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Show Outdoor Wisdom By HarttWixom Utah still produces some mighty bucks. That is evident evi-dent from the past deer season, big buck contests, and talleys from check stations as well as hunters. For example, it has been stated solemnly in many of the outdoor magazines, and from some biologists themselves them-selves that muley numbers in the Book Cliffsvare way down. That may be true, but guess where many of the contest winners bagged their monster racks this year? That's right. The Book Cliffs. Verdin Goodrich nail ed a 2VA inch spread from 100 yards at first daylight in this wild country south and east of the Green River, and David Felter got his 33 78 inch rack in open Book Cliffs sage. Other nice ones were taken in the Wasatch Mountains Moun-tains above heavy civilization from Smithfield to Nephi. The monster bucks come from rough and inaccessible country these days of modern mod-ern day trophy-seeking, but often it is merely a 'pocket which gets overlooked near roads and cities. West Valley City's Randy Neuman got his hugs rack less than an hour out of downtown skyscrapers, skyscrap-ers, but he doesn't want the precise location revealed. Reason? He does it almost every year. If you didn't bag your dream buck, start scouting and making plans now. One of my favorite pasttimes is to get out in December, just following the muzzleloader and special permit hunts to see what the hunters missed. It is incredible at times how the giant antlers show up during rut or early winter, bucks the nimrods somehow didn't find. I remember two Decern- . bers ago looking at a whopper buck in Hobble Creek Canyon above Spring-ville Spring-ville which browsed behind a cabin. It carried a yard-wide spread no one cotild possibly fail to see. But apparently, it had outwitted the state's more than 200,000 venison questers. One hunter also told me he had looked at some large bucks east of Smithfield, another near south end of Cache Valley. I have searched search-ed the mountains from Idaho border to the Monte Cristo country, and all along Bear Lake, without finding a truly great buck, but the archers have reported the same during this past bow shoot. Most nimrods skip the desert terrain, yet some high antlers were taken this past season on the west (back side away from people) side of the Stansburys and Deep Creeks. A few traditional places were "washed out" but it was fault of the weather which has probably never been more cruel than in late September-early October's Oc-tober's elk opener. Snow more than three feet deep prevented access on the upper Manti, and forced closure of the famed Wilcox Ranch above East Carbon for the second year in a row. Prolific outdoor writer Erwin Bauer labeled the West Tavaputs Plateau a-bove a-bove (old name) Dragerton in Carbon County, "the best mule deer hunting in the world." That was the tag once tied on Beaver County, but hunter Bruce Crooks says he and his brother found more deer hunters than deer here in the Belknap-Delano Peak area last time around. As usual, some nice bucks came from Summit and Wasatch Counties. Deer numbers are not high in the western Uintas, because food is not profuce in the lodgepole pine country, but good buckskins were once again nailed from Riley Canyon, the upper Weber, and West Fork of the Bear, as well as over into "23B" or upper Current Creek in Duchesne County. It pays to analyze where the best heads are yielded, for the same ravines and ridges tend to put out the biggest bucks year after year. One of my favorites each season is Rock Creek on south slope of the Uintas, and weather permitting access, ac-cess, deer are about in the same place each visit. But if I want to explore new terri-torry, terri-torry, I'd scout out the north Box Elder terrain because check station figures show double the average success rate there. Get out now to determine where you want to be next October! |