Utah elk hunt

[Deleted member 29105]

Well, after a 12 hour straight drive to the famed San Juan unit of South East Utah and 7 days of hitting it hard my Co buddy and I left without an elk. We have 1800 private acres to ourselves and saw six elk on day two but they were crossing from a neighbor's cornfield to our land on the road with someone nearby so we didn't feel it wise to shoot.
The bull in the back was massive. We hit it hard all week and saw many rubs, scrapes and elk/deer highways but didn't see another elk except for a neighbors' private land where an even more massive bull held it's head high.
I ended up hitting a mule doe in the heart at 289 yards with my JC Higgins 30:06 w/ a Leupold B&C 14x42 scope on the last night just to have something to show for our work. We had a farmer's depredation tag for that one but held off since we wanted elk.
We saw over 300 mule deer in a week and it was a great time with a great buddy.
We plan to try again since our tags are good till Jan 31st.

 

[brad nsw]

Feel your pain, came back from Idaho hunt, seeing only 3 bulls, but no shot.

Glad you had an Awesome hunt, seeing the big bulls.

 

[Muledeerhunter]

Man, sounds great....1,800 acres to hunt. Too bad you couldn't connect on an elk.

 

[Deleted member 29105]

Thanks for the sentiment y'all. My buddy is headed back this weekend and I'm hoping to get up there one more time. The elk just left the area. Rubs and tracks were literally everywhere. It's a famed unit. It will heat up sooner or later. Life gets in the way sometimes.......I feel ya brad nsw. Thank you muledeerhunter.
You would've been in mule deer heaven up there!

 

[fishingkid]

I was up in the area for the general deer hunt.last week Seen lot of elk sign seen few nice bulls and cows. Killed few small bucks never got on the big boys we seen while scouting seen to many does all had fawns with them the deer herd looked great minus the lack of bucks.

 

[Deleted member 29105]

Nice to see you got something Fishingkid.
We decided that we'll head back in January since they'll be down from the mountains then.

 

[fishingkid]

From what I seen looked like the majority were already down low seen few bulls high but the bulk of the sign was down low

 

[Fowl Play]

Bummer. Hope you guys score in January!

 

[DanSanDiego]

FishingKid, how did you find out about the general deer hunt? Was there a draw for non-resident tags, or are the over-the-counter?
Did you stay with friends or a lodge?
I’m thinking about Idaho, MT, or CO for a family hunting trip next year.

 

[fishingkid]

Dan pm sent

 

[WaterDawg]

Bummer! But with access to that land I would definitely try again and I bet you score. Great effort.