Utah Goats or Bears for 2012

jrhunts · Nov 29, 2011

O.K. I have a decision to make. I've got 13 points for goats so I should be able to draw a goat tag for the any of the Uintas, Provo Peak or Ogden Peak for next year. I've also got 11 points for bears so I'm thinking it's almost guaranteed for anywhere I choose. (I'm thinking San Juan fall)
I can only afford one of the two. What would you do?

Prism · Nov 29, 2011

No brainer. Goats!

jrhunts · Nov 29, 2011

Goats where? Which unit?

Dikndirt · Nov 29, 2011

If you even have to ask you dont really want or deserve a goat...put in for bear!

ForkWest · Nov 29, 2011

Goat. No question. A week long, deep Uinta goat hunt would be a dream hunt, just for the experience of it all. You can kill easy on Willard just try not to shoot one of the many teenage kids screaming around on 4 wheelers during your hunt.

You can buy a frick'n Idaho or Wyoming bear tag, or two, every year if you want. Utah bear points are way over rated in my opinion.

Wish I was sitting on 13 goat points. I've got 12 moose and it'll be awhile. Oh if I could do it over.

woodruffhunter · Nov 29, 2011

As much as I like bear hunting, I would absolutely choose goats. You can buy over the counter bear tags in Idaho.

Sniper1 · Nov 30, 2011

Goats no question. Wish i had them points. Me and the wife switched over from moose a year or two ago seeing as it would take us a life time to draw that tag.

Depends on how big of goat you want. If you really want a book goat i would stick to willard peak or timp peak. As everyone else said on here go buy a bear tag over the counter in another state.

woodruffhunter · Nov 30, 2011

Like sniper, I wish I could trade my points. I have 13 for desert sheep. I would gladly trade them for mountain goat. What does a good mountain goat hunt cost. Its seems that last I checked it was around $6k!! And, thats not including the flight!

kk · Nov 30, 2011

I really want to hunt goat, but I would take the bear on SJ. We hunted it last year and it was a great hunt. You will not go wrong with either one. Draw them both and I will take the one you don't hunt, then I will help you on the other one. Sounds like a good deal, for me.

Foreman4x4 · Nov 30, 2011

I'd go to Idaho in May with a couple dumbazz buddies and hunt goats in the fall.

jsc · Nov 30, 2011

Goats are a lot of fun to hunt. My family has been fortunate enough to have drawn three goat tags over the years and took some nice billy's with our bows. One thing you may look at is that the DWR is possibly implementing a harvest objective option for the bear hunts in the next year or two. This is supposed to be discussed in early December at their meetings and I am not sure how this would affect your hunt on the San Juan. Normally I would say go for the goat tag, but if you are guaranteed either tag it might be better to take the bear tag if harvest objective hunts do not occur this year and take the goat tag next year. Either way I'm sure you will have fun. If you choose goats and go for lone peak or uinta's west give me a pm and I could give you some pointers.

good luck,
Jsc

grizzly · Dec 1, 2011

LAST EDITED ON Dec-01-11 AT 11:35AM (MST)[p]You can see the proposed rules on the DWR website. They aren't proposing harvest objective on San Juan, or any of the trophy units for that matter. I would definitely go for Goats, they say Once-In-A-Lifetime for a reason. It would be awesome (plus I have 10 bear points).

EDIT: Here is the link. http://wildlife.utah.gov/dwr/news/42-utah-wildlife-news/672-possible-bear-hunting-changes.html

Grizzly

CATMAN · Dec 1, 2011

I would do bear, but I'm a houndman. What do you want to hunt? Bears are over the counter in Idaho, but a SJ bear tag is coveted as a goat tag. Just depends on what you want to hunt this year I guess. Good luck KK is the man if you draw a SJ bear tag