After spending the entire 3rd season in 66 these are my observations.
It's not worth the 24 points I burnt on it. but it was fun I saw good numbers of immature bucks every day. I hunted daylight until dark every day all over the unit and never saw a buck that would come close to 180. maybe one 170. a couple 160 at best. lots of 150 type bucks and many of those were dead by the end of season.
The rut was not nearly as advanced as I expected, the bucks were ready but the does weren't. large groups of does with dinks or no bucks at all.
The excuse the bucks were still high won't fly. we went up to the Powderhorn trail heads a couple times and even in the old snow there were no deer tracks up high. they started where the snow thinned and went to the river.
We stayed in town and in addition to the hunters I saw on the hill I talked to lots at the motel and restaurant from all the Gunnison units. it didn't matter who or where the story was the same, where are the mature bucks.
I had fun and the country is beautiful. all the hunters I met , mostly residents were as friendly as you could hope for, I felt very welcome and it is much appreciated.
I'm sure a nice buck or two was taken but I didn't see one or hear of any. the biggest takeaway I left with is this, it ain't what it used to be and all the talk of how it's declined is not as exaggerated as I'd hoped.
Another observation. 47 years worth, in a State that was once a mule deer mecca.
It’s a process Tog.
After the State issues enough tags, the very largest, oldest, most mature bucks are killed first. Most hunters (not all but most) will kill a mature buck before they kill a younger buck. After the majority of the oldest bucks are gone, the 170” to 150” become the targeted buck. (Naturally….. because hunters generally will kill the largest buck they can find and as Tog and those he spoke to said, “there are no big bucks”, so………… most hunters will kill the next to the biggest bucks, because that the biggest they can find.
That’s where Colorado is this year.
Probably take another two years before the 170” / 160” bucks are mostly gone, like the big bucks are gone this year. In three years, the targeted bucks will be the three year olds, because that’s all left.
By the 2026 or 2027 season, Colorado hunters will be targeting yearlings and a handful of two year old. Unless regulated otherwise, hunters will kill whatever there is to kill. With in 5 to 7 years, if they continue to sell the same number of tags.
From that point forward, 99% of the harvest will be year old bucks and it will stay that way, no matter how good the habitat, predator, highway, disease control, the primary harvest will be yearling bucks.
Disease, predators, habitat, road kill, etc. are clearly a negative impact on all mule deer. Hunters kill more bucks than all the other combined reasons bucks die.
Bottom line, without resorting back to pre-current management in Colorado, the mule deer hunting there will be the same as it is in Utah right now. But a lot of Utah folks believe that’s the moral and responsible thing to do.
Just my wildly bias opinion, your investment experience my produce different results, but it’s not going to take too much longer to see if I’m right or wrong.
It was surely the snow.
