19,000 bull elk permits still available

Permits to hunt buck deer in Utah this fall sold out on June 23, 2010.

Even though permits to hunt buck deer in Utah have sold out, plenty of bull elk permits are still available.

Photo by Phil Douglass

"With the exception of 1,500 archery permits that will be available next month to hunters who are 18 years of age or younger, all of Utah deer permits are gone," says Judi Tutorow, wildlife licensing coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources. "But plenty of general bull elk permits are still available. This should be a great year to hunt elk."

The state's general archery elk season starts Aug. 21, 2010. The DWR isn't limited as to the number of general archery elk permits it can sell, so there's no problem getting one.

In addition to the archery permits, more than 10,300 permits to hunt on spike bull elk units were still available on June 24, 2010. More than 8,900 permits were also available to hunt on the state's any bull elk units.

Elk permits are available at the DWR's website (wildlife.utah.gov), from more than 300 license agents across Utah and at any DWR office.

Elk hunting advice

"If you're new to elk hunting, I'd encourage you to buy a permit to hunt on the spike bull units," says Anis Aoude, big game coordinator for the DWR. "There are plenty of spike bulls in Utah. And there's a lot of public land to hunt them on."

If you decide to chase mature bulls on an any bull unit, Aoude says the two Uinta Mountains units—the North Slope unit and the South Slope unit—are your best bet.

"If you look at the map on pages 76 and 77 of the 2010 Utah Big Game Guidebook, you can see that Utah has quite a few any bull elk units," Aoude says. "There's a challenge to hunting these units, though: with the exception of the North Slope and South Slope units, these units are either covered by private land or they don't have a lot of elk on them."

For more information, call the nearest Division of Wildlife Resources office or the DWR's Salt Lake City office at 801-538-4700.

The 2010 Utah Big Game Guidebook is available at wildlife.utah.gov/guidebooks.