Gardner Quality Buck

[bornforhorns]

My cousin has this tag right now and he has seen nothing!!!!  Any suggestions from anybody would be welcome.  He is familiar with the area and has covered some ground in the first week and has barely seen does!

[spin05]

has not been the same since the burn

[bornforhorns]

I’d like to hear from the 2017 and 2018 tag holders?  Gotta still be some bruisers out there ...?  No?

[Jharristealth]

I was up in that area last weekend with my wife at Sun Mountain. We saw a few pushing does pretty hard in pearrygin but they were all very average 3 and 4 pts. Even saw a few small forkies pushing groups. We did not see any mashers at all. If I had the tag I would be focusing on the higher elevations. It seems the weather just has not been bad enough to trigger the migration that we all hope for to push the big boys down. I ran into a fellow forum member over there who has a 224 tag, he had not seen much either. I wish your cousin the best of luck. Please keep us posted on how his hunt turns out.

[bornforhorns]

Thanks Jharristealth, the other friend has an adjacent tag...seeing a lot more and couple mashers!!!

Thank you guys, I’m gonna try and help him as much as I can.  I also told him maybe look high so he went up pass Mazama today but you would think snow or not when the rut is on the big boys should be lurking.

[davew]

I ate a Gardner late tag last year.  I wrote up the story here, so feel free to search for it.  The mulie population in the unit has crashed in the last half dozen years because of the predator boom and fires on the winter range.  That being said, I saw legal bucks pretty much every day I hunted.  I could have taken 4x4's with maybe 24" spreads, but I was holding out for a buck of a lifetime that never showed up.  I had similar weather issues, with no snow forcing the migration. 

I've got a cabin near Wolf Creek with a trail cam hanging on an apple tree in my backyard.  6+ years ago, I'd get hundreds of deer pictures a month in fall.  Now, I get a couple dozen pictures a month, and they're mostly whitetails.   

I think the key to this hunt now is about managing your expectations.  It's not the hunt it used to be, although there are still a very few really big bucks around. 

Other guys on this forum know the unit much better than me, so maybe they'll join in. 

The next week is prime time.  Good luck!

[KP-Skagit]

Friend filled his tag on a bruiser first morning in Chewuch not far from the line. They are out there.

I am not very familiar with Gardner and have never hunted a late tag over there but I hear people having the most success down lower, Frost Mountain, Elbow Coulee, Thompson Ridge. Actually even Patterson Mountain.

[mountainman]

Friend filled his tag on a bruiser first morning in Chewuch not far from the line. They are out there.

I am not very familiar with Gardner and have never hunted a late tag over there but I hear people having the most success down lower, Frost Mountain, Elbow Coulee, Thompson Ridge. Actually even Patterson Mountain.

Best advice right here👆

[bucknut69]

Went with my buddy who has this tag for the first 3 days of the hunt. On the first day we saw 40-50 does, 6 coyotes, a handful of immature bucks and one pretty nice 5x4 (including eye guards).  We bumped this buck from the brush 30 yards away and although he would have been a first-day shooter during general season, he did not quite make the cut for the first day of this tag. 

The second day (first Saturday of tag) we were in a much higher woodland location than the first day and had a very slow morning even with a great amount of country to glass.  Around noon, we peeked a wide, tall-antlered, mature buck making moves on a doe at a great distance away at the top of a ridge.  We put in a stalk but could not find the same buck again.  Instead, we found immature bucks bedded in the fireweed (do not be afraid to use your binoculars in areas of dense vegetation). On our walk back to the pickup, a mature 3x4 w/o e.g. hopped in front of us with two does but it was decided that there would be no trigger action. 

The third day we went low and close to town.  No glances on mature bucks, but there were a handful of little guys flirting with does.  The critters disappeared at noon (the temp warmed substantially).

It seemed the best chance for a buck of any nature was lower in elevation on southern facing slopes at first light.  There were bigger bucks to be seen in higher areas, but they were fewer and further between.  This pattern is likely to be the case until there is a greater amount of snow in the high country.  If it is success that your cousin is most focused on, I would suggest spot & stalking lower elevation areas next to drainages where he/she can really get some good glassing time in.  If it's the bruiser he/she wants, glass higher elevations in the AM then find a game trail and still hunt through the high cover areas until you happen on "big boy".

[Southpole]

Gardner buck is any whitetail isn't it?

[bucknut69]

Gardner buck is any whitetail isn't it?

Yes, the Buck Deer tag is for any white-tailed buck and Quality tag is for any buck.

[KP-Skagit]

Well I double down on my "hunt down lower" statement if its the whitetail tag. 

[Igor]

PM sent

[DOUBLELUNG]

Wherever you find the greatest numbers of does is the place to be.  Breeding is just getting started, the big guys are pretty nocturnal the first week of this season.

[huntnphool]

 Plenty of whitetails in the unit but most will be on private ground. You may try knocking on doors around Wolf Creek.

 Hiking low around Lime Creek could be good for a whitetail buck right now too.