Peace mulies??

[BCHunterFSJ]

Anybody in the Peace River area having any luck in finding mule deer bucks? There seems to be very few out there, and yet the game biologists I have spoken to claim that the mulie population is doing very well... I would be interested in how the rest of you are making out!

[7mag700]

Anybody in the Peace River area having any luck in finding mule deer bucks? There seems to be very few out there, and yet the game biologists I have spoken to claim that the mulie population is doing very well... I would be interested in how the rest of you are making out!

It's still a little warm, try looking for them the morning after a big snowfall, it's worked for my buddies so far, one of whom hung a fairly nice 4x4 mulie in my garage the other day.

I've been seeing far more WT bucks, including the smallest legal 4x4 WT I've ever seen, which shot by another buddy on Monday, and some really big 3x3s.

Good luck!

7m7

[deer nut]

I've hunted the Peace for nearly 10 years & my partner & I are seeing way fewer bucks compared to years past. Partly due to the severe winter 2 (?) years ago when there were huge drifts, freeze/thaw cycles which formed a crust the coyotes could run on top of but the deer broke through. Ideal for predators, not so good for prey!

We drive the same routes every year because we have permissions on the same properties, so they could be considered survey "transects". We calculated we're seeing less than 5% of the DEMU compared to years past. You'd expect we'd get better at spotting deer over time too!

Sure wonder what the rationale is for liberalized DEMU seasons and a winter antler less season!!

[bridger]

No question the mulie population is way down from its peak in 04/05. the liberalized seasons were the result of many years of ultra conservative harvest plans by the moe that built the big populaltion. the reason for the liberalized seasons since then is two fold. We had too many deer for the carrying capacity of the winter ranges and the moe introduced the new seasons to reduce the overall population which was sound management in my view. should have been done years ago. the second is that deer and elk were having a serious effect on the agricultural community and a reduction was necessary. the overall management plan was to reduce the mule deer population to 50% of the o4/05 level. the ringer in the plan is that the winter of 06/07 did that without the liberal seasons. Is time now for the moe to pull back and have a look at new regs for next year that is the question>

[ARC]

I've been up here 5 or 6 days now and have only seen little mulie bucks....and not alot of them. I have only been hunting the Peace for 5 years now, but this is the fewest deer I have seen.

[7mag700]

I heard yesterday that they're moving more and coming in HARD to the rattle. I'm going tomorrow again for SURE :-D

7m7

[bridger]

my neighbor saw a huge mulie by our cabin last nite am heading out today too bad about work today