’t produce for the boy. I tried hard to find him a 4-point like years past, but I failed. I need something to blame it on!!

twopointdn · Oct 13, 2020

Founder, I am the guy that was at 5 Guys that you met back during the Utah muzzleloader hunt. We have a habit of stopping in there for a good burger after a hard hunt. We were not hunting far from there so you know the general area we was hunting. It was tough this year to find a good buck. We seen 17 bucks opening day and 6 bucks on the morning of the second day which is half the number of bucks we seen in 2014 and 2015 in the same area. The deer that were in the bed of our truck were the two best deer we seen. The deer were holding in the thick of the thick and not moving much. I have never seen that mountain so dry. We seen a few better bucks when we was scouting. Even though the deer numbers are down, I still don’t think Utah general deer hunting is all that bad. It has been good to me and my hunting buddy over the last seven years. We work hard and keep realistic expectations on what we will be happy with pulling the trigger on with general tags. It was nice to meet you and good luck to your son on filling his tag on a tough year.

Founder · Oct 13, 2020

twopointdn said:
Founder, I am the guy that was at 5 Guys that you met back during the Utah muzzleloader hunt. We have a habit of stopping in there for a good burger after a hard hunt. We were not hunting far from there so you know the general area we was hunting. It was tough this year to find a good buck. We seen 17 bucks opening day and 6 bucks on the morning of the second day which is half the number of bucks we seen in 2014 and 2015 in the same area. The deer that were in the bed of our truck were the two best deer we seen. The deer were holding in the thick of the thick and not moving much. I have never seen that mountain so dry. We seen a few better bucks when we was scouting. Even though the deer numbers are down, I still don’t think Utah general deer hunting is all that bad. It has been good to me and my hunting buddy over the last seven years. We work hard and keep realistic expectations on what we will be happy with pulling the trigger on with general tags. It was nice to meet you and good luck to your son on filling his tag on a tough year.

It was good meeting you too. We were looking for a buck like one of those you guys took. We just couldn't find one. We probably should've gotten up there and scouted some, rather than just showing up opening morning hoping for the best.

shootem · Oct 13, 2020

twopointdn said:
Founder, I am the guy that was at 5 Guys that you met back during the Utah muzzleloader hunt. We have a habit of stopping in there for a good burger after a hard hunt. We were not hunting far from there so you know the general area we was hunting. It was tough this year to find a good buck. We seen 17 bucks opening day and 6 bucks on the morning of the second day which is half the number of bucks we seen in 2014 and 2015 in the same area. The deer that were in the bed of our truck were the two best deer we seen. The deer were holding in the thick of the thick and not moving much. I have never seen that mountain so dry. We seen a few better bucks when we was scouting. Even though the deer numbers are down, I still don’t think Utah general deer hunting is all that bad. It has been good to me and my hunting buddy over the last seven years. We work hard and keep realistic expectations on what we will be happy with pulling the trigger on with general tags. It was nice to meet you and good luck to your son on filling his tag on a tough year.

Pics or it didn’t happen!

ridgetops · Oct 13, 2020

shootem said:
Pics or it didn’t happen!

It didn't happen, move along.

dogdoc · Oct 13, 2020

rmanwill said:
dogdoc, let's see your buck. I agree, worst year on Pine Valley in years.

rmanwill · Oct 14, 2020

Awesome. Great buck there dogdoc. Cool looking wide buck. Thanks for sharing.

BradA · Oct 14, 2020

dogdoc said:
View attachment 14887

How wide is he ? Great buck congratulations cool buck much the less!

dogdoc · Oct 14, 2020

He’s a little over 30

deadibob · Oct 15, 2020

twopointdn said:
Founder, I am the guy that was at 5 Guys that you met back during the Utah muzzleloader hunt. We have a habit of stopping in there for a good burger after a hard hunt. We were not hunting far from there so you know the general area we was hunting. It was tough this year to find a good buck. We seen 17 bucks opening day and 6 bucks on the morning of the second day which is half the number of bucks we seen in 2014 and 2015 in the same area. The deer that were in the bed of our truck were the two best deer we seen. The deer were holding in the thick of the thick and not moving much. I have never seen that mountain so dry. We seen a few better bucks when we was scouting. Even though the deer numbers are down, I still don’t think Utah general deer hunting is all that bad. It has been good to me and my hunting buddy over the last seven years. We work hard and keep realistic expectations on what we will be happy with pulling the trigger on with general tags. It was nice to meet you and good luck to your son on filling his tag on a tough year.

How about some photos of those two bucks in the back of your truck.