Utah LE elk tag?

Rifle, it's in the middle of the RUT.

I agree with Brett for the most part. I drew a MZ tag on the Puans in '09 and it had been pretty well picked over by the rifle hunters. Now I know that is a little different situation than most other units due to the then small elk population that was on the Pauns at the time. As far as the rut goes it was winding down but the action was still pretty hot most mornings.

early rifle is the way to go

This last year the rut was more in the muzz hunt due to the warm weather though. So it depends on the year

I think I'd take a muzzleloader tag... still get the rut & it's slightly easier to draw the tag.

Muzzleloader is in the rut also been on 3 le muzzleloader hunts. Bulls were going crazy on every hunt. Odds are alot better to draw also.

Muzzleloader hands down. No orange required. Bulls are going nuts. Fewer hunters. Less points to draw. 50 yds is much more satisfying than shooting one 300 yds away IMHO.

"MeltedSnowman" wrote:Fewer hunters.

That may not necessarily be true... in most of the State you have all the general muzzleloader deer guys also in the field. This is the one thing that makes me second guess the LE muzzleloader elk. Consider this... there are six different units I'm considering for next year & of those six units each are general deer areas. If you consider the number of LE elk tags plus the general deer tags there's a lot more people out there than the early rifle. Here's the numbers:
- Cache, South: 42 early rifle tags, 17 muzzy elk tags AND ~1100 general muzzy deer hunters
- Wasatch Mountains: 174 early rifle tags, 115 muzzy elk tags AND ~1400 general muzzy deer hunters

Not all units are like that though... most are quite manageable with the number of general deer tags offered:
- La Sal Mountains: 30 early rifle tags, 13 muzzy elk tags AND ~300 general muzzy deer hunters
- Oquirrh-Stansbury: 8 early rifle tags, 5 muzzy elk tags AND ~300 general muzy deer hunters
- Plateau, Fishlake: 58 early rifle tags, 23 muzzy elk tags AND ~200 general muzzy deer hunters
- West Desert, Deep Creek: 11 early rifle tags, 7 muzzy elk tags AND ~50 general muzzy deer hunters

As you can see, some areas will be much more crowded than others... Cache & Wasatch, YIKES! But each area will contain several times the amount of pressure on the muzzleloader hunt than the early rifle. The only way to truly guarantee that you have fewer hunters on the muzzy hunt would be to draw an area that is also LE for deer (e.g. Book Cliffs, Paunsaugunt, Diamond Mountain, San Juan).

I agree 100% with everything else mentioned though... no orange, bulls going crazy, having a "close encounter" experience, and less time to draw.