This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah's most popular hunt — the general deer rifle season — opens Saturday and optimism is high for the more than 55,000 hunters who have a permit to hunt.
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources biologists say there is an estimated 384,000 mule deer in the state, up 100,000 in the past four years. That's the highest number of deer since the 1980s.
Biologists also say the number of bucks in the herds is also impressive and on the increase.
Success has also been up in the past few years. Last season, 43 percent of permit holders killed a deer.
"And not all of those deer were young animals," said Justin Shannon, the DWR's big game coordinator. "The number of mature bucks that hunters are taking keeps growing."
He expects that success this fall will be similar to the 2015 hunt.
Weather can be a factor in the hunt, especially access to the backcountry, but out should not be a problem. No major storms are in the long-term forecast until Monday.
In order to help hunters prepare, the DWR has created a website that allows them to get information on the unit where they have a permit to hunt.
The site is http://www.wildlife.utah.gov/huntplanner.
The site offers notes from the biologist who manages the unit where hunters have a permit. It tells the number of bucks compared to the number of does on the unit.
There are also maps that show the unit's boundaries, which land is public and which is private and the various types of deer habitat found in the unit.
Non hunters who plan to be in deer hunting outdoor areas would also do well to wear bright clothing so they can be easily identified.