Deseret Cow Elk

My wife drew this tag this year and without being able to scout we are going in blind. Anyone have this tag in the past that might be able to give us some good starting points or info to possibly get us started in the right direction? We will be hunting the week of 11/13. We are very excited, I think it will be cool to see some of the wildlife that live on or migrate onto the property this time of year. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

My wife and I drew doe antelope this year. If your cow hunt is anything like the antelope hunt you have nothing to worry about. The outfitter is great. They will point you in the right direction. They will give you a map and answer all of your questions.

Deseret cow hunts are generally pretty simple. My buddy had a tag once he was done first day early in the morning. I know when he had the tag the guides took him out drove him around and said there's one fire away. Maybe it's changed I don't know. What I do know is there is plenty of elk and you'll fill your tag.

"We don't have a gun problem we have prescription drug problem."

First and worst road hunt of my entire life.

To funny Russ!!

My dad and at the time my wife both drew D-Cow elk...

Frigid Cold and wind temps in the -20's...

They both shot a cow each out of a small herd---

Frost Bite medical in Evanston by hour 5!! haha

Good eats all said and done

Robb

Thanks for the responses, I hope her hunt goes as well as all of yours have, minus the frostbite lol. I was just a little worried because they no longer guide the public hunters. I think that this is the first year that they haven't. If they point us in the right direction though, that's plenty good for us. I put her in thinking it would an easy hunt for her to tag her first big game animal. Hopefully it will be a great experience and she'll harvest her first elk.

They use to offer a guided or unguided option. My boys have done the guided and had fun hunts and found the guides are great guys. Depending on when you are hunting it more likely you will come in on the west side of the CWMU. We found elk on both sides of the road higher up along the ridges and not the bottom so take side road up high. If lots of snow and late hunt they have you come in on the east side of CWMU which then is more of a late hunt in the sage brush. Lots of animals but it can be a challenging hunt depending on weather and how much the elk have been hunted and pushed around. It will be a hunt and can be a hard hunt so be prepared.

Did they not give a guided hunt option this year?

Last year was the first year they had the guided vs a true DIY hunt. In the past, even when you were not guided, you followed a guide around.

I had this tag last year, it was the 3rd time in my life I've had it. The first two were super easy, a couple hours following the guide and we were done. Last year I did the DIY hunt, and it was very different. We had the whole week to hunt (minus Sunday and one other day of the week) and you are really on your own. Opening day last year there were very few elk killed, mostly because everyone expected it to be as they've heard about, a super easy hunt. The elk were, for the most part, not really near the roads and still down in the deep canyon in the middle of the ranch. While this is private property, these are still wild elk, and they've been getting hunted on the bull tags for a couple months now and are not stupid.

Opening day last year I did not harvest because we took younger kids and were of the mind it would be pretty simple as in the past. My brother and I went back up the next week, hiked down into the canyon, and killed my cow out of a herd of about 150-200 elk. It was 1.75 miles back to the truck on my GPS from the spot we quartered her out. It was one of the coolest hunting experiences I've ever had.

Don't be afraid to get out and walk some of the bigger draws. You may not have to go far to see elk, but it's not likely you'll see them from the road and just shoot them until enough snow falls to push them out of their post big bull hunt hiding spots. The outfitter absolutely wants you to be successful, so don't be afraid to ask questions, etc. They are super helpful guys.

The deer rut should be in full force. Enjoy that, because you'll see deer and bucks everywhere! You might see some really good bucks too. We saw a 190s class buck about 20 yards off the road one day. It was pretty awesome. PM me if you have any questions. I don't know how it is up there this year, but I believe it will be pretty similar to the conditions last year.

The year I drew a tag, it was pathetic. They had this stupid rule that you had to shoot your gun at a rifle range before you could pick a hunting date. The shooting date was the opening day of the archery deer hunt. By the time I could shoot on an alternate date, all of the good hunting dates were filled. I ended up with a date in January and there was a terrible blizzard that day.

We saw some elk off the road a mile above the parking area, but they wouldn't let us go after them. The hunt consisted of driving around the cattle feeding areas to find any elk that were encroaching on the cattle. Then we would chase them down with the guides truck, and jump out and shoot at them when we got in range.

I agree with whoever said it was the worst road hunt of their life.
I had heard you could see some good bulls on the hunt, but we never saw any bulls except some along the highway on the way home, and we saw zero deer.

I hope your hunt goes better.

Don't waste your points or time on this cwmu. They have ruined it for the diy guys unless you pay the high price guide fee. I was there today on the diy hunt and,you only have access to the perrimiter of the ranch main roads access to where the elk are is all blocked off. My friends and I have had this tag at least 5 times before and never had an access problem before. When we left today and asked why the road closures the reply was we have always done it this way. Used to be a great thing but no,just a huge disappointment

By access you mean driving access, right? Because while last year you could not drive down the 2 tracks, you certainly could (and we did) walk down them to the elk.

Like beaver where it was closed at the bottom and it is not a 2 track road.

>Like beaver where it was closed
>at the bottom and it
>is not a 2 track
>road.


This was interesting to me, so I made an inquiry. I was told that road was closed due to its current conditions. If you've ever been on it, it can be a bit gnarly if it's wet. Apparently a truck nearly slipped off in the canyon so they closed it to avoid any accidents. I am not sure if it was the call of the outfitter or the landowner on that one, to be honest.

Take it for what it's worth, but that's what I was told.