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With the wildfires being so bad this year out West I find myself contemplating what to do as I have come to the realization that a major fire is burning just one canyon over from my favorite hunting spot.

Any of you found yourself in a similar situation? Did your area burn up or close surrounding areas burn?

How did it affect your hunting success?

Did you hunt the area anyway, or just find a new spot altogether?

How long until deer will move back into an area that has burned, let's say 50% ?

Thanks,

Leftybolt

I don't know how it is where you are, but if Fla, fire makes things better. My brother works for the forest service and says he sees a lot of deer while they are cleaning up burns just a day or two after the fire. In a couple weeks when the woods just start to green back up the area will be great.

Mule deer love burns.They will be back in there as quick as they can,and will be chasing new green vegetation. If it burns really hot,it might take a year.

Elk also love the burns. Lots of nice fresh tender feed.

We target burnt areas,if the fire burnt through and didn't sterilize the ground. I've seen deer rolling in the ash two days after the fire passed.

If you get some rain on those burn areas you get nice fresh grass that deer and elk feast on. Best part is it's easy spotting them And you can glass those areas fairly quickly. Or just sit on em all day.

Even here in the west, wildfires seldom do a clean sweep of the region. Post fire seasons will often find animals concentrated in the remaining islands of cover.

Similarly, our outfit got an exclusive tour east of St Helens about 5 months after the blowup. While there was near complete destruction of timber stands with diameters one could measure in yards, there were undisturbed islands behind specific slopes or in small depressions. As we approached one, we kicked out about 80 elk. Most would have bet a paycheck that nothing could live there for several years.

A burned area will be a culinary paradise for game in the first two growing seasons after a fire. There is absolutely no need for them to sort old growth and new groceries. Everything is new. We've had some regional scale fires over the years here in SE Oregon. Deer/elk will not move to their habitual high elevation summer ranges, because the pickings are just too good on the burn.

About 4 years back we had a big burn and the agencies closed road access to a good portion of one of our forested units. Issues with islands still smoldering and falling trees etc. Arriving hunters were incensed. Post season, however, near everyone was raving about it being the best season ever, even though many had to resort to walking their packs out on loaded bicycles. Suddenly they were able to see about 90% of the game out there. With timber and shrub cover, they had no idea how much was really in the area.

Elk/Deer will walk right past burning slash piles.

Interesting tidbit. I grew up in central Idaho.We had an outfitting business. I remember lots of deer and a few elk as a kid in the early 80s. I guided in there for the guy that bought us out in the 90s. Elk everywhere.Deer numbers in the tank. Then came the wolves which destroyed the elk numbers. Then came large scale forest fires. The deer numbers are now better than they have been in 25 years. Whenever elk numbers grow a bunch, mule deer numbers decline,And I think a good fire will hasten their return.

This year I was lucky and got a premium zone tag but the area I hunt most years had a major fire this summer so next year I will see how good it is.