Any success in Utah 17A: Wasatch West?

[TauPhi111]

Just got home from Utah this week from their general firearms season for mulies. My brother lives in SLC and I took him on his first ever big game hunt. I was not expecting it to be as difficult a hunt as it was though. I'm grew up in PA, and there the opening day of deer season is insane with the orange army. I can honestly say this unit was worse, plus they're all on ATVs. That notwithstanding, we did see a ton of deer, 72 different sightings over the course of 8 days plus a moose and an elk. Only problem was only 2 of those sightings were bucks. We could have filled doe tags every day multiple times, but bucks seemed to be non-existant. I found a forkie on the last day that was run off by other hunters in the mornings as I was making a stalk, and then I missed him in the evening because he showed up too close and I had to take an offhand shot above the sagebursh in gusty winds (need to work on that offhand shooting).

Just wanted to see what other people's experiences have been in that unit. Did you have similar experiences? Did you have success? Seeing as how my brother will be moving in a few years and I likely won't be hunting that unit after that, I'm not afraid to say where we were...we hunted the canyons, valleys, and ridges from First Water to Sixth Water. That seemed to be the most popular spots. We heard some shots in that area, but most people I talked to had the same experience as me. I wouldn't mind a few pieces of advice if anyone has some tips. Might try to hunt it once more before Mike moves since for him it is a very accessible unit close to home, and I am trying to get the hunting bug to bite him.

Thanks everyone

 

[BruinPoint]

Sounds like the usual Utah General Season spike and forkhorn hunt where the rules are made up and antler points don't matter. I'm not saying it's the worst, but it's the worst I know about.

 

[TauPhi111]

Sounds like the usual Utah General Season spike and forkhorn hunt where the rules are made up and antler points don't matter. I'm not saying it's the worst, but it's the worst I know about.

I saw 2 guys that actually took decent bucks opening day. Other than those the only buck i saw alive was that little forkie. Definitely pretty bad. Might put in for a different unit if we hunt Utah again before he leaves.

 

[TauPhi111]

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this thread in general but I have a few observations. I have hunted 17A on and off for half my life. First observation is it’s next to a city of 2 million people so you should have expected to see a lot of people . Second is we have had 2 bad winters in 4 years. And third is succes rates are low and tag numbers are high. I am not quite sure how you expected a different outcome with so many things stacked against you and the deer for that matter. Most general Utah hunts are crowded and the deer hunker down in the thickest steepest parts of the mountain. To do any good on a northern Utah general hunt you need to put in several seasons of time to figure things out. There are big deer in every unit in this state but they are hard to kill and require time.

I never said I expected it to be easy or good or to not see people. I just said I didn't expect it to be as crowded and difficult as it was. I've hunted general tags in other states and it was never that crowded, and like I said I grew up in a place where there are always lots of crowds everywhere. This hunt was more about my brother's first hunt rather than finding a nice deer, so we picked this unit because it was close to home and if he ran into trouble we wouldn't be stranded somewhere. I know it would take some experience to find a nice buck, but I didn't think we wouldn't see more than 1 forkie or spike in 72 deer. After my brother tapped out and went home, I hunted myself and went to the steepest and thickest parts I could find. There weren't people there but bucks didn't seem to be there anywhere. That is the only thing that truly disappointed me.

You seem to think that I am poo-pooing on this unit, but I'm not. I just wanted to see if the experience of most people is the same as mine as this was my first time hunting Utah.

 

[sneaky]

You also have to remember that rifle hunters in Wasatch West are concentrated. Archery hunters can hunt the entire unit. It definitely makes it a full contact type of hunt during general rifle.

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