I took Thursday and Friday of last week off to try and find me a Buck. I headed up to Monte with a freind to look for some deer and we ran into quite a few buckaroos. I spotted a three point and a spike together and passed on them both. We then spooked a couple of two points and another spike and my freind dumped one of the two points. After taking care of the deer we decided to head over to Woodruff and do some fishin. We both had our limits in a couple of hours.
Friday took me North with another freind and once again the little bucks were running everywhere. I passed on another couple of two points and my freind dumped one of them. We took care of that one and looked around for something bigger but there wasn't anything worth shooting so I didn't fill my tag. I still have the Extended archery so we'll see what happens. Here's some pics.
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Fishing and hunting in the same day? Kinda hard to beat that. Thanks for sharing the pics.
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Most excellent! Seems like a lot of young bucks this year. Better eatin' if you ask me.
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Yeah, tons of small bucks slaughtered this year. That's the case most years. There are alot more meat hunters in Utah than trophy hunters. The reason you only see the small bucks running around is because they never get a chance to grow, they get slaughtered year after year. I would personally like to see a three point or better rule established in Utah but lets not get started on that subject.
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HJB, I could not agree with you more. they need to strengthen the herds but that will not happen as it cuts into the $$$ stream way to much.
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I've instilled a personal 3 point or better rule for quite some time. I would much rather kill a big deer every once in a while, than a 2 point every year.
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I don't know what it feels like to hunt for antlers, the reason I deer hunt is for meat. You could look at it two ways. Kill the young deer and let the mighty big bucks impregnate the does to produce more bucks or kill the big bucks and hope a smaller one survives to take his place. My two cents, not looking for an arguement. I killed a 28" 4x3 buck a couple years ago and almost feel guilty for not shooting the two point that I was after. I may be wrong, I'm no expert hunter but it seems as long as there are meat hunters, the biggun's have a chance to survive.
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How are there supposed to be any big deer if they can't get past their first year??? Those little two points have no idea what they are doing. They just run around and follow their dumb moms until they get dumped by all the meat hunters.
I don't want to make anyone mad here because I used to be a "meat hunter" too. It's just hard for me to go out and spend hours upon hours looking for a four point and not see nothing but little one and two year old bucks. There are so few mature bucks because 80% get slaughtered before they can get to that point. The few bucks that make it past the the "slaughter" may grow into big bucks and mate with the does to produce the next generation of little bucks to be slaughtered. The Buck to doe ratio is only about 10-12 bucks per 100 does up in the Northern region. If you look at some of the limited entry units, the ratio is at 25+ bucks to 100 does. The reason for that is because a guy that draws a LE tag isn't going to take a two point, he is going to take a mature buck and let the two points grow. Now because of that, LE units are great to hunt and you see alot of mature bucks. I just wish I could see more mature deer on Public land.
I know this will never happen so I don't think the argument needs to go any further. I will just have to wait 12 years to draw a LE tag and shoot my dream buck (or take a trip to Colorado where the DWR know how to manage deer).
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