What makes a hunt unit, zone, region desirable

If I told ya I’d have to kill ya. Kidding

Just cruise over maps and look for good habitat with difficult access.
 
I’m just asking to see why popular areas across the United States become over populated.
I’ve got a few areas in a few different states that work well for me. But when I look at different areas I see areas in every state that the draw in difficult.
What causes that difficulty.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Ease is access to large amounts of public land with the POTENTIAL for trophy animals. Big chunks of green and yellow on a map are siren song to NR hunters.

I read the post as why does everyone want to go to a given high point area. IMO, it is all about the antlers first. A secondary group may be all about an awesome backcountry experience.

For me, it was about wanting a hunt with less humans running around.
 
Desirable for the general public...lots of big bucks or just lots of deer, unlimited access, easy tags. Or just locations hyped up like Wyoming G and H even though you hear more bad about them than good.

Desirable for ME: Difficult terrain or "limited access" where most day hunters can't hunt it properly or don't try. Chance for decent animals.

I have hunted the "difficult or limited access" units and shot above average animals a lot because even though everybody has ONX those regions seem to not attract dedicated hunters. Now you go out to traditional backpack hunting areas i.e. the mountains and it can be difficult to get away from people. But some other areas have spots where you have to hike 3-4 miles just to get to quality hunt-able stuff with only 1 access point for 1,000s of acres. I have never seen anybody or really any sign of anybody.
 
Less people for me. Nothing is harder for me to work thru during a hunt than lots a people.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I think distant past history make my area desirable to those who are just applying. It still produces bucks, but the number of good / average deer killed there every year has drastically fallen off. Yet, it's still as crowded as ever.

We have a "pre-rut" & more often than not pre-weather hunt time so it makes finding them a little tougher as most are still nocturnal and often move to areas you cant access or hunt efficiently.

I hunt it because I have Non Resident Landowner status. If it weren't for that allowing me to draw tags easier I'd hunt elsewhere.
 
Maybe I'm weird or just suck at hunting so I plan for this, but I prefer to hunt areas that are cool to hang out in whether or not I kill.

Yeah, yeah, these other factors of access, trophy quality, etc are real important but quite a few areas seem to have potential what I'm looking for (160-180" type deer). Good example - there are apparently monsters out in the SW Desert of Utah but you sure as heck won't catch me out there sweating my kahones off for the one deer out there that is special. Conversely, some folks probably don't want to go to the trouble of backpacking into the high country and would rather glass their eyeballs off in the desert with the off chance they find a real giant.

I think we'd all be better served to talk about that in these forums more instead of just saying, "big deer here" and thinking that's the ticket.
 
I love high desert sagebrush. No place I would rather hunt.

Good thing, cuz that's where I can get tags and find deer.
 
I would agree with the notion that it is road access. At least in AZ if there is an easy way to get a truck or a quad in then the area will be crowded. Hiking as little as 1/2 mile will disperse the crowds significantly.
 
what draws me is no hunters! Ill take seeing a couple deer a day and nobody around than seeing dozens of deer and dudes on every ridge
 
Back
Top