2018 Utah General Rifle - help me pick my unit!

[Rdog]

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.

1. Is it really that important to have a direct flight? you can connect and get to Idaho falls or boise quite easily, or the drive up to central idaho from SLC isn't much further than the drive to a lot of the units in Utah from SLC.
2. Like I said before, the general tags are cheapest in Utah because the opportunity isn't there like it is in surrounding states. Look at how much it costs for a NR if you draw a premium limited entry tag, it's a lot of money because the opportunity on those hunts is amazing. I'm a Utah resident and I am looking at going to Idaho on the archery hunt next year and I can get a Utah tag for 50 bucks!
3. I wouldn't use those statistics as a baseline for your decision, the north and south slope of the uintas average around a 10% success rate, you get a lot of success from the people doing the OTC spike only hunts that take place on the limited entry units where the herds are really healthy in number. In the same article it ranks Utah behind Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. I'd suggest signing up for the free trial of Gohunt and look at all the unit information, it probably wouldn't take long to see that Utah isn't the best for OTC elk.
4. Don't worry about the elk hunt being challenging, unless you're on a high fence private land hunt it's going to challenge and test you no matter where you decide to go.
5. Even though you're new to elk hunting and want to do the rifle I'd really consider doing something like the archery in Idaho or Colorado, the season dates are great and there is absolutely nothing like hearing a bull bugling in the forest let alone getting it to talk to you. I'd trade those experiences for shooting an elk every day. And it's a little bit warmer weather (usually)

 

[Rdog]

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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There are OTC rifle tags that go on sale in July and usually don't sell out until September. And there is no quota on OTC archery elk tags, yet anyways.

 

[acmckeage03]

As a Utah resident I would have to agree with the majority here. A lot of the Utah general success comes from families that have hunted the general units for years and years and have their little "honey holes" they return to each year, Or they have horses and mules to get them back to the deep backcountry for multiple days, or they are hunting off private parcels within those units. Now when you consider those people it leaves a very small percentage left. Idaho has the better general herd and access to more public country, bust your ass into the back country and have yourself a decent chance at an opportunity. Also from SLC you are equally as close to decent Idaho units as you are Utah, maybe an hr difference unless you go up to panhandle. I hunt both states but during archery season, Waiting for my WY and UT LE tags to mature