X9C- Premium tag?

[Frank Gonzalez]

Anyone have any idea why X9C is a premium tag?
Being the zone is so big, and after studying On-X maps, I decided to hunt the White Mountains area and am eating tag soup this year. I camped and hunted 5 days; put almost 40 miles on my boots and saw literally nothing- no tracks, no droppings, no water lol; nothing. Any creeks or streams showing on On-X were dried up. Lots of shale/rocks.
Luckily I only had 1 point to I guess it didn’t cost me anything, but still.... man it was a long tough hike. And a hike is what it was!


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[Kellendv]

Any zone that has more people applying than there are tags available is a “premium” tag. It has to do with the demand for tags, not the quality of the hunt. Deer density there is lower than the other X9 zones but the success rate is pretty good and there are some good bucks in there.

 

[TRICER]

I have heard of some great bucks coming out of 9c and you can hunt it a lot more frequently than the other zones. X9c had a 44% success rate in 2017 compare that to D16’s 8% and I would say that X9c is a great zone. Did you do your research on where to go?

 

[Frank Gonzalez]

I must have chosen the wrong area to hunt. One of the problems is the size of the area. It’s huge


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[TRICER]

I must have chosen the wrong area to hunt. One of the problems is the size of the area. It’s huge


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If you don’t know a unit it really helps to talk to the game manager for the unit. I always take some ONX screenshots etc to send them. If they can tell you are serious about doing research they will be much more open about information.

 

[nicapopolis]

I must have chosen the wrong area to hunt. One of the problems is the size of the area. It’s huge


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Did you hike a lot? Or spend ALOT of time behind glass? Bucks are in a lot of areas of that zone, but there is quite a bit of area that you can throw out.

The good news is that you can hunt it a lot and your chance for a very respectable buck is there every year.

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[Frank Gonzalez]

Did you hike a lot? Or spend ALOT of time behind glass? Bucks are in a lot of areas of that zone, but there is quite a bit of area that you can throw out.

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I did quite a bit of both. I hiked out every morning to glass for a few hours. Dawn, afternoon, pre-sunset.
Like I said I put in 35-40 miles and about 6-8 hours a day of glassing and saw nothing. I was up about 10,000 ft so, again, I don’t know if that was the problem. It was nice and cool up there 50-55 degrees during the day and low 20’s at night.



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[ilovesprig]

A friend that's on this forum shot a nice 4x4 at 11,100.....Shale rock.....Maybe he'll post the pic.

 

[Frank Gonzalez]

A friend that's on this forum shot a nice 4x4 at 11,100.....Shale rock.....Maybe he'll post the pic.

All shale rock


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