Zion early season rifle hunt (Oct 7-11)

[kswenso2]

Hey everyone! New to the forum. I drew for the early season rifle hunt in the Zion unit this fall. After doing some quick research, I realized how difficult this unit will be to hunt and even scout before the season.

The main issue is the lack of contiguous public land in most areas, along with the extreme elevation change throughout the unit. Had a couple questions for anyone familiar to the area and possibly willing to help me:

1. In the 1st to 2nd week of October, are most deer going to be high up and still in their summer range? Are there any deer that stay low year round?

2. Are there any spots in BLM/wilderness areas that see thicker deer populations than others? I am willing to walk and even backpack into wilderness if necessary. Some areas I have scouted out online are big birch, blackridge wilderness, canyons west or Orderville/Glendale, and the BLM land south of Highway 14.

3. What are some contacts I can reach locally to possibly collect more information? I have seen stories on this forum of people contacting hardware/tire stores and getting helpful information from the locals.

Any help is much appreciate. Thanks

 

[elktaker]

Likely you will be targeting deer that are moving either migration or pressure (your hunt overlaps with the general bull hunt).

I would stay away from targeting deer at elevation near hwy 14 since majority of the deer are gone by your hunt.

The zion unit is a hard hunt that includes a high percentage of the deer habitat that is private/zion Np. With that said if the weather cools or even better snows early you can seen tons if deer migrating.

Due to this the success rate isn’t great which means the DWR can put out more tags so lots of hunts on limited public land.

This is a General hunt that people can draw every year as a resident depending on weapon choice so I would not expect locals to give you much if they hunt it.