Cache creek area hunting conditions

[Bugle M In]

Yes, the rut brings bucks to the Does.
Winter drops them off the plateau as well.

And, farmers fields, beside the highway BUT on the "River Side" hold a lot of deer that most dont know, but hard to hunt and might need permission!?
Watched a bunch of Does one day, out on these fields, but when done, they headed to the "river side" to bed, not back to the mountain side/tree side.

And yes, other times watch them come from the river to feed in fields, so yes, i have seen it with my own eyes as to where they hang at times.
Bucks will look for them, not the other way around.

And as said, Snow is the best factor come rut.
But, when is the last time you seen 3ft of snow on the plateaus between Nov 10-20th???
Not lately.

[Bugle M In]

I was up near Ashcroft from the 9th to the 17th. Not quite Cache Creek, but not a huge trek away either. Saw 15 does... 12 muley and 3 white tail. Had a tag for the white tail, but let it pass (ok, maybe I took too long with species identification and it blasted off before I could line up a shot). Similar to Weatherby Fan's experience, the winds, rain and snow were really bad for the 8 days I was in the field, but this led to some great conditions when the storms broke and as predicted as soon as the winds settled down, things were on the move and we got a buck early the next morning. This was the only buck sighted in 8 days however.

I'm headed back up this weekend and bringing chains, just incase. Dont think it will be an issue, but you never know. The hunting has been really hard in our area for the last number of years since beetle-kill fibre was harvested. Our favorite cuts are basically no longer huntable though as the planting done 5-10 years ago is finally growing up to the stage where you can no longer get a vantage point that is worthwhile in to them. I think this is a big positive however and hope the deer populations return in the next 5 years. The pine beetle really screwed things up bad. Many many roads cut in that didn't exist in the past, highways for predators and humans alike, reduced habitat for ungulates, increased melt in springs leading to worse runoff conditions and dryer summers.. literally a 20 year recovery from this damn bug.

Yup, in all fairness, some of the logging go ahead was beetle kill for sure.
But, google time lapse will show from 1986 on, just how fast the cutting of timber went and how it accelerated, and "long before" beetle hit the area.
(At least where i hunt, but when beetle showed up, it only took 2 years for those beetles to kill 80% of pine in there).

Doesn't matter now, as what is done is done, and hopefully the trees planted and are maturing will help, although i sure hope they "thin it out", like you
see in some older, much older cut blocks from many years ago!???
(nothing natural about the way they planted the trees as compared to how it looked before)

The fire helped, but the way we transplant trees to maximize future harvest in my opinion, isn't a good thing for wildlife management.
Only a fire can bring on the natural landscape before logging if we are talking about Cache Creek/Kammy areas.
You know, walk thru timber but many shooting lanes and open patches, which is what made the area so interesting and fun to hunt many moons ago.