What Ifs and Backup Plans

What ifs and backup plans

By the end of June, most hunters should have a pretty good idea of what tags they drew or didn’t draw. For some of you, it’s the same areas you’ve been hunting for 20 years, for others this may be the first time out west. Regardless of how long you’ve been hunting public lands in the west, there’s always a little bit of uncertainty and anxiety leading up to a hunt. Now is the time to be creating backup plans and going through “what if” scenarios, not the day you are scheduled to arrive in hunting camp.
Some of you will not have your application strategy go according to plan. So now what? What’s left if you still want to hunt Western big game? If you drew you what you expected, you may now be looking to add additional licenses in your area for the same season, or different seasons if you like to spread things out. If you didn’t draw what you expected, you’ll want to go to Plan B. But not yet, first figure out why you didn’t draw, so you don’t make the same mistake next year. Did you have a proper understanding of the draw process? Look at the drawing summaries. Was there a reduction in permits? An increase in demand? Did you understand or even look at the odds before applying?
If it’s mid-summer and you don’t have any licenses, what are your options? Of course, each state handles things a little differently. In some states, residents can purchase unlimited general licenses, but the nonresidents are limited. Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington are going to be your only options for unlimited nonresident bull elk tags. Many states will have leftover limited licenses, mostly cow and doe tags, sometimes in marginal areas, other times in merely undersubscribed areas with a large number of tags.
If you want a buck deer license, you’re in luck because those are much easier to come by. Colorado has a few leftovers every year, mostly along the Northern Front Range. Wyoming usually has large numbers of leftover “region general” tags that are good for a large number of units. Utah often has Northern Region buck deer licenses left after the draw, but they go quickly. Idaho almost never sells out there nonresident general deer tag quota (good for most of the state). Oregon and Washington have unlimited general deer tags, with Oregon’s valid mostly in the western half of the state for blacktails, but eastern Washington does have some general mule deer licenses. California will usually have a large selection of blacktail licenses, many of which are pracically unlimited, but the mule deer zones are mostly draw only. Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico will have a handful of leftover buck deer tags also.
Of the fringe western states, Nebraska is one of your best bets for mule deer tags still. Public land is severely lacking in nearly all regions but the Pine Ridge, whose tags are available first come first served. At $209, it is still one of the better deals in mule deer hunting(although half the deer in the area are whitetails), and usually doesn’t sell out until the season starts. And did I mention you could have two buck tags?
If you live in or near the state you want to hunt, or will have time before the leftovers are gone and are considering new country, take a spin around the unit. Familiarize yourself with the terrain, vegetation and access. See if these things suit you and the style of hunting you prefer. In most states, you still have plenty of time to check out new ground before having to make your decision amongst the leftover and general units. Do some brief scouting, but allow yourself some time to compare this new spot with another area. If you wait until the last minute to check out the new ground, and then don’t like it, you’re kind of stuck.
If you’re hunting familiar ground this fall, do you need a Plan B? Yes! Do you know of additional suitable camp sites if your regular place is occupied? What are you going to do if there is a fire, a road closure, emergency drought relief cattle grazing, new timber harvest or energy development in your old spot? How would these things change your hunting? Keep an eye on the local forest service and BLM sites. Go through any posted management plans. Keep yourself abreast of timber sales or energy leases. Those practices may open new roads that may or may not be good for your hunting. It’s far better to know about these changes and be able to plan ahead for them, then to show up and unexpectedly find your old campsite that used to be at the end of the road but now connects to a paved highway with gas trucks moving up and down it. There are various government sites that will help you keep abreast of stream flow and fire conditions. You probably don’t need to check on them every day, but once a month during fire season should be sufficient. A fire in early summer might be a benefit to the habitat in your area, attracting even more game if followed by good rains. But a fire in September could have a devastating effect on cover and forage.
What about scouting? I wrote a pretty comprehensive article a few months back for you, but here’s another review of it: http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/ElkHuntingUniversity/EHULessons . Be sure to keep checking back with the Elk Hunting University Lesson Plans for more articles written by other Colorado Division of Wildlife Huntmasters. In your summer scouting, make sure you do not focus all of your efforts in a single area. Not only is it fun to see new country, but you can make more informed decisions when you have a basis for comparison. When checking out new country, dissect the unit by the major drainages to help spread out your efforts and to be able compare relative abundance of sign. If you’ve only seen one area, how can you have much of a backup plan? Make sure you have a plan when scouting, don’t just bumble around randomly sniffing the Wood’s Rose and hoping to find elk or deer. Have a checklist of things you hope to see or verify, and locations you expect to find them.
If you’ve done your homework, hopefully you will be prepared if you show up two days before the season starts and find your first choice area is 50 other people’s first choice also. If you had a plan for how to use heavy pressure to your advantage, you’ll still be fine. But if you thought you were the only one who would be hunting the beautiful meadow a half mile past the road closure, time to enact Plan B. What will you do if the weather isn’t exactly what you had hoped for? What are you going to do if it is windy, or snowing or raining or hot and dry? Plans A, B, C and D might have to be scrapped for Plan E.
Other problems can occur that may be difficult to anticipate. Some people cannot handle the higher elevations and thinner air in the west. Talk to your doctor ahead of time about prescription medications that may help you cope. Keep in mind that the elderly will have the hardest time acclimating to higher altitudes. In an elk camp of mine at a mere 9,000 feet, we had a 70 year old from Tennessee wake up with nausea, aching joints, headaches and dizziness from altitude sickness. By descending to lower elevation, and resting for another day, he was able to continue his hunt. If we didn’t have an alternate area to hunt, he would have been stuck in a motel in Craig, Colorado while his friends and relatives were hunting the high country without him. Make sure you aren’t fixated solely on high elevation areas. Even if you can physically handle the elevation, snow conditions may restrict your access temporarily. Lower elevation canyons can be rich in game, but difficult hiking.
Don’t overlook the demands placed on your vehicle(s). Fresh air filter, oil and oil filter is just a start. Chains aren’t just useful for snow, but can be crucial to your survival on muddy roads. At a bare minimum, make sure your tires have a decent amount of remaining tread.
Without being too much of a pessimist, make a list of “if A, then B” scenarios. Think about what could ruin your first plan, and what you would do about it. A few years ago, I found a beaver had built a dam just barely downstream of a road I was planning on using to access my hunting grounds. I considered trying to cross it in the Suburban I had, but quick prodding with a stick told me that was a recipe for disaster. By having good maps, I figured out a new, convoluted route to my hunting spot, which I liked much more due to the difficult access. That wasn’t much for preparation, but it changed my mental ranking of spots I was considering hunting by changing the previous parameters. Keep in mind that hunters do not like having to cross country that they cannot legally hunt. So in some places it makes sense to try to find pockets of country that are relatively accessible, but rejected by the public due to regulations making it less desirable. While studying your maps, you will find a crucial road being blocked by private land. Many county websites have their plat maps digitized, so it can be simple to figure out who owns that property so you might come up with an access arrangement.
Any scouting you conduct this summer will likely change what you thought you knew about an area and how you thought you may want to hunt it. So be flexible and be prepared. Know what you are going to do ahead of time when you are thrown for a loop.
There is no offseason to the dedicated. The end of application season is upon us, but it is now scouting season. Scouting season isn’t just for the upcoming fall, you should have your eyes open to future possibilities during your travels and adventures. You likely won’t get a chance to see much of the country you plan to apply for during the next application season if you don’t plan for it now. So if you take a little extra time this summer, you may be able to sharpen your long and short term plans. You do have long and short term plans, don’t you? Might be a topic for a future article.