Slow Hunting Western Wyoming

[gillettehunter]

In tonight’s newspaper. I went to the Congo and then had my hip replaced so no personal experience this year. Sounds like it was rough in a lot of areas.
Bruce

 

[wildwilderness]

That’s what years of drought then a bad winter will do

 

[Uncontrolled_round_feed]

Hard to read the text but I know winter kill was the word on the street leading up to the season

 

[375er]

74% decline. Holy crap!!!

 

[93marlin]

Yikes

 

[Wathe208]

22/23 was the worst winter kill I've ever seen in my life out here, worse than 1993 even. Hardly any deer in the fields at night or in the hills these days. Yet plenty of folks still looking to "bag a buck." Pretty disheartening honestly. If we truly practiced what we preached, we'd shut down the mule deer hunting here for at least 3 years, but it's all a money game in the end. Gary Fralick is a hell of a biologist and IMO, a great all around guy who really cares. You can get on an email list to receive updates on WY deer. Personally, I listen when he speaks.

 

[CoElkHunter]

22/23 was the worst winter kill I've ever seen in my life out here, worse than 1993 even. Hardly any deer in the fields at night or in the hills these days. Yet plenty of folks still looking to "bag a buck." Pretty disheartening honestly. If we truly practiced what we preached, we'd shut down the mule deer hunting here for at least 3 years, but it's all a money game in the end. Gary Fralick is a hell of a biologist and IMO, a great all around guy who really cares. You can get on an email list to receive updates on WY deer. Personally, I listen when he speaks.

I had read where it was the worst there since at least the winter of '48. It was bad enough here in the northwest of Colorado. Five hunters in our elk group never saw an elk or any deer (not huntable the first season) the first season in Unit 4 a week and a half ago. For every doe or cow shot after the winter kill decimated the populations, just adds more time needed for the recovery of the herds. I agree they should have shut the seasons down for at LEAST this year and probably next year too.

 

[Neil Molendyk]

I read an article a couple of months ago that the pronghorn antelope population took a brutal winter kill, drought in the low country and heavy snow followed by freezing rain making it near impossible for the elk, deer and antelope to paw through the snow.To the point that there was some thought that they may close the 2023 season entirely but I haven't heard whether that happened. Mind you that I haven't been following the story line.

 

[JRWcows]

Goes to show the power of the almighty buck. And how ignorant of the people truly are!! Between turning out the wolves and grizzly bears..!! They are closer than ever
To making it where hunting is going to be a thing of the past.!!
In this state very sad indeed!!

 

[Wathe208]

I personally think that was always the plan. Introduce"natural" predators that will manage the herds without as much human hunting. Moose is a perfect example in Idaho. Decreasing populations, Decrease tags.

 

[Woodcarver]

Colorado cut the season lengths down dramatically in the NW units, as well as the number of tags issued through the draw. Based on the number of leftover tags, the number of applicants was also way down as a result. It will be interesting to see what kind of elk Unit 28 has 4th season this year. I hunted moose there a couple years ago, so have a small scale to balance this year against.

 

[Lee M]

I will not be going on my NW Colorado trip this fall. First time in about 25 years. I did call the game wardens prior to putting in for tags and they were honest about how bad it was. I just got points. Unfortunately it is a 3-5 year problem not just a one year issue.

 

[WyoBull]

We definitely got hit hard here in Wyoming with winterkill this past year.
I was out calling coyotes this past weekend in an area that has always been flush with deer and antelope. I saw 7 antelope and a doe and fawn mule deer all day.
I did not even put in for any tags this year. It is going to take a number of years for the herds to recover and that is dependent on a lot of different factors.
Sad to see but Mother Nature does not discriminate.

 

[Neil Molendyk]

I personally think that was always the plan. Introduce"natural" predators that will manage the herds without as much human hunting. Moose is a perfect example in Idaho. Decreasing populations, Decrease tags.

Yet the opposite has happened in Newfoundland where moose were introduced originally for the sport hunting of the the British (so I have been told) and as there were no natural predators, wolves, the moose population is very high. And there is a whole new hunting opportunity.

 

[NJC]

I’m originally from (and hunt every year) in SE Idaho right by the WY border. This year was by far the fewest animals we have seen in 30 years of hunting the area.

My brother hunted the WY side the next week and had the same issue.

Spoke to a Fish and Game guy and said that they had almost 100% fawn mortality and 60-70% adult deer loss. The elk faired a bit better but not much.

Think I’m going to focus on Africa for a couple years and give the deer and elk a break.

 

[CoElkHunter]

I’m originally from (and hunt every year) in SE Idaho right by the WY border. This year was by far the fewest animals we have seen in 30 years of hunting the area.

My brother hunted the WY side the next week and had the same issue.

Spoke to a Fish and Game guy and said that they had almost 100% fawn mortality and 60-70% adult deer loss. The elk faired a bit better but not much.

Think I’m going to focus on Africa for a couple years and give the deer and elk a break.

I've also read where the pronghorn losses were even worse. Very sad all the way around.

 

[wildwilderness]

Drought will worsen the condition of the land, way less nutrients. Multiple years will greatly reduce the capacity of the foliage to bounce back in a single season.

Animals have less body fat and reserves from the poor range. So when they get hit by a tough winter especially after drought conditions it a double whammy

 

[CoElkHunter]

I spoke with my son in law tonight who just got back (left early) from hunting the second season in Unit 4 here. He said there were NO other hunters. Just him and his buddy with over the counter bull tags and they saw two cows. He said they saw about 70 elk on the private and spoke with an outfitter who stated in a normal year at that time, there would be 1200-1500 elk on the private. Really sad.

 

[fourfive8]

This past winter was hard on a lot of game in W Colorado and certainly in Wyo. Some animals simply cannot migrate far enough to escape heavy snow or drifting snow and if they do they get forced into smaller and smaller areas with limited food and higher predation rates. Here, the mature bucks were hit the hardest. They are in the poorest condition of any members of the herd going into winter because of the physical demands of the rut in Nov-Dec. Time will tell about future recovery to more normal population densities and age/sex ratios.

 

[Mountaineer]

I talked with Gary at the Alpine check station the last day of September. I seen 1 mule deer in a week of hard hunting. It was a fork horn. I only seen 3 elk in that same week. It’s not just bad, it’s really bad.