looking for a new muley area

[bustinbulls]

after doing most of our deer hunting in wyoming the last 30 years our unit has gone south due to very bad winter kill (75 to 80%) we are looking for a area on the east side to hunt muleys. im not asking for your secret spot just maybe a direction to start scouting. we dont like roads and would be much happier to hike to see deer and not people.. is there such a place? any body have any ideas where to start. thanks in advance

[bobcat]

I really don't have any ideas, even for myself.   

After last winter, and then what may be another bad winter this year, I don't know if it will be worth hunting muleys in this state. The same goes for blacktails and whitetails too. I'm thinking I may just put all my time into elk and possibly bears. But if I just had to go for muleys I would be looking in either Chelan, or Okanogan county.

[wilsongideon]

I have been hunting last three years now in NCW and the first thing you will notice is lots of roads to many roads if you ask me! off hand never been into the area much but doing map scouting I am planning on going into the sawtooth wilderness to get off the road a bit more cuz down low its people and more people and the bucks dont seem to reach maturity.

[gasman]

Your request is kind vague

What area are you seeking info for, North East, Central, Cascade's, South East WA.?

[Bigshooter]

I'd pick a new general area in Wyoming and try it.  What one were you hunting?  G and H have a lot of area that is roadless.

[300winmag]

If you like wilderness the blues have what your looking for.

[270Shooter]

Ya I would say the Wenaha is a good choice. Never hunted it, but it sounds good. Or maybe you could look into the Salmo-Priest wilderness in the NE corner. Don't hear much about that area. But I know there are some big mulies up there. And if you can't find a good mulie, you can shoot any WT buck

[bustinbulls]

Your request is kind vague

What area are you seeking info for, North East, Central, Cascade's, South East WA.?

i havent done much hunting on the east side except a couple of weekend trips to bethel ridge and the other side of 410. lots of roads and even more people. not really seeking any certin area as i am willing to try anywhere. i am not afraid to hike if thats what it takes.looking for some areas to possibly take a look at. i have heard guys talk about winthrop and republic but i dont know.      ?

[270Shooter]

Winthrop and republic are crowded as well. I don't think all of the yakima areas are crowded because the herd #'s were down. I will hunt the yakima units next year .

[Pathfinder101]

Regarding the Wenaha;
I went into the Wenaha in 2004 with a couple of buddies.  We backpacked in and spent 4 days, hunted, hiked and froze our a$$es off and did not see a single deer.  Not that they're not in there, but I think we went in kind of blind.  Map recon only.  THought we would just get back away from everyone and glass until we started locating mulies.  Didn't pan out though.  Saw some elk.  Think we got a glimpse of a cougar (something fast, brown and silent), and tons and tons of bear sign.  Freshest deer poo looked to be two months old.
The following spring I got my truck stuck in the snow up there and had to hike out.  I wound up getting a ride from an older Mexican fella that was hunting morels.  He said that when he was younger he took some real bruiser muleys out of the unit, but hasn't hunted it since the early 80s.  I told him about my experience and he said he wasn't suprised.  He told me that he used to spend his summers backpacking in there and fishing.  The deer, he said, were few and far between, but if he could find a buck in the summer, he said he could go back to the same drainage in October and almost always locate it.  They don't move, he said.  Nobody is back there pressuring them.
Unfortunately, I don't have the time to spend my summers backpacking in the Wenaha, so I haven't been back in there.  Every year a couple of real pigs come out of the blues (not many though), of course the guys that shoot them are mumm about where they came from (I would be too), but I have this sneaking suspicion they are coming out of some honey hole in the Wenaha.
Keep in mind, that old Mexican guy was hunting those muleys 1.  in the "hey-day" of muley hunting (late 60's and 70's) 2.  back when we still controlled the cougars and bears with hounds and bait.

I will say this though.  We hunted 4 days on opening weekend of the modern rifle season and heard ONE single rifle shot.  Didn't see another hunter the whole trip.  Rough country.  I lost about 10 lbs.

If you hunt it, best of luck.  Bring your good boots.

[grizzlygibbs]

EVERYWHERE IS CROWDED!

[TeacherMan]

Not many in the NE corner, Republic is way to crowded. Don't want to come this direction. Horrible success rate last year. 

[bucklucky]

Regarding the Wenaha;
I went into the Wenaha in 2004 with a couple of buddies.  We backpacked in and spent 4 days, hunted, hiked and froze our a$$es off and did not see a single deer.  Not that they're not in there, but I think we went in kind of blind.  Map recon only.  THought we would just get back away from everyone and glass until we started locating mulies.  Didn't pan out though.  Saw some elk.  Think we got a glimpse of a cougar (something fast, brown and silent), and tons and tons of bear sign.  Freshest deer poo looked to be two months old.
The following spring I got my truck stuck in the snow up there and had to hike out.  I wound up getting a ride from an older Mexican fella that was hunting morels.  He said that when he was younger he took some real bruiser muleys out of the unit, but hasn't hunted it since the early 80s.  I told him about my experience and he said he wasn't suprised.  He told me that he used to spend his summers backpacking in there and fishing.  The deer, he said, were few and far between, but if he could find a buck in the summer, he said he could go back to the same drainage in October and almost always locate it.  They don't move, he said.  Nobody is back there pressuring them.
Unfortunately, I don't have the time to spend my summers backpacking in the Wenaha, so I haven't been back in there.  Every year a couple of real pigs come out of the blues (not many though), of course the guys that shoot them are mumm about where they came from (I would be too), but I have this sneaking suspicion they are coming out of some honey hole in the Wenaha.
Keep in mind, that old Mexican guy was hunting those muleys 1.  in the "hey-day" of muley hunting (late 60's and 70's) 2.  back when we still controlled the cougars and bears with hounds and bait.

I will say this though.  We hunted 4 days on opening weekend of the modern rifle season and heard ONE single rifle shot.  Didn't see another hunter the whole trip.  Rough country.  I lost about 10 lbs.

If you hunt it, best of luck.  Bring your good boots.

The blues aint all that great for deer, All the scouting I have done in there the past few years hasnt turned up much for good bucks. Trust me , Ive been all over that place. I did see one descent buck in velvet thats about it.

You ought to gi try getting some landowner tags in Colorado.

[bankwalker]

though the bucks are few and far between. id be looking between virden and liberty. ive never seen anyone off the beaten path in that area. everyone just road hunts and hopes to get lucky. and ive seen some of the biggest bucks in the state right along the highway in liberty.

but you have got to put in your time and work your arse off to find those bucks during hunting season. i see nice deer all september long during archery elk season. but once modern firearm season opens they are no where to be found. just a few years back it was nothing for my to see 4-7 legal bucks in a day. i just wish i could connect with one of them sooner or later. hopefully sooner that then late of course. lol

[Slayock]

The Wenaha is rough country and my great grandpa used to be and outfitter in that area for 30 years and he saw some real bruisers.  My dad and grandpa used to hunt in there and my grandpa has taken some really nice bucks out of there.  My dad and I have rode in there the last few summers and we have been seeing more and more deer every year.  I saw a picture of a 27 inch muley that a 70 year old guy shot in there last year but other than that I havent heard much.  They have been shooting some big bucks in the blues outside of the wenaha and i think that is due to the two big fires that burnt through the last few years.  It thinned out the timber and the grass grew making easier to find the big ones.  The only problem with hunting outside of the wenaha is that it is crowded so id look somewhere else.

[Pathfinder101]

Slayrock,
Did you guys run a pack trip in there with horses?

[huntnphool]

You might consider picking one of the places tentatively scheduled to open for 2 points, there should be some decent opportunity for a big one.

[Slayock]

My dad and I rode horses into his elk camp the last few summers and did some scouting but my dad and his brothers used to horse pack in there for elk season.  They found some big sheds and saw a few big bucks.  My great grandpa ran an outfitting business in there.  He had around fifty head of horses and mules and took in 40 to 50 hunters a year.

[Pathfinder101]

Very cool Slayrock.  When I hunted it a few years ago we hiked out on a horse trail (wish we had found it on the way in).  We stayed at a little camp where two creeks run together that had "MAN CAMP" carved into a tree.  If you guys saw deer though, you had us beat.  All we saw was elk (and we think we got a glimpse of a cougar - either that or it was the quietest, quickest deer in history).  Lots of bear tracks too, but it's like that everywhere in the Blues... 

[Slayock]

The seer back there are few and far between you really just have to get lucky.  My dads cousin was elk hunting in there two years ago and saw the biggest mule deer of his life, he thought it was an elk at first.  We usually take off at the Dimond Peak trail head which is a Rorrest Service maintained packing trail so if you go in again that would be a good place to start.

[colockumelk]

I'd go into one of those high buck hunts.  Seems guys get some pretty good buck out of those areas.  I would stay away from Yakima or Kittitas country as the deer numbers here are way down.  Anything that would score over 110 here would be a trophy.  If you hunt with a bow or ML then the areas's just east of here around the Columbia basin hold some really nice open country desrt mule deer.  That's where I'd go. 

[CSOUTFITTERS]

Well i wouldnt plan on going to the Swakane for late season archery.  Sorry guys im just bitter.  I'm thinking about changing gears and goind NE for whitetails, the #r's are good and there are some monsters. 

GOOD LUCK

[Pathfinder101]

Slayrock, if you ever want to get toether for a beer or something, drop me a PM.

[Slayock]

Sounds good 

[royalbull]

check regs, apply for late hunts, you can pretty much tell best units just by amounts of applicants, I like alkalai but only because I dont have to worry about private property