Unit 27 Mule deer help

[DCMHunter]

It has been a while since we have had a rifle deer tag in unit 27. You can find every other post with something about north of the river, but what about the south side. I am looking for some general information on places to start looking in Unit 27. High or Low?? Is it better to hunt high during the early hunt like up around Middle Mountain, or low off three bar mesa? Do the deer stay down on the blue year round or is there a big migration?

 

DCM

 

[GreyGhost85]

There is no migration to speak of until the rut/snow starts. Unless you hit the jackpot and drew the december hunt, the mule deer are spread put pretty even throughout the unit.

[PackerMenges]

Congratulations on a great tag! As ghost said, they are spread all over the unit. It depends more on where you want to hunt, what kind of vegetation/topography you prefer to hunt in, the type of hunter you are, and your tolerance for other hunters. PM me if you would like. Good luck

[DCMHunter]

Thanks for the replies. It is actually my wife's tag for the early hunt. She is open to getting off the beaten path a horse back as long as it is not to rough for her barrel horse. Have they cleaned up any of the trails up around Hannegan Meadows after the wallow fire? She is from Wilcox and use to hunt low for muleys and in the hills for Whitetail. I know that the Blue gets hit really hard during the archery hunt in January, would it be good to take some of the trails off of there?

 

DCM

[Alpinebullwinkle]

We've seen very minimal trail enhancements from the USFS unfortunately. From my experience most of the mulies move off the rim by the first week in November. If I had horses like you I would hunt 1000 foot below the rim in either direction from Hannigans.

[PackerMenges]

Thanks for the replies. It is actually my wife's tag for the early hunt. She is open to getting off the beaten path a horse back as long as it is not to rough for her barrel horse. Have they cleaned up any of the trails up around Hannegan Meadows after the wallow fire? She is from Wilcox and use to hunt low for muleys and in the hills for Whitetail. I know that the Blue gets hit really hard during the archery hunt in January, would it be good to take some of the trails off of there?

 

DCM

The most important thing you probably said in that was "as long as it's not too rough for my wife's barrel horse." And I say that from experience dating a barrel racer for over 2 years now. We take the horses into that unit but we know exactly where we're headed and I kind of know which trails are "barrel horse...worthy?" Ha. What Alpine said is very accurate. Just be careful, it can not only get steep, it can get narrow, rocky as heck, brushy, spooky, and if there's any weather, boggy up higher..hence bowed tendons and bad news for performance horses (and barrel racing husbands or boyfriends) in most cases. There are some great areas though, thinking beyond the rim and the blue that hold great deer and are friendlier to equine with maybe not as much rock mashing, middle of nowhere experience.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

That's something people don't realize in az when the monsoons hit we get some really nasty bog earth for horses. We have ran into this a few trips and it is zero fun.

[DCMHunter]

Thanks Does anyone know of any good mules for sale to save the barrel horse? At a reasonable price of course. I think I will start looking around the rim area. Has anybody been into the bear wallow wilderness area?

[Alpinebullwinkle]

Caution on using "barrel horses" in unit 27. I can tell you 16 years ago I was showing a pal in rough terrain of 27 where he could harvest a good bull in the late hunt. We were riding his "desert horses" in rough country and during a rain one of his horses I was riding slid down a steep incline and came to rest on top of me. Took my pal a few minutes to get the horse off of me. Thought I broke my hip but luckily no hip replacements needed so far. My pal unfortunately ended up in the hospital that night with a stress attack from the incident. Bottom line you need good horses used to the mountains and to be an experienced rider to safely navigate Unit 27.