Backcountry Bowhunting

Well its march 3rd and im already loosing sleep over hunting! Looks like im in for a long summer. ](*,) After the last few years of hunting and seeing more people than deer ive decided to try my luck in the backcountry. I bought Backcountry Bowhunting by Cameron Hanes and I have read Hunting High Country Mule Deer by Mike Eastman and it has got my real excited to get to work, put some miles on my boots, and find a killer bcuk way back in. I would recommend these books to anyone who is considering a backcountry hunt! Awesome books!

Right now im looking at hunting the Uinta Wilderness but would like to explore some other options. Im looking to pack in 10 miles or so and right now the only area that I can find in utah for a hike like that is the uintas. Are there any other large wilderness areas that have areas that are 5-10 miles from a road? From what ive found, roadless areas are a little more scarce in utah than other western states. Also, Does anyone know if the UT DWR posts the harvest statistics for the general deer areas? All i could find were the statistics for limited entry and once in a lifetime units.

Anyway, If you have done a backcountry hunt before, Id love to hear some pointers, learn from your mistakes and of course, I would love to see some pics of successfull backcountry hunts! Any tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance guys! :thumb
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'Ike'
Just got a new BigAgnes bag, so looking at some Spring/Summer trips to test run it...
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a_bow_nut
I would say that instead of looking to get five or ten miles off of the road I would look more for places that are just hard to get into period. There are places right along the Wasatch Front that may only be two or three miles from the road but it's a bugger to get up into these areas and most people won't hike in there to hunt.

One summer I worked with a company reclaimimg a bunch of the old mines up in the Cottonwood Canyons and we got into some aeras that had some huge deer running around and if we saw a half dozen hikers all summer I would be surprised.
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killerbee
i do a bunch of hunting by backpacking in. i didn't get to this year, i shot my bullreal early before i could do any trip.

heres a link to the year before

http://www.muleymadness.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9260&p=80117&hilit=my+solo+hunt#p80117
do some trips before your hunt. i found alot of buddies really want to do it, but once they are on about day 3 -4 they aren't having as much fun. It's pretty glorified now days because of eastsmans jurnal. i have places that i've backpacked into for years that are 12+ miles in. it's amazing now it's not uncommon to find someone else in the same area to. Thats still o.k., theres still LESS people and usually more game.

with all the gear they have now, it's really not to hard to do it.

Just remember, your along ways in there. IT IS YOUR JOB to get your animal out without it spoiling or waisting any meat!
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Default Avatar
"a_bow_nut" wrote:I would say that instead of looking to get five or ten miles off of the road I would look more for places that are just hard to get into period. There are places right along the Wasatch Front that may only be two or three miles from the road but it's a bugger to get up into these areas and most people won't hike in there to hunt.

One summer I worked with a company reclaimimg a bunch of the old mines up in the Cottonwood Canyons and we got into some aeras that had some huge deer running around and if we saw a half dozen hikers all summer I would be surprised.
 +1 :thumb

Same here. Last year I located a 190 plus buck very close to a fire road but in a spot too rugged to go into without lots of effort and some risk on my part and you can't glass it unless you drop into it. Maybe this year I'll connect.
Mark
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ARCHER11
Thanks for all the comments guys! Sounds like a sweet elk hunt killerbee. :thumb I bet you were dead after packing that bull out solo! I should have one other hunter thats coming along and my bro whos just gonna fish so if i do kill something we should be able to get the meat out just fine. Right now the area im looking at is pretty far back but not too rugged so ill have to take everyones comments into consideration and find somewhere a little more rugged and tougher to access. Thanks again for the input! One more question... I have heard alot of different things about which side of the mountain to glass and where the animals are during certain parts of the day and what not. Im just a little confused. Generally speaking... should i concentrate my efforts on the north, south, east, or west slopes? Thanks again!
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ABert
"ARCHER11" wrote: Im just a little confused. Generally speaking... should i concentrate my efforts on the north, south, east, or west slopes? Thanks again!
 Yes... to all!

Depends a LOT on the current weather, the past winter, spring and summer. Heavy timber, high alpine meadow, nice cool bottoms, where they bed, where they feed, etc. Enough to drive a crazy person sane. Gain the experience and apply it to the future. No year is exactly the same as the next.
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killerbee
i agree with ABERT, you cant just pick one .

i believe what you might be referring to is in "DAVID LONGS" BOOK, where he covers glassing.

what he is saying is look at the eastern sloaps early before the sun makes them uglassable, north and south next, the west ( all this is just for the purpose of the sun and being able to see.

BUT you need to apply it to where your hunting. if i know some elk are using a west facing sloap, i dang sure aint going to be faceing east at daylight.

it seems like you'll get a feel for your area. you need to look everything, spot the obvius first.
hope that makes sence- basically, there isn't one direction the animals live on...
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PhillyB
Check out Dwight Schuh's book as well. The "pioneer" in backcountry bowhunting.

As for glassing, glass everything in sight with the sun at your back.
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One thing about glassing is that you'll notice movement during the day as the sun moves and shines on and lights up the animals that had been in the shade. They like to be hidden and will move when this happens.
Mark
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ARCHER11
I figured you would glass everything and anything in sight ive just heard some hype about how deer tend to bed and feed on certain facing slopes. It makes sense that their bedding and feeding patterns would depend more on the cover and feed than the direction of the face. Kind of a dumb question come to think of it haha oh well. Thanks to everyone for the insight! I really appreciate it!
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PhillyB
"ARCHER11" wrote:I figured you would glass everything and anything in sight ive just heard some hype about how deer tend to bed and feed on certain facing slopes. It makes sense that their bedding and feeding patterns would depend more on the cover and feed than the direction of the face. Kind of a dumb question come to think of it haha oh well.
 No not a dumb question at all. I have read multiple papers written by leading biologists that deer prefer northeast slopes, especially earlier in the year (aka bowhunting season).

But from my experience I have seen many deer feeding, laying, and all other activities on other slopes as well. Although many say to concentrate on certain slopes, never discount the other areas.

One thing that has helped me kill time during the day is, as the sun moves and changes the direction or length of the shadow, focus glassing about 20 yds into the shade from the line of shadow and light. You will catch deer moving to stay in the shade.
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Default Avatar
"ARCHER11" wrote:I figured you would glass everything and anything in sight ive just heard some hype about how deer tend to bed and feed on certain facing slopes. It makes sense that their bedding and feeding patterns would depend more on the cover and feed than the direction of the face. Kind of a dumb question come to think of it haha oh well. Thanks to everyone for the insight! I really appreciate it!
 There's one ridge that always holds deer and elk during the early part of archery season purely because there's always a breeze and it keeps the flies, mosquitos and gnats off the animals. So if it's buggy that's where I look.
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ARCHER11
Thanks again for all the tips guys! You really cleared some stuff up for me!
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