Spike Elk UTAH OTC

Short Track

Short Track

WKR
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Oct 3, 2017
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Anyone ever do the Utah public land spike OTC tag? It's public with crowds I hear. Not sure it's worth spending gas money .....................
Oct dates.
Just wondering if the success rates are fairly decent .....
 
I usually hunt the archery spike season here in Utah but have hunted the rifle several times as well. It can be a real cluster with people seemingly everywhere. If you were to do it I would suggest arriving 1-3 days early to try to figure out where the elk are at. Your best chances are either opening morning or the last few days of the hunt after most others have gone home.

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I second what MagoonTune said, what a cluster .... After opening weekend it took me another week to find where the elk went. It was so bad last year they even ran the deer out of their usual spots. The 3 season spike tag has ruined it for us dedicated archers.

A friend of mine had a cow rifle tag that was the same dates as the spike hunt and he said the same thing. War zone! He gave it up after opening weekend.

I did manage to get one though. Just had to out smart all the other hunters by going where they didn't.
 
Spike elk in Utah would be low on my priority list if I was an out of stater. I buy a 3 season any bull tag every year since I'm a resident and so why not, but I rarely go out with my rifle or a muzzleloader. It's a flippin' zoo. Everyone and their dog running the roads looking for a spiker to blast from the shoulder of the road.

Not only that, but I never see many spikes. As an example, I drew the early rifle Manti limited entry tag back in 2019. During my scouting and subsequent 5 days of hunting (about 10 days hunting the Manti for my bull), I saw probably +/-300 head of elk in total, and only 6 of them were spikes. I saw the spikes on opening day, in a group crossing a scree slide. They were coming to my dad's cow calls as a couple of mature bulls were ripping off about 100 yards away. Other than that one small group, I can count on one hand the number of spikes I've seen on both the Wasatch and the Manti units in my hunting career. I've seen plenty of big bulls, lots of raghorns, but never seen many spikes. They are few and far between it seems.

That being said, it's a great opportunity to come and see some beautiful country and potentially look over some mature bulls. If you're ok with the realistic possibility of going home empty handed but love the idea of getting to see some big guys, you'll probably have a ton of fun.

But hey, I'm just some random guy on the internet...
 
Archery spike would be about all I would be interested in. The public land gets crowded quick and you would have to choose a unit that allows you to be able to hike or horseback into an area where most people are not willing to go. They are out there, for sure though. I use the spike hunts more like practice for when I draw my LE tag.
 
If you don't have elk found prior to the rifle spike hunt starting, it's really tough to find them opening weekend! The muzzleloader big bull hunt ends the day before each year, so those elk are pressured a solid week before then. If you can go out and listen for bugles at night before the hunt starts and stay on the fringes of the herd, you can cow call a spike in. Sometimes on years with lots of spikes they will group together in a young bachelor herd. Make sure not to overcall if you are hunting pressured elk. This opening weekend I was helping a buddy and my grandpa with tags, we were in elk every day but with the good weather there were plenty of people out. Saw 1 spike, probably 30 elk on the Central Mtns Manti unit. Archery spike has much higher success rates and is easier in my opinion. If you hunt in the middle of the week, the elk are out on open faces more often at first light. You can also shoot either a spike or a cow, I have hunted it the past 5 years and am starting to figure it out, I have shot elk the past two years.
 
I do most year but that's because I have a cabin in a spike unit. Hunting this unit so much helped a ton when family draws thier limited entry tags. You can get pretty familiar with a unit by hunting the spike until you get a big boy tag.
 
My friend had a OTC spike tag, he hunted Beaver East for four days, never heard or saw any elk. Not sure why he didn't relocate after two day of nothing.
 
Hunted spike elk in UT many times (archery and rifle), quite a few different units. One thought to keep in mind: Approximate numbers, but roughly 5-10% of a heard is a spike. Or, 5-10 targets per 100 elk. Others are cows, branched bulls, or calves. That is mainly why success rate is really low, there aren't many targets. Coming from out of state (increased cost of tag, fuel, etc.), seems one might want to wait for an any bull unit tag, which increases targets to 20-40% of the heard (depending on unit). If you have hunted elk a bit, just think about the number of spikes you have seen. Handful relative to the overall heard, just makes it hard to find a target (on top of finding elk to begin with).
 
farmermail said:
Hunted spike elk in UT many times (archery and rifle), quite a few different units. One thought to keep in mind: Approximate numbers, but roughly 5-10% of a heard is a spike. Or, 5-10 targets per 100 elk. Others are cows, branched bulls, or calves. That is mainly why success rate is really low, there aren't many targets. Coming from out of state (increased cost of tag, fuel, etc.), seems one might want to wait for an any bull unit tag, which increases targets to 20-40% of the heard (depending on unit). If you have hunted elk a bit, just think about the number of spikes you have seen. Handful relative to the overall heard, just makes it hard to find a target (on top of finding elk to begin with).
Click to expand...
I’m resurrecting this thread as I am on my way to archery spike elk hunt Plateau - Boulder. Have a few spots picked out but wondered if you had any
 
Not sure about rifle, but cut my teeth on these archery 30+ years ago. I have been back to help friends out. Love being in the woods anytime in September, but it can be magical in the LE units just seeing the elk do their thing. Killing the biggest thing is great, but it fills my tank just being in the woods in September! Chasing spikes is just gravy!
 
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I have been hunting Wasatch and Manti for cow/spike. Have seen one spike, a couple raghorns, and 2 nice bulls. So far no spikes or cows in a killable location that would allow me to pack them out alone before the meat spoils.
 
Reopening the thread. Was wondering if it’s typical for the bulls to be with cows on opener for spike/cow archery? Last year there was a good amount snow from what it seemed like and the bulls didn’t come up high until after opener. Just curious because it would be nice to have the bulls split up the larger herds of cows. We ended up going 2/2 last year one spike and one cow. But was a crap shoot because the herd was so big. Would be nice to see the cows split up.
 
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