Nevada Unit 24 Buck Tag

fmnjr · 2024-10-31T13:43:08-0600

So I hunted this tag 10/6-10/29 except 5 days for business matters I had to go home for. Hunted primarily in 241/242....hiking, glassing, still hunting, road hunting, hunted high, hunted low, early mornings, late evenings but didn't see any shooters. Only spikes and does or bucks on private. Seems such a waste of resources and the tag. Saw lots of quail, quite a few chukar, couple groups of turkey, lots of deer tracks (some big ones) and droppings. Got busted by cow elk 2x. There were land owner tag hunters next to me looking for 180+ deer but told me they hadn't seen any. I'm not sure what to make of all this except to say it has been an overwhelming experience, to say the least. Eventually I'll make some sense of it I suppose.

BeDawg · 2024-10-31T13:49:16-0600

What do you mean a waste of resources? Lots of us would have loved to have that same experience that you were lucky to draw.

iowacity · 2024-10-31T13:51:00-0600

My wife had that tag this year during the MZ season. It is difficult to hunt with lots of cover and very few deer. The first week we saw quite a few bucks actually, and some really big ones. However, as it got closer to October, those deer disappeared into the trees and would only show themselves for very brief windows. Had we not seen the deer earlier in the season, we likely would have had a similar experience as you did.

fmnjr · 2024-10-31T14:01:36-0600

BeDawg said:
What do you mean a waste of resources? Lots of us would have loved to have that same experience that you were lucky to draw.

Everyone's take on things is different. I'm just saying that going that much time not seeing any deer was trying, for me at least.

fmnjr · 2024-10-31T14:04:50-0600

iowacity said:
My wife had that tag this year during the MZ season. It is difficult to hunt with lots of cover and very few deer. The first week we saw quite a few bucks actually, and some really big ones. However, as it got closer to October, those deer disappeared into the trees and would only show themselves for very brief windows. Had we not seen the deer earlier in the season, we likely would have had a similar experience as you did.

The juniper cover is insane and trying to glass it is useless. Did you fill your tag? I don't know in hindsight if I'd have put 24 as a choice knowing how serious it was for NDOW to reduce the number of tags due to the downtrend in the deer population.