Ruby

Hi Everyone, Somehow, I was lucky enough to draw a tag for the 12B West muzzleloader hunt this year and I’m absolutely stoked! As much as I would love to hire an outfitter, it’s not in the cards for me so I have been spending most of my free time trying to e-scout/learn anything and everything I possibly can for this hunt. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to scout a ton before the hunt. I will be out there for a few days a couple weeks before the hunt and a few days right before the hunt starts. Is there any information that people would be willing to share for 12B West? I know this is a faux pas but this is probably the best deer hunt that I will be drawn for so I am not afraid to put my ego aside (and take some shots) and ask for help. I’m not looking for any honey holes but any information on areas that would be good to camp with a trailer, general information that is good to know and areas to look into (I have looked at the game and fish website) would greatly be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any information shared. Mark

Here is my hunt recap. My Dad and I came up Wednesday and went out in the evening to see what we could find. Driving around we saw probably 30-40 deer, mostly does but a couple of very small bucks. Thursday we head out and don’t see much in the morning. Even after the rain we got ~3 weeks ago the area was back to being pretty dry so we head to a water catchment and glass from a high point in the road. We were able to glass up group of about 10-12 does. We go check out another water catchment and discover someone had constructed a blind. Friday morning we setup in some of the clear cut to glass. We see a couple groups of does and one single deer I could not determine if it was a buck or not prior to it going into cover. We move to another area but don’t see anything. For the evening we decided to sit in the blind we found at the second water catchment. After about an hour and a half a couple of does come in to drink. After about an hour my dad decided he has to stretch his legs and walks up the hill away from the catchment. While he is gone a deer comes in and it’s a buck! I text my Dad not to come back so he doesn’t scare it away. Of course there are 2 small trees that he drinks behind leaving no shot. It feels like forever that he is drinking behind the trees and my dad is texting what was going on. As he is leaving he finally presents me a shot at about 70 yards. After a long night of breaking it down and the long drive out we were both exhausted but thrilled that I was actually about to be successful and share the hunt together.

Silver Saddle or El Corral

Congrats to your son and you!

Awesome bull, congrats!

Congrats, all the challenges will make the memories and the telling of the stories later all that more amazing

Awesome, congrats on the memories and great hunts!

Congrats on an awesome hunt!

Awesome, congrats!

Awesome bull!

Nice job!

Awesome find and story. Thanks for sharing

Yeah, I’m supposed to get mine today too.

Wow, that’s an awesome deer

Thank you everyone for the advice and support. I appreciate it

I do have a tripod and i have Cabellas Intensity ED 10x42 binoculars

Im not super experienced but I am willing to sit behind my binoculars for however long it takes.

Thank you Catfishkev! I haven’t ever been in the unit so I really appreciate the help. I will absolutely provide an update (hopefully successful) of my hunt!

Awesome, thats much shorter than I thought it was. Thank you very much!

And yes please forward me the place. Thanks!

Thank you Grey Curse! We looked at that but the one thing that concerned us was the distance/time it would take us to go from Fredonia to the other side of the unit. Do you remember how long that took?

Thank you Eli. We will be sure to make sure we have backups ok these items.

Thanks Flatlander. That was the gist of what I have been seeing online, especially the remote part with not much in the unit other then Fredonia for gas/supplies. I saw somewhere someone had mentioned it was worth bypassing Fredonia and going up to Kanab UT. I may have to check that out when I go scouting.

Awesome! Thanks for the information trphyhntr!

Thank god… https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/senate-public-land-sale-dead/