D5 / D6 hunters

[Badseed]

For the past few weekends I have been spending my time in the mountains scouting for deer. I live near D5/D6 border so this is home turf for me and I have hunted it for over two decades. Generally, I like to start at the higher elevations and work down to find elevation ranges where the deer are grouped up then I can focus my efforts in that range. This year has proven more difficult than most for some reason. Although I am finding little pockets with sign and a gut feeling of promise, I have yet to locate the deer.

I began scouting with the following assumptions; we had a mild winter with a wet spring which means there is food almost everywhere and in the high country there are abundant sources for water so there is no point to over emphasize those elements. Optimistically, the mild winter helped minimize the winter die off.

As an added hurdle because D5 isn’t tough enough, a lot of cattle ranchers moved their herds to the mountains early because their properties were burned by fires and they needed to take advantage of the abundant feed sources. I am seeing cattle above 9000’ in areas where I haven’t seen them before.

Im curious if anyone else is scouting these zones and experiencing the same thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Brewski]

I hunt D3-6 depending on the fires/smoke/closures. Last year D4 and D5 had a massive acorn crop between 6,000 and 7,500 feet and I found the majority of deer were in that range during rifle season and deer moved very little since so much food and water.
This year I have found very few acorns between 5,000 and 8,000. I haven't found a good acorn crop at any elevation, probably because last year was so great, and have had similar scouting results as you. Alot of cows, but I stopped being bothered by the cows after appreciating all the trails the cows clear.

 

[Badseed]

I hunt D3-6 depending on the fires/smoke/closures. Last year D4 and D5 had a massive acorn crop between 6,000 and 7,500 feet and I found the majority of deer were in that range during rifle season and deer moved very little since so much food and water.
This year I have found very few acorns between 5,000 and 8,000. I haven't found a good acorn crop at any elevation, probably because last year was so great, and have had similar scouting results as you. Alot of cows, but I stopped being bothered by the cows after appreciating all the trails the cows clear.

Have you seen ever deer with the mountain cattle? Its been my experience that the cows spook the deer or at least push them off. I have yet to see any deer near the bell ringers of the mountains and even one my own property I have yet to see deer anywhere close to my cattle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

In certain areas of D5 and D6 there are cattle intermingled with deer and there are no issues. If they have introduced cattle into new areas where deer have not spent decades with them, they will push off in most cases to avoid the cattle. They won't necessarily "leave the area" if food and water are abundant, but they will shift from normal easier "hips/drainages" for travelling where the cows take over game trails, to steeper country and in the woods to get around. They do this a lot during season anyway depending on area and pressure.

We aren't really supposed to divulge too deeply into unit specific information on this site, which I suppose I just did... Feel free to shoot me a PM and we can chat.

 

[Brewski]

Yes I have watched bedded and feeding deer within 300 yards of cattle with bells. I think the deer get used to the cattle after a couple weeks and appreciate all the additional eyes looking for predators.

 

[yellowbeard]

Last year I didn't see a single cow up high, it was so peaceful without the bells. A bit disappointed to hear that they're back.

 

[huntnful]

I was pacing a cow by about 100 yards down a trail I needed to travel during archery season. I didn’t want to spook it and set off the bells, so I was just walking nice and slow keeping a good distance behind it.

Look to my left and caught a buck standing up and turning around in his bed at 60 yards.

Killed him a little while later, when he stood back up.

So he let that cow walk by him at 60 yards and was totally unbothered. I’ve seen them within 200 yards of the cattle a fair amount of times.