David Heitsman
11-08-2009, 09:37 PM
Drove in last Monday and hunted till this morning (Sunday). Had horses so was able to cover virtually most of the protected area that wasn't heavy timbered. Rode to the the Little Churn twice and down to Sheep Point twice and once around Clyde Mtn. We were in a week sooner since they have initiated a 10 day closure mid season.
Saw a total of less than 200 head and only 5 bucks, none 4 pts. I have never seen it that poor in the dozen years I have been going in there. Don't know if if is the really warm weather, (12 - 13 degrees) every day, the fact that there is as of yet no snow pack on Black Dome or Red Mt., the recent doe harvest, or perhaps a tough winter, but the end result
was quite disapointing. We're used to seeing 200 deer per day.
There was no one camping at the calving barns for half the time we were there and we only saw 2 other hunting parties the whole time. If a CO had been out to check on us like most years he'd have been lonely like a Maytag repairman with nothing to do.
As to sheep, saw 5 ewes well back into Lone Cabin Creek and 5 rams on McGhee flats. Normally we see over 60 so not sure where they were this year.
For the jet set crowd, there is no ice in the river or on the banks yet.
I think this is the first skunk for us ever on horseback. Will re-look at it for later in the season if it gets colder and some precipitation.
A moment of comedy for us was when we were riding in the lower Churn and working our way from over-look to over-look glassing into their beds.
We almost stepped on two young hunters who were sound asleep in the warm sun using one of their day-packs for a pillow. They had walked at least 4 - 5 miles to that area and were exhausted I'm sure.
I was going to walk over and move one of their rifles about 10 yards away or maybe let off a shot right close to them and then say I had just missed a huge buck! We ended up skirting them to the south and they did eventually hear our horses and woke up and moved on to another ridge.
Saw a total of less than 200 head and only 5 bucks, none 4 pts. I have never seen it that poor in the dozen years I have been going in there. Don't know if if is the really warm weather, (12 - 13 degrees) every day, the fact that there is as of yet no snow pack on Black Dome or Red Mt., the recent doe harvest, or perhaps a tough winter, but the end result
was quite disapointing. We're used to seeing 200 deer per day.
There was no one camping at the calving barns for half the time we were there and we only saw 2 other hunting parties the whole time. If a CO had been out to check on us like most years he'd have been lonely like a Maytag repairman with nothing to do.
As to sheep, saw 5 ewes well back into Lone Cabin Creek and 5 rams on McGhee flats. Normally we see over 60 so not sure where they were this year.
For the jet set crowd, there is no ice in the river or on the banks yet.
I think this is the first skunk for us ever on horseback. Will re-look at it for later in the season if it gets colder and some precipitation.
A moment of comedy for us was when we were riding in the lower Churn and working our way from over-look to over-look glassing into their beds.
We almost stepped on two young hunters who were sound asleep in the warm sun using one of their day-packs for a pillow. They had walked at least 4 - 5 miles to that area and were exhausted I'm sure.
I was going to walk over and move one of their rifles about 10 yards away or maybe let off a shot right close to them and then say I had just missed a huge buck! We ended up skirting them to the south and they did eventually hear our horses and woke up and moved on to another ridge.