unit 57/52 bucks

mikey48 · Dec 24, 2009

I am looking into puting in for the rifle hunt in unit 57 or the muzzeloader hunt in unit52 which is the east side of highway 75 . I havent seen what the trophy quality is for either of these hunts and was hoping to get a little information on these units

shelbys · Dec 24, 2009

Couldn't tell you anything about unit 57 but I don't think there was a muzzy hunt in 52 last year. There is the hunt over in 52a that is a bleak tough hunt. 52 had a muzzy hunt on the east side back in 2007.

7mmgilbert · Dec 25, 2009

57 was good, depending on your definition of trophy quality, there are several other units that consitently kill bigger bucks. Plus the fires in 2008 really hurt the unit 57 deer population.

go4steelhd · Dec 27, 2009

I hunted antelope in 52 were your muzzle hunt would be spent a week in there this year. And have spent alot of time in there over the years. Send me a pm with what you were wanting to know. I have not hunted 57 thou.

mikey48 · Dec 27, 2009

I hope this works right i've never sent a pm .I have put in for that muzzeloader rotation for the past 2 years and have not drawn yet and would like to hunt the one in 52 this year but I dont know anything about it particulary the trophy capabilitys . i know that the in other units 45,54 where the hunt takes place ,im going to see 180 class bucks and a good chance at 190 deer .

go4steelhd · Dec 27, 2009

If you are wanting a 180 buck I would not go on the 52 muzzle hunt. There may be some there but very few on that side of the highway. Others may disagree with this but a 160 to 165 would be pushing it unless you spend massive amounts of time scouting and can find a toad before season. They are there just very few of them. Most of the big bucks are non typical that I have seen there; and it has been 8 to 10 years since I have seen a real big buck in there.

shelbys · Dec 29, 2009

Does anybody have concrete evidence that the muzzy hunt will be back in 52 next year? From what I've heard, it has almost been canceled several times and there is no guarantee it will be back over there. One of the challenges of that hunt is that while there aren't that many tags, there is very little "huntable" area in that eastern chunk of unit 52. With that in mind, you get about 100 guys and their buddies hunting a very small group of foothills and canyons. Not to mention the private property, makes it tough. You always do have a chance of lucking out and finding one out in the flats down on the southern end of the unit, especially if weather were to hit hard early. (Didn't happen last time I hunted in there. It was raining and 50 degrees most of the days).

sawtoothhunter · Dec 31, 2009

Just my 2 cents. I had the controlled rifle tag this year and saw plenty of nice bucks. I know of two that would go over 190 and another that would've been in the 180 range. The reason I know that the 2 bucks would score over 190 is that I shot one of them. He is a 5X6 and grosses over 200". I scored his main frame 4 and got right around 192. The other buck I saw was actually much larger, but I couldn't get close enough in the flat desert country as he was running with 13 other bucks and there were too many eyeballs on alert.

sawtoothhunter · Dec 31, 2009

This is the buck I ended up taking. He has really good mass and deep forks. Sorry for the fuzzy picture.

Idahoron · Dec 31, 2009

Was that from the magic side or the picabo side? Ron

runamuk · Jan 1, 2010

LAST EDITED ON Jan-01-10 AT 02:43PM (MST)[p]I live in 52,, And am out running around in the desert most every day.. There is plenty of 190'+ bucks out here.
Seen two yesterday that would push 190' no problem..
They are a lot tougher to come by these days though since they went from a Nov. hunt to Oct.

go4steelhd... How'd you do on your Antelope hunt???
Im gonna blow a freakin gasket if i don't draw 52 Antelope pretty soon.. Once in 22 years just don't cut it..

shelbys · Jan 1, 2010

That buck has got to be from the magic side.

go4steelhd · Jan 2, 2010

Yea I can count on one hand the number of wall hangers I have seen in there proir to the rut. You must be talkin non-typicals on the 190 plus then. That one above has got to go 195 I bet; smoker buck for sure.

The antelope hunt was archery. I went the opener and if you rember it was in the 50's all week in the middle of august. I was going to set up on one of the many water holes around. But the only one that had a good number of antelope near it already had some one there and with the cool weather I wasn't going to just sit on one all day long with only one herd in an area. So I went spot and stalk. I made proble 5 to 10 stocks a day and got with in range twice just never could get an arrow off before they would see me. There field of view is way greater than a deer. The biggest I seen in that hunt would go 77 maybe 78. Most of them were 12 two 13 inches. This was only my second year trying with a bow. I did get two in wyoming and one montana this year thou with a rifle. I would post some pics but I can't get them to work for some reason. If you can help I will put some up we had a great year.