# Manti Elk (Early Rifle)



## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

I'm looking for a little advice on the Manti unit. I know many have hunted it. My grandfather finally drew the early rifle tag. He's 74, he's currently in good health & his mobility is good. A mile or so of "moderate" terrain is normal for him to cover on our muzzleloader hunts without too much concern. I'm not overly concerned with finding elk, but finding them in an area that he would be willing to go. 

I have spent many days fishing Huntington Creek & Huntington Reservoir and camping at the Forks of Huntington CG and Huntington Res. I haven't been back since the Seeley fire though. This was the area I was initially planning on focusing on, and I'm sure I won't be alone in thinking that the burn area would be prime to hunt this year. But if I would be better served looking elsewhere for friendlier terrain I'd would greatly appreciate the heads up via PM.


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

I've been looking at the area between Huntington/Cleveland Reservoirs south to Joe's Valley east of the Miller Flat Road.
Anyone familiar with the area or experience there, I'd love to bounce some questions off you.


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## Finnegan (Sep 7, 2007)

Know the area well and hunted it a lot. PM me.


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## muzzlehunter (Nov 29, 2009)

Pm me as well if you need more info.


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## bowhunt3r4l1f3 (Jan 12, 2011)

If you need more info after the two other guys let me know. They've probably got you covered though. 8)


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

Finnegan said:


> Know the area well and hunted it a lot. PM me.


Much appreciated Finnegan, great insight.


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

muzzlehunter said:


> Pm me as well if you need more info.





bowhunt3r4l1f3 said:


> If you need more info after the two other guys let me know. They've probably got you covered though.


Gentlemen, much appreciated.


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

Went with my grandpa yesterday for a quick drive down to the Manti to check things out a bit. The primary goal for this trip was to figure out where we want to camp & I think he made that choice so we're good there.
Archery hunters were all over the place and we tried to talk to a number of guys that said they had deer tags, but none cared to share anything of value regarding elk. Most said they hadn't seen any and simply told us to "look in the pines"... sounds like the standard response if you ask me.
We spent the morning poking around Miller Flat Rd and made our way from US-31 down to Joe's Valley Res. From Joe's Valley we made our way up to Skyline Drive with the intent of taking that back to US-31 but the road was in terrible shape. It looked like somebody had taken their truck over it right after a good heavy rain... big ruts along the whole length. We had enough of the bouncing and crawling along in my grandpa's Nissan Exterra and made our way down the canyon to Spring City.
Saw lots of deer, but unfortunately no elk. Although I can't say I was expecting to see many since we were driving around late morning and early afternoon so we were out of the prime viewing times.
Here's a handful of my favorite pictures. Beautiful, big country that's for sure.


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## kinger6 (May 13, 2011)

If you have any more questions PM me. I shot my bull on the Muzzy hunt 3 years ago. I hunt there every year and know the area well.


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## JuddCT (Sep 7, 2007)

Did you hike up on the Heliotroop?


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

JuddCT said:


> Did you hike up on the Heliotroop?


No, we didn't make it that far south on Skyline Drive. We headed north at Ephraim Canyon after coming up from Joe's Valey Res.


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

I haven't seen any bulls yet on any of my cameras but I'll let you know if I spot any worth looking at next time I retrieve the pics...just cows thus far which is good for me with my cow permit this year.


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## JuddCT (Sep 7, 2007)

I thought one if the pics looked familiar, but I guess not. It is amazing how it can look so similar.


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

I was down there last weekend as well scouting for my LE muzzy elk hunt. Same results...Only saw one small 5 point bull, and that was from two evening spots and one morning spot. I believe them when they say they're "in the trees". The rut will bring them out.

If you or anyone else has some real time Intel after the archery and rifle hunts, I would love to hear. I plan on heading down Monday evening before the Wed opener. Also plan on spending another couple days up there prior to.

You're right...it was an absolute zoo with all the archery hunters and recreational folks!


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

MWScott72 said:


> If you or anyone else has some real time Intel after the archery and rifle hunts, I would love to hear.


Absolutely, just remind me... shoot me a PM as your getting ready to go.


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## mikevanwilder (Nov 11, 2008)

Skyline Dr has always been like that. Although now they are grading it this year. They have made it quite nice. 
I hunt the manti every year and when they say hunt the pines its true. Every canyon holds elk and if you hit the pines you're bound to find them. I haven't been able to locate anything of interest yet but I'm more looking for deer.
Good luck and have fun you sound like you are hitting the areas I would suggest to hunt. If I find out anything specific I'll let you know.


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## BerryNut (Dec 29, 2008)

I have an early rifle tag. All the usual places I have seen elk in the past have come up empty. I have been down there every weekend for 5 weeks trying to locate some. I found one decent bull on my trail cam, but then the next week, sheep were all over the canyon and the bull was gone. The one time I got him on the cam was at 130 in the afternoon and he was going to water. It hadnt rained for a week or so. I am wondering with it being so wet, they dont need to go to water and they are hiding in the pines as stated earlier. I too wanted to look over around where the Seeley fire was, ubt I was told you can park a car in Huntington Canyon due to risk of mud slides and such. Is this true? My friend said last year they had posted that the area was closed, but I havent driven over to see if that is the case? Any ideas? I usually go up around Nuck Woodward area. Thanks and MW Scott, pm me and I'll be happy to help with your Muzzy tag, I am thinking this year it may be a better hunt than the rifle.


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## Rattler (Jul 13, 2014)

I have heard the Nuck Woodward is closed from the washouts. A couple guys have taken atv's around the gate but I wouldn't want to be caught there by a CO. I looked over a few spots of the fire and some it was still bare ground and not much new growth. Not sure if that is the way of the whole burn area. This was looking over south of electric lake. I have glassed a lot of elk in the aspens and pines. Pick a big bowl and watch it in the evening. If you don't see or hear them, move over a bowl. I have consistently seen 150 head on every trip. Not many bulls but I figure if I find the cows now, the bulls will come. Little over a month until the muzzy hunt...


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## elkantlers (Feb 27, 2014)

My best advice would be not to get in a big hurry and wear your grandpa out. The first three days of the hunt will be a zoo. By Tuesday the hunt really starts getting good and alot of the people are gone. Most of the canyons off skyline drive will have elk, and most will be screaming their heads off. find some elk in an area easily accessable by your GP and make one good stalk in a morning and evening.


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

elkantlers said:


> My best advice would be not to get in a big hurry and wear your grandpa out. The first three days of the hunt will be a zoo. By Tuesday the hunt really starts getting good and alot of the people are gone. Most of the canyons off skyline drive will have elk, and most will be screaming their heads off. find some elk in an area easily accessable by your GP and make one good stalk in a morning and evening.


We plan on letting Grandpa set the pace and just go with whatever he wants to do. It's his tag & his hunt so he's in charge. It's not the way I would do it, but this will likely be his last bull elk hunt so it's all about doing things on his terms.

It was funny on Monday while we were driving he & my uncle kept saying, "Spot us some elk, Derek." I kept joking that if they'd slow the car down to below 20 miles per hour I might have a chance! Like I said, he has a different style of hunting but it has worked well for him in the past so I'm not going to impose my own philosophies and try to change that now.

kinger... thank you so much for the feedback!


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Hey derek, if you are still having trouble finding a decent bull pm me a week or so before the opener. I think I know just the place for your grandpa.


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## BerryNut (Dec 29, 2008)

Derek,
How big of a bull will your grandpa be happy with? Not that score mean everything but I have a few easier access areas I know of that might be good for him but they dont hold monsters, at least not that I've seen. Let me know.


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

BerryNut said:


> How big of a bull will your grandpa be happy with?


He's never been one to worry about score... I'm assuming that he won't hesitate to shoot a decent 6x6 so anything close to 300" would probably get lead thrown at it.
His biggest bull is a raghorn 5x5 off the north slope of the Uintas & it's hanging on the wall in the family cabin. I would love to see him top that.


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

Groceries are purchased and we're headed out in the morning!

I'm a motivated man after almost having it out last night with my dad in the frozen foods aisle at WinCo... He said that I'm thinking this will be easy & I don't have any idea about how hard it is to do an elk hunt. Ironic that a guy who has never shot an elk is telling a guy that just did last year that he doesn't know what he's in for!
If he's misinterpreting my excitement and optimism for thinking this will be easy, he's sorely mistaken. But what do I know, apparently I have no clue.
I told him that if he expects to drive around all day and shoot a trophy then this hunt will be exactly what he's envisioning & he should pack his fishing pole and just go fishing while I hunt with Grandpa because that is not how this is going to go down. Grandpa & I haven't put this much time and effort into this to sit in a truck on our @sses the whole time.
Gauntlet thrown down... challenge accepted.

Hopefully my next post is one of those fun grip 'n grin shots of Gramps!


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## 30-06-hunter (Sep 22, 2013)

derekp1999 said:


> Groceries are purchased and we're headed out in the morning!
> 
> I'm a motivated man after almost having it out last night with my dad in the frozen foods aisle at WinCo... He said that I'm thinking this will be easy & I don't have any idea about how hard it is to do an elk hunt. Ironic that a guy who has never shot an elk is telling a guy that just did last year that he doesn't know what he's in for!
> If he's misinterpreting my excitement and optimism for thinking this will be easy, he's sorely mistaken. But what do I know, apparently I have no clue.
> ...


Good luck, it's a beautiful area up there to just be in nature, even better if you come home with a decent bull.


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## hunting777 (May 3, 2009)

Good Luck, I hope you guys find *YOUR* trophy Bull. Whatever size it may be. We hope to see pictures soon. :mrgreen:


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

Good luck to you and your grandpa Derek - I'll be interested to hear about the hunt with my muzzy hunt in the same unit the following week. It's getting to the point that I can't even concentrate at work!


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## stillhunterman (Feb 15, 2009)

Best of luck to you and Gramps Derek!


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

Here's the final report... unfortunately we came home empty handed and a little earlier than expected. Grandma pulled me aside and told me that Grandpa's knee had been bothering him the last couple weeks and to watch him close. We did a couple short hikes early in the hunt (Saturday & Tuesday) and that really aggravated the knee. So much so that he would sit by the fire rubbing it all night and did not sleep well. He decided to call it a hunt Thursday afternoon and we packed up and headed home.
Overall, it was tough going because once his knee really started to act up he was most comfortable road hunting. With the warm weather for the first part of the hunt the bulls shut right down starting on Saturday.
We arrived in camp on Friday about lunchtime and there were 7 or 8 different bulls bugling and our hopes were high. I got some pictures of a bull that responded to my first attempt at a bugle and he came out and stood above a rock ledge for about 20 minutes. THe whole summer Grandpa hadn't really given much of an idea of how big a bull he'd be happy with but when he looked through the spotting scope at this bull he said that he'd shoot him opening morning. Our hopes were pretty high going into Saturday. We all thought that we'd see this bull again.
On Sunday evening we had one of those experiences that proved why you get one of these tags. We were just milling around camp early in the evening kind of working a bull in the adjacent canyon when he went silent. About 10 minutes later he appeared over the ridge and we tried like heck to get Grandpa in position for a shot. It would have been a long shot, 600 yards plus. I bugled at him and got him to stop & Grandpa let out a couple cow calls. A second bull in a canyon south responded and for several minutes the two bulls and I went back and forth bugling at each other with my grandpa cow calling periodically between bugles. We noticed the second bull was getting closer. It was so cool to hear him respond to every call we made and get closer & closer. I'd bugle and he'd respond immediately and start raking trees. Grandpa grabbed an aspen branch from the ground and raked the trees we were in & the next time he bugled I cut him off and bugled back before he had finished. That fired him right up and his bugle got really growly and he'd stomp around a lot. The problem is that he was coming in from the same direction that I had come to meet up with Grandpa to get him on that first bull. I knew exactly when he hit my scent trail&#8230; he let out like a dog bark yelp and took off back up the hill like he was shot out of a cannon. In the moment I didn't even think of my scent trail & I honestly think that if we had worked closer to that bull instead of letting him just come to us we would have bagged him quite literally about 150 yards from camp. I got a glimpse of him as he pushed his cows up a clearing one ridgeline to the south & was just devastated. If he wasn't the same bull that we first saw Friday night he was every bit his equal.
We had a chance on Tuesday evening at a small 5x5 right off the road but Gramps was a half second too slow in getting the scope on him.
We went all day Wednesday and Thursday morning without an elk sighting and without so much as hearing bugle. The elk seemed holed up in the thickest, nastiest stuff you could imagine and we just couldn't get them to come out.
It was frustrating & discouraging, but amid all that there were still those few moments that were magic in the woods.


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## hunting777 (May 3, 2009)

Sorry to hear that you didn't harvest an elk, but the memories of hunting with grandpa will last much longer than any mount on the wall. congrats on your "successful" hunt. It sounded like you had a great time.


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

I would be remiss if I neglected to thank a bunch of guys that were willing to share some great information with me. For all you guys that sent me a PM... THANK YOU!!! You know who you are.

And for all you guys that have offered to help with one last chance... THANK YOU!!! Grandpa is satisfied with how it all went down. He had a couple chances and sure would have liked to have a different ending but he says that hunting is like cake... actually killing something is like the frosting. The cake is still good.


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

Just going through my pictures I noticed this... look at how the colors on the mountain changed from Friday to Wedensday.

Beautiful time to be in the woods for sure.


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## Bow hunter mojo (Oct 12, 2013)

Derek, That was a great story. My dad is in the same boat that your grandpa is in. He has never drawn or for that matter had the opportunity to hunt a mature bull elk. I have been putting him in for the same unit. He did not draw this year. We are hoping he will have luck on his side for the draw next year. Great story. Thanks for sharing.


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