2018 Utah General Rifle - help me pick my unit!

[ajsawyer]

I got the green light to head out to Utah next year (2018) for the entire general rifle season. This being my first elk hunt, I chose rifle because I'd like to work my way up to archery and/or limited entry areas as I gain more experience chasing Elk. I've done plenty of backpacking and humping around the backcountry out west, but haven't combined that with big game hunting yet. I chose Utah because It's very easy for me to fly to SLC and Utah has the cheapest nonresident tags. Here's how I imagine the hunt going:

1/ I find a few spots within my chosen unit that look good on the map, so I have two backups if my first spot doesn't pan out.

2/ once I get there, I'm willing to hike up to 2 miles from the truck (rental 4x4 SUV) to set up camp, then spend most of the first day glassing. My typical back country trips have been 20+ miles of hiking, but I don't want to have to hump out all that meat more than a few miles (I'd do it in stages of a half mile or so) should I be so lucky as to get the opportunity.

3/ If my glassing doesn't turn up anything on the first morning, evening, or the second morning, I'll pack up on day 2 and head to the next spot on my list. Rinse and repeat. Hopefully I can at least spot something!

4/ If I can fill my tag with at least a few days left in my trip, I hope to be able to pack out the animal and get it on ice over 48 hours or so. If I don't turn up anything, I'll just spend the last two days scouting for my next trip. That will give me 10 days to find a legal elk, then three to cut it up and pack it out.

5/ I'll get a hotel room on my last night in Utah so I can shower up and get everything ready for the flight home. If I can get someone to come with me that would be great, but most of my friends have young kids so that's unlikely. I don't mind going solo.

At this stage of my planning, I'd like to narrow down which unit I'm going to go after. Here's a list of the general rifle units ranked by total harvest from 2015: http://www.backcountrychronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/2015-utah-gen-rifle-any-bull-elk-harvest.gif

I don't want to be competing with lots of other hunters and ATV traffic, so I've ruled out the top four units on the list. I'd also like to hunt a unit with 20% or greater historical odds with a decent amount of public land. Based on that the two units I'm most interested in are Nine Mile - Range Creek and Fillmore - Oak Creek.

I'm looking for advice and tips on anything really, but specifically on hunting those two areas in mid October. If you're also planning on flying to Utah during the same time period to hunt, or if you've left something at a taxidermist and have yet to get it home, I can help you out significantly with cargo from the SLC airport (I work for an airline). Feel free to PM me if you'd like to keep it private! Thanks in advance.

 

[Rdog]

I don't mean to discourage you by any means but only to help you have the best experience elk hunting. I am from Utah and have spent my entire life going up on the rifle elk hunt with family. The NR general tag is cheaper than surrounding states for a reason, the hunting isn't nearly as good. A lot of those areas on that list may show that they have plenty of public land but all the spots where the elk normally hang out are private, such as nine mile. You may want to sign up for the free trial of Onx maps and carefully study the private property on the units you are considering. The north slope and south slopes of the Uintas are usually your best bet, I'm not saying people don't pull bulls off of the other units every year but there is a good chance they did so cause they had access to private property or have been scouting the areas their whole life and found a honey hole. I did archery this year but my uncle is up hunting right now and he said they haven't seen a single elk and have been hiking quite a bit. Another cousin pulled a nice little 4 point off the yellowstone unit on opening morning saturday. (they were back in 4 miles or so) If you are willing to hike more than a mile from the truck then I wouldn't worry too much about crowds, while there are tons of hunters, I would guess 95% of them don't go more than half a mile from a road or trail if that. If someone new to hunting Utah asked me where they should go for their first time I would say south slope or north slope for sure. There is hardly any private land to worry about (other than the indian reservation down lower on the yellowstone unit, The yellowstone unit has by far the biggest herd for the general units) There are plenty of roads for access while still providing ample opportunity to get miles away from other roads. (Check out red cloud loop) Lastly, it's beautiful country to spend time in. There have been years where we never saw a single elk but I never cared cause it was enough just being up there. If you don't mind only being able to take a spike and want to be able to at least see some big bulls I would definitely look into doing that, Utah may not have the best general hunts but there's no denying it has some of the best limited entry units. The spike only hunts are on the limited entry units such as Wasatch and Manti.

 

[realunlucky]

I spend a bunch of time in range creek but haven't hunted it since I was a kid. I agree the North and South slopes hold a much higher number of animals that can be hunted on public land.

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[ajsawyer]

Thanks for the advice Rdog. I'm not easily discouraged - and as a rookie I don't expect to be successful my first try, so as long as nothing terrible happens I won't go home disappointed.

That said, not seeing other hunters is almost as much of a priority to me as seeing elk. I'll look again into the popular areas you mentioned, do you think I have a chance of getting away from the hunting pressure in the South Slope area with 4000 other hunters out there? Also, is there a lot of ATV traffic out there? I'll check out red cloud loop for sure.

I'm not committed to anything yet other than my gear and I have all year to plan, so thanks for the advice!

 

[realunlucky]

The forest service closes some roads at that time of year so that limits atv activity some. There is some country that is crazy steep where you'll never find another soul crazy enough to enter

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[ajsawyer]

The forest service closes some roads at that time of year so that limits atv activity some. There is some country that is crazy steep where you'll never find another soul crazy enough to enter

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I checked out some of those areas in google earth today - looks like a great place to hike so long as you don't have 400lbs of meat with you.

 

[Rdog]

Thanks for the advice Rdog. I'm not easily discouraged - and as a rookie I don't expect to be successful my first try, so as long as nothing terrible happens I won't go home disappointed.

That said, not seeing other hunters is almost as much of a priority to me as seeing elk. I'll look again into the popular areas you mentioned, do you think I have a chance of getting away from the hunting pressure in the South Slope area with 4000 other hunters out there? Also, is there a lot of ATV traffic out there? I'll check out red cloud loop for sure.

I'm not committed to anything yet other than my gear and I have all year to plan, so thanks for the advice!

As far as ATV traffic goes, you'd be the odd man out if you didn't have an ATV if that answers your question. But that's also a good thing cause the hunters seem on the lazy side and if they don't see something from their atv they aren't doing any hiking. Staying on trails and roads up there is strictly enforced so you don't have to worry about someone driving up some area that doesn't have a designated trail. There may be around 4000 hunters that hunt the south slope but keep in mind that the area is HUGE! it takes hours to drive across it on the highway and as soon as opening weekend is over most of the hunters are gone and mid week there is hardly anybody up there. The good and bad about up there is there is a lot of access by roads so you can easily get in a good hunt by camping off of the side of the road and hiking in and out a few miles everyday and once you're in a mile I really doubt you'll see anybody. My brother and I were up there for the archery and we were chasing 3 bugling bulls that were bugling 500 yards away from a road and the side by side that drove by had no idea what they were missing and we didn't see a single other hunter the whole morning and we always thought it was considered a busy area. I don't know much about the yellowstone subunit and know mostly about the vernal area and know that the closer you get to leidy peak the less hunters there are, I think it's because people think the elk aren't up that high in October but it doesn't seem to have gotten cold enough to push them down yet. If you want to bivy hunt by going a few miles in and camping there I'd look at the north slope, there are a lot less roads and plenty of trails that you can hike up to camp from that only the outfitters ever seem to want to do. If glassing is important to you then I'm not sure where to tell you to go, probably somewhere in the yellowstone unit because the forest is heavily timbered in the areas i'm talking about and from all my years hunting up there I can't think of many places you could glass from, especially away from roads.

 

[jpolson]

I killed a bull up 9 mile a few years ago. Access is tough. Most of the canyon mouths are private with blm behind it. Dropping down into the canyons from.the top is daunting at best.

Fillmore oak creek just changed from limited entry to general a few years ago. It's covered in roads and there is nowhere to really pack in to. The elk are all kinda bunched into one little area.

As the others stated, the Uintas are the real wilderness option. There are a lot of elk up there. During archery season there are almost no people...a lot more pressure during rifle, but it's doable. Most of it is pretty heavily forested, so glassing can be tough in many areas. Lots of deadfall up there.

I'll send a PM with some slightly better info.

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[idahohikker]

+1 on strongly suggesting that you pick another state for general season hunts. UT sucks bad compared to WY, MT, CO, or ID. Spend the money for quality--there's a reason for the higher prices.

 

[jpolson]

+1 on strongly suggesting that you pick another state for general season hunts. UT sucks bad compared to WY, MT, CO, or ID. Spend the money for quality--there's a reason for the higher prices.

Mostly agree. No over the counter hunts for non residents in Wyoming though.

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[idahohikker]

Thanks for the catch. Are there WY units you can draw in a year or two as a nonresident that would be an important upgrade over UT general hunts?

 

[jpolson]

Thanks for the catch. Are there WY units you can draw in a year or two as a nonresident that would be an important upgrade over UT general hunts?

There are no elk in Wyoming.

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[tyeager2964]

Yes you can typically get a non resident tag in Wyoming with 1 or eight now but it will probably take 2 points or the special draw here in the next couple years. The major downfall associated with Wyoming is that you as a non resident will not be able to hunt wilderness areas without a guide or resident relative. This does deter some people and having never hunted there i cant tell you how the national forest stacks up compared to wilderness hunting

 

[ajsawyer]

+1 on strongly suggesting that you pick another state for general season hunts. UT sucks bad compared to WY, MT, CO, or ID. Spend the money for quality--there's a reason for the higher prices.

By suck do you mean that it's more work in Utah than in the other states you mentioned? If so, that's the kind of suck I like. I would rather spend 10 days humping around the wilderness and come home empty handed than shoot an elk from the parking lot of a hotel.

 

[ajsawyer]

I killed a bull up 9 mile a few years ago. Access is tough. Most of the canyon mouths are private with blm behind it. Dropping down into the canyons from.the top is daunting at best.

Fillmore oak creek just changed from limited entry to general a few years ago. It's covered in roads and there is nowhere to really pack in to. The elk are all kinda bunched into one little area.

As the others stated, the Uintas are the real wilderness option. There are a lot of elk up there. During archery season there are almost no people...a lot more pressure during rifle, but it's doable. Most of it is pretty heavily forested, so glassing can be tough in many areas. Lots of deadfall up there.

I'll send a PM with some slightly better info.

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I'd love to hear more about that "one little area"!

 

[idahohikker]

Lol AJ. You can hunt in quite low elk density, high hunter numbers if you want. The other states are hard work, nothing like the parking lot. It's just that you're putting your work towards something much more valuable. You can get skunked in great areas while working hard.

I'm still quite confused why someone would want to hunt general season UT as a nonresident. I live in UT and I'm from ID. I would hunt in 3 different states easy before UT general. Do some research man and listen to people who know without silly answers. We're all trying to help you.

 

[ajsawyer]

Lol AJ. You can hunt in quite low elk density, high hunter numbers if you want. The other states are hard work, nothing like the parking lot. It's just that you're putting your work towards something much more valuable. You can get skunked in great areas while working hard.

I'm still quite confused why someone would want to hunt general season UT as a nonresident. I live in UT and I'm from ID. I would hunt in 3 different states easy before UT general. Do some research man and listen to people who know without silly answers. We're all trying to help you.

Here are a few of my reasons for choosing Utah:
1/ I'm flying from Atlanta, there are no direct flights to Idaho or Montana but there are lots to SLC. I could fly direct to Jackson Hole WY but there doesn't seem to be as much opportunity for nonresidents there.
2/ The Utah OTC tags for nonresidents are the cheapest.
3/ Statistically, the average hunter success from 2012-2015 is the same as Idaho at 26.2% (see table 4 Elk Harvest Comparison of Western States 2012 - 2015)

I would like to try WY someday, is Idaho really that much better than Utah when they have the same success rate? More elk there, I know, but also 50% more hunters, more expensive tags, and no direct flights for me.

 

[ajsawyer]

Lol AJ. You can hunt in quite low elk density, high hunter numbers if you want. The other states are hard work, nothing like the parking lot. It's just that you're putting your work towards something much more valuable. You can get skunked in great areas while working hard.

I'm still quite confused why someone would want to hunt general season UT as a nonresident. I live in UT and I'm from ID. I would hunt in 3 different states easy before UT general. Do some research man and listen to people who know without silly answers. We're all trying to help you.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be silly when I said "I would rather spend 10 days humping around the wilderness and come home empty handed than shoot an elk from the parking lot of a hotel" I was explaining the kind of hunter I am, not talking about states.

I have a friend who has a connection in Wyoming, he's been putting in for the same LE unit for five years because he can shoot a bull there from his friend's deck while having his morning coffee. I am not that kind of guy.

I won't be buying my tag for 6+ months so I can be persuaded on which state is best for my first try at Elk hunting, but "it's hard work there" is generally going to attract me more than turn me away.

 

[realunlucky]

Some of those units have few to no elk in them. Focus on areas with more game and go where others don't want to and your chance of success goes way up.
All tags in Utah are draw except archery elk which is an otc tag. Your talking about limited quota tag which could sell out and does for residents.

Utah isn't managed for hunter opportunity which is a stated goal of Idaho fish and game. Utah manages for quality and tag auction value since the tags your looking at don't fit that don't expect for anything that well managed.

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[idahohikker]

Fly into SLC and drive or fly into Denver or other options. I wouldn't worry about the price difference because you'll already spend a lot and I assume you want a good hunt.

UT general elk harvest in 2015 was about 15% in 2015 combining spike and any bull and that's with a lot of private and locals with honey holes. Look it up. You can find much better than that for units elsewhere. Listen to Randy Newburg who suggests CO, MT, or ID for general.

I love hard backcountry hunts. No need to pick bad areas with low numbers and little trophy quality. I live in Utah and no one I know here puts any stock in general elk hunts.

I'm probably going to head out of this conversation because I feel like you're set on UT. I sincerely wish you good luck.