This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Reports are starting to come in from the opening weekend of Utah's general rifle buck deer hunt and it looks as though rain in some areas of the state had a negative effect on the state's most popular hunt.
According to the Division of Wildlife Resources' Mark Hadley, heavy rain kept hunters in camp in some areas. Those who did venture out found muddy roads and deer that were bedded down and hard to find.
Hunters found much better success in areas that received less or no rain.
Teresa Griffin, wildlife manager for the DWR in south-central and southwestern Utah worked a check station near Fish Lake. By 2 p.m. on opening day, she checked 12 bucks, only two of which included yearlings. Eight of them were mature animals, at least 31/2 years in age. By the end of the weekend, biologists had checked 92 deer at that station.
On the less successful side, DWR north-central wildlife manager took the weekend off so he could go hunting with his son. They had seen plenty of deer on scouting trips but the rough weather pushed them back out.
"It's been a tough, tough hunt," said Jones. "The weather is just starting to push deer in north-central Utah to their winter ranges. During that transition period, deer can be tough to find. The trees also have lots of leaves on them, and there is plenty of cover for the deer to hide in."
The DWR operates three check stations in north-central Utah. The number of deer brought through the check station in Spanish Fork Canyon was down 100 deer from 2014.
Other check station reports:
— 155 deer were checked at Strawberry, down from 178 checked last year.
— 37 deer were checked at Wolf Creek, down from 55 a year ago.
— 63 deer were checked in near Steinaker Reservoir, up seven from a year ago.
— 34 deer were checked in Manila, down 12 from a year ago.