who hunts elk in Utah

[DEATHMASTER]

As Bjorn said, "examples?"

[montucky]

The Utah DWR is a highly embattle agency with with a relatively poor track record of management relative to the extraordinary potential of the landscape.  I lived in UT for ten years, but did all my hunting in Idaho after a couple years even though I love Utah's country and harvested elk, deer and antelope there...as resident, if I wanted to hunt an area with nice muleys or bull elk...forget about it... you would wait years to draw. Idaho, Wy, MT, CO all have a variety of options for various big game hunts that are in my opinion far superior to Utah's options.  DOnt get me wrong, Arizona, NM, and Utah have some archery elk limited entry hunts that are off the charts dream tags for recordbook bull elk and mule deer, AND the fall climate is more predictable and the terrain is more civilized than ID,MT,WY.  But I dont think I will ever hunt in Utah again - I think it is ridiculous that they have just enacted even MORE restrictive Mule deer regs...the fact that they cannot sustain better herds in such an enormous state with such varied habitats and such low human population densities is crazy to me.  

Part of the problem is that private agricultural landowners in Utah - by-in-large, are not particularly friendly to conservation innitiatives - they have polical strangle-hold on the DWR and state senate vs. states like WY and MT where the F&G outfits are seen positively by the political establishment.  Of course when you pay your game warden less than 30k a year you probably are not catching a lot of poachers either:)  the other problem Utah has is too much easy ATV access everywhere.  

The far western edge of the state in the Great Basin is prob the most underappreciated area.  anyone interested in hunting utah in areas with hardly anyone around and HUGE mule deer and some very very desirable limited entry elk units...look at the far western and northwestern part of the state.

[Bjorn]

Thanks montucky, that is pretty well thought out- the ATV access included-seen that personally. I do love Utah, the hunting and the people and I have likely been focused more on Elk than anything else. The UT DWR officers that we met were at least as committed as any anywhere.
The non resident options are certainly better there than NM for example, perhaps we are saying none are as good as they could be. And Canis Lupus is not making things any easier for us in terms of having 'good' hunting states to pick from.

[steadman]

I agree montucky with you. The UT DWR is the worst in the country as far as I'm concerned they are driven by the all mighty $. But how does making the mule deer hunting more limited not help the deer herd. I've hunted here my whole life and saw far fewer deer and more hunters last year than ever before. As far as I am concerned, they can cut tags more to get the herd back up. But most hunters here in this state are not willing to sacrifice to get that, and the DWR is not going to sacrifice any $ for that. One of the main reasons the deer herd took such a hit is because of the extreme focus on elk in this state. Just look at the San Juan unit. 20 years ago you couldn't find an elk on that unit, and the deer herd was one of the best in the world. Now it's one of the best elk herds UT has and the deer are suffering terribly. You have a very good point on the roads here, they are rediculous and reducing them would help the deer herds tremendously.
I wish the economy was better so I could go out of state to hunt, but I will just keep praying for a miracle in the draw and hunt stressed out mulies and cows and spikes  

[montucky]

yeah I totally agree and I LOVED the utah country  and worked for the DWR for 10 years.  Loved the place.  ANd it is true about increasing elk herds vs. mule deer but I think that is only part of the picture...and yes the new regs will help the herd...I just can't believe they were not able to do better before..I mena a resident could not puy an OTC deer tag since about 2000. A lot of it is the amount of sheep and cattle grazing in the forests and of course in the northern part of the state the winter range has been decimated by development. I will never forget hunting down by Richfield utah for rifle deer (pre draw for deer) and seeing two truck loads of hunter drive right to the top of the mnt and start this huge deer srive like southern plantation hunting.  It was nuts.  I did draw Book cliffs archery elk a few years ago and it was trully amazing.  

As for the Canis Lupus...interesting....I now hunt elk in the middle of the wolf scene in western wy and southwestern MT and the hunting great.  We had a pack of wolves howling 100 mteres from our camp last fall.  The hunting is totally different...in utah I could go to the same north/northeast timbered ridge as the year before and always get into the herd like whitetail in a "deer yard" in New england.  The elk were typically bedded in timber for many hours of the mid-day.  In wolf areas...the herds I have hunted are always moving, the interesting thing is that in the right places it means that you see more elk through the day and they are focused on moving and eating, moving and eating and i found you can stalk them easier as they are more distracted and moving more than you are.  Last fall I found myself behind a herd of over 100 elk for about 3 miles trying to get a shot and was never made...fund hunt.

[helo]

I must have missed something here the other western states that I have put in for for limited entry elk archery are also a decade wait or so to draw a really good unit. I drew arizona in 2005 with nine points and I have 8 for nevada archery elk and no tag yet. Atv use in utah is not the problem atv users who abuse the land are the problem not all atv users are slobs. Cutting tags is a step in the right direction here I have seen my hunting areas go downhill for years. As far as I care they could have cut the deer tags by half.

[steadman]

Your righ Troy about the ATV's, it's the users, not the machines. Usually it's the 10% that give3 a bad name to the rest, here it seems to be the 90% give the bad name on atv's. But eliminating access to some of the herds would help out as well. JMO.

[snag]

We have the same problem with ATV's here in Oregon. I thought the Forest Service was implementing a closure of roads after that long study they did? Of course that won't stop some of these morons from driving where they aren't suppose to.
I'm on the fence about Utah...I have 9 pts. and could possibly draw a decent elk tag this year. But if I wait a few years I could draw a better one. But then the hunting might not be as good if I wait....if, if, if....really want to make these pts. count!

[K. Mogensen]

Originally posted by steadman:
They are driven by the all mighty $.

You can say that again.

I have only ever hunted for deer in the Cache/Rich area, and it's pretty bad. Gotten better the last couple years (seen more deer) but there are a ton of people, and they all ride their ATV's like idiots. DWR and FS rangers are very seldom seen.

[steadman]

David put in this year. They are supposed to be dropping age structure in more units. Last year was real tough for some guys. Let me know what you decide to do and if I can help. I'm hoping to draw this year myself. Remember the application period is later this year feb to mar.
Good luck!!

[helo]

I agree that more areas need to be closed for any and all motorized access my local mtn. burned bad in 09 and I mean bad and slobs in jeeps, trucks and atvs were driving everywhere but thanks to the blm and forest service they closed all vehicle access for at least two years. This fall I hiked into the area and the vegetation was coming back really strong. I am still waiting to hear what states offer better n.r. hunting chances you could hunt spikes here in a big group while one guy has a l.e.tag. To say utah is not good for n.r. is not the case all states that I have been to and including utah love n.r. hunters for many reasons. Hey Ryan we still need to do the moose ribs cook-out.