Zion early rifle deer

[Tmarcussen]

Hey guys, drew a Zion early rifle deer tag with no intentions of actually drawing it. Go figure right. I already drew a tag in Montana and am hoping of drawing an x tag here in California where I live. Needless to say I will not have any time to scout Utah and I have never been before. Im looking for any type of information to help me kill a decent buck. Any kind of starting point would be nice. Luckily it’s only a 5 day hunt so I will be able to fit the hunt into my schedule. Thanks guys. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

 

[Snakins10]

The deer start migrating off the mountain usually around then, but colder weather is what really helps to get them moving. Heading off of Cedar Mountain down south. And when I say colder weather I mean that in Southern Utah terms!

 

[Tmarcussen]

Thank you, I got ahold of a taxidermist that has hunted the area his whole life. He gave me a few pointers. Said there are a lot of hunters that drive around in this unit. Pretty much can access the whole unit by atv.

 

[Snakins10]

My wife and I both have the tag, so we will see you out there ?

 

[Trix4me]

Hunted that Hunt 2 years ago. Saw several decent bucks before the opener. It snowed several inches the opening day. We passed a couple smaller bucks that day. The next morning, nothing. We’re were hunting above 8000 ft and didn’t see another deer.

 

[ridgetops]

Thank you, I got ahold of a taxidermist that has hunted the area his whole life. He gave me a few pointers. Said there are a lot of hunters that drive around in this unit. Pretty much can access the whole unit by atv.

That last sentence is a little misleading. Only about 30 percent of the unit is public but you can access about 80 percent of that public land with an atv.

 

[elktaker]

Lots of private , study maps and plan out different elevations to target migrating deer.

Avoid anywhere that has elk since your hunt overlaps with the general bull hunt. The unit will be overrun with any bull hunters.

I have the archery tag but already have two other hunts planned so I may just hunt extended units later in the year.

 

[DeadEyeDick]

i hunted it 2 years ago, so lots of deer, they were all migrating south, never saw the same deer twice. there are lots of hunters just driving around, half of the trucks have half a dozen people in the bed with gun in hand. better have on x maps cuz there’s private all over the place. the weather is pretty warm.