Earliest Start Dates/Where would you go?

I am new to the forums, but love all your stories and especially the trail cam forum. Not gonna find a moose, elk or wolf on my trail cam here at home.

A friend and I are looking at coming west for an archery muley hunt. It would be my second western arhcery hunt, and several years ago before my kids came along my buddy and I lucked into AZ bull elk archery tags, and went up to the Kaibab after scoring to try for a muley. I got close, but always needed a couple more steps for a clear shot.

We would have to either drive/camp or fly and find a place to stay and rent a car. We'd want somewhere accessible, but somewhere we could get off the beaten path. We aren’t afraid to walk or do what’s necessary. We’re both in pretty decent shape and should be able to hold up to the rigors of a muley hunt.

Utah seems to be a good starting point, especially for flying in with reasonable cost and obtainable licenses. If you get on a plane, it doesn’t really matter if it goes 1000 miles or 1400. I know lots of eastern guys go to CO, basically because it’s the first place you hit as you head west if you are driving. We wouldn't be looking for anyone's honey-hole, just a nudge in the right direction. Any suggestions? We would be looking at 2009 at the earliest, BTW. My friend is a teacher, so if we could go and get home before school starts, that would be a bonus, that's another thing for UT.

Thanks in advance, and keep posting those trail cam pics please....
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MuleyMadness
I teach also, when does school start out there?

Utah is a good option and all regions have pretty good deer opportunities. Vegas Airport is 3-4 hours from Hunting.

Salt Lake may have some closer travel time for hunting.

Pine Valley Area, Beaver Mtn., Boulder Mtn., Cedar Mtn., etc are all popular for Archery. Plus others
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3darcher2
My friend teaches Health/PE and is a wrestling coach. School started here the day after Labor Day this year due to construction. Typically it starts the last week of Aug. He does have some personal days though, so we could use them if we had to.
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MuleyMadness
I see cool, I teach PE/HEALTH also. Sweet.

Archery started on the 18th of August this year, usually the 3rd weekend in August.
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3darcher2
He actually got my son interested in wrestling and now he's a sophomore in college wrestling in OH and hopefully on his way to teaching Health/PE and coaching wrestling too.

Is the UT opener the earliest general opener for archery, or is there somewhere else that starts first?
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MuleyMadness
I think Nevada starts first?? But could be wrong.
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alpinbowman
Yeah nevada does start first but getting a tag might be a little tougher than utah.
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StickFlicker
Arizona starts normally around the 24th of August, always on Friday. However, the over the counter tags are starting to be phased out beginning in 2008 and the Kiabab that you hunted before (along with all units North of the Canyon) will be among the first to go. You will need to draw those archery hunts beginning in 2008.
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3darcher2
Yeah, we were in 6B for elk and didn't even realize there was deer in season anywhere. We spent a couple days just hanging out and waiting for our elk at the locker, out videotaping, etc, and when we picked them up, the guy there said we should have run up to the north rim, so we did for a couple days. By the time we got there, they were really getting skittish, it was over a week into the season.

I think we are going to wind up in UT. Just figuring where and the logistics of camping out a the luggage you can squeeze on a plane is going to be the hard part.
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Default Avatar
Where in Pa are you from? I grew up in Bucks Co. north of philly. Funny thing is, I've been considering heading back there to hunt whitetails mainly because an out of state tag is only 100 bucks. And you can hunt turkey with that too!
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3darcher2
LJ, I am from over by Pittsburgh. It is just so completely different hunting in PA compared to anywhere else, and I am not saying that is a good thing at all. Yes the turkeys are everywhere, I see them almost daily and I am in Allegheny County.
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