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Hey I was wondering if any of y'all could offer me up some information/advice. My wife's sister drew a Northern Region buck/bull combination permit. It's kind of a goofy thing for those who don't know what it is. It allows you to shoot a buck in the Northern Region between Oct 3-15 with any weapon, and also hunt bull elk in all general any bull units in the state durring the same period.We'll probly just have her shoot a nice hay fed forkie round here for the buck, but would like the best oppertunity to kill a mounter quality bull possible. I only know a little bit about elk hunting in the state, and it's pretty much limited to limited entry hunts and CWMU's. So I'm not too familiar with the general any bull units.
Anyway, my question to everybody is What are the best general any bull units for big bulls? Thanks for any input ur willing to share.
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[quote Got_Bait]
Anyway, my question to everybody is What are the best general any bull units for big bulls? .[/quote]
All the ones you can't hunt if you want to hunt deer at the same time.
I drew the tag last year and was extremely disappointed. The only place I found where I could legitimately hunt both on public ground was the north slope of the Uintas. There are some good bulls on the north slope, but there is also a bunch of people and an absolute endess expanse of black timber with very little access. If you don't have horses be prepared to push several miles off of the trail heads to get in behind most of the people.
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That's what it's kinda looking like. I don't think we'll worry too much about being able to hunt both at the same time, or even shoot the deer for that matter. Our first priority will be killing the bull, then if we get a chance to get the deer too that will just be a bonus.
But it still looks like private ground is going to be a big issue [:/]. I appreciate the input philly.
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You will be VERY lucky to find a bull over 300" on an any bull unit in this state. Last year, 1/141 people that had an any bull tag killed a bull. Your best bet will be to scout before the hunt starts. Less than 3 weeks away so your running out of time.
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I had a feeling that might be the case. Thanks Brody.
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Got_Bait wrote:[/quote]
I would like the best opportunity to kill a mounter quality bull possible.[/quote]
No way are you going to kill a mounter bull unless you get extremely lucky. I know guys that have hunted for 10-20 years and never killed ANYTHING on the elk hunt. My advice is that if you see any bull with bone on his head, SHOOT IT! You will rarely even see a raghorn on that hunt unless you have found a good spot and have done a lot of research on it. No matter where you go, you will have a lot of company/competition as well. Don't mean to burst your bubble, but General elk hunting opportunities in Utah suck. I really hope you can connect, but the odds are pretty terrible [:/]
Also, I don't know where you heard you could hunt any unit in the state for open bull. The Buck/Bull Combo has it's own region and boundry and you can't hunt certain spots in the Northern Region for deer or elk. Here is a link to the map
[url "http://wildlife.utah.gov/maps/2007_biggame/buck_bull_combo_area.pdf"][/url]http://wildlife.utah.gov/maps/2007_biggame/buck_bull_combo_area.pdf[/url]
Yes, I know it's from 2007 but it should be same unless I missed something. Please let me know if I'm wrong.
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Hey. Again, I appreciate the info. That is part of what I wanted to find out. It seems like all the places that have big bulls are either limited entry or CWMU.
The rules and boundaries for this hunt have been hard to figure out. I have come across that map in researching where we will be able to hunt, and have come to the conclusion that the shaded region shows the area where you can hunt both at the same time. But I'm not actually 100% confident yet, most likely we would be (or would prefer to) hunting the deer in Cache County, which according to that map is a no go. I've kinda been going back and forth in what I think the possibilities are, but I found this description in the proclamation that helped clarify where we can elk hunt, but I'm still not sure if we can hunt deer on the Cache:
N[size 4]orthern Region buck/bull combination hunt
[/size][font "Myriad Pro Cond,Myriad Pro Cond"][size 1][font "Myriad Pro Cond,Myriad Pro Cond"][size 1]Utah Admin. Code R657-5-72
[/size][/font][/size][/font][font "Myriad Pro Cond,Myriad Pro Cond"][size 2][font "Myriad Pro Cond,Myriad Pro Cond"][size 2]A special Northern Region buck deer/bull elk combination hunt will be held from Oct. 3 to Oct. 15.
If you obtain a Northern Region buck/bull combination permit, you may use any legal weapon to take one buck deer within the area and season specified on your permit (please see the map on page 76).
[#ff0000]This permit also allows you to hunt bull elk in all general any-bull units in the state.[/#ff0000] You may not hunt bull elk in deer CWMUs or elk CWMUs.
If you obtain a Northern Region buck/bull combination permit, the only other deer and elk permits you may obtain are an antlerless deer permit and an antlerless elk permit.
Tell me what you think.
[/size][/font][/size][/font]
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Looks like you're right about hunting any of the "Any Bull" units in the state. Just seems wierd that they would limit the area you can hunt deer in the Northern Region. And why would they leave out Cache county for deer?
I'm sure there is reasoning for it all. I know one of the main reasons was to releive pressure on the general deer hunt. Maybe they are also trying to give the Cache herds a break or something.
Anywho, the general season dates for big game are all supposed to change next year. The Buck/Bull combo tag will be gone next year and they are talking about incorporating an "Early" and "Late" saeson for both deer and elk seasons. This will break up the crowds and give people an option to hunt early or late. The dumb thing is the Muzzleloader season is right in between the two, so that will be a crappy hunt. I will make a new post and try to attach the proposed season changes. It will also affect the LE seasons.
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Well I haven't looked at your other post yet, but it I like the idea of trying to relieve pressure on the general deer hunt - at first glance seems like it could be a good thing. I have been hunting muzzleload the last 2 years because I couldn't stand the sea of orange. But then it's 95° durring the muzzleload and the deer seem to be in an impossible pattern to hunt them on.
Obviously, you can't hunt the Cache for elk because it's limited entry, but I have no idea why you wouldn't be able to hunt it for deer. I think you probably can hunt deer for the combo tag in the same places you can hunt them durring the Northern general deer hunts. Going on what it says in the description I copied and pasted above, that map is really just misleading.
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Where are you getting your info about the combo tag going away?
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Never mind my last post. I just read your other thread.
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Well, from what I can see you can't hunt deer on the North Slope with the combo tag. I wonder how many people have been doing that? [crazy]
Here is the map of the area you can hunt. Plus any general bull units. So basically, this map is the area you can hunt DEER in.
[inline "BuckBull Combo Inline.bmp"]
I attached a more detailed map below
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Well I think we have definately established these rules are very hard to interpret. But here's my interpretation: I am using the text that I copied and pasted on Post #7 as the overriding "law", if you will. It makes it quite clear that you can hunt elk in certain areas that you cannot hunt deer. So I would expect that there are areas that you can hunt deer, that you cannot hunt elk (in Cache County and Northern Rich County for example).
Then obviously there are areas where you can hunt both at the same time. I believe this is why they created the map you pasted above - to illustrate the area where you can hunt both at the same time. If you notice, the pink region on the map are the areas where the Northern Deer region overlaps, with the General Any Bull regions (Notice how the North Slope, Summit-West Daggett General Any Bull region actually includes the area around Manilla, but the pink region on the map ends West of Manilla at the boundary for the Northern Deer region).
So I still think you can hunt and kill a deer anywhere in the Northern Region. At least until someone convinces me that you cant[  ]. But I think that the real benefits of this tag are A) being able to hunt and kill a deer in the period between the general muzzy and general any weapon deer, when deer hunting competition will be less; and B) being able to hunt in the "pink area" and shoot either one if you see it. This will especially be a benefit to my sister in-law, who has never hunted big game before. So I think we will probably end up hunting somewhere she can shoot either - as I have pretty much come to the realization that killing a big bull is pretty much out of the question.
Before the draw, she just mentioned that she would like to hunt deer this year. So her dad put her in for this tag, not knowing any thing about it, but wanting a nice mounter bull for his living room. He's been too busy, and is really just a part time outdoorsman, so I've bee playing catch up trying to figure out what this thing is, and where we can hunt what. lol
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I think you're right [ ]
I would concentrate on a big buck rather than a bull. Like you said, it's a benefit to hunt deer before the season opener. Elk are hard to come by unless we get some dang cold weather and snow. I do know the Henefer Echo WMA holds some resident elk in the back. I also know there are some good bucks in there. That may be a place to try, but don't expect to be alone. Same goes for the East Canyon WMA.
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I think that it is simple. You can only hunt in open bull areas in the northern region. The whole northern region is not open to deer hunting. Its more of a private land thing IMO.
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