Stickbuck's Late Alta Muzzy Thread

[BoomWhop]

Fog Fog and fog is my guess Come on boys hit it hard.

[stickbuck]

Took me long enough to post an update, but I figured I'd head into town and fill you guys in. Saturday before the opener I got camp all set up and started scouting and tried to figure out where the deer were at. I drove around quite a bit of the area and only saw a few does. I decided to check out a different area and on my way there I drove along the Twisp Carlton Road. I saw at least 50 deer, but the majority of them were does. I saw one two-point and one 2x3 that was about 22 inches wide. As it turns out, I've seen that 2x3 every day since Saturday. I'm going to meet the landowner tomorrow afternoon to find out if he will give me permission or not. He says he is pretty reluctant due to the fact that three deer were poached off his property over the weekend. At least it would be a last day option. The opener was pretty slow. I hiked my tail off into several large drainages that I figured held a decent amount of deer. To my surprise, I did not see a single deer on the opener on public land. My legs told me that I walked forever that day. During my hike that day, I found less than 20 sets of tracks. On day two, I decided to move further south into the unit. This definitely seemed to pay off as I spotted five does and a half rack four-point right off the bat. With only one horn, I chose to let him go. The rest of the day was somewhat uneventful. The only deer that I saw was a half rack two point. So at the end of day two, I was getting pretty frustrated on the lack of deer activity in the area that I was hunting. It made for a tired body walking in all that snow, but at least it was quiet for the most part. Today I decided to start the day by walking up behind camp. I walked a great deal and about halfway towards my destination the snow became really crunchy. It wasn't so bad in the open but when I got into the timber it started to really get crunchy. After about three hours of hiking, I decided to head back to the truck. I hadn't seen a deer and the few tracks that I did see were not fresh. This afternoon I headed back to the south part of the unit. Right off the bat, I saw another half rack buck that would've tempted me had he had his other side. After letting him walk off, I continued on. About 20 minutes before shooting hours are over, I had five does feed up to about 15 yards away. The lead doe seemed super curious as to what I was. The wind was directly at my back and it didn't seem to bother her one bit. After they fed off, a small little three point meandered into my shooting lane. At only about 35 yards away, he just continued to feed and didn't really care that I was sitting there. Since he was nit very wide, I decided that it wouldn't be wise to punch my tag on such a young buck with still three days the hunt. It definitely seems like some weather is moving in and it looks like we might be getting some moisture starting Thursday morning if not by the afternoon. I really hope some weather helps get these deer moving. I have talked to some landowners and they're really surprised the deer haven't come down yet. My feeling is that there is just not many deer. I'm still motivated and I will continue to press on in hopes of making it happen. My legs still feel fresh and I'm looking forward to getting back at it tomorrow at daybreak. Hopefully I have a better report in the next couple days. I will try to post up some of the pictures that i have taken here in the next day or so. Big thanks to Keith for all his advice on my hunt thus far.

[stickbuck]

One other thing to point out is the fog after I read BoomWhop's reply. Other than Saturday, there has been zero fog each day. I am sure that will change once the moisture moves in Thursday and Friday. That being said, the moon has been super bright every night as I don't even need a flashlight when I get out of the trailer. Does anyone think that this is affecting the deer movement during this late season?

[Wea300mag]

I've been monitoring the Methow Webcams hoping for the best on the fog situation. 

[BoomWhop]

Keep after it I took both bucks late in the hunt. One one the last day and the one last year on the eve of the last day. I saw more deer in the south end of the unit.

[Skyvalhunter]

Stay with it Stick you are doing well!! Hopefully the weather will cooperate and some of those spots I told you about will have some bucks move down. I know that with the back off in the weather some have headed back up. Keep at it

[teanawayslayer]

It's a tuff hunt and hard to find a quality buck.  Stick with it. Nail a big one

[Craig]

R how did the hunt end?

[stickbuck]

Just got home and getting everything unloaded and put away and then onto butchering my buck. I will download pics and the details of the hunt a little later. Missed an opportunity at a true giant on Thursday right before dark at 132 yards. On Friday, ended up shooting a decent 2x2 right off the bat in the morning. The fog rolled in so bad we couldn't see more than 100 yards in front of us and it was only getting worse as the morning went on. I will post all the pics from the hunt in a few hours. It was a great hunt once the clouds rolled in Wednesday and kept the deer moving.

[jrebel]

Sounds like you had a great hunt, can't wait to see the pics.

[Bigshooter]

Pic?

[stickbuck]

Well, I finally have gotten things squared away and spent some time with the family. Time for some of the hunt’s stories and pics. A big thanks goes out to Keith. Without your tips and advice, I don’t know what I would have done. It was very frustrating for me at times with the lack of deer and your PM’s helped me stay focused and motivated. This was going to be my third solo-hunting trip of the year. As many of you know, I ended up killing my first spike bull on a solo hunt in September. Just a week later, I had filled my second deer tag on a big muley doe. This was going to prove as my hardest solo hunt of the year since I had never hunted this unit. I was determined to make the most of my hunt. My legs were definitely ready for the challenge.  I arrived into the Twisp area just before 10am on Saturday and setup camp at approximately 3,000 feet in elevation. Surprisingly, there were only a few inches of snow.



Down around town, it was completely dry of any snow. After setting up camp, I decided to work on scouting my unit and the areas I wanted to focus on. I was really disappointed at the lack of sign in the areas I was going to hunt. The sign was extremely slim and I didn’t even see a deer up on the public ground during my scouting. It was at this point that I made my most costly mistake of the trip that would cost me a giant buck later in the week. I had wanted to shoot the gun to make sure that it was on and it just somehow slipped my mind on this day before the opener. It had crossed my mind the whole drive over that morning, but somehow it slipped my mind and I figured that it was surely on and kept scouting. I did scope out a really nice 2x3 down on the private. I ended up seeing him for four straight days and when I finally got permission to hunt him, he disappeared further up the ridge and onto a neighbor’s property who has a huge portion of the valley locked up. Down on a private stretch, I would typically see 40-60 deer driving to town everyday. I only saw three mule deer bucks the entire time I was looking at all these does. One was 22-24” 3x3, one was a 2x2, and the other was the really nice 2x3. Essentially, the lack of snow was really keeping the big boys from entering the picture.

[stickbuck]

Late Saturday afternoon, I headed to another spot that I had permission to hunt and decided to go for a nice long walk. To my amazement, I walked in several miles and didn’t cut one fresh set of tracks in the snow or see a single deer. It was the night before the opener and I was puzzled as to where I would go hunt on the opener since all of my spots were barren of deer at the time. I needed more snow, but the forecast was for highs in the 20’s, lows in the upper teens, and clear skies into Wednesday morning. However, I did see a young spike whitetail that was rut crazed and didn’t quite know what to do with himself. I was also pleasantly surprised at the amount of turkeys I saw.

[stickbuck]

Pics from the days leading up to Thursday. This unit definitely has some beautiful area that is for sure.











This was one of three half rack bucks that I saw during the hunt. Looks like they definitely had been ruttin hard the previous week before I got into camp.

[BoomWhop]

Very Cool, love the pictures.  My hunts did have more snow up there.  I am glad you sealed the deal, this is no gimme hunt.  I am surprised this is a quality buck tag.  Good job and thanks for the posts.