rather_be_huntin

Yes it is legal to hunt all NF lands, BLM, and state ground as well.

One thing to keep in mind that you probably already know is that the regulations on NF land are federal regulations, not state regs, and are usually pretty standard from state to state and NF to NF. Having said that it is NOT legal to go off of established trails and roads to recover animals on NF lands in Utah.

Every year it's important to get an updated map from the forest service with all the color coded roads and trails so you know which are open to ATV's and which are not. Their main concern is collisions on certain roads and they enforce it so make sure you know.

Some trails are only open to ATV's (of course motorcycles as well but closed to larger vehicles) so it is certainly good to have ATV's in some situations.

EDIT: I almost forgot. Utah recently passed a law that in towns smaller than a certain population (can't remember right now the population number) ATV's can be used on public, paved roads. They just have to pass a vehicle safety inspection meaning basically you have to add some blinkers and a horn. Manti I'm almost sure would qualify so you certainly could use them as a grocery getter.

rather_be_huntin

Both the ML Central and ML S.E. were all gone in the draw last year so it's possbile you won't draw either although I would say your odds are pretty good that you'll get one. There are not a lot of ML hunters that walk away from the draw without a tag although it does happen. I will say if you don't get the Central region with your first choice chances are slim you'll get SE with your 2nd. They do all the 1 choice draws first for each region/weapon. If there are tags left then they do 2nd choices draws and so on.

If you want to make sure you get a tag you could also do ML Northern as your 3rd choice and maybe even add Rifle Northern as a 4th.

Just so you are aware last year there were leftover tags from the draw on:

Archery Deer Statewide - 2,396 left
ML and Rifle Northern - 6,250 left

However those tags sold very fast once going OTC. If you want an OTC deer tag this year (if you don't draw of course) make sure you are up early and online buying one on the first day they are available.

heinz57

i don't want to high jack your post SWTHOMAS but after reading every single post i am glad to hunt were i live ..moose ,caribou ,bear and deer all i have to do is buy a hunting licence ..and go hunting ..but good luck with your venture ...

builder459

I have never hunted the northern region,my understandind if thier is very little public land ?.also my feeling is this year a lot of people won't be hunting out of state due to the continual decline in the economy,especially here in ca.

SWThomas

Awesome! Again, thanks for the info.

SWThomas

I hear ya. Must be nice.

rather_be_huntin

That would be nice. Unfortunately hunting is very popular around here and populations in Utah are growing very rapidly. There is just more demand than supply right now.