Mule Deer Youth 52A

[dreaminbouthuntin]

Trying to piece information together for my good bud.

Due to work and school, he and his son wont be able to make it out on their first hunt together until the weekend of the 24th of October.

Dad has an OTC deer tag and his son is 10 yrs old and is just itching to go.

Due to F&G dumping a week off deer season, he and his son are limited to a few units. We felt unit 52A would be their best bet due to close location to home and extended season.

We've been scouring maps and the internet for information on where to focus and
places to steer clear.

I havent hunted it nor know anyone that has. if anyone has helpful information to pass along, they would be greatful. He has good tires so the Lava wont be a major obsticle.

Its always a win when you get your kids involved in hunting.

Thanks in advance

 

[HalfAce]

They have the general season tag?

I hunted the unit last year on the general tag for the first time. And oh my god the unit was EXTREMELY dry.

I hunted 52A for a few days after the opener. I concentrated my efforts south of Arco, also west of Arco South of highway 26. I glassed and hiked the lava pockets outside the craters of the moon and hunted 2 to 4 miles from the highway where I saw no other roads, people, no sign of water... and no deer.

The only sign of deer I found was months old, and nothing recent.

After walking around in the lava flows all day tearing up my boots, I concentrated looking for water. The Big Lost River that runs through Arco completely ended and evaporated a mile or so South of Arco, and was just a dry river bottom until who knows where? The canals that feed ag fields had flowing water though, and I spent an evening looking in the ag fields and around water and again saw no deer.

After seeing nothing around Arco, I tried hunting East and South of the town of Carey. There was water in the river there and a few hunters, but there was a recent fire in the area that burned some of the landscape, and I also saw no deer around there.

I was in the field glassing from before sun up until after dark every day and saw no deer. I gave up on 52A and tried hunting some other general units after that.

I feel that had it not been so dry, I may have seen a few deer, but they were obviously not where I was at. I have no clue what kind of precipitation that unit got this year and what condition it is in, but it could be different this year so there may be deer where there was none last year.

If your friends are really set on hunting 52A, and its as dry as it was last year, I would avoid the areas I hunted. I would hunt as late in the season as possible. If you can get off the highway with your truck and deep into the unit, I would glass off the top of my truck because there is few high spots in the unit that allow good glassing. I would wear a good set of boots, but not your favorite pair, because the lava will absolutely shred them up in only a few days. Pray for snow and cold weather as this may help get the animals moving. Also, if there is fresh snow on the ground, I would DEFINITLY look for fresh tracks and follow them.

I have a little, more specific info that I do not want to release to the WWW, PM me if interested.

 

[dreaminbouthuntin]

He has the general tag and the info you gave is very helpful. Many thanks for that.
They only has a couple days to hunt towards the end of the season. hopefully we will get some weather to help out.

From the looks of it, the unit is dry again. drove around the bottom area on 86 about 2 months ago heading to Boise and it looked dry.

I like the Arco area, but as you stated, it can get dry as a bone around there and not many deer from what I remember.

I'm going to try and go take a look around for him and see what i find.

thanks for the PM option. i'll shoot one over once i get a lay of the land.

Many thanks

 

[BPKHunter]

LAST EDITED ON Aug-31-13 AT 06:20AM (MST)[p]Not sure I am misreading something, but 10 year old youth can NOT deer hunt in Idaho. Must be 12 years old to buy a tag. There are more units open through Oct 31 if you head farther west and you will find deer, not saying how big, you will also find a lot of people, but the story above sounds a little sad. Depending on where you are from you should consider the later nov whitetail hunts up in No Idaho also. Go the week of thanksgiving.

 

[dreaminbouthuntin]

yes, you mis read my post. I said his dad has a OTC tag but his son is the main reason he is going. he wants to go hunt. poor kids got the fever we all get.

they cant afford to go to n idaho and dont have much time. the weekend of the 24th is all he has off work and his school.

i'm going to try and dig deep into the regs and online about the unit. not much info out there.

thanks for the help

 

[idhunters]

You are not going to find anything in the regs or online about 52a, at least no more than what this thread will show you.

Unless you have the time to find the deer early in summer prior to the hunt it is literally like finding a needle in a haystack. The deer densities are not good. However if you do find deer there then concentrate on that area, as there will be more around.

Glassing is probably one of the least effective ways to hunt basically due to what was posted-no high spots and lots of holes/cuts for the animals to hide in. However, early mornings and late evenings can produce sightings, if there are any deer in the area.

Most of the deer I know of being killed in that and similar units are shot like sagehens, hike thru the brush until you jump a buck and shoot him. It is not a real easy hunt even though you can drive almost anywhere in the unit.