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Show r pjnocaurland ) Outdoors ByHarttWixom ,' 1 Vernal Express Outdoors Writer ' " ', Where to go to find big bucks looked at mule deer bucks in '' western State, but some of the t I've seen were in eastern S Book Cliffs. rtittedly that was in the "old" late hunts. Since then, .the Utah Z Wildlife Resources not only holds rfthem-what with a buck-only :flral harvest-but the number of big aren't there at any time of year, J upon study by UDRW big game viists asks the question: What has Opened 'to the Book Cliffs deer r-ue have attributed it to heavy w6te or other predation. But, recent at studies don't bear that out. I jlieve there was an overkill there a tede ago, and more access roads jiai't helped. Access is much easier ju than it used to be. In effect, deer j, not as abundant in that "remote" spinas they once were, because it is a,t all that remote anymore. I remember one late hunt when I had av choice of six bucks in one morning, jjone I'd been proud to take home, jjl doesn't count the two I witnessed ie day before getting into lower Mc-Mk Mc-Mk Ridge. On one of them I thought a siar tree had taken legs. As it ambled iuy I realized it was the largest buck I fcd ever witnessed at that point. I've been back there under similar (sather conditions, and looked at no ders at all. Of course, commercial aid private traffic (oil rigs and wood ptatrs for example) have increased jislantially. Far more people venture the hinterlands 40, 50 and even 90 Is south of Ouray. But,lwouldn'tgiveupon it as a place !t hunt Oct. 17-27. I just think you'll ave to skip the main north-south sads, and get on some of those less-taveled less-taveled east-west routes. One thing, i you want to get into the upper Books xking for deer along the way, forget tore heavily-used road to the top of Hays Canyon, and take the upper KM route. Get off the ridges. rch carefully into the ledges and wvy cover between ridgelines and Team bottoms. Watch all ridge points lean eagle! Get into the side canyons :tat roads. Glass the breaks at "Ming elevations from 6,000 feet up 'J 7,500. Above that deer will summer in the Mks, but clear out quickly with snow -i frozen water. If you have a good tf, hunt the edges of the Ute reser-especially reser-especially along upper Willow Creek and middle Hill Creek (most of upper Hill Creek is all Indian land). Make sure you take extra gasoline, food, water and matches. It isn't something you can do in a hurry. The distances are just too great. When hunting here last year I found many does in the terrain at and below 6,000 feet, especially along lower McCook. Some parties glassed carefully for spikes and found them. If you seek a better one, particularly after the surprise element of opening day is over, I'd seek elsewhere. One thing you might find plenty of here are coyotes, for howling, hunting packs woke us every morning. With that I'm still not going to say lesser deer herds here are due mainly to coyote kills. The prairie wolves have definitely increased. But, I think there is more to the decrease in deer numbers num-bers than that. Big game biologists are als,o trying to fit the puzzle together. In the meantime, you can still hunt the Book Cliffs profitably if you want to pay the price. Frankly, I like the vast, open "desolation" of southern Utah and northern Grand Counties. But, I wouldn't think of hunting them with less than four days of intense work. Where else can you go in the Vernal area? You've likely seen the huge racks in Basin Sporting Goods, and people there can tell you more about them. One came from the Diamond Mountain terrain, off the little breaks into Green River and Dinosaur National Monument. But, there are probably more on the south slope of the Uinta Mountains on upper Ashley Creek, Dry Fork, Brush Creek, and over onto the Uinta-Whiterocks drainage. I've taken seven bucks in seven seasons on the Rock Creek drainage, from Pigeon Water to Log Hollow (the latter having some Ute territory), and I know of other big racks taken on upper Lake Fork. Some Boone-Crockett bucks have been kayoed on upper Yellowstone Creek. A tip: hunt the high aspens. Another possibility: I've looked at many smaller bucks, excellent eating size, southwest of Manila at the top of Sheep Canyon. There are many elk there at times, so watch your target. Check tops of canyons and draws over to Browne Lake and headwaters of Carter Creek all the way to Flaming Gorge. For that matter, hardly a fishing trip to the Gorge goes by in the Red Narrows to Sheep Creek Bay country but what I see antlers. |