Unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael (Manti/San Rafael)
Utah Hunting Guide — Mule Deer
Unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael lies in Carbon, Emery, Sanpete, Sevier and Utah counties and covers about 7,650 square miles. Ground runs from 4,194 to 9,947 feet. UDWR's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 20%. Most of the unit is private, so access comes before tactics. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael
Unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael lies in Carbon, Emery, Sanpete, Sevier and Utah counties and covers about 7,650 square miles. Ground runs from 4,194 to 9,947 feet. UDWR's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 20%. Most of the unit is private, so access comes before tactics. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael
UDWR draws an exact line around unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael and says nothing about where the mule deer stand inside it. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such. The unit lies in Carbon, Emery, Sanpete, Sevier and Utah counties. It runs to about 7,650 square miles.
The lines of the unit: Spanish Fork Canyon, Green River and Colorado River
UDWR draws unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael in Carbon, Emery, Sanpete, Sevier and Utah counties with a boundary that runs on I-70, and on Spanish Fork Canyon, Green River, Colorado River and Rock Springs, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. Those features are what you will check against the map all week, and the divides among them are the ones that matter.
High ground inside the line: South Tent Mountain, North Tent Mountain and Lowry Top
Named high points inside the unit include South Tent Mountain at 11,249 feet, North Tent Mountain at 11,211 feet, Lowry Top at 11,137 feet, Heliotrope Mountain at 11,125 feet and Swasey Ridge at 10,985 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer bed on broken ground with a view and feed on the brush below it.
Holding ground: Red Pine Cove, Twelvemile Flat and Jolleys Hole
Below them sit Red Pine Cove at 10,207 feet, Twelvemile Flat at 10,102 feet, Jolleys Hole at 10,009 feet, Big Horseshoe at 9,997 feet and Philadelphia Flat at 9,978 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.
Water: Johnson Spring, Goat Ranch Spring and Rock Spring
The water inside the unit line comes to 3,888 mapped stream reaches, 78 lakes, 945 stock tanks and 220 springs. Named sources include Johnson Spring, Goat Ranch Spring, Rock Spring, Coyote Spring, Good Water Spring and Dripping Spring. On ground with that many tanks, knowing which two or three hold water in your season is the most useful thing a scouting trip can tell you.
Before you apply: who owns this unit
A UDWR permit does not authorise hunting on Native American trust lands, on a CWMU without that CWMU's own permit, or on National Park land, and written permission is required to hunt private land. Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as National Forest 60%, Private / Other 17%, BLM 15% and State Trust 8%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. The unit runs from 4,194 feet to 9,947 feet, averaging 6,269 — that is a lot of vertical to cover, and it means the season you draw decides which half of the unit you hunt.
Unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 4,194–9,947 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,269 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
- 7,650.2 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.
Who owns the ground
- National Forest — 60%
- BLM — 15%
- State Trust — 8%
- Private / Other — 17%
Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 945 tanks
- 220 springs
- 3,888 stream segments
- 78 lakes
Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: South Tent Mountain (11,249 ft), Lowry Top (11,137 ft), Heliotrope Mountain (11,125 ft), Swasey Ridge (10,985 ft)
Holding ground: Baseball Flat (10,563 ft), Horseshoe Flat (10,494 ft), Horse Heaven (10,420 ft), Johnson Spring, Goat Ranch Spring
Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.
How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael
Mule Deer Success Rates
UDWR's 2023 harvest estimates carry no mule deer row for unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael that we can read back to this unit on its own. Where the agency reports a unit inside a grouping, or prints a table our parser cannot resolve to a single column, we leave the number out rather than publish a statewide average as though it had been measured here. UDWR's current harvest estimates are the place to check before you apply.
Mule Deer Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts Req |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muzzleloader — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 36 | 252 | 14.3% | 15 |
| Muzzleloader — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 4 | 52 | 7.7% | 15 |
Data from 2023 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.
Open in Draw Odds EngineUDWR's 2023 draw recap for mule deer in unit Central Mtns, Manti/san Rafael, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- Muzzleloader, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 252 applicants for 36 licences, 14.3% drawn, 15 bonus points needed
- Muzzleloader, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, nonresident: 52 applicants for 4 licences, 7.7% drawn, 15 bonus points needed
Utah draws on bonus points in a weighted random draw, not in point order, so the figure above is what it happened to take that year rather than a threshold you can plan to reach. More points buy more chances, never a turn. These are the figures as published in UDWR's own draw recap; we have not yet checked them back against the agency row by row, so confirm the hunt you mean to apply for before you count on a number.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
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Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.
- UDWR Hunt Boundaries — boundary descriptions from the Hunt Planner boundary layer — Utah Division of Wildlife Resources · supports: GMU boundary description, Counties the unit lies in, UDWR's private-land note for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24
- UDWR DWR_Hunt_Boundaries_combined feature service — all 687 published hunt boundaries, including the CWMUs — Utah Division of Wildlife Resources · supports: Mapped extent of the unit, Which named ground falls inside the unit line · accessed 2026-10-24