Silver Lake Bucks?

[MarlinMark]

Anyone have any advice for the Silver Lake unit? We drew it as a second chance and I learned that it has a low (18%) success rate. Any advice would be great.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[GutshotApe]

Mark - That unit got hit hard by fires this summer. The Winter/Toolbox fire burned off all of Winter Ridge (on the units eastside) and quite a bit NW of there, or south of the town of SilverLake. There are deer in the low elevations adjacent to alfalfa fields. Otherwise I'd try to hunt the highest elevations and north and northeast slopes. The SL unit is hunted year-round by members of the Klamath/Modoc tribe (they're allowed 1 deer/week, but hey, who's counting?). The unit's deer numbers are way down from past decades. Friends of mine have hunted the unit for 50 years, still go there, but don't do as well as before. If you're young & energetic you might consider Hagar Mtn. Has a road part way up then a good trail to the top. The fires skirted the lower slopes but the top escaped. Always figured there had to be some big bucks up there.

Fremont NF has a website with fire maps, etc. Good luck. GSApe [img]graemlins/program.gif[/img]

[MarlinMark]

GSA,

Thanks for the advice. I see on some maps that there is a roadless area in the unit. Do you know anything about this area?

Mark

[GutshotApe]

You're probably talking about the Yamsay Mtn area in the NW part of the unit. It would be a good choice. There are several creeks that head up on Yamsay and there is good hunting along all of them. My friends who've hunted Silver Lk Unit for years & years always camp on Long Creek.

The Indians claim the right to hunt for subsistance on their former reservation land (most of the unit) and they claim the right to use pickup trucks, centerfire rifles and to hunt at night using spotlights. And, they do it. So your best bet is to stay away from the roads. The big bucks are usually not near roads.