142 doe tag

[Stein]

When I put in for the draws, I intended on my daughter and myself hunting 142 during the general with the possibility of drawing 2nd deer tags.  Well, she ended up with an SCI deer hunt and I drew for elk and buck outside 142 as well as the 142 2nd tag so the plans completely changed.

I have a chance to hunt 142 on the opener for one day on my way to the SCI hunt but am not sure if it would be worth the effort or not.  I tried to pick up the one reservation site open on the 14th, but that didn't work.  I found several decent pieces of public to try, but with the general opening on the same day, I'm wondering if it would be worth the effort or not.

Does anyone know how much of a zoo the obvious public pieces will be on the 14th?  They gave out 150 2nd deer tags, so there will be plenty of guys like me chasing does in addition to the buck hunters.  I have no problem logging some boot miles, but if they will all be driven off within 30 seconds of shooting light, I won't waste the gas or hours of windshield time taking the detour.

Thanks!

[Stein]

Well, I decided to hunt the duck opener instead of the deer opener but I'm looking at heading over there midweek to see if I can scratch one up on state land.  I have a few spots desk scouted, but since I haven't been over there I'm all ears.

I can find and navigate state land well and have been focusing on areas closer to water, but it's a pretty big unit and I'm not sure which minor roads through private will be open for travel.

Another interesting thing is that I'm seeing several instances of buildings on state land that appear to be farms?  I haven't ran into this much outside of this unit and am a bit nervous about hunting some of those locations.  I can be safe, I'm just worried that what is showing up as state land may not be.

[elkboy]

PM will be sent. -EB