Wyoming Winter Kill -Hunt Now or Hold

[Hit Man]

I have 15 WY mule deer Points. Use the in 2023 or hold off due to winter kill?

 

[wytx]

Depends on where you were looking to hunt. Not all areas are losing high numbers of wildlife.
Fee increase next year as well.

 

[WRO]

Hold off if you’re planning on hunting the west side of the state.


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[mntnguide]

A bad winter doesn't get better in 2-3 years.. it gets worse. We are going to lose a lot of young deer, and that's what we will see in the years to come, a lack of upcoming bucks. If you want to hunt, and not wait years, you might as well hunt. We were just starting to come back from the 16/17' winter, last year i saw more good upcoming bucks than i had in a long time, but this winter is going to set us back on the younger ones for years to come again.

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[jacobnicholas18]

Depends on where you were looking to hunt. Not all areas are losing high numbers of wildlife.
Fee increase next year as well.

Do you know what areas aren’t getting hit as hard?

 

[f16jack]

Take a look at this video by Randy Newberg. He thinks with upcoming changes to state allocations the future may be hard for non-residents.

 

[Juan_ID]

I don’t have near that many points but have been discussing this with a few friends lately as I was wanting to hunt Wyoming this year. The way I see it is if I hunt this year and just accept what I’m getting into then it is what it is. Who knows what point creep will do and what coming winters will bring. Just my thoughts on it

 

[MuleyFever]

I was thinking of hunting G this fall or next but this winter makes me think its either this year or wait another 5 or 6. There will hopefully be decent survival of the bucks hitting 4+ this year but the next 1-4 years will be a bust due to losing young deer this winter. The thing is we can get a bad winter anytime so waiting has no guarantees.

 

[cnelk]

Do you know what areas aren’t getting hit as hard?

Have you read the DRAFT tag allocations the WGF released last week?
That would be a good place to start looking

 

[NABG Hunter]

Any idea how bad the winter kill will be?

And what areas will be hit the hardest?

 

[KHNC]

Where exactly are all the remaining big deer? Im just asking cause im busy and want to save myself some time. I would ask buzz, but.......you know.

 

[NABG Hunter]

Where exactly are all the remaining big deer? Im just asking cause im busy and want to save myself some time. I would ask buzz, but.......you know.

Go ahead. We'll get the popcorn.

 

[voltage]

I have been planning to draw H this year. It's not ideal, but I still plan to apply. the way I look at it... if I do not go this year, I might as well not go for 5 years.

 

[huntnful]

I'm still hunting. The future years will be worse I think. Hopefully a majority of the mature bucks will survive, and that's what I'm hoping to hunt anyways. May see fewer bucks in general during the hunt, but hopefully the ones I do turn up are of decent quality.

 

[wytx]

Snow is not deep or crusty all over. Within areas are some pockets of decent conditions.
It is bad is some areas no doubt, but a few spots are fairing ok right now.
Worse may not be over yet either though.
Going to be a hole in the population though, as stated, on certain age class bucks and doe.

Wondering if G&F will leave some quotas as is and let winter kill help with their CWD plan on reducing mature buck numbers, and overall numbers in high cwd areas ?

 

[long hunter]

Hunt, Wyoming is going to price itself out of range for the budget hunter. If I draw tags this year it will be my last Wyoming hunt. Time to start looking at other western states and their opportunities. With the application increase for 2024 on top of the license, point creep. AND everything else everybody is complaining about its time to move on. Beautiful country, and decent folks but getting out of my price range.

 

[huntnful]

Hunt, Wyoming is going to price itself out of range for the budget hunter. If I draw tags this year it will be my last Wyoming hunt. Time to start looking at other western states and their opportunities. With the application increase for 2024 on top of the license, point creep. AND everything else everybody is complaining about its time to move on. Beautiful country, and decent folks but getting out of my price range.

I single deer tag, plus a bonus point in MT for a non resident was $800 this year. Insane.

 

[mavinwa2]

Hunt now.
It's the weak, very old & very young-fawn deer most affected by winter kill. It seems that somehow the prime 6-8yo bucks make it through.

Large winter kill of fawns will impact the deer populations next 2-3 years.
And 5 years from now you will wonder "where are all the big bucks?".

 

[Diced]

I'm probably going to try and get H with my 5 points. It'll probably creep more so I may not even get it in the standard draw but it's worth a try. I won't do special draw just out of principle.

 

[Cwright5]

I would hunt now! You will not notice the mature bucks missing until 4-5 years down the road. We just recovered from the winter of 16/17 and this is why there were so many great bucks killed last fall.