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This years archery elk hunt sucked!  I am not just saying that because of how our hunts turned out.  I have talked to 22 guys (including myself) that had limited entry archery tags this year and only 4 took bulls.  The biggest bull taken out of the 4 was 320″.  13 of the 22 didn't even get a chance to pull their bows back.  Am I the only one that thinks it is time for Utah to stop making archers hunt bulls in August?  I hear rifle hunters complaining that we get 28 days to hunt.  I hunted 23 out of 28 days this year and only got one opportunity on a bull over 310″ and that was on the third to the last day.  The rifle hunters in that unit shot 8 bulls (that I know of) in the first 4 days of their hunt the smallest being 320″ the biggest was over 380″.

Come on Utah, does that seem fair?  Archers need the rut!  Rifle hunters don't…

I agree that Utah needs to change dates, however hunting pre-rut bulls can be done.  I drew Washatch last year with my points.  We had about the same luck as you did this year, but I learned a lot about early bulls.  I was lucky enough to draw San Juan from the expo this year and used some different stratigies to get into elk.  I killed a 350 6/8 bull on the 8th.  There are so many bulls in these LE units that they don't have to bugle to find them.  They are fairly easy to patteren.  Unless they get bumped they will stay in the same general area this time of year.  This can be a huge advantage.  Utah needs to give more tags because the bull to cow ratio is getting pretty messed up.  Spike hunters aren't even going to make a dent in it.  We saw 35 bulls and 15 cows.  Change the dates and give twice as many archery tags then they"ll have something.  Go to the expo and mabey you won't have to wait 20 or more years for a second chance.  Good luck.