Hobbies 🪙 Deer hunt success this week

[SlaveToTheGrind]

If you do not like hunting, that is fine. To each their own. Here in Utah, being mostly arid or desert steppe climate, mule deer vastly outnumber whitetail deer. There are a few places where whitetail do exist. Mulies are named as such because of their large ears which resemble the size of mule ears. Whitetail for their white tail even though mulies also have a white tail. I never hunted until I married. My FiL grew up as a hunter. My parents did not but grandparents did. I always was drawn to the outdoors and nature and spent most summers growing up in my Minnesota neighborhoods outside in the nearby woods or along a lake or river. Utah big game hunts are through a draw and there are general season or limited entry units, which are difficult and may take many years to draw. Even a general season tag can be unsuccessful which I have been the previous two years. LE are nice because there are far less hunters. I've been applying for a particular LE draw for many years and had accrued 10 points to draw - basically given 10 chances this year whereas the first year I had one chance. Sidenote, to draw a hunt in Utah is considered gambling which is illegal in Utah. The draw takes place in Nevada. But I can enter a “duck race” raffle (which I do) put on by the local fire department and all is good – same activity. If you pay money for a chance to win something, that is gambling in Utah. I was successful and drew out the desired LE unit. My oldest is a part-time guide aside from his journeyman electrician work and he and I were stoked that I finally drew. He has been applying for the same. We took several trips out this summer to scout for locations and see the buck population. In LE units, the state tries to maintain 30:100 buck to doe and general units 15:100. The LE units have far less hunters, too. Opening day was last Saturday so we hunted a few days and passed on a few bucks we saw. Good for general units but not for LE. Sunday evening we were around 7,000 feet and saw a few big (and very smart bucks) just below a ridge at 8,000 looking down on us. So that was the goal in the morning but when we arrived before sunrise, one hunter was already working his way up with another down lower. I went and talked to him as I did not want to encroach on their pursuit area. We then glassed a different draw my son spotted this 4x6 buck at 800 yards as I measured, courtesy of my golf range finder. We moved from one ridge to another and closed the distance to 150 yards. End result is below. Fresh, hormone-free meat, jerky, and a lifetime of memories. Best part, my son and DiL were there to share this experience. What a time. Son wanted to do all the cleaning work but I did help. DiL wanted to pack out the meat, so she did, all 85 pounds of deer plus the pack weight with other items so likely pushing 100 pounds. Son carried out the rest. Fortunately, the hike out was all downhill.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

If you do not like hunting, that is fine. To each their own. Here in Utah, being mostly arid or desert steppe climate, mule deer vastly outnumber whitetail deer. There are a few places where whitetail do exist. Mulies are named as such because of their large ears which resemble the size of mule ears. Whitetail for their white tail even though mulies also have a white tail. I never hunted until I married. My FiL grew up as a hunter. My parents did not but grandparents did. I always was drawn to the outdoors and nature and spent most summers growing up in my Minnesota neighborhoods outside in the nearby woods or along a lake or river. Utah big game hunts are through a draw and there are general season or limited entry units, which are difficult and may take many years to draw. Even a general season tag can be unsuccessful which I have been the previous two years. LE are nice because there are far less hunters. I've been applying for a particular LE draw for many years and had accrued 10 points to draw - basically given 10 chances this year whereas the first year I had one chance. Sidenote, to draw a hunt in Utah is considered gambling which is illegal in Utah. The draw takes place in Nevada. But I can enter a “duck race” raffle (which I do) put on by the local fire department and all is good – same activity. If you pay money for a chance to win something, that is gambling in Utah. I was successful and drew out the desired LE unit. My oldest is a part-time guide aside from his journeyman electrician work and he and I were stoked that I finally drew. He has been applying for the same. We took several trips out this summer to scout for locations and see the buck population. In LE units, the state tries to maintain 30:100 buck to doe and general units 15:100. The LE units have far less hunters, too. Opening day was last Saturday so we hunted a few days and passed on a few bucks we saw. Good for general units but not for LE. Sunday evening we were around 7,000 feet and saw a few big (and very smart bucks) just below a ridge at 8,000 looking down on us. So that was the goal in the morning but when we arrived before sunrise, one hunter was already working his way up with another down lower. I went and talked to him as I did not want to encroach on their pursuit area. We then glassed a different draw my son spotted this 4x6 buck at 800 yards as I measured, courtesy of my golf range finder. We moved from one ridge to another and closed the distance to 150 yards. End result is below. Fresh, hormone-free meat, jerky, and a lifetime of memories. Best part, my son and DiL were there to share this experience. What a time. Son wanted to do all the cleaning work but I did help. DiL wanted to pack out the meat, so she did, all 85 pounds of deer plus the pack weight with other items so likely pushing 100 pounds. Son carried out the rest. Fortunately, the hike out was all downhill.
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That sounds really complicated to get a permit! I've got nothing against it but I don't hunt but based on what I pick up from one of my brothers and my nephews, who all enjoy it, I don't think you have to go through anything like that to get a deer permit here in Michigan. There are drawings for elk and bear permits though. My BIL, another big hunter, has applied for a bear permit every year for quite a while and finally got one last year... but didn't actually get a bear. I was sort of disappointed as I was looking forward to trying some (though I've heard very mixed reviews on how it tastes).

We were at a chili cook off this past weekend (at a conservation club, no less) and my brother and one of my nephews were showing pictures of what they've already bagged this year as bow season just began. My brother in particular always has pretty good luck at both bow season and firearm season. He lives smack dab in the middle of Michigan's Thumb and his house is surrounded by soybean and corn fields and he can hunt in those fields. Southern Michigan, and the Thumb in particular, has a lot of deer and some quite large. When he first moved out that way, he would just go out early in the morning with a cup of coffee and sit at the picnic table 40' from his backdoor and wait and he'd usually see a good target pretty quickly. After a couple years of that he decided that was too easy/boring so now goes through the motions of hiking out a half mile along the fenceline where he's set up a blind and hunt from there. Still not all that challenging of a hunting spot but he says he at least gets some exercise in.

I think if I lived somewhere like Utah where there is a lot more interesting topography and varied elevation, maybe I'd be more interested in hunting. Sitting along a fenceline and staring out at a soybean field on a cold, wet, fall morning does not sound appealing to me in the slightest. I will however happily eat all the venison that my brother or my nephew or a few of my coworkers will share with me.

 

[DVD]

I think Arizona hunting is similar. You have to get picked in a lottery for a deer tag and even then you might not get a create location for your hunt. Your tag is only good for a certain part of the state. Then again, it's not like we're overpopulated with deer and it's just Mulies. Not the giant deer in other places.

 

[SlaveToTheGrind]

That sounds really complicated to get a permit! I've got nothing against it but I don't hunt but based on what I pick up from one of my brothers and my nephews, who all enjoy it, I don't think you have to go through anything like that to get a deer permit here in Michigan. There are drawings for elk and bear permits though. My BIL, another big hunter, has applied for a bear permit every year for quite a while and finally got one last year... but didn't actually get a bear. I was sort of disappointed as I was looking forward to trying some (though I've heard very mixed reviews on how it tastes).

We were at a chili cook off this past weekend (at a conservation club, no less) and my brother and one of my nephews were showing pictures of what they've already bagged this year as bow season just began. My brother in particular always has pretty good luck at both bow season and firearm season. He lives smack dab in the middle of Michigan's Thumb and his house is surrounded by soybean and corn fields and he can hunt in those fields. Southern Michigan, and the Thumb in particular, has a lot of deer and some quite large. When he first moved out that way, he would just go out early in the morning with a cup of coffee and sit at the picnic table 40' from his backdoor and wait and he'd usually see a good target pretty quickly. After a couple years of that he decided that was too easy/boring so now goes through the motions of hiking out a half mile along the fenceline where he's set up a blind and hunt from there. Still not all that challenging of a hunting spot but he says he at least gets some exercise in.

I think if I lived somewhere like Utah where there is a lot more interesting topography and varied elevation, maybe I'd be more interested in hunting. Sitting along a fenceline and staring out at a soybean field on a cold, wet, fall morning does not sound appealing to me in the slightest. I will however happily eat all the venison that my brother or my nephew or a few of my coworkers will share with me.

Yes, whitetail hunting is generally from a blind. Hunting out west and on the the plains or mountain areas is spot and stalk. I would still like to do a whitetail hunt back in Iowa where I also used to live.

I think Arizona hunting is similar. You have to get picked in a lottery for a deer tag and even then you might not get a create location for your hunt. Your tag is only good for a certain part of the state. Then again, it's not like we're overpopulated with deer and it's just Mulies. Not the giant deer in other places.

We can apply for up to five areas and I usually only put three.

 

[The Terminator]

Congrats on your buck!

When I was younger and vegetarian, I might have felt a different way. But in the present day, I view hunting as exponentially more sustainable and ethical than our industrial meat processing complex (which I won't pretend I dont take part in....mmmmmm processed meat).

I live in Western New York, where even the most urban areas are within a half-hour drive of the countryside. I work with allot of Hunters who love to chase Deer during Deer Season. None of the hunters I know are wasteful (all using local butchers to process the carcasses) or irresponsible with their long guns (always locked up when not hunting, and not kept in cars where they can get stolen, esp. in Buffalo). Soooooo much of Upstate NY is mountainous and rural, so getting hunting permits isn't tricky if you are a NYS resident and over the age of 12, who has passed the hunter safety course.

That being said, it is not a skill I will be looking to learn unless the time comes to go off-grid.

 

[Bubba]

Mrs. Bubba's BFF and her husband live on some acreage in the country in south Georgia - their neighbors are her BIL and SIL, who own and operate a deer processing facility on their property (and they butcher a helluva lot of deer every hunting season). We're headed down to see them next month, and I'll be bringing along a large cooler that I expect to fill up with venison.

 

[mendelman]

I never hunted although I grewup in rural NE lower MI. I certainly understand the need to hunt white tail deer because they can become a plague if not managed, whether through human and/or natural predator hunting.

I certainly enjoyed getting to sample the fruits of my friends' labors in early November every year during rifle season.

Heck, the first day of rifle season was an official school holiday.

Nice.

 

[SlaveToTheGrind]

I never hunted although I grewup in rural NE lower MI. I certainly understand the need to hunt white tail deer because they can become a plague if not managed, whether through human and/or natural predator hunting.

I certainly enjoyed getting to sample the fruits of my friends' labors in early November every year during rifle season.

Heck, the first day of rifle season was an official school holiday.

Nice.

The school districts in the state have "fall break" the Thursday and Friday before the general deer hunt. Historically, not so much now, a good sized population of the state would partake in the deer hunt so the districts just gave up and said let us take a break since too many kids will not be school anyway. If I remember correctly, while living in Minnesota, similar would happen at high school hockey tournament time.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I never hunted although I grewup in rural NE lower MI. I certainly understand the need to hunt white tail deer because they can become a plague if not managed, whether through human and/or natural predator hunting.

I certainly enjoyed getting to sample the fruits of my friends' labors in early November every year during rifle season.

Heck, the first day of rifle season was an official school holiday.

Nice.

My dad was a manager for an automotive parts manufacturer that had their big plant down here in Detroit and then a smaller facility up north in Big Rapids. The plant down here would always get a week or two off in July or August that lined up roughly with when the Big 3 would shutdown for their annual re-tooling. The plant in Big Rapids would get a couple days off in the summer like the Detroit plant but then they'd get a bigger chunk of Time off for the opening of rifle season.

I don't know that deer hunting is as popular in Michigan as it used to be (I think I recall seeing a few recent articles about how the number of permits being applied for each year has fallen dramatically over the past decade) but I always make a point to remind some of the folks in the office who schedule events when they plan something for Nov 15th.

 

[Faust_Motel]

Nice deer!

I've never hunted but I've sure been glad to know some hunters when it came time for them to clean out their freezers. Had a pretty lean year when we first moved to Montana and my BIL's girlfriend at the time (who was from eastern Mt) supplied us with the only meat we could afford for a couple of months.

 

[mendelman]

Also, since my brother and I were the oldest grandsons for my maternal parents and we all lived in the same County while I was growing up, my grandfather would definitely have taken us two hunting as much as possible, if he hadn't been too crippled and immobile by the time the two of us were pre-teens.

In hindsight, I would have liked the opportunity to do it.

 

[Bubba]

Had a pretty lean year when we first moved to Montana