This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Spanish Fork deer hunter Newt Ferran could not have been happier with Saturday's opening day of Utah's rifle deer hunt.
Not only did he take a nice 2-year-old buck in the Sheep Creek area above Spanish Fork Canyon, but he and his large orange-clad family enjoyed wonderful camping conditions.
"You can't beat the weather," said Ferran. "It is a good camp this year. It was so snowy and muddy last year that you couldn't do anything."
An estimated 60,000 hunters, their families and, judging from the crowd at Strawberry Reservoir, more than a few anglers enjoyed temperatures in the 50s, sunny skies and dry roads. Those conditions helped keep accidents and serious wildlife violations lower than during many previous Utah deer openers.
"It wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold," said the Division of Wildlife Resources' Mark Hadley. "It was a perfect fall day out there. . . . Hunters had access pretty much everywhere they wanted to go."
Those conditions may have made hunting more difficult. With no snow to get them moving, deer were scattered at different elevations, and plenty of water kept deer from being concentrated as well. Foliage on trees also made spotting deer difficult.
That left more than a few hunters frustrated.
When asked about his opening day search for deer, Gary Lopshire of Springville said, "I saw some chipmunks. A fellow hunting near us shot a nice deer, but I never saw it."
Division of Wildlife Resources information officer Scott Root said he was seeing fat, younger bucks coming through the big game checking station in Spanish Fork Canyon. Biologists there had checked 22 deer by 2 p.m. Of those, 12 were two points or less and 10 were more mature animals, including a six-point animal with a 24-inch antler spread.
Stephen Gillies of Mapleton checked the nicest early deer in Spanish Fork Canyon. Using a rifle with open sites, he managed a 350-yard shot to take his second deer in three years.
While many hunters in the Strawberry Reservoir area reported seeing nothing but does, Troy Thompson of Lehi needed three chances at three different deer before finding success. He was the first hunter in his large party to bag a deer, but that did not seem to discourage the rest of the group.
"We've got a good idea where they are at, and we're going to get a push going," he said.
Hadley said mountain conditions will mean hunters will have to work harder than they normally do this year. According to long-term averages, about one in three rifle deer license holders will kill an animal.
Some trophy animals - with antler spreads of between 24 and 28 inches - were being taken by southern Utah hunters, including one in Kane County, two near Panguitch and one in Washington County.
Most of the deer appeared fat and healthy, and that had biologists hopeful that many will survive the upcoming winter. In northeastern Utah, for example, most 1 1/2 -year-old deer need to have a quarter inch of fat to be considered in good conditions. Deer being checked near Strawberry had three-quarters of an inch of fat.
The system in which hunters buy permits in different regions proved challenging for some traditional family hunts.
For example, Keith Bates of Heber City had a northeastern region permit while his wife and grandson had central permits. "We should have put our applications in the same envelope so we got in the same unit," he said.
Utah's deer rifle season ends Oct. 30 in the northern, northeastern and central regions and Wednesday in the southern and southeastern parts of the state.