Wind River Late Buck

[elksnout]

We drew Wind river late buck this year. I know the unit fairly well. But I've haven't spent time in it during the dates of the hunt much. Hunting elk in another unit as well as late buck. I do know the Bear Creek area houses deer that migrate into that area for the winter and should be in there at the time of this hunt. { Nov 11-20 }. Has anyone on here had this tag and could tell me what to expect ?

[tonymoe]

A buddy and I drew the wind river. you know the saying "don't shoot the first buck you see" well, that doesn't really apply to this hunt. I have personally seen 8-10 giant bucks harvested in the last 5 years. I like to call them baseball bat bucks. good luck maybe I'll run into you

[Dmanmastertracker]

 We had some friends who used to hunt that area before it was a draw area. They would get some masher's every year, not sure exactly where they hunted except that is was very steep country.

[elksnout]

Thanks guys. I go in there the last day or two of the season for elk looking to make a last ditch effort to put at least a cow in the freezer. Each year I see what I call " Timber Bucks". You know, find them back in the old growth. Have seen some decent ones, just not any monsters which I know are there. Most of this unit is steep to very steep with heavy timber with tons of vine maple. Not alot of usable cuts anymore, except the north end. Guess I know where I'll be spending my summer.

[tonymoe]

you just can't just it from summer scouting. My partner I drew with has hunted it with his dad and brother for the last 20-30yrs. You won't see those mashers in there till they migrate down from bigbuckville.

I also know a guy that has hunted it in the early season. He does a backcountry style hunt somewhere between dog mt. and bear creek. he has got a couple great bucks in the early.

It can totally be some thick country though.

[Pat/Rick]

Bear Creek is a good starting point, all around there including mouse creek, grassy knolls, Augsburger Mt. Also at the northern boundry from 4 corners across to Goose lake, and South to the fringes of the lava beds. Up around Mill A and Oklahoma campground, Lusk Creek.  Shoot me a message if you want Greg.

[elksnout]

Tonymoe: I know only local deer are in there during the summer. My thought was to walk the gated or blocked roads I haven't been on awhile. I also have found some country off of my topo map to check out. We waited along time for these tags and we want to put alot of effort and fun into it. There used to be a guy named Ray Croswell who worked for Region 5 Fish & Wildlife who gave workshops on hunting Blacktails and I remember him saying that the deer start moving into the Wind as early as the first of Oct. I know they move out of the higher country from my own observations. Years back when the archery elk hunt was towards the end of Sept we would see nice bucks almost daily, then towards the end, not so much. Until we learned they were pulling out of there we would go up on opening weekend of rifle deer thinking the hunt would be a cakewalk. We would be hard pressed to find a track then. About the same time I read an article that the Oregon F&W were finding the same thing with their Blacktails. Anyway, Mr Crosswell was nice enough to speak at length with me on this. And As for you Mr Pat/Rick, I'll get ahold of you.

[tonymoe]

ray is a great guy, I met him through a great friend of mine. I was suppose to go to his breakfast thing this year and had something going on it would of been neat to hear all the post season hunting stories from all those guys that go to the breakfast.