Now it comes!

sageadvice · Oct 22, 2012

Our local 5 week deer season closed yesterday and i'm looking for newer ways to cook up some good ol tag stew.

We really could have used a storm this season. It was very hot here for this time of year. Nice to be outside, tee shirt weather, cool but nice in the evenings, and a couple blankets needed at night. But, inordinately warm all day, every day, with no storms or rain all season, all summer and fall for that matter, long.

Then today, one day after the season closes, i wake up to see 3-4" of nice heavy snow on the ground. This is the kind of snow that really gets the bigger deer that are still up on the mountain, headed down the trails to their winter residences. Next year i guess!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

Paul_Crawford · Oct 22, 2012

Joey, I'll send you mine so you'll have enough tag soup for left-overs. lol I had 4 chances, but $hit happens. Never fired a shot. pc

CAelknuts · Oct 22, 2012

This storm is about perfectly timed for me. I hunt D5, in the low country. I always wait till the last week to get serious and this storm is about perfect to make this last week a good one. I'm going to get out a bit in the next day or so, and then get real serious the last 4 days. Time will tell...

sageadvice · Oct 23, 2012

Well Good Luck CAelknuts! Love to see another of them big old Blacktail muley cross bucks!!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

CAelknuts · Oct 24, 2012

LAST EDITED ON Oct-24-12 AT 11:12PM (MST)[p]I haven't seen it yet, but one of our group killed a 9x7 that's 28" wide this afternoon. That's a D5 buck. My son hasn't gotten home yet, he saw several nice bucks this afternoon, but hadn't pulled the trigger when I last talked to him.

I'm going tomorrow....

EDIT: Well, I got to see a picture of the above mentioned buck. He's very cool, with a main frame that is 4x5, with extra points to get to 9x7, including double eyeguards on each side. Super heavy, and he's still in velvet to boot, but the velvet is all dried up and partly worn off. For a D5 buck, he's fantastic! I have to see if I can get permission to post the picture. He was shot up near Georgetown on a private ranch.

CAelknuts · Oct 25, 2012

Correction, that buck was killed on public land, up near Georgetown. They got over 2 feet of snow east of there, and my rancher buddy went up and sat a hillside on his cattle grazing lease, and saw over 40 deer in 1/2 a day. He said a lot of deer were migrating to lower country. Shot it late yesterday morning.

sageadvice · Oct 25, 2012

CA, good luck on your hunt and getting permission to post up that, what sounds like, a Kali toad!

Snow! We got a bunch here in Westwood Ca. It started Monday and finished up last night. More than not, it's been coming down the whole time but not really adding up to a lot of inches. I have a job up in Warner Valley tomorrow and called a local construction Co that is building another bridge to cross over Warner Creek. They said that there is over a foot on the ground, my job is a few miles past and above that. I may be out of a job!

This storm last week would have voided these mountains of deer and anyone who knows the migration trails would have had a good chance at a good buck! oh well!!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

Gazelle · Oct 25, 2012

Lookin forward to my G1 tag!! Hope to catch one before he gets down to the private stuff!

RELH · Oct 25, 2012

Joey that is the problem with the game dept. chopping the season shorter. Instead of shorting it at the beginning of the season, they always do it at the end of season.
25 years ago you had a good chance of getting a storm before the season ended due to the season going longer into Oct. in the D zones.

My father in law would not leave his house until a storm was coming. then he would head for the Chester area and be back that evening or the next day with a 4X4 or better.

But then again they may have shorten the season at the end in order not to have too many bucks harvested due to the amount of hunters we have in this state. Who knowns???

RELH

CAelknuts · Oct 27, 2012

Hunting is tough with this full moon. Saw about 15-18 deer today, but only a couple spikes. Saw two bobcats and two coyotes though. One 'yote bit the dust. My son shot a bobcat too, but we're seeing damned few deer.

sageadvice · Oct 27, 2012

RELH, Yes, i agree. They have messed with the seasons here in a big way. Back when i moved here everybody i knew hunted the trails heading west and south during a storm. Very successful! Now, the Archery guys get two weeks when the bucks are mostly in velvet and out in the open places. The rifle season opens, the deer are pretty jumpy from being pushed by the archers. They also head back into the thickest stuff imaginable, or, have already hit the trails to the refuge at night and are long gone.

There are always a few bucks that stay around for the rifle season and the average bucks getting taken can be pretty good bucks. The main problem though, far beyond anything else, is the fact that this country up here holds less that 10% of the deer that it was comfortably holding 25-30 years ago.

This major loss of Deer numbers can be blamed on a lot of things, the usual suspects please stand up! It's really too bad. I don't believe i'll see a full recovery to the herd population in my lifetime. All i can do is take out the occasional critter when one is came across and make sure that local Poacher meat getter guys know that the ways of their past is no longer acceptable behavior and if i hear of them knocking over a illegal deer, i'll turn their butts in myself!

In summery i guess, i'm still thankful that i can go get a tag every year and deer hunt. It sure ain't what it was but i don't need to have the kind of hunts we had when i was younger. Nobody is saying that i can't go. For that, i'm thankful!!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

Gazelle · Oct 28, 2012

Ya, I remember in the late 80s, we refused to road hunt. Just driving from spot to spot we would see 10 to 12 bucks a day! That sure was fun.

sageadvice · Oct 28, 2012

LAST EDITED ON Oct-28-12 AT 06:01PM (MST)[p]Gazelle, Good luck on your late season hunt.

I used to do a lot of Quail hunting on the south side of Highway 36. We hunted all the way from Panther Springs on down to the lower parts of the hogback, all that Antelope creek drainage country, and all over to Paynes creek. I can remember days of seeing 20-30 bucks just along side of the roads.

I haven't chased them lil rockets for several years now but i understand that there still are deer down there, just not near as many. This year, being that we had no early storms during the season and then now this pretty good one that took several days to go thru, maybe it might be a great year to have a late tag.

Good luck!! You too CAelk, hope you guys get good ones!!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

CAelknuts · Oct 29, 2012

What a lousy end of season this year. Over the weekend, I saw about 35 deer, but only one legal buck and he was young so I never even thought of shooting him. Saw several coyotes and 3 bobcats, shot one coyote. I'm guessing the full moon had a lot to do with the bad hunting, but we've always seen 25-50 bucks per season in past years. This year, I saw 3 or 4 spikes and one forked horn. This was, by far, the worst deer season we've ever had on our leases.

Oh, well, there's next year...

sageadvice · Oct 29, 2012

CAelk, Sounds to me like maybe something or, more likely, somebody is working over the animals you're hunting long before you get there. Poaching ring maybe??

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"