2004 Muley

[300 RUM]

The weather actually caused us a lot of stress. My friends that live in Monticello had done a pretty good job of patterning the deer and knew where they were. Then the storm hit, the deer we were watching changed their patterns. This area is very heavy cedars with large CRP fields. The deer never came out of the cedars once the storm hit. And it is impossible to stalk a mature buck in that terrain he is sure to bust you long before a shot presents itself. It snowed a little but the wind was terrible it never quite for the whole 5 days. The deer stayed in the thick stuff all day and only came out into the short trees right before dark to feed. That is how I got my deer early morning heading back into the heavy cover, he just didnt quite make it. Five more yards and he would have been gone for good.

I had several friends that hunted near Nephi and the snow really pushed the deer down. There were more large deer killed around Nephi in 2004 than in the last 10 years put together. Also relatives in the Uinta Basin saw a lot of good deer due to the storms. In Nephi and Uinta Basin the storms pushed the deer out of the mountains into the foothills into less cover. In Monticello the opposite the storms drove the deer from the open fields into the heavy cedars.