Nebo Muzzleloader

Elkslyr · Sep 28, 2009

I have just spent the last seven days on the Nebo unit for muzzy elk and I also had a deer tag and have found little of both. Do all the elk on this unit head down to the private property? I have located some bulls and have called five of them in and passed on them all. The biggest one was right at the 300 mark, and am now thinking a should have taken it. Is this unit pretty much shot out or am I just not in the right location. (Holmans, Blackhawk, Bear Trap Ridge) I'm going back for the last two days to give it one last shot, so if anyone has any good advice feel free to PM me. Thank you!

"Keep yer powder dry n yer eye on the skyline!"

deadI · Sep 28, 2009

Yup you should have shot that bull. There are afew bulls that are alittle bigger but not many. In my opinion they have taken to many cows and does off this unit. It has really gone down hill in the last couple of years.

DeadI/Jared

UTMuleyhunter · Sep 28, 2009

I had this same tag 2 years ago. Sounds like your hunt has gone about just like mine did. I did see a few nice bulls, but they were several canyons from where I was at. I was also suprised how little numbers of deer I saw. I spent all my time along the Summit Trail over to Golden Ridge. Best of Luck.

woodruffhunter · Sep 28, 2009

LAST EDITED ON Sep-28-09 AT 01:11PM (MST)[p]I would keep hunting where you have already been. I know it sounds strange but you have called in 5 bulls. I think odds are better that you may see another, bigger bull in the same
area than searching an entirely new area that may take a few days to figure out.

If I was you, I would shoot the next "300" bull you see. That
is still a great bull that most would be happy with.

I do know of some good wallows that were being hit regularly during the rifle hunt. There was probably anywhere from 10-15 bulls in this area. One of the bulls was in the 330-340" range IMO.

However, they held up and would not commit to calls. Perhaps that has changes. Also, we probably pushed some of them out when we shot ours. However, there is a good chance there are still some good one there and perhaps, some moved back in the area.

If you are willing to hike and are interested, I will send you GPS coord's. The area was near Blackhawk (I believe).

There were (maybe still) elk everywhere in this area.

bigwhiteman · Sep 28, 2009

LAST EDITED ON Sep-28-09 AT 01:15PM (MST)[p]The private lands are not much better anymore these days. With the increase of tags over the last few years it has taken a huge toll on the elk population and the older age classes of bulls. Even with the elk numbers going down you would think that the deer herds would bounce back, but they are following the same path as the elk. Hopefully with the shorter seasons for deer in this unit will help the deer alittle more. The muzzy hunt for deer ended on sunday just for the nebo area, but the rest of central utah region muzzy hunt is still open until thursday i think. As for the elk since this is the muzzy hunt and the elk have been hunted alot with a ton of archery and rifle tag holders that have already filled their tags, the remaining elk are just held up in the steeper darker canyons. The only ggod thing right now is that the rut seems to be in full swing and the elk are bugling more now than they were a few weeks ago. A lot of the places that used to be good for elk in years past i havnt been able to even locate any even at long ranges. I drew a nebo muzzy tag in 2006 and there were big bulls running all over the place. I hunted 4 days passing six points every day, even the bull that i finally killed, I passed him every day until the fourth day. He ended up being a 6x6 340ish class bull, one shot through the lungs at 140 yards. Nebo creek, Bennie creek are the better places to go, just park your truck/car and hike up the canyons until you find the elk.