Region H Archery Hunt

bowhunting.life · Sep 11, 2023

This is my first post on here and wanted to share my experience on the last 10 days chasing mule deer in Region H.

This was my first western hunt and I spoke with the local biologist, read up on several forums including this one and felt like my gear was on point (outside of not bringing a pair of gortex gloves for the one full day of rain).

I hunted with an outfitter for the first 6 days then did my first solo backpack hunt trip in the same unit (152).

Deer were far and few between and I maybe saw 20 bucks over the course of 10 days, 3 of which were shooters for me in the 150s range. I was able to get to full draw on one buck but it trotted above me at 60 yds and I wasn’t comfortable with the shot.

The country up there is rugged and I have a new appreciation for horses after hiking up the mountain with a loaded pack. Elk were plentiful, but it was really hard to find the deer. We put 18 miles on horseback one day to find 2 young bucks and I did 12 miles on foot another day only to find 3 does.

I definitely learned a few things and will have a much better idea of what to expect for the next time, but I sure do hope the deer numbers recover. I only saw 3 mule deer fawns during the trip compared to several elk fawns.

Good luck to everyone still out there!

kickerbuck · Sep 11, 2023

You did great hunting hard and not shooting one! Congratulations man on doing the Mule Deer world some good!!! Wyoming Game & Fish should be ashamed of themselves for letting anyone hunt those deer this year "Shut it Down."

goforbroke · Sep 11, 2023

Sounds like a great trip, although kinda tough when you aren't seeing many deer.

Rimrock · Sep 11, 2023

Thanks for the report. You worked hard! If you don’t mind sharing, which outfitter did you use and how was your experience?

bowhunting.life · Sep 12, 2023

goforbroke said:
Sounds like a great trip, although kinda tough when you aren't seeing many deer.

It was a life changing experience for me, I’ve been hunting for 29 years and this beauty of these mountains is something that will be burned in my mind forever.

One of the coolest parts of the trip was riding up the mountain under the full moon with hundreds of thousands of starts dotting the sky. Hearing my first elk bugle was an amazing thing to hear and getting the change to draw back on a buck was pretty awesome.

I’ll definitely be making a big game hunt an annual adventure going forward. There’s so many great memories to be made out there.

bowhunting.life · Sep 12, 2023

Rimrock said:
Thanks for the report. You worked hard! If you don’t mind sharing, which outfitter did you use and how was your experience?

I went with Double Diamond Outfitters, it was a great time. Feel free to PM me and I’d be happy to share more.

bowhunting.life · Sep 12, 2023

kickerbuck said:
You did great hunting hard and not shooting one! Congratulations man on doing the Mule Deer world some good!!! Wyoming Game & Fish should be ashamed of themselves for letting anyone hunt those deer this year "Shut it Down."

I had every intention of shooting one and, for me, any of the 3 I saw would have would have been incredible deer to take - those are all the biggest mule deer I’ve ever seen and would have been great memories to have. I’ll never forget making the stalk down to the two bedded bucks and having them trot by at 60 yards above me.

I don’t hunt with the intent of not killing, but I’m at the point in my hunting journey where I don’t need a kill to consider a hunt successful. I bought my first WY deer preference point in 2013 for whatever reason. Then a backpack trip through Denali National Park in 2020 got me really thinking about combining backpacking and hunting, so I booked this hunt in 2021 for the 2023 season - originally with the intent to hunt Region G.

No one could have predicted the weather and how harsh it would be on the deer numbers. If I skipped the hunt to wait for better deer numbers it could have been years before numbers were on the upswing and whose to say any of us would even been around for ‘the next time.’

I can’t comment on the game and fish dept as I’m not familiar enough with it all. But I don’t regret getting out there and experiencing the west, even if it wasn’t in its prime.

rocky2track · Sep 12, 2023

Thank you for sharing your experience. I live in Region H and your report is truly, sadly, eye opening and difficult to comprehend. On good average years, you should of saw up to 20 to 40 bucks per day depending on the drainages you would be hunting especially during archery season. To see less than 20 bucks on a 6-day outfitted hunt.... in THAT Area... is just gut wrenching to hear, really...mind blowing. There is certainly a reason G&F reduced NR tags by 200 in that region. 150 class bucks just don't even move my interest needle, not even if I'm bowhunting, but I'll certainly still buy a deer tag every year. If my kids want to go experience deer hunting I'll certainly take them out and go look for the biggest 150'ish buck we can find as they need to develop and learn their hunting skills. If we don't go, they'll never know what mountain deer hunting is about. This talk of not having deer seasons is all a bunch of crap. I was in some remote basins in that very area this past weekend, seen a total of 11 deer; 5 bucks; 2 yearlings, 2-2.5 yr and one a little older which may have hit the 160 mark. Not one fawn with the does I saw, but I certainly saw small tracks down in the bottom of the drainages where deer are well hid. It will be no less than 10 years with some favorable winters and moisture before our deer herds start resembling something normal again, but I'm afraid that my kids' view of what normal is won't be what my view is. I can absolutely do nothing about it. All I can hope for is that the remaining does start producing twins as fast as mother nature will allow. There will still be plenty of bucks to cover what does are remaining even if those bigger 150's bucks get harvested. If I do a good job on my part, my kids may be out of my house by the time I get to see a normal deer herd again...

...then, I'll have all kinds of time to go look for big bucks.

kickerbuck · Sep 12, 2023

bowhunting.life said:
I had every intention of shooting one and, for me, any of the 3 I saw would have would have been incredible deer to take - those are all the biggest mule deer I’ve ever seen and would have been great memories to have. I’ll never forget making the stalk down to the two bedded bucks and having them trot by at 60 yards above me.

I don’t hunt with the intent of not killing, but I’m at the point in my hunting journey where I don’t need a kill to consider a hunt successful. I bought my first WY deer preference point in 2013 for whatever reason. Then a backpack trip through Denali National Park in 2020 got me really thinking about combining backpacking and hunting, so I booked this hunt in 2021 for the 2023 season - originally with the intent to hunt Region G.

No one could have predicted the weather and how harsh it would be on the deer numbers. If I skipped the hunt to wait for better deer numbers it could have been years before numbers were on the upswing and whose to say any of us would even been around for ‘the next time.’

I can’t comment on the game and fish dept as I’m not familiar enough with it all. But I don’t regret getting out there and experiencing the west, even if it wasn’t in its prime.

Yep I agree that area is spectacular to see in person, and the deer have huge bodies on them. I realize you would of killed one of the 3-150 type bucks you saw and if you had you certainly would have earned it. What I meant by "Doing The Mule Deer World Some Good" is you didn't shoot a dink 1.5 or 2.5 year old just to justify your hunt especially with $ spent on an Outfitter. Some hunters can't resist just getting one the last day just because, yet claim it's for the meat. Great job setting your bar at a mature 150 deer and sticking to it!!!

Founder · Sep 12, 2023

The scouting for me was rough. One gets accustom to seeing a certain number of bucks per trip, then it gets cut in half, it's a shocker. It was hard enough to find a taker buck before!

I leave soon to go hunt. We've got one that my hunting partner would be happy with, so that's the target. As for me, nothing of interest found....unless the one we're looking for grew another inch or two in length, then I might have interest.

I'll just have to hope for luck, which rarely works out.

bowhunting.life · Sep 12, 2023

kickerbuck said:
Yep I agree that area is spectacular to see in person, and the deer have huge bodies on them. I realize you would have killed one of the 3-150 type bucks you saw and if you had you certainly would have earned it. What I meant by "Doing The Mule Deer World Some Good" is you didn't shoot a dink 1.5 or 2.5 year old just to justify your hunt especially with $ spent on an Outfitter. Some hunters can't resist just getting one the last day just because, yet claim it's for the meat. Great job setting your bar at a mature 150 deer and sticking to it!!!

Appreciate that and thank you.

I’m sure I spent over $10k between the hunt, the gear I bought and rented, flights, hotels and rental cars to get out there. I’m with you on not killing one just to justify the cost.

This was my 3rd outfitted hunt ever and I’ve never killed anything on an outfitted hunt. About 10 years ago in KS I had a 150” chocolate antlered 10 pointer at 50 yards when a doe busted me (have it all on video). I wasn’t comfortable taking the shot through a small opening in a cedar behind me that I had to crouch down to make work so I didn’t take the shot. Last morning of the hunt I had a 130” 8 pointer with matching split G2s at 20 yards broadside - it would have been my biggest buck at the time, but I knew it was a young 2.5 year old and couldn’t justify taking the shot just to ‘get my moneys worth.’ I realize that doesn’t work for everyone and to each their own.

I’ll definitely be back to WY, it’s a magical place. Good luck to you this fall!

bowhunting.life · Sep 12, 2023

Founder said:
The scouting for me was rough. One gets accustom to seeing a certain number of bucks per trip, then it gets cut in half, it's a shocker. It was hard enough to find a taker buck before!

I leave soon to go hunt. We've got one that my hunting partner would be happy with, so that's the target. As for me, nothing of interest found....unless the one we're looking for grew another inch or two in length, then I might have interest.
I'll just have to hope for luck, which rarely works out.

It’s funny how it somewhat happened like that with whitetail hunting in my area. When I started in the early 2000s we would see several deer on every outing. Now you’re lucky to see two or three per hunt…I guess that’s why for me, as bad as the deer numbers were, I still felt like I saw an okay amount of bucks. I can’t imagine seeing 20-30 in a single day. I’m lucky if I see one whitetail buck per season that I would want to shoot.

Hope you guys find what you’re looking for out there! Best of luck!

tracker12 · Sep 13, 2023

With one less than MAX deer points I really wanted to hunt G this year. Knew it didn't look good so used 21 CO deer points instead. Doesn't look like G will be in my picture going forward. Might be time to split up the points with a friend and find another area. At my age I don't have 4-5 years for it to recover

kscowboy01 · Sep 13, 2023

bowhunting.life said:
I went with Double Diamond Outfitters, it was a great time. Feel free to PM me and I’d be happy to share more.

You went with a great outfitter. Had a great experience with them last year and would recommend.

It's hunting, not killing. As my father has always told me, "If you're going to hunt North America, expect to be disappointed at times, regardless of where you go and who you go with."

junior · Sep 13, 2023

Some of that country is tuff stalking! Are you coming back for the rifle hunt?

bowhunting.life · Sep 16, 2023

kscowboy01 said:
You went with a great outfitter. Had a great experience with them last year and would recommend.

It's hunting, not killing. As my father has always told me, "If you're going to hunt North America, expect to be disappointed at times, regardless of where you go and who you go with.”

I really enjoyed the time with the outfitter, they put the effort in and I had great accommodations and fresh horses each day. Was a bit harder with the lack of animals, but that was out of everyone’s control. I would definitely go back out with them.