Utah Muzzy Muleys! South Slope, Bonanza/Vernal

[The_Hunter_Dave]

I know with Utah results coming out, every yuppie with a computer (myself included) are asking about units. But I have not heard any chatter about the South Slope Vernal unit for the Muzzleloader deer hunt.

I did a bunch of digging into the unit on goHUNT prior to applying and the stats look great. But this unit is HUGE! It is distinctly different country depending on what part of the unit you are in. It's either high country National Forest or BLM land with lots of Pinyon and sage brush.

I have hunted different units every year for the last 4 years and have used different weapons each time. I am excited for this hunt, but I haven't a clue on where to start. For a late-September hunt, I feel like I should start in the High Country, but an open desert hunt sounds appealing.

I am curious if there is anyone with specific advice or even general deer hunting advice about scouting!

 

[JohnCushman]

welcome to HT

 

[ignorethefringes]

Welcome! What's your experience hunting muley's elsewhere? What is your primary hunting background?

 

[The_Hunter_Dave]

Welcome! What's your experience hunting muley's elsewhere? What is your primary hunting background?

This is my 5th year hunting muleys. I harvested 2 in a row my first two years. Dumb luck the first time and the second time I just sat where someone told me to. Lol. But last year I went into new country and hiked a lot. Didn't see any bucks but a few does.

 

[mariano742]

I know with Utah results coming out, every yuppie with a computer (myself included) are asking about units. But I have not heard any chatter about the South Slope Vernal unit for the Muzzleloader deer hunt.

I did a bunch of digging into the unit on goHUNT prior to applying and the stats look great. But this unit is HUGE! It is distinctly different country depending on what part of the unit you are in. It's either high country National Forest or BLM land with lots of Pinyon and sage brush.

I have hunted different units every year for the last 4 years and have used different weapons each time. I am excited for this hunt, but I haven't a clue on where to start. For a late-September hunt, I feel like I should start in the High Country, but an open desert hunt sounds appealing.

I am curious if there is anyone with specific advice or even general deer hunting advice about scouting!

hi! how did the vernal ML hunt go?

 

[mariano742]

im thinking about this unit bc other units in the south i was thinking about in southern utah got hit with serious point creep!

 

[The_Hunter_Dave]

Hey all! I know this was a couple years ago, but it came back to my mind since I applied for it again! With that being said, it wasn't a glory hunt by any means. But we did have a lot of fun and learned a lot of great lessons. One of those being that if you think you found an area where deer should be, so did everyone else... Through several scouting trips and e-scouting, I settled on an area on the east side of the unit. It was much more open with rolling hills of sagebrush. There were a lot of deer in the area, but mostly does. Also, there are FAR more roads in the area than maps like onX tend to show. With that being said, everyone with a UTV were tearing up the roads and pushing deer everywhere. Once I got away from the roads, I found more deer, and even bucks. I tended to be a bit pickier than normal with this tag and passed up several one to two year old bucks daily. I didn't harvest, but I wasn't disappointed. Hoping I draw again and connect all the dots this year!