How was your 2020 hunt? Location not needed. More/less deer, more/less people.

[Dcrafton]

I was skunked for the first time in 21 years.
6 days afield in an area I was pretty familiar with. Seen more people (I did get away from them), seen deer every day but not one legal buck, 5 days afield elk hunting and more people and less elk. Only one small 4x4 bull.
I believe with more campers and people playing outdoors effected my hunts.


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[elkyinzer]

Hunting is always good. Haven't done any out of state hunts in 4 years, young kids keeping me close to home. Definitely feeling the glorification of public land though. All good, still lots of good hunting to be had. Definitely in the midst of some sort of trend with pressure heading to public land. Seeing pressure increase in places solitude was easy a few years ago. Always believed scouting hunters is as important as scouting animals, just getting a little more intensive to figure out the latter. I sense we are at nearing sort of reckoning because a limited amount of space can only sustain so much. Interesting times.

 

[Ross]

Less people solid mule deer numbers and elk numbers not great with no competition during 7 days of elk hunting never saw one person back in. North ideeeho

 

[Zbot]

Lots more people on my wife’s deer hunt, but she got her first deer

No people on my antelope hunt, got a great buck.

Got my bison as well.


2020 wasn’t so bad now that I think about it.

 

[Fordguy]

Michigan private land- I was the only one there as usual both archery and gun seasons, the surprise was that when I drove by public land the parking areas were usually empty, even in the areas that hold plenty of deer.

 

[Phaseolus]

I should have filled my bull tag but I did fill my leftover B unit cow tag. It is a popular unit and I saw one other hunter in 6 days hunting. When I ran into him he smiled and said we must be the only two people dumb enough to be hunting in here. Very thick brush. I had a deer tag, zero points, too but did not see a buck I wanted. Did I mention thick brush?

 

[MuleyFever]

I didnt deer hunt much in UT last season. I took my wife out on the weekends for muzzle-loader and rifle and we never saw a buck. Worst season we have ever had. Saw a total of 4 does and they were from the road.

CO muzzle-loader I was in a new unit but it was tough. Not many hunters once out off the road but only saw 2 decent bucks all season, 4 total bucks seen and that was 2 bucks on 2 separate days. A little disappointing for where I was in the Gunnison basin.

NV late hunt was full of pressure and bucks. Never been in the unit but it was a premium area so full of deer. Easy access meant I ran into other hunters daily too.

 

[Rich M]

Less deer - more people. Shot 4 does and my dad shot a small buck. Usually see say 10 bucks each, saw 2. Dad seen 3.

 

[Hunt_Jefferson]

Very weird. USFS closed all the forests in CA but opened the one covering my zone for day use only starting at 6am opening day. Posted it on twitter at 9pm the night before. Went from "where the hell am I going to hunt at" to "I have the whole forest to myself" but still tag soup.

I bet those critters were super confused by the packed forests all summer, and then a completely empty forest for a month during the closures, then packed forests again

 

[CorbLand]

Didn't draw a single tag so I tried my hand at OTC elk in Utah. Really only got out to hunt nights after work. It took me about 5 days to find elk then I got screwed by the wind. They were hitting 3 different water sources so it was a game of being on the right one. The one time I got it right, the wind swirled and they gone.

Wife had a rifle cow tag. She was finishing up school so time and motivation were at a low. Tons of people on the days we did get out. We finally found some elk but they were in a place that me and my wife were not going to get them out of.

Overall, it was a rough year for me. I struggled to stay motivated and I think the extra people in the area all year pushed everything into different areas than normal. I did find a couple good deer though.

 

[BBob]

AZ early bull hunts had tons of people out, way more than ever. COVID camping phenomena. All other hunts seem pretty normal down here in S AZ.

 

[ttucci16]

Only saw four people during deer season, and elk season only saw one person on the way in while we were packing out. In most units i scout in, the amount of hikers has increased a TON!!! Especially if it's along the PCT of the north cascades. I've never seen parking lots that packed in my life.

 

[KHNC]

New Mexico elk hunt was over run with people . An area i had drawn before and rarely saw anyone. Worst trip by far for elk in NM. 8 days and only 2-3 bugles. Usually hear that the first hour on first morning.

 

[JGuest]

I hunt next to two of the biggest public land areas in the unit I hunt (Western SD). Barely saw anyone at all, the deer numbers were extremely good too. GFP has really limited tags in that unit though.

The good news was that we took 3 mature whitetail bucks and our youth hunters took at least as may does. We do all the land management on what we hunt so it's a pretty good feeling when there's that many opportunities.

 

[Barrelkhunter]

In Colorado I managed to get a lot of time out in the woods I spent 23 days elk hunting OTC archery and had 9 call ins before I decided I better shoot one or I won’t get a chance then of course it was my last evening hunt I shot a rag 5 point and then no luck for deer. I seen lots but I was more hunting for a certain buck and only seen him 2 times with no opportunities.

 

[Lostandfrozen]

Less deer and more people. The deer being down was I think due to a different crop on the neighbors land and an early harvest. The more people was real frustrating because it is private property and those people were trespassing...

Anyway, the deer I did see where higher quality than I have seen the last few years and I filled my tag so can't complain too much.

 

[def90]

My mule deer hunt was awesome, few people, a lot of stalks but ended up empty handed, creeping in on mule deer with a bow in open canyon country is difficult at best, ton of fun though. If it was a rifle tag I could have easily come home with several nice 4x4s and even a really nice 5x4. Would have been easy 90 yard pot shots.

Elk on the other hand, just when I thought I was finally getting a handle on things in the area where I hunt the previous year I didn't even see an elk this past season. Closest I got was two times when I could smell where they were and see their beds and that's about it. Number of other hunters was about the same.

 

[Mosby]

I shot my biggest bull in Colorado during first rifle. Missed a nice buck on last day in Iowa.

 

[Altoonabcm157]

Saw more bear then deer during the fall and early winter this year so didn’t work out well for my deer season in NJ but worked out great when bear season opened up.

 

[Fitzwho]

Went 0 for 3 in 2019, so just wanted to better those numbers in 2020.

I had two early doe tags in Utah. Got my pronghorn doe killed opening morning. Was actually difficult finding does. 90% of the animals I ran into were smaller bucks. Zero other hunters, it did run into some guys rock hounding right after getting my doe in the cooler. Decided to skip the doe deer hunt and run down to AZ to scout my elk tag.

Then a New Mexico deer tag that I had in 2016 as well. Saw more deer and more people than the previous hunt. Didn’t fill my tag in 2016, but did get my first public land mule deer buck this year. Should have killed a very nice deer opening day, but whiffed a 30 yard off hand shot. Took a smaller 5x3 with some interesting character and a broken face.

Arizona late muzzleloader elk was about the same. More people than you could shake a stick at, once off the roads I only ran into one other hunter, every trail head seemed to have 3-4 trucks or more. Saw two legal bulls during season (more than any of my previous two elk tags) and saw cows everyday. First stalk on a nice bull got blown by the other hunter I ran into. They never even saw the group of elk, and after that I didn’t find them again. Had I been there 5 minutes earlier I think I could have got one killed. I got caught by cows on the second stalk being a little too cavalier. Then the wife called with a positive COVID test, so I went home empty handed from there.