Utah Mule Deer Elk

Unit Oquirrh-stansbury (Oquirrh-Stansbury)

Utah Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Elk

Unit Oquirrh-stansbury lies in Salt Lake, Tooele and Utah counties. 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.

View Draw Odds Utah Hunting Guide

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45%

Public Land

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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit Oquirrh-stansbury

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit Oquirrh-stansbury

UDWR draws an exact line around unit Oquirrh-stansbury and says nothing about where the mule deer stand inside it. Every place named below sits inside the unit line. Which of them holds animals in your season is for you to find out. The unit lies in Salt Lake, Tooele and Utah counties.

What bounds unit Oquirrh-stansbury

UDWR draws unit Oquirrh-stansbury in Salt Lake, Tooele and Utah counties with a boundary that runs on I-15 and I-80, and on Salt Lake, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Deseret Peak, Flat Top Mountain and Oquirrh Mountains

Named high points inside the unit include Deseret Peak at 10,997 feet, Flat Top Mountain at 10,588 feet, Oquirrh Mountains at 10,588 feet, Lowe Peak at 10,564 feet and Lewiston Peak at 10,392 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: Big Hole, Box Elder Pass and Edwards Pass

Below them sit Big Hole at 8,785 feet, Box Elder Pass at 8,384 feet, Edwards Pass at 8,231 feet, White Pine Flat at 8,179 feet and Right Hand Fork Soldier Canyon at 7,878 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Water: Crystal Spring, Maple Spring and Rose Canyon Spring

Named sources include Crystal Spring, Maple Spring, Rose Canyon Spring, Cottonwood Spring, Rock Spring and Iron Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

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.

Unit Oquirrh-stansbury terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Deseret Peak (10,997 ft), Vickory Mountain (10,282 ft), Bald Mountain (9,994 ft), Butterfield Peaks (9,351 ft)

Holding ground: Big Hole (8,785 ft), Box Elder Pass (8,384 ft), Edwards Pass (8,231 ft), Crystal Spring, Maple 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 Oquirrh-stansbury

UDWR's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit Oquirrh-stansbury at muzzleloader 20%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

Glassing from Bald Mountain, Sharp Mountain and Butterfield Peaks

Take a position on one of Bald Mountain (9,994 ft), Sharp Mountain (9,965 ft), Butterfield Peaks (9,351 ft) and Nelson Peak (9,345 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

The way in: I-15 and I-80

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones UDWR draws the boundary with: I-15 and I-80. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Pick the edge nearest the country you mean to hunt and work in from it on foot, rather than driving the perimeter looking for a way through.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Deseret Peak, Vickory Mountain, Bald Mountain and Butterfield Peaks as places to see from, and Big Hole, Box Elder Pass, Edwards Pass and Crystal Spring as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Join two of them into a morning: be on the first before light, move to the second once the thermals turn.

What we can't tell you

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. Settle access before the season rather than during it. Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.

Utah rules that decide your day

Summarised from UDWR regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before official sunrise to half an hour after official sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Utah requires travel on existing roads and trails; there is no general off-road retrieval allowance. Plan a pack-out from anything you can't reach from an open route.

Tagging

Notch and attach the tag to the carcass before leaving the kill site.

Leaving meat

Wasting protected wildlife is a crime.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No discharging a firearm within 600 feet of a house, dwelling or other building without permission, and no shooting from a vehicle or across a road.

Mule Deer: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Mule Deer Success Rates

Muzzleloader20%

UDWR's 2023 harvest estimates carry no mule deer row for unit Oquirrh-stansbury 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)	12	66	18.2%	4
Muzzleloader — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident)	1	10	10.0%	4

Data from 2024 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

UDWR's 2024 draw recap for mule deer in unit Oquirrh-stansbury, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

Muzzleloader, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 66 applicants for 12 licences, 18.2% drawn, 4 bonus points needed
Muzzleloader, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, nonresident: 10 applicants for 1 licences, 10% drawn, 4 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.

Elk Hunting in Unit Oquirrh-stansbury

Unit Oquirrh-stansbury lies in Salt Lake, Tooele and Utah counties. UDWR's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 28%. 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 Elk in Unit Oquirrh-stansbury

UDWR's material on unit Oquirrh-stansbury stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. 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 Salt Lake, Tooele and Utah counties.

What bounds unit Oquirrh-stansbury

High ground inside the line: Kelsey Peak, Vickory Mountain and Rocky Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Kelsey Peak at 10,341 feet, Vickory Mountain at 10,282 feet, Rocky Peak at 10,250 feet, Bald Mountain at 9,994 feet and Sharp Mountain at 9,965 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk want timber to bed in and open ground to feed on, within a short walk of each other.

Holding ground: Left Hand Fork Soldier Canyon, Hickman Pass and Mill Fork

Below them sit Left Hand Fork Soldier Canyon at 7,849 feet, Hickman Pass at 7,832 feet, Mill Fork at 7,680 feet, Markham Gulch at 7,581 feet and Sap Gulch at 7,415 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Water: Pollywog Spring, Scribner Spring and Slater Spring

Named sources include Pollywog Spring, Scribner Spring, Slater Spring, Clay Spring, Sand Spring and Cold Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

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.

Unit Oquirrh-stansbury terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Deseret Peak (10,997 ft), Vickory Mountain (10,282 ft), Bald Mountain (9,994 ft), Butterfield Peaks (9,351 ft)

Holding ground: Big Hole (8,785 ft), Box Elder Pass (8,384 ft), Edwards Pass (8,231 ft), Crystal Spring, Maple 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 Elk in Unit Oquirrh-stansbury

UDWR's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit Oquirrh-stansbury at archery 18% and rifle 28%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: find the feed, find the timber it backs onto, then watch the seam between them at the edges of the day.

Glassing from Clipper Peak, Bald Mountain and West Mountain

Take a position on one of Clipper Peak (9,193 ft), Bald Mountain (9,183 ft), West Mountain (9,057 ft) and Farnsworth Peak (9,042 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

The way in: I-15 and I-80

A first plan from the pins on this page

What we can't tell you

Utah rules that decide your day

Summarised from UDWR regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before official sunrise to half an hour after official sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Utah requires travel on existing roads and trails; there is no general off-road retrieval allowance. Plan a pack-out from anything you can't reach from an open route.

Tagging

Notch and attach the tag to the carcass before leaving the kill site.

Leaving meat

Wasting protected wildlife is a crime.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No discharging a firearm within 600 feet of a house, dwelling or other building without permission, and no shooting from a vehicle or across a road.

Elk: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body. That is lungs, and on a quartering-away angle it picks up the far shoulder.

Shots to refuse

No straight-on and no straight-away shots. An elk's chest is deep and the margin is small.
Nothing standing behind or overlapping the animal you picked. A pass-through kills the elk behind it too.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have put three shots in a paper plate off the sticks you are actually carrying. Not the farthest you have ever hit anything.
Scope on 3–4x. A herd fills a 12x field of view and you lose the animal you picked.

Identification:On an antlerless tag, legal means no antler of any kind through the skin. A spike looks exactly like a cow until it turns its head. If you can't see the head, don't shoot.

Plan the carry: roughly 150– 220 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two to four large coolers, plus bagged ice from town. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Elk Success Rates

Archery18%

Rifle28%

UDWR's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit Oquirrh-stansbury 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.

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident)	13	58	22.4%	18
Archery — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident)	1	15	6.7%	18
Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident)	13	76	17.1%	11
Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident)	1	16	6.3%	11

Data from 2022 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

UDWR's 2022 draw recap for elk in unit Oquirrh-stansbury, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

Rifle, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 76 applicants for 13 licences, 17.1% drawn, 11 bonus points needed
Archery, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 58 applicants for 13 licences, 22.4% drawn, 18 bonus points needed
Rifle, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, nonresident: 16 applicants for 1 licences, 6.3% drawn, 11 bonus points needed
Archery, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, nonresident: 15 applicants for 1 licences, 6.7% drawn, 18 bonus points needed

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

Dispersed camping on USFS and BLM ground; a few developed USFS sites in South Willow Canyon.

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Water

Limited on the desert faces; springs are documented on USFS maps but bring your own.

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Road Conditions

Paved highways around the perimeter; interior roads range from maintained gravel to rough two-track.

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Terrain Difficulty

Moderate to strenuous — steep side slopes, loose scree, and altitude up to 11,000 ft on the Stansbury.

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Hunting Pressure

Low for deer due to limited-entry tags, but the range sees heavy recreation traffic.

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Weather

Summer-like in early archery; snow possible at elevation by late rifle.

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Cell Service

Surprisingly decent from ridgelines due to Salt Lake Valley towers; dead in most drainages.

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Nearest Town

Tooele (central to both ranges); Salt Lake City is 45 minutes to Oquirrh trailheads.

Note: Watch for Kennecott industrial boundaries on the Oquirrh west slope — they're strictly enforced.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit Oquirrh-stansbury?

Unit Oquirrh-stansbury lies in Salt Lake, Tooele and Utah counties. UDWR draws unit Oquirrh-stansbury with a boundary that runs on I-15 and I-80, and on Salt Lake, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit Oquirrh-stansbury?

UDWR's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit Oquirrh-stansbury at muzzleloader 20% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Can you hunt unit Oquirrh-stansbury on public land?

What is the elk success rate in unit Oquirrh-stansbury?

UDWR's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit Oquirrh-stansbury at archery 18% and rifle 28% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

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Sources & Verification

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