WY Region J - Advice

[MojoTX]

Hey Rokslide,

First post here

I was hoping I could here from someone who has hunted mule deer in WY Region J or somewhere in the vicinity. I am from TX so won’t have a way to scout before the Oct 15 - Oct 31 season. I have onX and have been getting a good feel for the lay of the land, but have a couple of questions for anyone who has been out there.

If I’m targeting mule deer, should I lean toward the beginning or end of the season?

Any advice on what general elevations I should be targeting?

There seams to be roads through most of the region. I have a 4x4 truck, but no atv (yet). I would like to hike in and set up camp, but with all of the road access, I’m not sure that’s practical?

 

[boutdoors]

WY weather can be rough with the wind and rain possible. Go as early as you can and hope you hit a good patch of weather, be prepared for anything.

 

[Dcoryn]

I hunted J back in 2016, it was a pretty rough hunt. The game biologist from that area and the butchers in the area pretty much told us that we would be lucky to find 3 points and if we saw anything bigger than a 14" 3 point that we better shoot it. We hunted hard for a week and never turned up anything decent. Even the private land outfitters in that area (wagonhound) do not kill very many what I would consider to be big bucks. If they cant consistently produce 150-180" bucks on 250,000+ acres it will be pretty tough to do it on public ground.

The season timing is terrible and deer activity is in a lull. we did see a fair amount of good elk but we also saw tons and tons of unit 7 elk hunters to go along with them. There were four of us hunting and two people filled tags on small 4 points but two of us didnt see anything worth taking a shot at. Sorry to be the bearer of mostly bad news but be prepared for a less than stellar hunt and youll be less dissappointed haha. The country is absolutely beautiful and the weather was decent so at least theres that to look forward to.

Another negative for the area is the prevalence of CWD in the deer herd. That area has one of the highest infection rates in the state and both deer that were killed on our trip ended up testing positive...

 

[Dcoryn]

we put some serious miles on trying new ares to try and find pockets of deer too. We hunted down near rock river, west of wheatland, west of glendo, binford, esterbrook, and areas south of douglas all with relatively little luck. ill send you a PM with an area that I would check out if I was you. We found it on the second to last day and if I could do the hunt over again it is where I would start...

 

[MojoTX]

Great info Dcoryn, thank you. I won't skimp on the rain gear.

Me and my girlfriend both struck out on the NM draw. As a result, we both put in for a Region J tag as the odds were almost 100% (not sure if that was the case this year). I wasn't expecting anything great, we are just happy to be out there looking at stuff (scenery or animals), so I'm glad to hear that the country is beautiful.

I'm not chasing trophies, but I would love to fill the freezer with some CWD free deer meat - keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Brianr]

Hunted J in 2018. We saw a couple shooters the day before the season opened while scouting but never found a shooter once the season opened. I don’t think it’s worth backpacking in with the network of roads. Weather ranged from single digit temps and snow to 70 degrees in the same week. It was a fun hunt and a cool area.

 

[Mattt]

Have hunted j 5 of the last 6 years I have a 190" and my son has about a 165" and we tagged out every year. All public. U must have my tag this year ha ha. As I drew t. I wouldn't think packing in would be the thing to do. Get your eyes in shape and spend all day behind the glass. Definitely better deer in other units but hunt whatcha got. We've always had our deer checked and haven't had one text positive yet. Good Mexican restaurant in Wheatland.

 

[MojoTX]

Thanks for the tips guys. Glad to hear there has been some success in the area.

 

[Mattt]

This guy was region j. Shot him at 4:30 in the afternoon. Got it all to the truck at 11. Rough spot.

 

[Mattt]

 

[JWP58]

No good deer in region j. Used to be a 100% draw.....for a reason? Probably because Eastman's and gohunt didn't pimp the shit out of it...

 

[Mattt]

Me holding deer in back of truck is in parking lot of Hs custom cuts in Wheatland . Gw usually hangs around and will do cdw. Test on opening weekend. In afternoons. All these deer were public land in region j. When my son and I go I expect for us to have one deer 150+ and pretty much any other legal buck. We do invest alotof time on the glass. Ordinarily I wouldn't be this public but we hunt pressure and I need guys there to move game.

 

[PSUBowhunter]

I am amazed that you guys got into that many deer in J. We hunted it in 2016 and I never saw a single buck in public land. We also had cow elk tags and filled all of them. We hunted our butts off, if memory serves me correct, on the last day, we killed two elk that were just under 5 miles from the truck, so that tells you that we weren’t afraid to get back in. We hunted down towards 40 peaks and to the eat of that.

 

[Mattt]

Some years it is hard but on average I'd say we see enough bucks to be picky. Now I'm not saying that it's full of them, the first year I hunted j I only saw two and one was a spike I almost ran over. U know here on rockslide when guys ask about areas the same piece of advice gets given a lot and that is to pick a unit and learn it. Instant gratification is a rare thing when hunting. i have learned and expect to come home without filling a tag the first and sometimes even the second year I hunt a new area. J is no different. Hell hunting out west is easier to me than hunting at home in East Tennessee. I can glass several miles in all directions. At home I can see maybe 300 yds in most places if I'm lucky.pick a spot, allow for weather/moon and glass glass glass. Nothing there move. Glass some more

 

[PSUBowhunter]

The year we hunted J was the first and only time we have hunted it, and only because we didn’t draw our first choice that year and picked the region J tag as a left over

 

[OXN939]

I hunted J back in 2016, it was a pretty rough hunt. The game biologist from that area and the butchers in the area pretty much told us that we would be lucky to find 3 points and if we saw anything bigger than a 14" 3 point that we better shoot it. We hunted hard for a week and never turned up anything decent. Even the private land outfitters in that area (wagonhound) do not kill very many what I would consider to be big bucks. If they cant consistently produce 150-180" bucks on 250,000+ acres it will be pretty tough to do it on public ground.

The season timing is terrible and deer activity is in a lull. we did see a fair amount of good elk but we also saw tons and tons of unit 7 elk hunters to go along with them. There were four of us hunting and two people filled tags on small 4 points but two of us didnt see anything worth taking a shot at. Sorry to be the bearer of mostly bad news but be prepared for a less than stellar hunt and youll be less dissappointed haha. The country is absolutely beautiful and the weather was decent so at least theres that to look forward to.

Another negative for the area is the prevalence of CWD in the deer herd. That area has one of the highest infection rates in the state and both deer that were killed on our trip ended up testing positive...

Fresh off a hunt in J and wanted to resurrect this in case it's helpful to anyone. I went into this hunt with pretty low expectations, knowing it's an easy draw with not a ton of public land, and planned to shoot the first decent animal I saw. Never saw a legal animal in 5 full days of hunting. Final count of animals seen was 37 does and one spike. I spoke with seven other groups of hunters, and not one of them had filled a tag. I don't mind difficult hunts, or those with low success rates, but there was just not a lot of feedback to learn from on this one. Pretty country, but it doesn't appear that the state is making a serious effort to manage this hunt area effectively. All the locals I spoke with kind of winced and quietly wished me luck when I told them I was hunting a deer tag on public in the area.