2017 Muzzleloader Deer Hunt

What an interesting year leading up to the deer hunt this year. For those that recall last year I ended the deer hunt pleased with shooting the nicest buck I’ve taken to date, but also frustrated at the new boundaries that I had to negotiate due to a portion of the landowner association that my family is part of breaking away and preventing me from accessing a handful of my favorite spots. Through the summer I was privileged to work with the folks at the Utah DWR as they negotiated to purchase that parcel of land and incorporate it into the current WMA… making what was previously private, then off limits to me last year, now public land for everyone to enjoy. Not having the boundary hurdles was liberating, but I digress… back to the hunt.
I decided to take my 10 year old son, Logan, with me this year. He proved his mettle a couple weeks ago on a backcountry fly fishing trip in Idaho where we logged 11+ miles per day fishing one of my absolute most favorite streams on this Earth. Following his soccer game on Tuesday night we loaded up the car, picked up my friend Cody who was waiting at his parent’s home after arriving earlier in the evening from Albuquerque, and headed up the canyon to the family cabin where Grandpa, Dad, my brother Darren and his two boys, and my uncle were already settled in for the evening.

Opening Day
Just like last year we wanted to use all other hunters to our advantage and knew that a large number of hunters would work from the top of one canyon so we woke early and hiked in the dark to a point about 2/3 of the way down from the top. As the sun rose it was pretty easy to spot small clusters of hunters working the ridges above us… and watch the deer stay two ridges ahead of them as they pushed down the canyon. We were in a good spot and Logan and I watched the deer gradually get closer and closer to our position. There were four very respectable bucks in the group and Logan and I did our best to get into their path. Cody couldn’t see the deer from his vantage point and unbeknownst to me he began dropping off his vantage point. The bucks nailed him and I watched as they circled between him and the other hunters above him, through some thick aspens and over into the next drainage… smart.

We milled around there until late morning and decided to head back to the cabin for a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich. On the hike back to the car we spotted a hunter walking back to his vehicle through a small clearing and then spotted a nice 4pt buck run probably 40 or 50 yards across the same clearing right behind the hunter. It was rather comical to see… the hunter was completely oblivious to the deer running in plain sight just a short distance behind him. Makes me wonder how often that happens to me!
After a nice late breakfast we jumped on the ATVs and then hiked into one of my favorite elk spots. We sat in the shade of a large pine tree for several hours and without seeing anything.

At about 5pm I stood to “take care of some business” and a doe burst from a clump of small aspens about a hundred yards away. She snorted, stomped, and carried on as she made her way up the hill in front of us. From the amount of ruckus she was making we figured she wasn’t alone and within a matter of seconds a small 2pt was spotted trying to sneak out the opposite side of the aspens. I nudged Logan and told him a little 2pt was standing there and asked him what we should do about it. His eyes got about the size of dinner plates and he just smiled… “shoot it.” I grabbed my muzzleloader and Cody gave me a range of 112 yards. I was facing directly into the setting sun and it was very difficult to even see the buck in my scope, but finally I was able to get a clear enough sight picture and pulled the trigger. The buck jumped and ran but Cody reassured me that I had hit him. Logan jumped up and we made our way over to where the small buck was standing. Logan led the tracking expedition, following the patches of blood for only about 20 yards and up over a slight rise the small buck laid expired on the trail. He was pretty excited and I took a picture or two of him with the little buck.

We got to work immediately on skinning and quartering and in 30 minutes we had all the meat in bags and in packs ready for extraction. Logan supervised the entire process making sure I took as much meat as possible and indicated the portions he would pack out. He said he was going to carry out the steaks so I loaded up his little pack with the backstraps, tenderloins, and I snuck in a couple extra pounds of other trim meat. Off we went on the 3/4 mile hike back to the ATVs.

I often feel guilty because I underestimate what my 10 year old is capable of… he didn’t stop once on the hike back to the ATVs and when he tossed his pack on the front rack of the ATV he just smiled and said that was easy & next time he wanted to carry more. He’s got big plans for the meat from this buck. He wants to make snack sticks and we want to try a pastrami recipe that we found in a Cabela’s magazine that came in the mail a couple weeks back. He also said he wanted the little buck Euro mounted for his bedroom (here it is so far... it still needs to be soaked in peroxide).

Thursday
With two more full days of hunting and Cody still with his tag, there was no time to sit back and relax for Logan and I… we would spend the next two days hunting for Cody and following him around. Throughout this whole exercise I wanted to teach my son Rule #1 of my unwritten “Hunting Buddy Code”… just because my tag was filled the hunt was not over.
We woke early and made the same hike that we did opening morning, however as we should have expected there just wasn’t the same amount of traffic as the previous morning and we saw only a handful of does. We made our way back to the cabin late in the morning for more sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches. Following that breakfast I absolutely crashed and ended up napping for a couple hours. It was a nice recharge needed by everyone… except Logan who spent the entire time running around the cabin area with his cousins shooting grasshoppers with BB guns. They burst into the cabin after several hours of that telling stories of the “Trophy Hoppers” they’d dispatched of.
After I shook the cobwebs loose from my afternoon nap we decided to hike into the same bowl where I shot my buck last year. We made the short drive and short hike and sat in the exact same spot as last year… as Cody sat down he even found the rubber eyecup from his binoculars that had fallen off last year. We sat until the sun went down and didn’t see a single critter, although we did hear a couple faint far off bugles.

Since we hadn’t seen anything in several hours we decided to hustle out of there so that we still had a little bit of light left to drive around for a bit. We saw a couple more does but no bucks.
Thursday night my cousin, Devin, and his nephew who had expressed interest in getting into hunting came up and joined us.

Friday
Cody, Logan, and I jumped on the ATVs and headed over to the most northern border of the property and hiked down along a couple small canyons. We saw a couple bull moose, a handful of does, but no bucks. So back we went to the cabin for breakfast. (When my kids are driving the ATVs I find it best to ride with my eyes closed, that way whatever we hit will be a surprise to me.)

Devin talked the group into a plan… he would go with a couple other guys and get dropped off on top if Cody and I would hike up to a small saddle and they would brush deer out to us. About halfway up to the saddle we noticed a group of guys already up there. They seemed to be working slightly to the north though so we continued up to the saddle. Just as we reached the saddle a shot rang out close by. Neither Cody nor I could see what they were shooting at, but soon the group that had been above us emerged below us and walked out into the sagebrush flat. We could hear them talking and sure enough, right there in the sagebrush flat they had shot a nice 4pt buck… I’m not sure how we missed it… I thought back to opening morning and watching that buck run right behind the hunter… we watched through binoculars as they admired the buck and took a few pictures.
Once we got settled into a good spot to watch the escape routes we had a doe and fawn run across the hillside in front of us. We used those two deer to get good yardages on that main trail and continued to sit back and wait. A couple minutes later a nice little 3pt burst out of the trees and across that same trail. Just like the doe & fawn, as he reached the ridge on the other side of the clearing he slowed, stopped, and looked back. At that point Cody took the shot, and through the binoculars it was pretty clear it was a miss.
We waited for Devin and rest of the group to make their way down to the saddle where we were sitting and Cody went over to closely inspect the area where the buck was standing. A few minutes after we watched Cody go over the ridge we heard him shoot again. So I took Devin and his nephew and we hiked over to try and find him. Cody ended up busting the little buck out of its bed and missing an even better chance.
Friday evening we headed back over the same area we hunted Wednesday and Thursday morning.

I will be doing the muzzleloader elk hunt in November in this area and I had heard some discouraging reports for the area from other hunters I had talked to so I wanted to spend some time glassing some of the elk hot spots from previous years. So Logan and I sat and glassed while Cody did some more hiking around. Sadly, I wasn’t able to glass any elk that evening but I’m not overly concerned because they will get pushed around plenty on the general rifle hunt and probably even some more on the rifle deer hunt.
Everyone else had chances to fill their tags throughout the first half of the hunt but only my grandpa was able to close the deal and tagged a nice little 2x3 late afternoon Friday.

Saturday morning I needed to be back home as early as possible so we cleaned up the cabin and headed for home. Logan says he had fun and can’t wait to go again. His younger siblings are looking forward to the doe/fawn pronghorn tags that I have for their turn to go hunting this year.

Value of a Point - Part 3: Season Choice Matters!

In part two I addressed how your weapon selection can affect the value of your bonus point, with archery providing you the highest value. For both residents and non-residents in virtually all cases the any weapon (rifle) hunts provided the lowest value however especially in the Utah LE elk drawing there are several options that can increase the value of a bonus point even within the rifle hunt options. I will focus the rifle elk because the other limited entry and once-in-a-lifetime hunts don’t have early, middle, late, and multi-season options.

The early rifle season is the most popular option in the state of Utah, the opportunity to hunt big bull elk with your favorite centerfire rifle during the elk rut is often the experience craved by big game hunters. It’s a marvelous opportunity, I helped my grandfather in 2014 on an early any weapon bull elk tag and we had a great time. However, it took many years of unsuccessful applications and a pretty handsome pile of bonus points to draw the tag. I’m not certain whether he drew a guaranteed tag or a random tag because the year that he applied and drew about half of his point group drew the guaranteed tag as highest point holders and another handful of the point pool drew random tags… either way, he had a tag in his pocket and we went hunting.

The middle rifle season is a new addition as of the last couple years. This season coincides with the general rifle hunt and in my opinion is a great option for a large family camp with numerous tags in camp since spike tags can be had over the counter. The number of units where these hunts are available are limited so we’ll continue to learn about these middle season hunts over the next couple years.

The late season is a great option and generally occurs the middle part of November. Virtually all units that have an early rifle hunt also have a late rifle hunt. There is also a multi-season premium option that affords the tag holder to hunt during any open season date with the weapon associated with that season date.

So if you’d prefer to hunt with your rifle let’s look at how choosing between the early, middle, late, and multi-season options impacts the value of your bonus point.

Weapon Type	Utah Resident	Utah Non-Resident
Early Any Weapon	0.525%	0.413%
Middle Any Weapon	1.702%	1.496%
Late Any Weapon	1.666%	1.170%
Multi-Season	0.240%	0.230%

In terms of the early, middle, and late seasons… the middle and late season provide roughly the same value, which happens to be about 3x that of the early rifle hunt for both residents and non-residents.

For most applicants the real key in this choice is the opportunity to chase bulls during the rut with the early any weapon hunt. If that’s the experience you desire, the key in my opinion is having realistic expectations in terms of when you will draw the tag. For many of these hunts be prepared for potentially a multi-decade period of unsuccessful applications prior to drawing the tag. In fact, on my spreadsheets I have a pair of columns titled “Years to Draw” that indicate the number of years it will take for you to reach the highest bonus point pool based upon the previous year application pool… in the most popular units this can be a disheartening thing to see.

Multi-season hunts are a unique situation because of the few number of tags offered so it’s understandable that the value of a point for these types of hunts is really, really low.

If you are looking to maximize the value of your bonus point and would prefer to hunt with the centerfire rifle I would definitely consider the middle or late season options… especially as we learn more about and gain more experience with the new middle season hunts. I know I will be keeping a close eye on how the drawing odds play out with these middle season hunts.

Value of a Point - Part 2: Weapon Choice Matters!

So what are the factors or variables within the “micro” environment that have the greatest impact on the value of the bonus point?
The limited entry elk application pool has the most factors/variables so we’ll spend most of our time discussing the concept of “value of a point” related to the Utah LE elk drawing. I’ll also do my best to provide information for both the resident and non-resident. You have a number of different weapon types to choose from (e.g. archery, any weapon, and muzzleloader)… that’s the easy one to identify first. Secondarily, you also have multiple choices within the any weapon hunts with early, middle, late, multi-season options and CWMU options for Utah residents.

In this second post let’s discuss how the value of a point is different between the different legal weapon types… archery, any weapon, and muzzleloader. Within the any weapon option there are multiple seasons… but I want to save that for the third post so I’m going to consider all the any weapon season (early, middle, and late) in the any weapon category for right now and I’m also going to exclude the multi-season and CWMU options in this discussion.

This table shows the average value of a point (the percentage by which each point increases your chances of drawing one of the random draw tags) for the three primary legal weapon types in Utah for LE elk:

Weapon Type	Utah Resident	Utah Non-Resident
Archery	3.746%	2.800%
Any Weapon	1.109%	0.800%
Muzzleloader	1.745%	2.600%

For both residents and non-residents choosing to apply for an archery tag provides you with the highest value of your bonus points… short and simple, archery tags are easier to draw than any weapon and muzzleloader tag. In fact, as a Utah resident, if I were to apply for an any weapon tag it would take 3.4 bonus points to achieve the same value as one bonus point if I were to apply for an archery tag. It is similar for non-residents, it would take 3.5 bonus points in any weapon to achieve the same value as one bonus point in archery.

Interestingly to me, the muzzleloader option for non-residents provides virtually equal value as the archery option. If I were a non-resident and looking to maximize the value of my points but uncomfortable with archery equipment, I would be seriously looking at the LE elk muzzleloader option instead of any weapon.

On the individual species pages I also mention a concept that I call “Year Savings”… the way Utah’s LE and OIAL drawings are set up one-half of the tags are guaranteed to the applicants with the highest number of points for that particular unit. For Utah residents, on average an archery tag can be guaranteed at 6.6 points, an early rifle tag at 15.8 points, and a muzzleloader tag at 11.9 points. The trends typically hold quite well that an archery tag can be guaranteed ~9 years sooner than a rifle tag and ~5 years sooner than a muzzleloader tag. Let’s look at a specific example in a middle of the pack type unit… say the Central Mountains, Manti unit. For 2018 I am projecting 4.6 points for the archery, 15.0 points for early rifle, 10.7 points for muzzleloader, and 12.0 points for the late rifle. Just looking at these numbers at face value one could realistically draw the archery tag, endure the 5 year wait period, and draw a second archery tag prior to drawing the early any weapon tag once. This has definitely changed my view on the current drawing environment. My current plan right now is to draw a muzzleloader tag, however when I’m able to apply for elk again I’m definitely considering applying for archery so that I won’t have to wait as long between tags. And notice the difference between the early and late season rifle hunts… we’ll discuss the different options available for the hunter who prefers his rifle in the next part.

On many of the forums that I visit there seems to be an almost overwhelming movement to “burn points” and have more opportunities to hunt rather than to wait year after year for that one highly coveted premium unit hunt… I tend to share that opinion and looking at variables like weapon type helps me see that if I choose to hunt with archery or a muzzleloader I can theoretically have an increased chance at drawing a tag and therefore have more opportunities to be in the field with a LE elk tag.

Value of a Point

I have an entire page on this blog dedicated to what I call “Value of a Point.” Many times throughout the years as I have frequented a random handful of hunting forums I have come across questions asking what bonus points are worth, how much they increase odds of drawing, or something similar. Questions like that led me to see if the actual value of a bonus point could be quantified… and without too much trouble I found that it could. I also found that bonus points could be assigned two different values based upon a “macro” or “micro” definition. Macro means considering the value of the bonus point relative to the entirety of the applicant pool, and micro means considering the value of the bonus point relative to the individual hunt unit. I have found that the easiest way to represent this value is to express it as a percentage, so the value is that each point increases your chances of drawing by “X” percent.
For example, I’m sitting on a pile of elk points… the macro value of my bonus points considers the entire applicant pool for elk while the micro value considers the smaller applicant pool in the unit that I’m applying for. Out of the 49,762 resident applicants in the 2017 Utah drawing, each point I have increased my chances of drawing an elk tag by 0.432%. Now let’s suppose that for 2017 I applied for the San Juan early any weapon hunt. With 1923 applicants for only 20 tags, and taking the number of bonus that the other applicants for that same hunt have, the micro value of my bonus points ends up being 0.055%. Whoa… wait a minute… the value of my bonus points was reduced from a macro value of 0.432% to a micro value of 0.055% just based upon the unit that I selected?!? That is absolutely correct! Consider instead that I applied for the Paunsaugunt early any weapon tag… a tag with only a fraction of the demand compared to the San Juan early rifle tag. The macro value remains the same at 0.432%, but the micro value of my bonus points increases to 1.592%. Nothing changed in my bonus points… but how I choose to utilize them in the application cycle (i.e. the unit that I select) dramatically changes their value.
Since the “macro” value is static and will not change, over the next couple posts let’s take a look at some of the “micro” factors that affect the value of bonus points.

Public Land Conservation - My Maiden Voyage

Last July I threw a Hail Mary…
Early July 2016 my brother sent me a link to a real estate listing for a 2000 acre parcel sandwiched between the landowner association where my family has a couple cabins and a Wildlife Management Area here in northern Utah. This was a parcel that for many, many years I had access to hunt through a second landowner association that my family held a share in. Legal proceedings had been ongoing for several years due to the majority shareholder wanting to break away from the minority shareholders and with those legal proceedings finalizing earlier in 2016, the writing was on the wall and I would lose access to hunt that property. I would also lose access to the more remote reaches of that WMA… and selfishly, some of my favorite spots to hunt would become exponentially more difficult to access. I had always known that once the legal proceedings were finalized this would unfortunately be the case.
I decided that I would reach out to the state and the DWR because since I didn’t have a cool $3 million in cash just laying around that having the state buy the land and incorporate it into the current WMA was the easiest (and probably only) way for me to ever gain access to those places that I had hunted for years. I sent the DWR an email through their general comment/contact email address and got no response. I’ll have to admit that after a couple days frustration began to build with not getting even an acknowledgement that somebody had seen the email and I would dare say even a little panic set in.
I decided to get a bigger hammer… I needed somebody with a little more sway and clout when it came to the politics to help me. I don’t know anybody personally with that kind of influence so I decided to reach out to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation because from my experience they appeared to be one of the more reputable (my opinion) conservation organizations in the current environment. From their website I found the contact information for several members of their leadership and I sent them virtually the same email that just days before I sent to the DWR. Within two hours I received a response from the Senior Lands Program Manager (Mr. Hammond). He requested some additional information from me and I shared everything I had with him.
The fall hunts came and went, and for the first time hunting from the family cabin there were areas of the mountain that were posted “No Trespassing” and as I mentioned before, many of my favorite spots were off limits. It was frustrating to look and see game in areas where in previous years I would have given chase but now was off limits. I had a muzzleloader deer, general muzzleloader elk, and a late season cow elk tag for the unit and by the end of the season I was discouraged trying to navigate these new boundaries.
I didn’t give much thought to my previous contact with the guys at RMEF until after the Utah application period had ended and the prospect of a second year with the same hurdles weighed on my mind. I reached out again to Mr. Hammond and the next day I received an email from him stating that he had spoken with a member of the DWR and the state was working to acquire the property. It was definitely an unexpected response, and I immediately tried to get in contact with somebody in the DWR with any knowledge of the situation.
I eventually obtained the contact information for the Land & Water Assets Manager for the DWR (Mr. Hansen) and arranged to have a phone call with him. On the call I introduced myself and he said, “Ah, the guy responsible for all this…” He told me of the process that the state went through, that there were four properties that had the state’s attention and that after several presentations and committee meetings that this property had received almost unanimous approval for a proposal to purchase. There were still a few hurdles yet remaining but he was hopeful that the sale would close by the end of April 2017.
The end of April came and went with the closing being delayed due to a change in the application process for grant monies. The funding for the purchase of this land would largely come from Pittman-Robertson Funds which are taxes collected on sales of rifles and ammunition (at least in part), and with the change over to the Trump administration there were new requirements to be met before funding could be granted. Mr. Hansen asked that I reach out to the landowner association members and request that they send him letters in support of the purchase. These letters would be included in the closing packet and reviewed by the governor prior to him officially signing the closing documents.
From the end of April, through May and June I continued to reach out to landowners and request their support. I continued to correspond with Mr. Hansen regularly as he negotiated new and unexpected hurdles. I was extremely optimistic but realized just how quickly navigating the political labyrinth of the government can sap that optimism and by the end of June I was honestly doubtful that the purchase would ever get closed.
On July 5th I received an email from Mr. Hansen that said, “I wanted to drop you a note and let you know that DWR's effort to purchase the (parcel) as part of the Wildlife Management Area was successful the latter part of last week. Thank you very much for your support and the support of your friends and neighbors; it very much made a difference.”
It is still difficult to describe the magnitude of the emotions that I felt when I read that. Of course I texted everyone that I knew the news and many of the responses were congratulatory in nature. I felt foolish in taking credit for any of it because the whole idea originated from a fit of selfishness in losing access to some of “my hunting spots”… and so much of the actual heavy lifting was done by Mr. Hansen and others. I am grateful for the initial efforts of the RMEF group. I feel that they were instrumental in getting the ball rolling and at minimum getting the DWR to initially consider the proposal. I am extremely grateful for the efforts of Mr. Hansen at the Utah DWR, the hurdles and red tape that he negotiated with the administration changes and acquiring the funding was no small task. We owe him a debt of gratitude for the countless hours and late nights (I spoke with him a number of times on the phone late in the evening and he was still at the office).
I am happy to have played a role in the acquisition of 2000 acres of now public hunting area that was previously privately controlled. It is beautiful country that I am proud to say is now open to any and all who desire to recreate on it. Personally, I cannot wait to hunt it again (and forever in the future) after being unable to last year.


Here are some images from the parcel that was purchased: