Your thoughts on the Manti/La Sal unit......

[chowell]

Just got back from the muzzie opener in the central mtns. Our group draws this tag every couple years. We typically hunt the canyons off of skyline drive south up above mammoth lake, potters pond, etc. Each year, we see a handful of mature bucks on the opener, and then it gets quiet as more hunters move in. This year, we saw dozens of deer, but mostly does/fawns, and several first year bucks. This is the first time in about 8 years that we have not seen any mature bucks. Any thoughts on this? We hunted hard the first day as usual and exactly as we have done in the past to be successful. We just did not find them this year. It was very hot and dry so we hunted the dark timber and just didn't kick them up. Has this unit seen it's better days? Has the heat changed their behavior so drastically that we could not even kick them up out of the timber?

 

[Pines_N_Tines]

I don't know a lot about the unit but many years ago when I was a new 16 year old hunter I saw the biggest buck of my life near potters pond. It was easily over thirty wide with double drop tines (about 8 inchers on each side)and split cheaters coming off both sides. I had a cow elk tag and was hiking up a game trail when the buck emerged from some trees about 30 yards up the trail. It stopped and looked at me then turned and walked into a small patch of quakies. I vividly remember him more than 20 years later. The lesson he taught me was than big bucks will hide right under your nose. There were elk hunters above the quakie patch and another set of hunters coming up the draw below it. That buck bedded down in the trees and never came out. Sure wish I had a deer tag instead of an elk tag except for the fact that I would have been ruined with a buck like that for my first.

 

[Ringneks]

I've hunted that unit for years and it's gone to crap. I hope they split the unit up and reduce tags.

 

[smartbuy3274]

I moved to Manti 5 years ago and have hunted it ever since I have been here. I ran into a guy from Salt Lake on the archery hunt that said he has hunted the unit for 20 years and it was the worst he has ever seen it. He was going off on the DWR over bear and mountain lion control. He said he had seen a bunch of bears and that the number of mature bucks he use to see was way down.
I don't hunt from the road and just listened to him go off for about an hour, before he finally let me go. Anyway I had just got back to our camp from a couple mile hike where I saw 15 bucks with 3 really good ones. I go to the same spot every year and spot a week before the hunt, and last year I saw 20 bucks with 2-3 I would consider mature takers. The year before that I saw 16 with 1-2 mature bucks.
This year we had people in our group close to decent bucks every day we went. I don't think the herd is as good as it once was, but I think its like all the others. If you get out and put the time in you can drum up some good deer. They are smarter than you think they are, they might have moved on from the spot you like to hunt to a less pressured area.

 

[Ringneks]

Don't get me wrong, I agree there are still good bucks on that unit but they are few and far between. This unit is the largest in the state and needs to be broken up and maybe hunters reduced. I just got back off the wasatch and the deer numbers there are great, we saw good bucks every day on our hikes. I just don't see the amount of bucks on the Manti I used to, not even close. Jmo