WY Deer?

[SC Living Outdoors]

I have a question for some of you with more local knowledge or on the ground experience from this year. My buddy, Greg and I have been planning an early season deer hunt in W/NW Wyoming for 3 years. We are planning on going to CO for deer first then driving straight to WY afterwards for back to back high country hunts. I know the the winter last year was really bad in WY. Based on the dates we are for sure going to CO, but we have been discussing if we should hold off on WY and instead look for another early hunt (ID possibly). I was just hoping someone on here had some real info. My expectations for WY are pretty high and our goal is to kill 2 big bucks. I'd hate to burn a decent amount of points on a poor hunt due to the winter.

TIA

 

[Beignet]

Don’t have anything specific on WY for you. However, it’s my understanding that older bucks can survive a harsh winter, but those adverse conditions lead to poor fawn recruitment. Meaning fewer older bucks say, 5 years down the road from now.

I’m in a different predicament in that I’ve always wanted to hunt WY but won’t have enough points for their well-known region for about 4-5 years, point creep depending.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

I think there was an article in the latest WY Wildlife Magazine talking about the deer herd in Western WY. Record low number of bucks came through the check station. I'll have to look.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

I have a question for some of you with more local knowledge or on the ground experience from this year. My buddy, Greg and I have been planning an early season deer hunt in W/NW Wyoming for 3 years. We are planning on going to CO for deer first then driving straight to WY afterwards for back to back high country hunts. I know the the winter last year was really bad in WY. Based on the dates we are for sure going to CO, but we have been discussing if we should hold off on WY and instead look for another early hunt (ID possibly). I was just hoping someone on here had some real info. My expectations for WY are pretty high and our goal is to kill 2 big bucks. I'd hate to burn a decent amount of points on a poor hunt due to the winter.

TIA

Shoot me a pm and we can chat.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

Western Wyoming’s big buck country sees slowest hunt in 30 years - WyoFile

ALPINE—Gary Fralick’s calm demeanor shifted to a hustle for the hour that a steady stream of severed heads made its way through his check station on the

wyofile.com

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

Western Wyoming’s big buck country sees slowest hunt in 30 years - WyoFile

ALPINE—Gary Fralick’s calm demeanor shifted to a hustle for the hour that a steady stream of severed heads made its way through his check station on the

wyofile.com

This is the article I was thinking of.

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

This is the article I was thinking of.

I saw an article with these statistics the other day, and that’s part of what made me write this post. I was curious about what hardcore guys might’ve seen in the back country. And I didn’t know if the mature buck numbers were still decent, but young buck numbers were down or vice versa.

 

[nrpate05]

The area definitely got hit hard. I would be interested to see what hunter numbers were like, however. I know a lot of residents who simply chose not to hunt mule deer this year because of the die off. A guy in SW put together a program where you could turn in your deer tag and be entered into a raffle. I think some folks took advantage of that.

 

[eltigraska]

Here are a couple (pre-season) articles on the subject:

Wyoming Game and Fish Department - Hunters: 2023 Wyoming hunt forecast available

wgfd.wyo.gov

Hundreds Of Wyoming Hunters Turn In Tags To Save Devastated Deer Herds

Nearly 1,200 Wyoming deer will get to “walk” this hunting season. That’s how many hunters turned in their deer tags to help preserve struggling herds, and to get a chance at prize drawings.

cowboystatedaily.com

Don't have first-hand backcountry info but by all accounts I've seen the Wyoming Range deer herd in particular got hammered, maybe less so with other herds. That said, any that survived last winter should be pretty healthy going into this winter as the summer & fall were phenomenal for feed.

 

[Kiwi]

I’m not super experienced in WY but have hunted western WY a few times including this year with an H tag holder. We only saw a few smaller bucks and doe’s and noticeably less animals than in the past. I bet there are big bucks still around but seems like they’ll be hard to find.

 

[3855WIN]

I have a question for some of you with more local knowledge or on the ground experience from this year. My buddy, Greg and I have been planning an early season deer hunt in W/NW Wyoming for 3 years. We are planning on going to CO for deer first then driving straight to WY afterwards for back to back high country hunts. I know the the winter last year was really bad in WY. Based on the dates we are for sure going to CO, but we have been discussing if we should hold off on WY and instead look for another early hunt (ID possibly). I was just hoping someone on here had some real info. My expectations for WY are pretty high and our goal is to kill 2 big bucks. I'd hate to burn a decent amount of points on a poor hunt due to the winter.

TIA

Based on your posting and picture history, you could pull into a Walmart parking lot and kill a boomer within five minutes.

 

[brownbear932008]

A buddy was just up there elk hunting and saw very few deer in the back country. Zero good ones, a few does and small bucks in a week.

 

[rogerthat]

If you want a really big buck or nothing go hunt. Those are rare any year but there are always a few. If you’re not willing to eat tag soup you might want to wait but grab a snickers cause it’s going to be awhile. You’re going to see a fraction of the bucks you normally would as the stats indicate for the next 3-4 years. Basically waiting for this years fawn crop to hit maturity.

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

Based on your posting and picture history, you could pull into a Walmart parking lot and kill a boomer within five minutes.

I wish it was like that, lol.

 

[Sheltowee]

Perhaps relevant: https://www.gohunt.com/content/news/wyoming-sees-decline-in-mule-deer-buck-harvest-this-season

 

[WildWill]

In the same position as you had planned on burning my 7 points next year. After talking to a few guys I know who are residents including my brother and I'm going to hold off and pray for a few years of good weather. Worse case split my points with my kids when they're old enough in 4-5 years.

 

[packsaddle]

Worst year ive ever seen in terms of quality and numbers. . Which was expected, but it was way worse than I even thought it would be. I assumed Id still be able to find a good buck or two. I live here, in the heart of deer country. I scouted all August in both regions like usual, and with what I saw, I never even took my rifle out of my house in september, and instead chased elk all fall. I assumed there would be a few big bucks etc just like everyone else, but there just wasnt. Of all my friends, majority did not hunt deer at all. And the only 2 i know who punched their tags, found good bucks, but it was needle in a haystack. Did see some younger bucks, which is a hopeful sign, but nothing points to better years for quite some time right now.

 

[nrpate05]

Also, take the collar data with a grain of salt. I spoke to a biologist in the area and he said they were seeing that the collar data didn't reflect the actual on the ground mortality, although he couldn't really confirm it at the time. He seemed to think in a winter this bad just the added burden of carrying a collar was enough to push animals over the edge. Essentially, it was really bad, but not as bad as the collar data may suggest.

 

[Valley1320]

Been buying points myself, glad that I've been planning to go in about 4 or 5 years instead of sooner

 

[eltigraska]

We've started to have deer move through in the last week or so with the migration south getting going. We've mostly seen does and fawns (and i'd say about 1:1 does:fawns) so far. A few small bucks here and there but we don't usually see the bucks really start rolling through until a few weeks after the does so it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next month.

These guys came through yesterday.