Photo by Michael Mauro

Ask hunters in Utah where they would go to hunt trophy-caliber mule deer and you will hear one answer almost exclusively: the Paunsaugunt. Perhaps the most impressive part of their answer will be that this funny word will simply roll off their lips as if they have been saying it since they could first talk, and for many deer hunters in the Beehive State, that wouldn't be an exaggeration.

Utah's Paunsaugunt Plateau, which is in the southwest corner of the state, has attributes that will make any serious deer hunter salivate, not the least of which is that a lucky hunter who draws a permit to hunt there is virtually guaranteed a shot at a mule deer buck whose rack sports a 24-inch spread. The really lucky ones find bucks with spreads of 30 or more inches.

And there are even bigger bucks. Clients of big-game guide Wade Ovard have taken mule deer with 37-inch spreads.

More of the area's attributes include mule deer with the right genetics and a management philosophy to make record-book dreams come true. With an overall estimated population of 3,700 mulies whose average age is between 4 and 5 years, the Paunsaugunt Unit draws the attention of far more hunters who want a hunting tag to go there each year than it has tags available. Why? Because those who do draw tags will have no problem finding deer. "You see a lot of deer -- typical and non-typical both," said Ovard.

"It's a pretty well sought-after unit to hunt," said Neil Sorenson, a big-game manager of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

The Paunsaugunt and the Henry Mountain units are what the DWR defines as premium wildlife management units. Permits are limited and deer are managed so as to provide trophy animals. (Continued)

Utah DWR biologist Adam Bronson says the ideal post-season buck-to-doe ratio for this unit is 35 bucks per every 100 does. The latest counts, taken while Paunsaugunt deer were on winter range for the last three or four years, have ranged between 34-to-100 and 37-to-100. "To put everything in perspective, most of our general-season units are averaging 12 to 18 bucks per 100 does," said Bronson. "We manage for bucks 5 years old or better. We actually take teeth, incisors that hunters submit. We have them aged accurately to the exact year by cross sectioning the tooth so they will match that of the 4- or 5-year-old deer."

The cross section of a deer's tooth is similar to looking at the cross section of a tree, counting the rings to determine the age. Mule deer have rings in their teeth that they accumulate each year they live. "The last several years our average has been about 4.4 and 4.7, so we are still slightly under what we would like to have," Bronson added.

Hunting the Paunsaugunt is a microcosm of hunting opportunities. Here a hunter can experience a summer archery season on the plateau. In October as the weather changes, the rifle hunter hunts the deer as they migrate toward wintering grounds. In the muzzle loading season mule deer can be hunted in high desert conditions -- one of the best of hunting times if you are lucky enough to draw a coveted permit.

"The deer summer up on the high plateau," said Ovard. "A lot of the deer are still in bachelor herds, where they all still are buddy-buddy. They stay there pretty much until they get hard horned. Once they get hard horned they will start moving down into some of the canyons. The first real cold spell of the year, (which occurs from) the first of October to the middle of October, when you get that first cold storm of the year, they head south. We call them wimpy deer; they don't like the weather."