Long term planning

As with many aspects in life, setting goals, having a plan and mapping out the steps necessary to achieve those goals is crucial to our success. With our hunting goals, having a series of long and short term plans makes a lot of sense. By understanding draw odds we can usually anticipate when we will draw a highly coveted tag, but we aren’t going to stay at home if we don’t draw that dream tag, right? That’s where short term planning also makes sense. I’ll go through several examples, including my own, of how some might make long and short term hunting plans.
There are many highly publicized trophy areas throughout the west for both elk and deer. Some of Colorado’s elk units may take nearly 20 years to draw and the odds of drawing some New Mexico elk tags make it seem unlikely you will ever draw in your lifetime. So you have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Would you rather have a pretty good hunt every few years or one great chance in your lifetime? Just like with high-end optics, the economics of drawing trophy elk and deer licenses follows a law of diminishing returns. A hunt that is far better than average, often takes much more time to draw than a pretty good hunt. In some of the most tightly managed trophy elk country, fewer than 10% of the bulls are harvested yearly, you will feel like you are one of the only hunters on the whole mountain, and the animals are so lightly pressured that your odds of success are incredibly high. But are you willing to wait 20 years to draw that hunt? Will you be physically capable of capitalizing on your new tag? Are you willing to sacrifice a little success rate and hunter pressure for a chance at a similar caliber of bull? Would you rather sacrifice trophy potential and hunter pressure for a good chance of success on a younger bull? In order to put ourselves in a position to have a public land dream hunt, we have to have the tags. But by reducing our demands slightly, we can come up with hunting areas that we can draw much more frequently.
To have it all every year, you must be willing to pay for quality management on a private ranch or reservation, or be willing and able to purchase highly coveted tags at auction prices. The reality is that most of us are DIY hunters, and even if we could afford to hunt a trophy managed ranch, some of us take greater pleasure in doing the hunting for ourselves.
The major western big game species, elk, deer, antelope, bighorn sheep, moose, mountain goats and bears all require slightly different long and short term strategies. In many western states, elk, deer, bear and antelope can be hunted yearly. Maybe not in the best areas, but some of them are still very good, if a little less desirable in terms of pressure, trophy potential, success, or access, but not necessarily all of those general categories. But bighorn sheep, moose and mountain goats are likely a once or twice in a lifetime hunt for a DIY hunter outside of Alaska or Canada.
Understanding the application process for each species you are interested in hunting in each western and fringe state is important in your planning process. I outlined each of the western state’s application processes for elk and deer in this article: http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/Elk/Nonresidents-Guide-to-Western-Hunting-02081010.html . Most states have some sort of opportunity for hunters without preference points to draw a tag, even if it is a slim opportunity, through a random draw. Random draws allocate a minority of tags, often 20-25%, giving everyone a shot at a tag. Other states operate on a bonus point system, where those with more points get their name in the hat an extra time to increase their draw odds, but never guarantee it. Colorado is the only state with a pure preference system at this time, and as of 2010, the hunts that take 10 or more resident points to draw, now have a chance to be drawn by those with 5 or more points in a separate random draw.
Once you have a couple of long term goal options in mind and have figured out how to get there, now what? I hope you’re not going to sit on your haunches for 20 years, waiting for your ship to come in. If you’ve only elk hunted once or twice in your life, you may in for a big disappointment when you get to your trophy unit. The country may not be what you’ve envisioned and the elk probably won’t be standing around in the open, waiting for you to shoot them. You need hunting practice, and you need to at least lay eyes on the areas you have in mind once or twice. Some of the best trophy elk units came about not because the soil conditions are so fantastic, but because the elk were too accessible, so something had to be done to limit the hunter numbers. The country may be more desert-like than what you imagine for your dream hunt, so check it out while doing other scouting trips or vacations. In other cases, the unit may be more remote and inaccessible than what you can handle. Make sure it is what you want before you draw the tag. The dead of winter can be a good time to visit the Rockies. You’ll be able to see game on their winter ranges, and can always throw in a ski trip to keep the rest of the family happy. Just don’t tear up your knee.
If you’ve settled on a unit in a particular state, check out the tag availability for other species or even antlerless tags that you can hunt while getting to know the country. In some trophy deer units, the elk may not be trophy managed so you may have more total hunters to deal with than you wanted. I don’t like surprises, I want to know what to expect in terms of total hunting pressure, access, trophy potential and restrictions before I show up.
For myself, in looking at the data in most states, I don’t find it worth my time to hold out for 20 years or more to hunt the very best trophy elk units in Colorado. I find value in having a very good hunt nearly every year because I’m willing to sacrifice access or success. What I will not compromise on is hunter pressure. I want very high trophy potential, but my standards are on a sliding scale depending on how many days into the hunt, or how far from a truck I am. I usually won’t choose to hunt a unit unless I know there is a chance of killing an older bull or buck. In Colorado, there are a couple of OTC units that harvest less than 15% of the bulls each year. Access is difficult in these units, but I need to know the big ones are out there to keep me going day after day. So my long term elk goals do not include a 20 year wait for any specific unit in Colorado. I hunt on OTC tags every other year or two if I do not draw a really good 1st season or muzzleloader bull tag. I also pick up a cow tag every year and tag along on other hunts with friends whose hunts do not conflict with my own. This helps me learn new country and fill more tags. If I have already harvested a cow elk early in the year, I feel less pressure to fill my bull tag.
My longer term elk hunting goals include trophy hunts in Arizona, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming. I used to live in and have taken elk in Montana, but intend to return and hunt on general tags now that I’ve analyzed the data and realized how many good places I overlooked while I was in college. Most years I bite off more than I can chew, and end up with a tag or two that I can’t use. Last year, that was an elk tag I had for Idaho with plans to do a backcountry hunt in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. I still plan to do that hunt, but I can purchase that tag any year I’m up for it. For New Mexico, because there is no preference system, there is no harm in skipping a year or two, because your odds don’t really change. Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Arizona all require the purchase of a nonrefundable hunting license in order to apply, so this discourages me from applying, but increases the odds for those who do. Wyoming’s preference system is still fairly new, so I don’t feel disadvantaged by not having any points at this time. Combined with the option to purchase a preference point in July instead of applying, I don’t feel like my Wyoming dream elk hunt is too far in the future. In fact, it’s probably something I can do every couple of years.
If I ever settle into a rhythm, and money were less of an object (we can wish, can’t we?), here’s how I’d lay out my elk applications: Good, solid 1st rifle or muzzleloader elk hunts in Colorado every two to three years, plus cow tags and/or OTC bull tags every year, stagger those draws with Wyoming and Idaho hunts on the years you can afford to throw in an out of state hunt. Apply for New Mexico the years you don’t expect to draw a solid tag. I need to be applying for Utah, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada more frequently, but so far it’s difficult to justify. I have a brother in Oregon that will go bird hunting with me if I don’t draw deer or elk tags, so I really need to be taking him up on that. This year, I drew a good muzzleloader tag with one preference point and will be purchasing a Wyoming elk preference point with hope of drawing next year. For my second elk hunt, I’ll be purchasing a leftover list B cow elk tag but my summer scouting will determine which unit and which season.
Now, I love deer hunting, especially mule deer, and intend to harvest a deer in nearly every state before I die. Two things that make me a happy man: most non-western states have easy to acquire deer tags, and the state I live in has excellent deer hunting. Here in Colorado, I do find it worth it to hold out for good deer tags, but not for more than 5 years. So my hunting generally follows the pattern of 2 or so years of 2nd choice or leftover buck hunting, followed by 1 good year of trophy hunting. I apply to numerous other states for deer tags most years, and am almost always sitting on one or two that I didn’t end up using. For me, the most convenient nonresident state to apply for is Nevada, but New Mexico used to get an application from me every year also before they required the full fee up front. I will also be buying a preference point in Wyoming with intent to return there and better my last buck. Nebraska is another state I frequently hunt with decent public land and easy to come by mule deer tags. My short term deer hunting goals mostly focus on the opportunities here in Colorado and my neighboring states: Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Arizona is high on my list too, and might fit into the category of longer term. I’d like to do some quail hunting there to help justify purchasing a license before applying. With brothers in both Washington and Oregon, it makes it easy to justify hunt planning those states too. As opportunities come up in new states, I take advantage of them when I can and am confident I will kill a deer in all 49 states which they are native to. The demand for mule deer and whitetail tags is not so great that I need a 20 year plan to trophy hunt a specific state. This year, I drew first choice elk and deer tags, zeroing out my points for both here in Colorado. If I had planned it a little better, I’d stagger my good elk and deer hunts so as to make my scouting a little easier and so that I wouldn’t have a year like next year where I won’t likely draw a great tag for either in my home state.
Antelope is something I enjoy hunting, but I treat it much more casually than my elk and deer hunting. Here in Colorado, buck tags in units with significant public land require more than 10 points, so I need a long term plan. In order to get my fill of antelope hunting I’ve been going to Wyoming on cheap doe tags, while accumulating points here in Colorado. If I was in a hurry to shoot another good buck, I could pick up a tag in Wyoming or Montana nearly every year. But it’s not very high on my list right now.
Bears are another casual species to hunt for me. For whatever reason, they don’t excite me like elk and deer, but I pick up an OTC tag every once in a while, while accumulating points. I don’t have a goal for them and it kills me to not know what to do with the points. I’m sure I will be thrilled to take one, but maybe since I haven’t, it’s the reason I just don’t care much about them.
I’m always stressing to others to not accumulate points without a unit in mind for elk and deer, but since I’m a hypocrite, I am doing it for bears. One of the reasons to not accumulate points without a unit in mind is because you never know when demand may fall off or tags may increase and the unit may be easier to draw. You may also be wasting precious hunting years when you find that a unit that would suit your dreams could be drawn with 8 points and you’ve already accumulated 12 points. You could have had your dream hunt four years ago and be half way there to hunt that unit again if you so chose.
For the rarer trophy species such as moose, sheep and mountain goats, I had always just assumed I would hunt them in Alaska when I was ready. Colorado’s sheep, goat and moose draw process makes it almost impossible to draw a tag for your first three years of applying, which has discouraged me from throwing my name in the hat. But reality struck me in the face this year, with a very good friend drawing a mountain goat tag. He had been applying for less than 5 years and he now has a dream tag. Yes, he was lucky, but someone has to draw the tags. On a recent scouting trip, we found mountain goats in the first drainage we checked, so now I’m kicking myself for not jumping on my state’s opportunities. He is just 33, and stands a very good chance of drawing another tag while he is still active and mobile.
The point of all this is that some of us are just spinning our wheels, when we could be living our dreams right now. Bring your goals into focus by mapping out a comprehensive strategy that is attainable. If we don’t believe we will ever reach our hunting goals, we won’t put the effort into achieving them. In order to achieve or long and short term goals, we need to know how to play the preference point games. We need to continue to develop, learn and hone our hunting techniques and strategies through cow hunts or deer hunts in our highly sought after units. If your physical abilities are diminishing, how capable will you be when you finally draw? Is there another place you can hunt sooner and still be satisfied? Have you even set foot in the unit you’ve been holding out for for 10 years? I’m sure there are many more questions you need to ask yourself, and if you need a guidance counselor, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email.