Well fellow hunters, it's time again.

Utah opened up their hunting application drawings today. The first thing I did when I woke up today was log in to the Utah DWR website and apply for this year's hunts. I had three different choices. I applied for limited entry elk to one of my favorite units, general season buck deer and rocky mountain billy goat on another one of my favorite mountains.

This year the Utah Fish and Game department really changed the rules and boundaries of where we can hunt mule deer. Instead of having 5 separate units we now have 30 smaller units. Utah's mule deer herd has been struggling severely over the last couple of decades. These smaller units and boundaries are an effort to help our mule deer.

This system is very similar to Colorado's. They have smaller units for mule deer just like the system that Utah adopted this year. It seems to be working for Colorado so I'm remaining optimistic about this.

So far this winter has been very mild and actually very warm. Which in my opinion is great. Last year's winter and snowfall was very heavy and I'm sure contributed to a lot of winter kill. The mule deer needed the rest this year.

Unlike whitetail deer, mule deer are more sensitive when it comes to what kinds of food they can eat, over development, heavy snowfall and competing with other big game animals for food.

Let's all keep praying that we keep having a mild winter. We got enough moisture last year that should last us several years.

Also keep your fingers crossed for me in hopes that I draw a great big game tag this year. The results won't be posted until May 31st. That's a long ways out.

Jason Wall - Rifle Scopes Pros Staff Member