2013 UTAH MRS-want your imput guys and gals!

[Breshears]

I am currently writing the Utah MRS, always trying to improve on my MRS, and would like imput from you guys. If you are local to Utah, or have good knowledge on a certain area please share your updates! It is far to big of an area for us to keep boots on the ground everywhere! Also, if you would like to see something new added to the MRS share your thoughts! Time is critical, so the sooner the better!

Look forward to hearing from you.

Jordan Breshears

 

[RUTTIN]

Jordan, as far as the new Kamas Unit, they really need to give out a lot less tags. I took my 12 year old on the rifle hunt, there was anywhere from a foot to two feet of snow everywhere we went and no deer tracks. We were putting on at least 10 miles a day. Every one that we talked to had seen very few deer, pretty sad.

 

[Muleys 24/7]

There's deer in utah? Lol. I can agree with ruttin about less tags,Tons of hunters every where on public lands! I can wait to see the harvest results since the NEW unit brake up.This year I hunted very hard 7 days straight in southern ut. a couple days before we scouted. Over the whole trip we seen lots of does and few bucks. Hunting use to be alot better in southern ut, hopefully the deer heards will bounce back in the future. I ended up taking a small buck the last day just to bring home some meat. I'm sure there was a few dandys taken, but not like the good ol days.

 

[mtnrunner260]

Deer herds are struggling for sure. Between the new deer units (going from 5 regions to 30 units) and all the conservation/CWMU tags it can be very confusing and frustrating to hunt Utah. Seems to be going more and more towards money in Utah. I believe we have more action tags than the rest of the western states combined. We have sold deer tags on Antelope Island the last 2 years. Both auction hunters have killed 250 inch + bucks but at $265,000 & $166,000 per tag the should have huh?
If you want to talk about a success talk about turkeys. Very few in the state not very long ago to having multiple hunts now and even over the counter tag sales.
Hope this helped

 

[RUTTIN]

Jordan, didn't even think about the elk side of the MRS. Elk on the other hand are doing well in Utah. I usually hunt the Uintah's and the Kamas unit. As far as the elk go if you are willing to get off the road and away from other hunters the any bull units can be fun to hunt with quite a few elk around. I am a archery hunter only, and my only gripe with the elk is the season dates. I wish the DWR would change the hunt dates so the elk were rutting during the archery hunt, seems they just get bugling the last few days of the season. But if you are a rifle hunter, the early October season can get you into some rutting bulls also.

 

[Breshears]

Thanks guys! This is very helpful, I am typing the main article right now, and I will be going through your posts as I go. Here is another thought, if any of you have a copy of the UTAH MRS from last year, it was in EBJ 69 Jan/Feb. Or you can go login on the mainpage and pull up a pdf version. Here's my thoughts...Glance at the unit quality color code and see if you can find any that are way off or just seem to have changed over the past couple years and could use modified! Thanks again! J.B.

 

[mattm]

Unit 13a (La Sal Mountains and surrounding area.) The deer herd for this unit is in really big trouble. I have seen very few bucks this year. Bear population is out of control. Good elk numbers. I would not recommend spending the money on a deer tag for this unit.
It would be nice if archey elk hunt was a bit later. The hunt ends as the rut is really begining.

 

[shedhead]

Jordan,

After looking over the MRS from last year, I have a few thoughts. I think the change to 30 deer units will be a good thing after a few years. I have heard of overcrowding in some areas, but I also talked to people who had a great hunt and saw almost nobody. Some people say there needs to be tag cuts, I dont know, I think it will take a few years to shake things out and see which units have the most overcrowding and which become the hardest to draw. Next year could be the opposite for some of these areas, we have to wait and see. I work with my buddy in his taxidermy shop a little bit and we have seen some great bucks taken on general tags, no doubt the snow was a huge factor in this in northern Utah this year. The Cahce unit produced some great bucks this year, but it by no means is a great hunt, Same for the Morgan/ chalk creek area, had more to do with the weather this year than great unit quality.

As far as a few units, the moose units in Northern UT are hurting from what they were a few years ago, Ogden still has a some good bulls and a few book bulls around, Cache also, but will take some serious scouting to find them, Wasatch Mountains seems to be the most consistent producer of good bulls as of late, along with a couple CWMU's (for residents).

Pahvant, San Juan, Boulder are still probably the top units for elk in the state. There are great hunts to be had on most all Utah units for elk, but I think the run from 2002-2009 has skewed peoples perception of what elk hunting in Utah should be like. I chuckle when people say the elk hunting is down the drain now, just because there aren't numerous 380" bulls killed in every unit every year, most Utah elk hunters were spoiled if they hunted from '02-'09 on LE tags. I know I was, I had a Pahvant archery tag in '05 and the hunt was incredible. There are still big bulls on each unit, just takes a lot more work to get them. I know 2 of the hunts that were rated marginal this year that kicked out 400" bulls, one was 430". The elk hunts aren't what they used to be, but by any other states standards, they are fantastic hunts.

Obviuosly the Henry's and Pauns are the top deer units by a large margin, Books and others are great hunts, just dont have the trophy quality.

 

[Musket Man]

My friends hunted deer in 998 muzzle loader season this year. They said it was the worst they ever seen it. only saw 1 half decent buck the whole season and they all made tag soup. They did see more elk then they have other years.

 

[younghunter21]

In My opinion, the manti got hit extremely hard during the archery. After several scouting trips, we had a basin picked out that had 100 to 150 elk in it. The night before the opener was a joke, had people all through the whole basin and kicked every single bull out of the basin.
The deer herd is looking very promising up there though. A lot of bucks and a lot of yearlings. But a lot of pressure on them also. At one time I sat on a peak, and watched atleast 20 trucks on a mile stretch of skyline drive.
My Cousin was on the rifle spike hunt and said it was like that also every where he had seen elk in previous years and he has hunted this area for about 6 years and maybe more. He hunted hard but didn't see an elk over a 4 day hunt period.