Nice weather, tough hunt

After spending the morning in the mountains, Reed Stewart pulled into a rest stop along I-84 by Morgan early Saturday afternoon, popped open the hatchback of his Geo Metro and proudly showed off a dead deer wrapped in a tarp.

Considering high fuel prices and the fact that Saturday was the opening day of Utah's general deer hunt, this situation might not be as odd as it seems. And Stewart, who shot his deer near Echo Reservoir after driving up the canyon first thing in the morning, wasn't about to make excuses for his choice of vehicle. After all, a lot of trucks with gun racks and big wheels will come home from this annual orange-hued, male-bonding tradition without any of Bambi's relatives aboard.

"Hey," Stewart said with a smile, "it's gas mileage."

The beautiful weather that allowed the Kaysville resident to go hunting in a compact car — perhaps lulling nearby deer into a false sense of security — might also keep numbers lower than last year's successful hunt. Cold and wet conditions forced deer to come lower in 2004's hunt, making them easy targets, but this fall's lack of moisture and mild temperatures have resulted in deer being scattered among all elevations.

After compiling early reports from check-in stations across the state Saturday, Division of Wildlife Resources spokesman Mark Hadley said "deer are just all over the place this year." Since a lot of trees still have leaves and backcountry vegetation is plentiful from early year moisture, the conditions make for a challenging hunt for many of the 60,000 licensed hunters. The hunt began at daybreak Saturday and runs for five days or to the end of the month, depending on the region.

"Hunters are really going to need to work for their animal this year," Hadley said. "They're really going to have to get out and find them."

Landon Leishman, a 14-year-old from Paradise, Cache County, was one of the lucky hunters who didn't have to do too much searching. About a half-hour after dawn, the first-year hunter set his sights on a four-point buck. The first shot from his 25-Winchester Short Magnum rifle zipped over the deer's back, but the second one, from 416 yards away, was right on target.

The 4-foot-11, 100-pound teenager, who shot a five-point elk earlier this fall, was only one of about a half-dozen hunters to stop by the Mountain Green check-in station with a buck by 1:30 p.m. Saturday. He shot his deer, which weighed about 120 pounds, on Folley Ridge by Lost Creek Road near Croydon.

"I was excited. This is my first year hunting," said Leishman, who was with his grandpa — in a truck, by the way. "I just got lucky my first year. I hadn't shot much."