2016 Uinta Elk?

13684 Views 39 Replies 20 Participants Last post by Clarq, Feb 1, 2016

JT770

Discussion Starter · Jan 25, 2016 (Edited)

Hello all,

I'm brand new to the forum and am looking for a little help or constructive criticism on my hunt plan for next year. Definitely not looking for honey-holes or 10 digit grids, just a point in the right direction.

I'm an active duty Marine that grew up on the east coast as a whitetail hunter but have had the fortune of being stationed on CA/NV border. I'm definitely new to western hunting but have experienced some succes knocking down a couple CA mule deer (eastern Sierra Nevadas) on solo backpack hunts and a Cow elk in CO last year out of a drop camp. Basically, I don't think I'm completely clueless and am definitely not afraid of some hard work or covering some ground.

Right now my group will consist of about 4-6 guys for the Any Bull Rifle season. I have a line on renting some horses and we plan on packing in the 7th then hunting the 8th through the 15th. I want to try to get 5-7 miles off the roads, set up camp, then hunt from there. Most of the guys I'm going with are in there late 20's as well so we plan on covering some ground to try to get on some Elk.

Right now I'm looking at the Southern Slope east towards the actuall wilderness area. My main issue is finding a step off point then a general area to set up camp. I live about 8 hours drive away, so after some serious google Earth and map work, I'm hoping to go backpack and check it out this spring.

From all the reading I have done so far, it looks like I should expect high pressure by the roads and rugged country and low elk densities in the back country.

Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Jon

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Packout

· #11 · Jan 25, 2016

It is interesting that many are telling you to go to Colorado. Take a quick glance at the following link and scroll down to Page 22-- success rates for all rifle seasons. Then look through the Antlered success rates. Included there are the Limited Entry units so you will see some high success rates, but all those 0-15% success rates are the OTC general hunts. So before you go thinking that CO is easier to UT, you might want to consider that UT has a higher General Season success rate.

http://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2014StatewideElkHarvest.pdf

UT spike only usually has a 12-16% success rates while any bull usually hovers in the 15-18% range.

If you come to Utah be prepared for cold temps, warm temps, snow, rain, and make the best of it. There are bulls to be chased, but it won't be easy. Like most hunting- some hunters kill most of the game. I personally really like the Utah general season any bull hunts and even have had fun shooting spikes with my sons on the spike only units.

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