Finding deer this weekend will be a little easier, thanks in part to snow at higher elevations this past weekend.

More than 72,000 hunters, plus their families and friends, are expected afield for Utah's most popular hunt, which opens Saturday.

Had the weather stayed warm, hunters would have needed to push the deer out of the thick brush. Now, with the colder weather and snow, deer will start moving about more, especially during the early morning and late afternoon.

Hunters will find good numbers of deer in most regions. The exception is in parts of the northern and northeastern region.

"Heavy snowfall last winter took some fawns in parts of northern and northeastern Utah," said Anis Aoude, big game manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. "Even though herds in those areas lost some deer, most of the state's deer herds are doing well."

Biologists manage Utah's general-season units so there are between 15 to 20 bucks per 100 does in the herds after the hunts are over in the fall. Most of the state's units are meeting that goal.

After last fall's hunts, two of the state's public land units were above 20 bucks per 100 does, and three of the units were below 15 bucks per 100 does. All of the remaining public land units had 15 to 20 bucks per 100 does in their herds.

The best advice to hunters is to "scout before you hunt." Hunters should know the area they plan to hunt and, if they don't, they need to spend time scouting.

The most successful hunters are those who get out before the season and find the places where the bucks are.

Northern Region

Deer herds in the region probably have more adults than yearlings this year.

"The winter was hard on deer fawns," said Randy Wood, assistant wildlife manager.

Most of the bucks taken are yearlings. But because of the number of yearling bucks that died this past winter, hunting in the region could be challenging.

Archery and muzzleloader hunters in the region reported seeing a mix of both young and adult bucks.

"Our surveys suggest a general downward trend in fawn survival as you move from north to south in the region," said Phil Douglass, conservation outreach manager.

Bruce Johnson, conservation officer, reported seeing fewer hunters in the Kamas area, an area that suffered high fawn loss.

Having more adult deer in the herds means hunters will be hunting animals that are more wary and require greater hunting skills to take.