Nonresident's Guide to Western Hunting

Originally published with photos here:
http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/Elk/Nonresidents-Guide-to-Western-Hunting-02081010.html

The following is designed to be a not-so concise look at the opportunities available to those who have decided to come out West for an elk, deer or antelope hunt and don’t know where to start. This won’t address bighorn sheep, mountain goats, or moose as those are typically once-in-a-lifetime hunts. This is also designed for DIY hunters, not for those looking for private land or outfitted hunts, as there are various other aspects regarding transferable tags that could also be addressed. To the best of my knowledge this information is up to date and accurate. Let’s take a look at each state, one at a time, the tag procurement processes, license fees, competitive advantages and disadvantages compared to other states, and various things that make each state unique.
First a few definitions regarding the major public lands that may not be familiar to those who do not live in the West:
USFS: The United States Forest Service, these are the lands where most hunters hunt. They are typically higher elevation lands open to most recreation with a few limitations. There are also National Grasslands that are run by the USFS, and hunting is permitted here as well. There may be, and in fact frequently are, private inholdings within the administrative boundaries of these lands where you cannot hunt. Make sure you have a good map that shows the actual land ownership, not just the administrative boundary.
BLM: The Bureau of Land Management. These are federally owned public lands, but they are not indicated on your typical road atlas. BLM lands are notorious for not being marked or being marked as private lands when they are in fact public. Once again, you need a good map.
Wilderness: This does not mean woods or forest. Federally designated wilderness areas can occur on either USFS or BLM lands. Wilderness areas on BLM lands are referred to as Wilderness Study Areas or WSAs and are treated the same as a USFS Wilderness Area. The important thing to know about Wilderness Areas is that there is no motorized access permitted. If you are looking for a horseback hunt, backpack hunt or want to just ensure there are no ATVs, these are the areas to focus on. Also, there is no wheeled vehicles of any sort allowed, which includes mountain bikes and game carts. Another important note is that the state of Wyoming does not permit nonresidents to hunt big game in wilderness areas without a guide.
State Trust Lands: Throughout most of the west, section 16 and 36 in each township is designated as a State Trust Land, also School Lands. These lands are not always publicly accessible and vary from state to state. In many states, they are treated as private lands, controlled by those who own the grazing lease on these lands.
One other issue regarding public access: You cannot cross private land to access public land. If there is no public road access to a block of land, you may as well consider it private ground. You are trespassing if crossing private lands. Also, in areas where checkerboard landownership patterns exist, it is generally illegal to cross from one corner of land to the next because the law assumes you must have been trespassing, even if briefly in order to hop from one piece of land to the next.
ARIZONA
Arizona has a national reputation for trophy deer and elk hunting, but they also have spectacular trophy antelope hunting despite not having the antelope numbers of places like Wyoming and Montana. Arizona, along with New Mexico and Texas are the only opportunities for Coues deer in the US. While the image most folks have of Arizona being a desert is mostly true, a strip of mountains running northwest to southeast holds most of the elk habitat and National Forest lands. There are large holdings of BLM land in the rugged western and northern deserts, and probably more state land than any other western state (13% of the state). Indian Reservations make up a large percentage of the lands in eastern Arizona. There is a small wolf population in the Blue Range.
Due to the requirement of purchasing a $150 hunting license before the drawing, Arizona has surprisingly good draw odds for a state whose trophy opportunities are so well published. The elk and antelope applications are due February 9th, 2010. Deer applications are normally due in June. You are required to pay the full fee of the $150 hunting license plus whichever species you are attempting to draw; $595 for elk, $485 for antelope and $232 for deer. Arizona does not have a preference system, but rather a bonus system to increase the odds for repeat applicants. The draw is different than most other states, utilizing what they call the 3 passes. The first is the bonus point pass, where up to 20% of the permits are issued, where those with bonus points through repeat applications, hunter education or group applicants have additional chances to be drawn. The remaining permits are allocated in the 2nd pass by attempting to randomly fill applicants’ 1st and 2nd choices. The 3rd pass does the same thing with 3rd, 4th and 5th choices. For hunters who feel “stuck” with a $150 license they aren’t likely to use if unsuccessful in the drawing, Arizona has some very diverse upland game bird opportunities that cannot be found in the East, including chukar, blue grouse, Gambel’s quail, California quail, Mearn’s quail, and scaled quail.
Elk seasons vary quite a lot, but nearly every unit has a rifle season from November 26th to December 2nd. There are also rifle seasons during the rut, and a wide variety of archery seasons. Antelope seasons are almost all from September 3-12. Deer seasons rarely overlap with elk seasons, and most of the rifle deer seasons occur for 10 days in late October through early November.
Scopes, sabots and inlines are legal for muzzleloader hunting in Arizona.
State lands can be hunted. A valid hunting license grants you access to those lands. They are frequently posted, “No Trespassing without valid permit” or something similar.
CALIFORNIA
Hardly on the radar of most travelling hunters, California has more opportunities than some might realize. While sometimes considered California’s most popular game animal, there is a lot more to the state than wild hog hunting. The huge state offers a wide variety of blacktailed and mule deer hunting opportunities, including several subspecies of mule deer not found anywhere else in the West. California is also the only state in the West to have three sub species of elk to hunt, and there are also limited opportunities for antelope. And don’t forget the stellar black bear hunting. Northern California is mostly heavily timbered, low elevation mountains, with large tracts of Forest Service and some commercial timber lands, but also home to the largest Columbian Blacktails. The Central Coast is also semi-mountainous terrain, but much drier than the North, with shrublands and smaller trees dominating the landscape. There are very few big game opportunities in the Central Valley, which is almost entirely private. The Sierra Nevadas make up much of Eastern California, and extend to over 14,000 feet, with Mt. Whitney being the tallest peak in the lower 48. Southern California isn’t just the LA Basin; it is surrounded by a mountain range, with some peaks that extend over 10,000 feet. East of those mountains is the Mojave Desert, a rugged desert, owned primarily by the BLM.
Applications for all big game species are due in early June. There is a preference system, with 90% of the tags going to those with the most points, and 10% going to a random draw for the so-called Premium Deer Tags. The Premium Deer Tags are primarily in the Sierra Nevadas and Cascades for mule deer. The elk tags are a long shot at best for a nonresident and ridiculously priced like Nevada. Those tags not considered premium are available first-come, first served. A $141 hunting license is required before applying, and the full $242 deer license fee is required up front. Elk, antelope and sheep tags do not require the full fee up front, just a $7.50 application fee. Elk tags, if drawn are $1,062 and only one is available to nonresidents per year.
One interesting thing about California is that you can buy two buck tags. The second cannot be a Premium tag, but the opportunity is available if you want to spread out that $141 hunting license fee. Another interesting opportunity for the hunter who is bored out of his mind in midsummer is that California offers an August rifle deer season along the Coast Range. Most of the other seasons are in September and October, although a few extend into November. Another nice aspect to California’s deer seasons is that they are often over 1 month long, except the Premium mule deer units, none of which are less than two weeks. And if you’re really looking for something different, you can bow hunt in July along the Coast. The muzzleloader opportunities are special hunts and relegated to just a few places.
Outside of the National Forest and BLM, there are very few opportunities (but there is a lot of BLM and National Forest land). A handful of state wildlife areas offer big game hunting, and private land access is rare.
COLORADO
This is the state most people think of first when they think about Western hunting. Colorado has the largest elk population and with a diverse selection of management philosophies, there is something for everyone regarding elk. The mule deer hunting opportunities are more limited, and all deer tags are controlled, but even without applying there are numerous units with leftover tags each year. While antelope are present here, this is not a great state to hunt them for a nonresident. The tags are very difficult to draw, and the populations are nothing compared to Wyoming.
Part of what makes Colorado so popular is the availability of unlimited over-the-counter elk tags for over half of western Colorado (that’s where most of the elk are, the eastern 1/3 is prairie. In general the far western 1/3 is rugged desert, mesa and canyon lands, the central 1/3 is the mountainous area most people envision). Archery tags, 2nd rifle season and 3rd rifle season are the only seasons with unlimited tags. 1st and 4th rifle season are draw only, but there are sometimes high quality tags available as leftovers. The units that are not unlimited are managed with one of two management philosophies: crowd controlled, or quality managed. The crowd controlled units are mostly near the main urban centers of the Front Range, and are limited to prevent overcrowding. By reducing the crowding, those units also tend to have decent trophy potential, but without the steep price in preference points of the trophy units: 2, 10, 201, 40, 61 and 76.
Presently, nonresident elk tags are $550 for bulls and $350 for cows. There is no separate hunting license needed. Colorado has 6 seasons in most units, plus special late and early rifle seasons in a few units, but those tend to be for cows only. Deer tags $326 and are draw only, but there are often leftover tags. If planning a combo hunt, it is most convenient to try to draw a deer tag in an OTC elk unit during 2nd or 3rd season so you don’t have to plan on drawing both tags.
Colorado’s draw process is by a pure preference system: those with the most points get the tags. Don’t worry, most hunts don’t require any preference points to draw. The application deadline is April 6, 2010. You may apply as a party, and there is no limit to group size. The best units will likely fill with the first choice, but look at the drawing summaries to find units whose tags are still available during 2nd and 3rd choice so you don’t waste your draws if you are trying to get a limited tag. If you don’t fill your first choice, you will be granted a preference point for next year’s drawing. If you still want a tag, other than one in the main drawing, the next step is the leftover draw. Do not forget to check the box that asks if you wish to be eligible for the leftover drawing. After the drawing, a list of units with leftover tags will be available first to those in the leftover draw in June. If there are still tags leftover, and there always will be, there is a first-come, first-served basis for distributing them in August. If you miss out on all these, or would prefer to be secure in the knowledge that the tag you want is going to be available to you, there is always the OTC archery, 2nd and 3rd rifle season tags for elk. Deer seasons are primarily during 2nd and 3rd season, there is no 1st rifle deer season, and there are very few 4th season tags (mule deer rut). One other intriguing tag for hardcore hunters is the early rifle deer tags. Those tags restrict hunters to a wilderness area in early September and usually require more than 1 preference point.
You may have two Colorado elk and deer tags each, but at least one of each of those species must be List B. List B tags are listed in the regs booklet and are always female tags, but not all female tags in all units qualify as List B, typically only those with population problems. So you may have either two female tags or one male and one female tag for both elk and deer.
2010 archery season is August 28-Sept 26. The first weekends are very popular due to Labor Day, but not a good choice as the elk rut doesn’t hit high gear until much later in the season. The last two weekends are usually the best, but the elk have already been pressured for several weeks. These tags are available over the counter in unlimited numbers for much of the state, but there are some draw only areas that are worth the effort.
Muzzleloader elk season is Sept 11-19, and the peak of the rut usually falls during this time. All muzzleloader tags are limited, and draw only. Colorado does not allow scopes or sabots during muzzleloader season.
1st rifle season is limited to draw only, but there are some tags, especially for cows that make it to leftovers 1st season is usually the highest success rate and will be Oct 16-20 in 2010. 2nd season offers unlimited bull tags throughout much of Colorado is the most popular season to hunt. It is also the first available deer season, and will be Oct 23-31 2010. This is the lowest success deer season and 3rd highest success elk season, but it’s popularity was partly due to the fact that it was traditionally the only season with two weekends. 3rd season is Nov 6-14, and for the first time will now span two weekends. This is traditionally the lowest success elk season, and one of the best deer seasons. 3rd season bull elk tags are available OTC for many areas. 4th season is only 5 days, like 1st season and is Nov 17-21 in 2010. Where available, these are typically the best deer tags, but require many preference points in most units. This is typically the second best elk season, and a great season for a low pressure hunt.
Colorado’s late seasons are for cows only and vary from Thanksgiving weekend to the middle of January. These can be tricky hunts as they attempt to span a migration period and are not recommended for anyone who doesn’t have local knowledge and access because the elk will be on lower elevation lands that are often private.
Colorado has both Forest Service and BLM lands in abundance in Western Colorado. There are also a handful of state wildlife areas to hunt on. Not all state school trust lands can be hunted. There is a booklet produced by the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the State Land Board that indicates where publicly accessible state lands are located. State lands not designated as such should be treated as private lands. Private land in Colorado, and most of the West does not have to be posted.
IDAHO
I believe this to be one of the unsung states for western hunting. Colorado, followed by Montana and Wyoming may be the most popular places to hunt, but Idaho is one of the better options for elk and deer due to their over-the-counter tags and abundant public lands. The statewide deer tags are capped and may be used in much of the state. Several of the elk hunting units are also capped for nonresidents, but are available first come first served and worth considering. A large swath of Southern Idaho is desert or prairie, but the eastern and southeastern edges also have significant Forest Service lands. Northern Idaho is primarily dense forest, with National Forest and commercial timber lands. This is excellent whitetail country. East and Central Idaho is the large rugged, sparsely populated area most people focus on for deer and elk hunting. In recent years, wolves have reduced the game populations, but there is still good hunting to be had. For anyone looking for a wilderness adventure, central Idaho, in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area, is the place to go. Unlike most wilderness areas, there are many air strips throughout the 2.3 million acre wilderness, so for about $450 round trip you can penetrate the wildest country in the lower 48. Southern and western Idaho offer antelope hunting, but it tends to be better in Oregon, Wyoming or Montana. There are a few places where you can have a combination deer and antelope hunt if interested.
Idaho does require hunters to purchase a $154 hunting license prior to the price of a $416 elk and/or $301 deer permit. This puts their elk license price on par with most states, but the deer permit is far more expensive than nearly any other state if the hunting license price is not spread out between both elk and deer. There are both general and controlled deer and elk tags, but the vast majority are first-come first serve general tags. The general deer tag is essentially statewide, not including the controlled hunts, the elk tags are broken up regionally, with some of the higher demand areas having nonresident caps. The controlled hunt application deadline is in early June, with draw results in July. Idaho does not have a preference system, so the drawing is completely random, giving everyone at least some chance of drawing a tag. Due to the requirement to first purchase a $150 hunting license, the draw odds are quite good. The general elk tag is offered in two types, A or B. The B tag is primarily for rifle hunters, the A tag is primarily for archers, but each unit has a different set of rules for each tag regarding sex, antler restrictions, weapon restrictions and season dates. The archery seasons generally fall in mid September, lasting 3-4 weeks, the rifle seasons are typically two weeks in mid October (2010 regs are not yet published). The notable exceptions to these are the Middle Fork and Selway B tag which allows rifle hunting during the September elk rut. Deer seasons vary also, but are generally more than 3 weeks long and are often concurrent with the elk seasons.
A muzzleloader season for elk is usually offered after the general rifle season with some A tags and some B tags. Scopes, sabots, 209 primers and pelletized powders are prohibited.
In addition to the elk and deer hunts, Idaho does offer extremely inexpensive black bear hunting and is worth a look, as the tags are just $31.75 for a nonresident in some units. Also, in select areas, the deer tag may be used to take a black bear. Idaho has over 400,000 acres of accessible private lands managed under the Access Yes! Program.
MONTANA
Montana is a great state for nonresident hunters. Eastern Montana is primarily rolling prairie, with scattered areas of rugged badlands or breaks and sparse timber, with abundant BLM lands in some areas, and scattered checkerboards of public lands in other areas. Western Montana has large Forest Service holdings, some large, rugged wilderness areas, with the Bob Marshall, Absaroka-Beartooth and Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness areas being the largest and most famous. Northwest Montana is great whitetail country, but mediocre at best elk country. West-Central and Southwest Montana should be the primary focus for elk hunters. Deer hunting can be had throughout the state, with the river valleys and Northwest forests being dominated by whitetails, and the prairies, badlands and southern mountains by mule deer. Most antelope hunting is done Eastern Montana, but there is some decent antelope hunting to be had in the valleys of the Southwest.
Like Western Idaho and Northern Wyoming, Southwest and West-Central Montana is now home to wolves. The game populations have declined, but there are still plenty of elk, with excellent hunting to be had. And you can always add a wolf tag for an interesting trophy.
Montana has a different system for acquiring tags than most other states. First, you must acquire a general deer or elk tag through the drawing. Then once that tag is acquired, you may put in for a limited permit. There is a bonus system, not a preference system, and those without bonus points can usually draw the combination elk/deer ($643,) elk ($593) or deer ($343) about 50% of the time. There are also guaranteed outfitter sponsored tags for an additional cost. The application deadline is March 16, 2010 for the general tag, and June 1st for limited tags (if you’ve drawn the elk or deer general) and antelope tags.
One of the great things about Montana’s general tags is that they offer great flexibility and long seasons. With a general elk or deer tag, one may hunt from the early September through late November. Archery season is early September through mid October, rifle season is mid October through late November. The same permit is good for both archery and rifle season. There is no muzzleloader season. Another wonderful opportunity for the hardcore hunter are Montana’s Backcountry seasons, which usually open September 15th, only requiring a general tag. This allows you to take advantage of high country mule deer and rutting bull elk, but accessing these units is extremely physically demanding.
To hunt on Montana’s School Trust lands, one must purchase a $10 permit. Montana also has what is called the Block Management Program, which allows hunters access to private lands. Sometimes, access is completely unregulated, just requiring that you sign in and out, other places it works off a reservation system. This is great system, especially in the East, where public lands are somewhat limited.
NEW MEXICO
New Mexico is considered a top trophy state for elk and mule deer, but they also have good Coues whitetail antelope hunting. Eastern New Mexico is mostly shortgrass prairie and scrublands, and private ranchlands, but there are some small National Grasslands and larger state lands, plus large blocks of BLM in the Southeast. Large portions of New Mexico are owned by either Indian Reservations or the US Military, especially in the Northeast and South-Central portions of the state. The two largest Forest Service holdings are mostly in the Southwest and North Central portions of the state. New Mexico does have a small wolf population in the Gila National Forest and they are currently federally protected. One other interesting hunting opportunity in New Mexico, not found in other places is the chance to hunt oryx.
For 2010, New Mexico has altered their draw process by requiring the full fee up front from applicants. By only charging a$12 application fee and no preference system, New Mexico had terrible draw odds, but everyone had at least a slim chance of drawing a trophy tag. With the new change, there will likely be fewer applicants, but since there is no preference system, a first time applicant has as good a chance as anyone else of drawing a tag. New Mexico has standard priced tags, and high priced tags for their quality and high demand units. Standard deer licenses are $297, and quality/high demand tags are $382. Standard elk licenses are $562 for bull, $352 for cows, and $787 for quality/high demand.
Seasons vary by unit for elk and deer, and are typically just 5 days. Like Colorado, New Mexico offers a series of short seasons to reduce hunting pressure during any one season. Most rifle deer seasons take place in late October through mid November, most rifle elk seasons occur in early to mid October. There is generally no overlap in the elk and deer seasons. New Mexico has both late and early archery deer seasons, and the archery elk seasons are mostly during the mid-late September rut. Muzzleloader elk seasons are mostly after archery and before the rifle season, allowing hunters to catch the tail end of the rut. The highest demand hunts are usually the first rifle hunt offered for each species. If you are willing to accept a slightly lower success rate on animals that have already been hunted, you can typically increase your draw odds.
New Mexico has both primitive and modern muzzleloader seasons for deer, and modern muzzleloader hunts for elk. The modern muzzleloader hunts allow scopes and sabots. Restricted muzzleloader deer hunts require open sights, and prohibit in line ignition, pelleted powder, sabots, and belted bullets.
Hunting on state trust land is permitted. New Mexico also has a private land access program called Open Gate.
NEVADA
Nevada is rarely thought of as a big game state, but it offers tremendous mule deer hunting and some limited elk hunting opportunities. There is no shortage of public land in Nevada and access is excellent except for the I-80 BLM checkerboard where every other square mile is private land. Believe it or not, there are mountains ranges and high elevation National Forest Lands. Most of Nevada’s largest mountain ranges are in the middle of the state. One other unusual opportunity in Nevada is the Himalayan Snow Cock, an introduced upland game bird, much larger than a grouse in the Ruby Mountains.
Nevada requires hunters to purchase a $140 hunting license before applying. But you are not required to pay for your tags up front, just an application fee, so it makes some sense to apply for nearly everything, including antelope, bighorn sheep, elk, and mountain goats. Nevada operates on a bonus point system, so you have a chance at drawing a tag without waiting for several years of points to accumulate. If you are only interested in deer hunting, you may opt out of paying for the hunting license, but you lose the chance to earn a bonus point for future draws. This makes the Nevada mule deer draw one of the least expensive opportunities in western hunting. Applications are due in early April, deer tags are $240, antelope $300, bighorn sheep, mountain goat or bull elk $1,200, cow elk $500 and are charged to you after you draw.
Deer seasons vary, but most take place throughout most of the month of October. Some of the more popular units have both a late and early season. The popularity of those seasons varies somewhat by terrain. Those with accessible high country tend to have popular early seasons, while those units with difficult to access high country have stiffer draw odds for the late seasons. Muzzleloader seasons occur in mid September, for the most part, archery season throughout most of August and early September, although late archery hunts also exist. There are only a handful of elk units, and most have a rifle season lasting two weeks between early and mid November. Deer and elk seasons rarely overlap. Muzzleloader elk season is late October through early November, archery is from mid August through early September. There are no hunts during the peak of the elk rut.
Sabots, inlines and centerfire primers are permitted during muzzleloader seasons, but scopes and pelletized powder are prohibited.
Nevada has very little state owned land to hunt, but with the amount of Forest Service and BLM land available, accessing public lands is not an issue.
OREGON
Oregon is an incredibly diverse state, with temperate rain forests in the West to high deserts in the East. That diversity creates an enormous number of hunting opportunities; from Columbian Blacktails, Mule Deer, Whitetails (including the endangered Columbian Whitetail, which you can hunt because it is overpopulated in some areas, imagine that?), Roosevelt(the largest bodied sub species) and Rocky Mountain elk, antelope, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats, and an incredible array of upland bird species. This is not a state on the list of most Eastern hunters, but it really should be. While not known as a trophy state, there are some well-managed opportunities for both elk and deer. The amount of public land is simply staggering, with large amounts of BLM in the eastern basins, National and State Forests throughout the mountainous western and central regions, and another impressive, isolated series of mountains in the Northeast. Combine those opportunities with the commercial timber lands and you have no shortage of hunting land.
Oregon has both unlimited general and controlled tags for deer and elk, and all antelope tags are controlled. The controlled hunt application deadline is May 15. The fees were greatly increased for 2010, and you are required to purchase a $140 hunting license, but are not required to pay for a permit up-front. So if you don’t draw the controlled tag, you are still stuck with the license, at which point you really should consider purchasing the general tag or at least checking out the interesting bird hunting opportunities. If you draw the permit, you may decide at that time whether or not to accept it. Oregon’s preference point system allots 75% of the tags to those with the most preference points, and 25 % in a random drawing. Combined with the high up front $140 license fee, your draw odds are very good. Elk permits are $500 and deer are $375, antelope $333.
Oregon’s general deer seasons vary by location, but the Cascade region has a split season from October 2-15, the breaks from October 16-22 for the Cascade bull elk season, resuming from October 23-November 5, 2010. The Coast buck season is unbroken and goes from October 2-November 5. The Rocky Mountain elk seasons are split, the first being a 5 day season in late October, the 2nd being a 9 day season in Mid November. The Coast bull elk season is also split from November 13-16, then November 20-26. Deer and elk archery seasons are from late August to late September. One of the more interesting exceptions to all these seasons, and a great adventure opportunity is the High Cascade buck hunt, occurring in mid September, and it never draws out with the 1st choice applicants. It is a wilderness hunt, great for backpackers and horsemen. Antelope hunts are typically in August, but there are exceptions. Muzzleloader hunts are offered but the seasons vary.
Scopes, sabots, jacketed bullets, centerfire primers, pelletized powder, and in line ignition systems are prohibited on muzzleloader hunts.
Oregon has a private land access program, state wildlife areas and many state trust lands that are open to hunting.
UTAH
Utah is on most trophy hunter’s radar, and is well known for their trophy bull elk hunting and trophy mule deer hunting. They also offer antelope hunting in the eastern and western deserts, but Montana and Wyoming are much more popular for that species. The state is bisected by a mountain range, approximately ¼ the width of the state. Eastern Utah has flat, arid deserts, deep canyons, and high mesas. Western Utah is primarily desert with smaller, isolated mountain ranges. Like Colorado, the state’s population centers are all along an interstate corridor. In Utah’s case most live just west of the mountains, in the cities and suburbs between Provo, Salt Lake City and Ogden in North Central Utah, where hunting pressure can be intense. Nearly 2/3 of Utah is public land, with over half of that land open to hunting.
One convenient aspect of Utah’s drawing system is that you do not have to pay for the elk or deer license fees up front. You are, however required to purchase a $65 hunting license, which is nonrefundable. The low up-front costs and trophy reputation make drawing a high quality tag difficult in some parts of Utah. Now for the confusing part, Utah offers general tags, limited tags and what they call premium tags. You are only allowed to apply for either elk or deer, not both, with one exception, the Northern Region Bull/Bull combo. The deer and elk seasons do not overlap, except for with that combo license. The combo license is $651, general elk is $388, general deer is $263. Limited entry elk is $795, premium limited entry elk, which allows you to hunt rifle, archery or muzzleloader season is $1,500. Limited entry deer is $463, and the two premium limited entry deer units are $563. Applications are due by March 1st.
Utah’s general deer tags have a quota, but they allow you to hunt several units, and are restricted to one of 5 regions in the state. Utah’s general elk tags also have a quota, and allow you to hunt even in the premium units, but are restricted to spike bulls only in those units. You do need to apply for these tags, but there are often leftover Northern Region deer tags. An archery deer tag allows you to hunt any region in the state, but not in the limited units. Deer seasons run from Aug21-Sep 17 for archery, Sept 29 to Oct 7 for muzzleloaders, and Oct 23-27 for rifles. Elk archery is roughly the same as deer, rifle season is Oct 9-21, muzzleloader is after the rut in Utah; Nov 3-11. The special northern region combination license runs Oct 9-21, the same as the general elk season.
Utah does have a fledgling walk-in access program on private lands, but at this time is only 70,000 acres. Unlike most National Monuments, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is open to hunting. Utah has over 100 state owned Wildlife Management Areas open to hunting. Hunting is permitted on Utah’s State Trust Lands with some minor exceptions based on land usage.
Muzzleloaders are permitted to have a scope with up to 1x magnification, sabots and pelletized powder are permitted, but not bonded as 1 piece.
WASHINGTON
Washington is a state managed for maximizing hunter opportunities and has few real trophy hunts. What they do offer that is of interest to the nonresident hunter are plentiful tags, public land and a variety of species. Whitetail deer, mule deer, black tail deer, Roosevelt elk, Rocky Mountain elk, moose, mountain goats and bighorn sheep are all available. Most of Central Washington is mountainous, with plenty of Forest Service land. Western Washington is known for temperate rain forests and commercial timber lands. Much of Eastern Washington is private ranch and farm land, with exceptions to the mountainous northeast and a small pocket of mountains in the southeast. Unlike most western states, the BLM has a fairly limited amount of land. While 400,000 acres may seem like a lot, the BLM owns 15 million acres in Oregon.
Washington forces a hunter to commit to hunting in Washington when applying for a permit. You must purchase a general elk or deer tag before you can apply for a special limited tag. So why would you hunt here? Well for one thing, they offer a guaranteed elk and deer combo tag for $616, which makes Washington the least expensive state to hunt. The deer and elk permits are $396, so an elk hunt here is among the cheapest options, but the deer hunt is among the most expensive. Another interesting option is the High Buck Hunt, which is a general tag, allowing you to rifle hunt high elevation wilderness areas in mid September. The special permit applications are due in late May.
The typical buck deer seasons are two weeks from mid October through late October. Elk and deer seasons do not overlap (which would be a downfall to that combo tag), but a late Western Washington deer season opens after the 2.5 week mid November elk season. Archery seasons do overlap throughout most of the month of September and there are two days of overlap (or there were in 2009) for the muzzleloader seasons, which are in late September through early October for deer, and early October for elk.
Sabots are allowed, but inlines and scopes are generally not permitted.
Washington does have some very large state land holdings that are open to hunting, some of which exceed 50,000 acres and are worth investigating.
WYOMING
Wyoming is not an easy state to get started in for elk hunting, but the deer and antelope tags are readily available to first time nonresident hunters. Wyoming has very limited opportunities for archery elk hunters and forbids nonresidents from hunting big game in wilderness areas without a guide. The elk hunting is excellent, but if you are looking for a DIY, wilderness backpack hunt, this is not the state for you. Eastern Wyoming is primarily shortgrass prairie with scattered BLM holdings. Northeast Wyoming has some National Forest and National Grasslands also. Southwest and Central Wyoming are is cold desert, prairie, badlands and minor mountains with large BLM holdings, including the infamous Red Desert Checkerboard along 1-80, where literally every other square mile of land is BLM, which runs east-west for 200 miles and north-south for 50 miles. Northwest Wyoming, North Central Wyoming and South Central Wyoming have large Forest Service holdings. Most of the designated Wilderness areas are in the northwest, near Yellowstone National Park, so be careful when selecting a unit to stay out of those areas if you don’t plan to hire a guide. The wolves are mostly in Northwest Wyoming and there currently is no open season on them.
Wyoming has both general and limited elk tags for nonresidents, but the general tag is capped and only available through a drawing, with a deadline traditionally on January 31st. Wyoming has a confusing draw process, so bear with me as I try to explain it: Of the nonresident tag allocation, 60% are regular price, 40% are “special” price. The special price is nearly double the regular price to increase the drawing odds for those willing to pay the price. Now, within both the regular price tag and special price tag allocations, 75% of the tags go to the preference point drawing, where those with the most points, get the permit. 25% of both the regular and special price tags are available in a random draw, ensuring there is always at least some chance of drawing a highly coveted permit. Even the Wyoming general elk tag requires a preference point to draw, unless you pay the special price, in which case it should be guaranteed. There are only a little over 20 units that have a specific, limited archery season.
Tag prices are as follows: $591 regular priced elk, $302 for cows and calves, $1,071 special elk, $326 deer, $566 special deer, $286 antelope, $526 special antelope, $48 for doe/fawn deer and antelope. The deer and antelope drawing deadline is March 15, 2010. Antelope tags are all allocated to specific units. General deer tags are broken up into regions, allowing a nonresident to hunt one of several units within each region. Many of the best units in a region are limited quota, and cannot be hunted with a general tag, so be careful when applying. If you want to hunt the limited quota unit, apply for it, but the odds are generally much stiffer than the general regional tag. Also, the many of the general deer tags are undersubscribed and are available as leftovers.
Seasons vary from unit to unit, but most antelope rifle seasons are open from late September to late October, rifle elk seasons are usually two weeks to a month long in beginning anywhere from early October to mid November, deer seasons are also two weeks to a month and have at least part of the season concurrent with elk seasons. A notable exception to the generalities above is that there are some September rifle bull elk seasons in Northwest Wyoming. While these allow you to hunt the rut, most are in wilderness areas, requiring a guide. For the most part, there are no muzzleloader seasons, except for a few antelope units.
Nearly all of Wyoming’s state trust lands are open to hunting if they can be accessed by public road. Wyoming also has several access programs for the public to hunt on private lands. Some are called Walk-in areas, some are Hunter Management Areas. No matter what they are called, or how they are run, these areas are often your best bet to get access to good hunting grounds, especially in the East, where large blocks of public land are rare.
OTHER OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE TRAVELLING HUNTER
The states immediately east of those mentioned above all offer at least some mule deer hunting opportunities to nonresidents on public land. North Dakota has mule deer hunting and public land in the Little Missouri Grasslands. South Dakota has the Black Hill National Forest, Custer National Forest, Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and Grand River National Grasslands with mule deer, although whitetails make up a high percentage of the deer in those places. Nebraska’s Pine Ridge is one of the few places in the state with significant public land and mule deer. The Nebraska National Forest and Oglala National Grasslands are the largest public holdings in the state. Mule deer hunting in Kansas is mostly restricted to small, isolated state properties with the exception of the Cimarron National Grassland. Oklahoma’s mule deer hunting is mostly by draw only on state wildlife areas and the ODFW runs drawings to hunt on federal properties like the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. Texas has a little bit of federal land that can be hunted for mule deer, but the best places are available by drawing on large state properties in the Big Bend region.
And then there’s Alaska! But since the primary focus of this piece was on “Western” species like mule deer, blacktails, elk and antelope, I’ll just focus on those species in Alaska. For starters, there are no antelope, but there are Roosevelt elk and Sitka Blacktails on several of the larger islands. On some islands, the elk permits are by draw only, others are available without a draw. Deer bag limits vary by island, or group of islands, but some allow up to four bucks to be harvested. Some of the island chains have moose which you could hunt in conjunction with deer or elk, but most do not, so you’ll have to stick to bears if you want a combination hunt.
And while we’re on the topic of moose, three more states, which most certainly are not Western states should be mentioned. Since drawing a moose tag is so difficult in the West, one should consider drawing in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. The draws are inexpensive, as you aren’t required to pay for the permit up front, and you can have multiple applications to increase your draw odds.

Effects of new Colorado draw regulations

If you don’t care about elk hunting in Colorado, bear with me. Colorado is the 800 pound gorilla of elk hunting, is the state I follow the most closely and is the state and species 90% of Eastern and Midwestern hunters are most interested in. As some hunters are in a constant state of thinking for the future, knowing how and where to spend your scouting efforts and research this summer and a complete understanding of the effect of the new draw rules may help you with your future application strategies.
Anyway, last year the Colorado Division of Wildlife announced they would finally offer a hybrid draw system, but only for the highest demand hunts. Previously, Colorado operated on a pure preference system, where the applicant with the most points got the tags (only state in the US with this type of draw). There was no chance for an applicant with fewer points to acquire a high quality permit in Colorado’s Northwest trophy units. The point creep also made it unlikely that some applicants would ever draw before dying or quitting hunting. Units 2, 10 and 201 require 15-20 points to draw, even for archery, and the number required was going up yearly. So, in order to give applicants with fewer points some sort of a chance of drawing, the DOW decided to go with a hybrid draw, where 20% of the tags would be randomly allocated to applicants with 5 or more preference points. However, that also meant that the tag quota would be reduced for the 80% preference point draw, increasing the points required.
Secondly, the Colorado Division of Wildlife also decided to do away with the former “statewide” muzzleloader elk tags and exert more control over hunter distribution. The old statewide tag was valid in most of the OTC archery units, which made up about 50% of the mountainous regions of Colorado. There were both bull and cow tags available in the statewide tag system and the old cow tags were list A. Meaning those who drew a statewide muzzleloader cow tag could not buy an OTC or leftover bull tag. By controlling the cow and bull harvest more closely with muzzleloader hunters, the DOW now offers List B cow elk muzzleloader permits. But, by breaking up the units from the statewide system to individual hunt codes, it was difficult to predict how many points would be required to draw each unit, especially without knowing the tag quotas ahead of time. We knew how many muzzleloader hunters hunted each unit, and there was talk of reducing muzzleloader hunter pressure in some areas, so combined with the hybrid draw, this year more than ever was a bit of a crapshoot for applications.
Lastly, the Gunnison Basin units, 54, 55 and 551 were removed from the statewide OTC archery tag, causing further confusion to anyone trying to predict how to use their applications. These were popular units, but the archer pressure was making it difficult for the DOW to hit their harvest objectives with the rifle hunters. To increase total harvest, the DOW decided to reduce the archer numbers which were scattering significant numbers of elk to refuges off of the public lands. Biologists also chose to reduce 1st rifle season pressure, so that there would be more elk and less pressured elk available for the OTC 2nd and 3rd rifle seasons. Added to those strategies were additional late season cow permits.
Anyway, this is will be a review of where the applicant pressure went. It’s possible that the preference points required for muzzleloader, hybrid and non hybrid trophy units won’t stabilize for several more years. Many hunters aren’t as savvy with applications as those with westernhuntingdata.com, do not read the draw summaries, do not have a cohesive application strategy and will continue to make unwise application decisions. But for those who try to have a strategy with long and short term goals, it’s difficult to predict an outcome when there are major changes to the mechanism by which we acquire our sought-after tags. So the point of this whole article is to educate ourselves on how to play the system as wisely as possible. I will probably send this out again next application season as a reminder.
I was curious to find out whether the new hybrid draw reduced the number of points required in the middle tier trophy units: 40, 61 and 76, and what effect the loss of the statewide muzzleloader tag would have on tag availability. Would fewer hunters apply first for a preference point and then try to draw a tag with a second choice? What would happen with the cow muzzleloader tags? Would more people be willing to apply for the northwest trophy units with one-third to one-half the required points hoping to steal a hybrid tag? Would more people apply for a preference point in the hopes of earning the 5 points required to by hybrid eligible? Would some people simply give up trying to draw the northwest trophy units knowing that the number of points required will keep increasing? What effect would the limitation of archers in the Gunnison area have on the draw? There are also Ranching for Wildlife bull and either sex tags available to Colorado residents only that became part of the hybrid draw, but that will not be the major focus of this report. There were very few deer tags that were hybrid eligible (as with the elk, hybrid units required 10 or more resident preference points to draw) and no other major changes, so I will not be taking a close look at the effects on the deer draw.
The whole preference system is based on simple supply and demand, so we first need to take an overview of the demand on limited Colorado elk tags. For 2010, there were 191,747 elk applications for 147,849 limited tags. This is continuing a downward trend from the 192,606 applicants in 2009, 197,413 in 2008, and 198,044 in 2007. The limited tag quotas hardly changed between 2010 and 2009, but are down from 156,925 in 2008 and 165,366 in 2007. The main decrease in applicants came from nonresidents, with 77,504 in 2010, 79,764 in 2009, 86,818 in 2008 and 88,522 in 2007. Resident applications are on the rise though, with 105,209 in 2010, 104,017 in 2009, 101,870 in 2008, and 101,104 in 2007. So both applications and tags are down from recent numbers, but overall limited tags represented 77% of applications in 2010, versus 83% in 2007. This indicates that the recent reduction in applications were not in line with the reduction in tags. So preference points required should increase slightly.
Every either sex or bull hunt in units 2, 10 and 201, plus muzzleloader in 1 and 61 and early rifle in 1 were all part of the hybrid draw (Have I told you unit 1 is fool’s gold yet? Most folks have no idea it is not on par with 2, 10 or 201, with harvest stats similar to standard crowd controlled draw units.). Several either sex RFW tags and the Bosque Del Oso hunts were also included. On average, the preference points required went up at least 1 point for nonresidents in these hunts and in some cases, the resident preference points also increased. Remember, the hunts requiring 6 or more resident points have an 80/20 resident to noresident tag allocation split, not the standard 65/35. So it stands to reason that across the board, the hybrid units would have an increase in nonresident preference points required. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the northwest trophy units that jumped in points the most, but the 3rd season special Bosque Del Oso hunt (unit 851), going from 13 resident and 15 nonresident points to 15 resident and 19 nonresident points. If you average the point increases for all the hybrid eligible hunts, on average they increased 1.36 points.
Ok, so the hybrid units take even more points to draw now. What are the odds of drawing a hybrid tag with fewer than the required minimum points? Let’s look at unit 2 early rifle: Unit 2 went from requiring 16 resident and 18 nonresident preference points to 17 resident and 19 nonresident points. Unit 2 early rifle applicants increased from 1113 in 2009 to 1385 in 2010. Those applicants with just 5 points increased from 42 to 91, and total applicants with 5 or more points increased from 568 to 902 (58% increase) for the 0.5% (5 out of 902) chance of drawing one of the randomly allocated tags. 0-4 point applicants also went up 15% from 296 to 342. That increase in 5 or more point applicants could have sucked a lot of potential high point applicants out of other potential draws, but my guess is that it mostly just reduced the applicants applying for a preference point only. 2010 preference point only applicants went down from 65,782 in 2009 to 62,999 in 2010.
Unit 2 early rifle was typical of many of the hybrid draw hunts. So, what about the non hybrid trophy units? What happened to those? Looking just at non hybrid hunts in units 40, 76 and 61, plus the RFW bull and either sex hunts, on average they increased 0.5 points. So for the most part, point creep is still affecting these units. Only a few hunts required fewer points in 2010 compared to 2009. Unit 76 first rifle decreased from 6 resident and 10 nonresident points to 5 resident and 9 nonresident points. That may have had more to do with the DOW adding an early rifle hunt than with folks trying to draw a hybrid tag. Another big loser was the Silver Spur RFW hunt, going down from 11 points in 2009 to 7 in 2010. But those were exceptions; the point creep is still having an effect on these trophy units. Several of these hunts are nearing hybrid eligibility, and it’s hard to say how many additional applicants will choose to participate. It’s also possible that many high point applicants realized that they might never draw the Northwest trophy units while they are still healthy and mobile, so they put in for these slightly lower tier units. Unit 76 first rifle required 9 resident points last year, but the addition of an early rifle hunt has changed the dynamic. Unit 61 first rifle also required 9 resident points in 2009 and did not gain an early rifle hunt. I expected applicants to decide they would rather earn points while having a chance in the hybrid draw. Unit 61 first rifle season increased in nonresident points required in 2010, from 14 to 15, but total applicants were down from 1641 in 2009 to 1477 in 2010. Savvy applicants with 5 to 8 resident points and 5-13 nonresident points seemed the most logical to jump ship and apply for hybrid draw hunts with no chance of drawing unit 61 first rifle, but at least a slim chance of drawing a hybrid unit. Sure enough, residents with 5-8 points decreased from 387 to 267, and nonresidents with 5-13 points decreased from 283 to 181. It seems that no more than the normal number of applicants decided they were done waiting on a tag, and applied with up to 3 more points that required the year before.
Now, if you’re still with me and not bored to tears, is there a way to take advantage of the increase in applicants in the “holding pattern” of earning points in the hybrid draw? Possibly, but unlikely. There will have to be an increase in the tag quotas for these high demand non hybrid units. If you’re watching the population objective and status and sex ratios carefully, you may be able to anticipate an increase in tags and poach a tag from 76, 40 or 61 at some point with 1 or 2 points fewer than the previous year. But that’s the only reason I can contemplate applying for these units when you have 1 or 2 points below the minimum number of points. It’s also possible that the word about the hybrid draw has not fully gotten out yet, and more high point applicants will choose to take that route instead of continuing to apply for non hybrid hunts, thereby reducing the point requirements. It seems more likely that 40, 61 and 76 will soon become part of the hybrid draw as they reach 10 resident preference points for the muzzleloader and early rifle hunts (61 is there already).
Alright, so what effect did the new muzzleloader tag system have on the draw? For starters, the cow tags that only had a moderate chance of drawing in 2009 with a 2nd choice, are for the most part available as leftovers this year, despite no real increase. It seems many applicants tried to apply for bull or either sex muzzleloader tags with 1st, 2nd or 3rd choices, instead applying for the cow tag with a second choice as they usually do. To illustrate: in 2009, there were 13,068 applications for the statewide muzzleloader bull tag which required 0 points for residents (but only about 15% chance of drawing with 0 points) and 2 points for nonresidents, and about 20% of those applicants applied with 2nd choice or later with no chance of drawing. Conversely, in units 6/16/17/161/171, the either sex muzzleloader tag now requires 1 resident point and 3 nonresidents points, yet 32% of applicants applied with 2nd choices or later. Now maybe that was because this tag was now either sex instead of bull only. But units 80/81 had a similar phenomenon with a bull only tag, as the resident and nonresident points increased 1 point each, and 32% of applicants also applied with 2nd or later choices and no chance of drawing. And what about the OTC rifle units that were not part of the statewide muzzleloader tag in 2009 like that Flat Tops and Bear’s Ears? Both units had point requirements increase, by 1 each for residents and nonresidents in the Flat Tops and 1 point for nonresidents in the Bear’s Ears. So, if several units increased their point requirements, it stands to reason that some must have decreased unless there was some sudden surge in muzzleloading interest. Sure enough, two units did decrease in their point requirements, and another two units increased in the resident point requirement, while decreasing the nonresident point requirement.
Below is a list of former statewide units that had a net increase in points required (either resident or nonresident or both):
6/16/17/161/171
14/214
15/27
18/181
21/22/30/31/32
25/26/34/231
28/37/371
38
53
54
70/71/72/73/711
74/741
80/81
551
Below are the two former statewide units that had a net decrease in points required:
35/36/361
86/691/861
Below are the two former statewide units with no net change, but increased in resident point requirements, yet decreased in nonresident points required:
3/301
59
Interestingly, the loss of the statewide muzzleloader tag may have cleared up confusion with previous applicants who did not understand the system, and chose to apply to crowd controlled units. Units 48, 56, 57/58, and 69/84 all had a net loss of points required. The preference point requirements might not stabilize for several years as savvy applicants chase list B cow tags with 2nd, 3rd or 4th choices and fewer applicants apply for bull and either sex tags with 2nd or later choices. I’d venture to guess that list A cow tags will continue to be had with 3rd, 4th and leftover choices for the foreseeable future, while the list B cow tags eventually go back to only being available with 2nd choices.
It’s difficult to put a finger on what happened with the limited archery tags in 54, 55 and 551. Each of these units had the previous archery hunter numbers reduced by nearly 40%, so it’s surprising they are available as leftovers. There were probably several factors at play leading up to the draw. It appears that many residents chose not to be limited to a single unit, as nonresidents outdrew residents in 54 by a margin of 102 to 157, but residents preferred the better access and slightly closer units of 55 and 551 by a combined margin of 353 to 202. That makes sense as nonresidents will most likely have just one week to hunt, and residents might hunt 2 or 3 weekends out of the month long season. The majority of Colorado’s population lives nearly 4.5 hours from those 3 units, so it seems likely that Gunnison residents were the majority of the residents who bothered with drawing those tags. I know several folks who hunt more than one unit during archery season and didn’t want to be tied down to going all the way to Gunnison every weekend. It’s also possible that many hunters still aren’t aware of the changes and intend to hunt their old units on the OTC archery tag. Although the tags are now available as leftovers, others were unsure whether they could be drawn as 1st or later choice tags. In 54, 14 applicants wasted 1 or 2 points each to guarantee the tag. Similar issues occurred in 55 and 551, with several hunters throwing away as many as 5 points for a tag that could be had as a leftover (of course they didn’t know that at the time). It’ll be interesting to note whether the leftovers are quickly picked up or if they continue to be available all season. It might take a full season of enforcement/reminders for hunters hunting on OTC tags to realize the new changes, or maybe the area will never see much significant archery demand again. If it’s an issue of awareness, with OTC hunters trying to hunt the Gunnison country, expect the tags to be harder to draw next year (but I’d still wager a second choice tag if I intended to hunt there). If the reason for the lack of interest is resident travel commitment, the tags will continue to be available as leftovers. And now what’s going to happen to the former OTC hunters who did hunt the Gunnison area? Were they mostly Front Range residents who will now continue to pressure the closest OTC units? Will they pile into neighboring units? There’s several hundred displaced hunters now.
So those are the biggies. There’s nothing we can do to change our applications for this year, but keep these affects in mind for this year’s leftovers and next year’s applications. You still cannot draw a second choice muzzleloader bull tag. Many bull and either sex muzzleloader tags had an increase in the preference points required for nonresidents. Only a few decreased the requirements, but that may not hold true for next year. We have cow muzzleloader tags available for the first time in several years. Don’t expect too many of those tags to fall to leftovers next year, especially List B tags. We know the preference point requirement for the Northwest trophy units will continue to increase. There will likely be a few more hunts added to the hybrid draw in the next several years. You may be able to get lucky and draw a non hybrid tag if you choose not to participate in the hybrid draws, which only give you a .5% chance of drawing. We won’t know what to make of the newly limited archery units in 54, 55 and 551 until we see whether the leftovers are quickly purchased or if they remain available throughout archery season.
I know this may have been tedious, but if you are trying to plan for future hunts, it helps to try to understand the effect of new regulations on tag demand. Good luck out there.

Hold em or Fold em

Many of you have hunted the same units for several years and have noticed changes in the elk and deer numbers. In some cases, the animals are still “there”, but not in the same numbers in the same drainages you traditionally hunt. In other cases, the population has been severely reduced, sometimes due to intentional or accidental management decisions, other times due to factors out of our control. Populations fluctuate due to natural variables, but wildlife managers usually try to keep them steady around an objective.
Many hunters distrust the population surveys that the Colorado Division of Wildlife produces. But it’s what they use, and what is going to dictate their management decisions. So if you’ve been unhappy with the deer or elk hunting lately, it pays to look at the current population in relation to the objectives. If that population doesn’t appear to have changed much, you may want to consider doing some more research and scouting to see what has changed in other parts of the unit. Did the Forest Service close a road, creating a new sanctuary? Was there a fire in a neighboring drainage, producing younger, more palatable forage? How long has it been since the last mechanical or natural disturbance in your area? Maybe the plants have become older and tougher where you hunt. Maybe the trees are now thicker, with less light hitting the soil, shading out the more desirable forbs. Did a spring quit running? Has the livestock management changed? What about timber management? Did the rancher whose fields that the elk or deer used to raid change crops, get a new outfitter or quit outfitting? Any of these things and many more can change the distribution of game in your area without changing the population. Most hunters hunt just a small percentage of the total area available in a unit, so it pays to have a little better perspective regarding the population and habitat changes (if any) in that unit.
Nature is never static. Nothing stays the same; plants grow, animals reproduce, snow storms wipe out deer populations, fires set back succession of plant species. Add in human interaction with nature and you have more changes. Thankfully, we can arm ourselves with information and monitor or anticipate these changes, which may affect our decision making processes. Even if the habitat hasn’t changed much, rancher and farmer attitudes toward wildlife might, putting pressure on the Division of Wildlife to allow a larger antlerless harvest. We hunters tend to abhor change, but wishing things would stay the same will not make it so.
So what might make you decide whether to look for greener pastures or whether stick it out? Take a look at where the population is in relation to objectives. This won’t tell you anything about the game distribution, but it should tell you whether the wildlife managers will try to let it build back up to the numbers that you once saw. If so, you ought to consider sticking it out. Hunting during those leaner years, while frustrating, will make you more knowledgeable about the area. You might also consider a temporary move to different ground with the intention to return when things get a little better. But if you’re unhappy with the numbers and it appears that the wildlife managers intend to either keep the numbers at their present level, or worse yet, intend to further reduce it, it’s probably time to consider folding up shop in that unit.
Most state game departments do not produce nearly the quantity or quality of information that the Colorado Division of Wildlife produces for public consumption. Some states don’t do population estimates, many do not have population objectives. So I can’t be of much help outside of Colorado, but the following is a list of DAUs whose glory days may be returning, and whose sun has set. It’s not a complete list, just some highlights and doesn’t include those who are on their way down due to being way over objective (ripe units for those seeking new ground while your old unit builds back up). I don’t have complete population data prior to 2004, so this will be more about recent history.
DEER:
The winter of 2007-2008 really worked over the deer herds in Colorado, so many of these units show similar patterns in their populations: near objective, then a precipitous drop that didn’t show up until after the 2008 post hunt survey. For other units, the winter compounded an intentional decline. Deer populations also fluctuate much more than elk, as they tend to breed at an earlier age and often producing twins and triplets, but are much more vulnerable to smaller predators and the weather.
The Flat Tops, units 11,12,13,22,23,24,211,131,231: This deer population has seen its glory days and it’s not coming back any time soon. In 2005, this herd was over 105,000 animals, representing nearly 18% of Colorado’s deer population in just one herd. It was also 50% over objective. Combined with lots of tags, and some harsh winters, the population plummeted to its low of 61,450 this past year. The DOW intends to let the population build back up towards the objective, but it will probably never number near 100,000 animals again.
The Uncompahgre Plateau, units 61,62: In 2006, the Uncompahgre deer herd was nearly 40,000 animals. After the harsh 2007 winter, whose damage wasn’t fully realized until 2008, this deer herd now stands at less than 22,000. It will come back, but it will take time. Antlerless tags have been reduced by 66% for 2010, but the DOW projects very little population gain for next year. Even at a 20% growth rate, which assumes almost no doe harvest and mild weather, it will be no less than 3 years before the population can get close to the 36,000 deer objective. If this was your deer hot spot, you might consider hunting somewhere else for a few years.
Poudre Canyon, units 7,8,9,19,191: This has always been a popular area, but the proximity to Colorado State University and the prevalence of Chronic Wasting Disease made it the target of an experiment to find out to what degree CWD is density dependent. Reducing the population from a high of 13,900 in 1993 to just 5,700 in 2007 with a tremendous number of doe tags was intentional. If you moved due to the poor recent hunting, I can’t blame you, but it is on the way back up and quickly. The new population objective is 12,000, and the past two years have shown significant gains, which are projected to continue beyond the present 8,700 and 9,300 in 2010. If you’ve left, don’t come back yet, because it’s still shy of the early 90s. But it should be close to peaking by 2012 or 2013.
Gunnison- Powderhorn, Cimarron, West Elk and Taylor Park-units 54,55,551,64,65,66,67: The area around Gunnison received the most publicity during the severe storms and emergency winter feeding operation of 2007 and 2008, but losses were much more widespread. Each of these DAUs were significantly over objective in the mid 2000s, and had been for many years. Combined with the overpopulated elk outstripping the winter range and able to outcompete deer for precious forage, the area was primed for a fall. While the DOW attempted to compensate for the losses during the following hunting season by cutting tags in half, the deer population was still down by more than 8,000 in the 2008 post hunt survey. This isn’t a deer and history lesson, so which areas are coming back, and which ones aren’t? The Powderhorn units (66,67) will not be coming back to their high of the early 90s and early 2000s. They were way over objective, so the harsh winter only helped the management goal, and the herd is now at objective. It’s a quality managed deer unit, so the buck ratio is going to be kept high, but don’t expect to see nearly as many bucks as you once did. The Cimarron units (64,65) will be coming back, although they have continued to decline since the major winter die off. Presently these units are at their low of 8400 deer, down from nearly 15,000 in 2006. The objective is 13,500 and doe tags have been completely eliminated for 2010. The West Elk (54) and Taylor Park (55,551) units will be on the rise also, but they will not be near their previous highs in the early and mid 2000s. Unit 54 had 9200 deer and was 40% over the objective of 6500 back in 2004 but has since plummeted to about 4,000 and hasn’t grown at all since that harsh winter. This is a unit that will take a while just to return to objective, which it had previously exceeded since the 80s, so don’t expect it to ever return to what you had been used to. The Taylor Park units were nearly twice their objective of 6,500 in the early 2000s, and are now presently struggling to break the 4,000 deer mark. You might want to give either of these last two DAUs 5 or 6 years before considering them again (and you’ll need nearly that many preference points to hunt them anyway).
State Bridge, units 15,35,36,45: In 2006, the deer herd exceeded 24,000, with an objective of 21,000 and was among the top deer densities in the state. Harsh winters combined with generous doe quotas and a reduced population objective (several habitat, disease and human issues) knocked the population down to a low of less than 14,000 in 2008. The new objective is 15,000 and the present population is hovering around there at this time. This is a population that will not return to the tremendous densities of the recent past. It’s still among the higher densities in the state, but it will not be going back to what it once was in the 1980s and early to mid 2000s.
Glade Park, unit 40: This herd has been below objective for over 30 years. Even with virtually no doe harvest, the unit has stagnated, despite good fawn production. The lack of a population increase points to a probable winter range habitat problem, which is likely compounded by an overpopulated elk herd in the area. It’s tough to make a call on this unit, as the population is roughly half the 12,000 deer objective and has been for some time. The population has declined from its previous high in the mid to late 80s of rougly 13,000 deer, but the objective at that time was 16,000 deer. Given that herd hasn’t grown in 20 years, despite management efforts, I see no reason to believe it will again without major habitat improvements or maybe a decline in the elk population.
Grand Mesa, North units 41,42,421 and South units 52,411,521- The north herd has always been about 3 times as large as the south herd. In the 1980s, this herd was over 40,000 deer. Presently, it stands at just 20,000, significantly below the 29,000 deer the DOW was managing for. The herd was just over objective prior to the 2007 winter, which takes most of the blame for the present population. However, this herd is not coming back. The population objective was just reduced to a maximum of 23,000 due to the Division’s feeling that closer to 30,000 would be unsustainable with increased energy development and decreased winter range quantity and quality. The Southern Grand Mesa herd was hardly affected by the winter of 2007. Previously the herd had been at the objective of 10,500, but the herd has since declined by 15% in 2009 as the deadly combination of drought and harsh local winter conditions showed a larger than expected decrease this past year. This herd should come back, but it was never anything like the North Grand Mesa herd. If you enjoyed the recent deer hunting here, you might give it two years before coming back.
Bear’s Ears, units 3,301,4,441,5,14,214: In 2004, this deer herd numbered nearly 48,000. Attempts to bring the herd back under control with liberal a doe quota was slowly working. But once again, the winter of 2007, combined with lots of doe tags, knocked the population down below 36,000 this past year. The objective had been 37,000, so doe tags are being reduced by over 50% this year. It’s unlikely this herd will push 50,000 again in the near future. There’s still a lot of deer, but it won’t be like it was just 6 years ago.
Aspen, Eagle, Glenwood-units 43,47, 471, unit 44 and 444- The 2007 winter in Gunnison received the most publicity, but that same winter took a tremendous toll on the deer populations in these units. Most dramatic was south of Eagle in unit 44. This herd is 80% lower than what it was in 2006! The 2006 post hunt population was over 10,000 animals, 30% over the objective of 7,000. The herd has plummeted to less than 2,000 animals according the 2009 post hunt survey. It is going to be a looooooong time, if ever, for this population to return even to objective. There have been virtually no doe tags issued for several years, but the population has not rebounded. While not exactly cheery news, the 50% decline in unit 444 from the 2004 highs will likely rebound much sooner. The population is presently about 20% below the objective of 5300 deer, but should bounce back quickly. In two years, the population in 444 probably won’t be pushing 7,000 like it was in 2004, but should be closer to objective by 2011 or 2012, barring another disastrous winter. The Aspen units, 43,47,471, have lost over 65% of their deer since 2006. The 2006 high of 16,400 deer was 50% over objective, bottomed out in 2008 at just 5,770 and has since rebounded slightly to about 6,400. This unit will not see anywhere near the numbers of the mid 2000s anytime soon. It will recover, but not to the level you may have been used to.
Delores, units 70,71,711- Yet another huge deer herd that has lost nearly 40% of the herd from recent highs. While slightly over the 34,000 deer objective in 2006 at 36,000 deer, this herd now stands at just 22,000. However, and I’m not one to armchair quarterback normally, but I do not understand the mere 25% reduction in doe tags and projected 2010 population decline to just 19,000 animals. I don’t hunt there, so it’s not my problem, but if you do, you might deer hunt somewhere else for a few years. Keep an eye on what the DOW does so you can time your return, but it’s hard to project when that might be given the current tag quotas and projected declines. I actually don’t believe the population will continue to decline into the 19,000 range with the 800 doe tags being issued, but for some reason the DOW’s population model expects it to. Tread carefully here. It could be at objective in 4 years, or it may never return.
Saguache, units 68,681- In the early 2000s the population was being managed for 8,500 deer and the population was just under 9,000. The herd management plan describes the reintroduction of doe tags in 2006 and 2007 as “erroneous”, when the DOW falsely believed it was over objective. To put it mildly, the deer herd was decimated, and fell to just 3,700 animals. The new objective is just 4-5,000 animals and the population is there at the present time. This herd will not be returning to the mediocre numbers it enjoyed between the 1960s and early 2000s. It is now half of that previous population and will be staying there, apparently with local public support.

Elk
Elk present different management challenges than deer. It’s easy to build the population up by simply reducing the antlerless tags, as the Colorado winters generally aren’t harsh enough to hurt them, and the large predators aren’t present. But reducing an elk population is much more difficult, as during the early seasons they often inhabit difficult to access wilderness areas, and flee to private refuges when the guns start going off. So, it stands to reason that in Colorado, there are very few populations significantly below objective that will be allowed to grow. Instead this is a list of units that have declined in recent years, and will not be allowed to grow back to the numbers you were once accustomed to.
Units 35,36 State Bridge/Eagle’s Nest: In 2004, the elk population exceeded 6,600 animals. However, the objective was just 2,950 and presently stands at 3700. So, not only will this population not come near the highs seen in the middle of the last decade, the wildlife managers intend to continue the heavy cow harvests and late season hunts until the population is less than 50% of what you had come to expect 6 years ago. It’s time to move on, the glory days are gone.
Bear’s Ears, units 3,301,4,441,5,14,214: The area around Craig had seen some fantastic elk hunting in recent years. Good public access at higher elevations with no wilderness, and enough BLM and state lands at lower elevation to take advantage of a large migratory herd made this a popular unit. The elk herd numbered nearly 26,000 in 2006, but has since been hammered with either sex and antlerless tags. The winter of 2007 contributed to the decline by pushing the elk closer too close to the travel corridors along Highways 13 and 40, denting cars and trucks in addition to the elk population. The herd now numbers around 17,000 and is projected to decline into the 15,000 range, with the objective being 16,500. I’m not convinced they will hit 15,500 elk projection in the 2010 post hunt survey, as the DOW has cut the 1st season cow tags in half for the second straight year. There are still good numbers, but if you were hoping the population would build back up to the mid 20,000 range again; it might be time to move on. Tags have become much more difficult to get this area as demand has not fallen off yet. Folks I hunt with used to rely leftover 1st season cow tags, but they have completely dried up.
Poudre Canyon, units 7,8,9,19,191: Just 10 years ago, the elk population was over 6,000 animals and well over the population objective of 3,300. A tremendous surge in cow tags, plus late season hunting as part of the CWD monitoring project knocked the population down towards the objective by 2008. There has been a slight increase in the objective to about 4,200, but the present population is just 3,800, so the increase will not be particularly noticeable. If you enjoyed the hunting here in the late 90s and early 2000s, the elk numbers will not return in the foreseeable future. It’s probably time to move on.
Big Thompson/Estes, unit 20: This population will not be coming back to the recent highs in the middle of the past decade. Well over 4,000 elk were present with an objective of 2,400. Several late season hunts were instituted, but the real problem was the Rocky Mountain National Park elk never left their sanctuary of the Park or town of Estes. Over 200 cow tags were issued in each of 3 late seasons, and the local herds on National Forest lands were annihilated. Additional culling in the park by government personnel and volunteers has helped knock the population below objective to around 2,100 elk. The attempt to solve the Park’s population problem with hunting on National Forest lands solved nothing, and now the public land hunting is the worst it has been in years. And since there are very few cows left on the public land, it won’t be getting much better unless the distribution of the elk herds change.
San Juans, units 75,751,77,771,78: We’ll end with some good news. This population had been near the objective of 19,000 for several years, but a series of larger than expected harvested knocked the population down from 20,000 to around 17,000 recently. The change may not be drastic, but can be quite noticeable, as the herds that were hit were mostly led by cows on public lands. The DOW has pulled back slightly on the cow tags for this coming year and is trying to hit the objective with slow growth due to the reluctance of surpassing 19,000. So if you noticed fewer elk the past few years here, they will be back in a couple years. Give it three years.
I understand the hesitance to leave your old stomping grounds. Traditions, proximity and local knowledge all play a role in why we continue to return to places even after we know they will never produce like the “good old days” or even just 5 years ago. As a unit-hopper, rarely hunting the same place twice, I know full well the difficulties and expenses in scouting new country. But you can approach these new places with an optimistic attitude, rather than stay put and grouch about the fact that the deer or elk are no longer present in the numbers you once knew. If you’re willing to expand your horizons, there is still a lot of good elk and deer hunting to be had. And if you aren’t willing to leave your spot, well, that’s your choice too. But at least consider re-scouting it to find whatever hot spots are left. If you believe that your pasture is greenest, that’s great, but it doesn’t hurt to take a look around.
With experience comes wisdom, but not all of it may apply to a new location. So weigh the consequences of leaving your spot for somewhere new. Despite the decline in game numbers in your area, are you still successful? How much do you really care about success, and how attached are you to the memories of your old camp? Is your wife going to ban further hunting trips if you don’t come home with game soon? How confident are you in your abilities to find elk or deer in new places? These are just some of the questions you might ask yourself before folding up or holding on.

Trophy Potential

Throughout the years, it has been difficult to determine trophy hotspots outside of areas that claimed to specifically manage for older age classes of animals. Trophy hunters were told to peruse the B&C or P&Y record books to uncover areas that have produced well in the past. However, the record books generally only recorded a county of kill, which won’t always be useful in determining an individual unit. Additionally, those kills may have been 100 years old, or so few and far between, that the records are virtually useless for determining places that routinely produce older animals. Also, keep in mind that a Boone and Crockett class animal is a freak of nature, whose antlers far exceed anything else in his age class.
Age, genetics and nutrition all play a role in producing large antlers, but age is the single most important factor. There is currently no practical way to determine the genetic potential in an area, and nutrition is usually sufficient in a mild year to come close to maximizing an animal’s antler growth for his age class.
However, at WesternHuntingData.com, we have devised two statistics to help you determine which areas have the greatest potential for older age classed animals. One of the statistics in our data sets shows the % of male animals harvested yearly. Obviously, harvesting a lower % of male animals increases the likelihood of allowing bucks or bulls to live an additional year, thereby growing larger antlers. Comparing between units to see which ones kill a smaller % of males is primarily how the statistic was designed, but can you use those statistics to determine an age class of animals to expect to be able to harvest? YES! Here’s how:
Let’s pick on my favorite unit to bash, unit 12 in Colorado, the most popular of the famed Flat Tops units. Unit 12 is part of a Data Analysis Unit where 45% of the available bulls are harvested yearly. Think about that, spikes aren’t generally legal, so hunters are harvesting over 45% of the bulls age two and older (spikes are almost always yearlings). Since spikes aren’t legal, that 45% bull harvest is a lot of pressure on the two and older class. So what’s the chance of harvesting a 3 year old bull? You have to make some assumptions here, but let’s assume a typical 40 calf: 100 cow ratio, with half of those calves being bulls, all of whom grow up to be spikes the following year. Now, in a unit whose pre season (not postseason) sex ratio is 40 bulls: 100 cows, it could be that nearly half of the bulls available are spike antlered yearlings. So, a 45% bull harvest, could be more like a 90% harvest of bulls age 2 and up if half of the bulls are spikes. The chance of surviving past age 2 is about 10%! Yikes. So since your typical 2 year old is a raghorn 3x4, 4x4 or maybe 5x5, and most three year olds are 5x5s or skinny 6x6s, what’s the chance of finding mature 6x6 5 year old bull? Nearly impossible, but let’s try to do the math. If a bull has about a 10% chance of survival from age 2 and on, to make it to hunting season of age 5, we multiply 10%(odds of making to age 3)x10%(to age 4)x10% (to age 5)=0.001, or 0.1%. That’s 1 in 1,000 bulls.
HOWEVER, this isn’t the whole story. These are the odds for the entire DAU (11,12,13,23,24,25,26,33,34,231,211,etc), not just unit 12. There is a lot of elk on private land that never ventures onto public ground, so maybe on those properties there is a 10% chance of making it to 3 years old or older. Not in unit 12. By applying the elk density to just the public land (which is likely higher than the entire DAU, so these are conservative estimates), and then extrapolating the number of available bulls, that 90% bull harvest jumps dramatically. You’re now looking at 288% of the extrapolated number of bulls being harvested (this is what we call the public pressure index). Of course they aren’t killing 288% of the bulls, but this number is useful in comparing other units. More than likely, private land harvest is having a significant impact on the total number of bulls harvested, thereby inflating the success rate. This number also shows that hunters are likely killing a heck of a lot higher % of bull elk on public land than on neighboring private lands. So in reality, the chance of finding a bull over 2 years old is almost impossible on public land. Compare this to unit 10, a famous trophy unit, not far from unit 12. The DAU% bull harvest is just 3% and the public pressure index is virtually identical (0.0477 or 4.77%), suggesting the vast majority of these elk are harvested on public lands. Well that’s a trophy unit, and it takes 13 resident preference points to hunt there. Would you believe that there are OTC units in Colorado that harvest less than 20% (and some less than 10%) of the available bulls in the DAU? And they clearly aren’t coming just off of private land when they have public pressure indices that are the same as or better than trophy units like 40 and 76 (but not quite as good as 10). So, in a unit where 20% of the bulls are being harvested on public land, what’s the chance of finding a 5 year old bull? Assuming no natural mortality and no spike harvest, the odds of the bull you found being 5 or is nearly 22%. That’s not bad at all. These units are out there and they are available over the counter. Nobody talks about them for a reason.
Similar things apply in every state. In some states (Montana for instance), spikes are legal with the bull tags in some units, so there is far less pressure on the older bulls. There are Oregon general season tags for units where less than 10% of the bulls are harvested yearly. In Idaho, a handful of units harvest less than 10% of the bulls, and many general units harvest under 20% of the bulls.
Now for deer, especially in places where spikes are legal, the odds of making it to an older age group change slightly. If yearlings are legal, we have to apply these mortality rates to yearlings. And of course, natural mortality is much higher with deer. Now let’s pick on unit 52 in Colorado. The % of bucks harvested in that DAU (includes 521 and others) is just 21%. So to make it to age two, you are looking at 100-21=79%. Well that’s pretty good, but we all dream of 4x4s, not big forkhorns. So to make it to age 3, assuming no natural mortality, multiply .79x.79=53%. Once again not bad, thank goodness for all deer tags being controlled in Colorado. But we forget about the public pressure index, which suggests closer to 80% of the available public land bucks are harvested. So in unit 52, you might be seeing all sorts of great deer on the ranch land as you drive up into the national forest, but all of a sudden, the big deer are gone, and you are only seeing little forkhorns. That’s because to make it to just to age two, that little buck’s odds are just .2x.2=.04, or 4%, not including natural mortality. So there is a chance of seeing a two year old, but it’s pretty slim.
So think about these things when selecting a unit if trophy potential has any meaning to you. Be honest with yourself, if you won’t be happy settling for a raghorn or forkhorn, whose meat is certainly delicious, don’t shoot it. Leave that animal to someone who would be happy with him. And if all you are seeing are little bucks, and you aren’t happy with them, you’re probably in the wrong unit.
Good luck this season

Navigation

It seems there are a lot of folks who do not know how to use half the features provided by their GPS or map. Beyond marking points and then using the “go to” function, there are several things people should know when attempting to navigate.
First of all, switch your GPS units to UTMs. In my Garmin, it’s called UTM UPS. Without getting overly technical, UTMs are a simple X-Y grid system placed over the earth. Because the unit is in meters, it becomes much more logical to use than decimal degrees, or degrees, minutes, seconds. The only way to calculate your position on a map with decimal degrees or degrees, minutes, seconds are with special rulers that few hunters own, nor know how to use, unless they were in the military. For the Average Joe, with high school-level math skills, UTMs make more sense. Here in Colorado, our coordinates are projected in either Zone 12 or 13 which is a way of refining the accuracy of mapping a 2-D system onto the 3-D earth, usually in map datum NAD 27 (it will say on the corner of your map). But don’t worry about that for right now, unless you’re manually inputting coordinates into your GPS. The first set of digits are called Eastings. Here, they are six digits long, but in reality they are 7 digits, because they start with a zero. This number represents how far east or west you are from the central meridian. The 7 digit Northing is how far you are from the equator, all in meters.
But who cares about that? You should, here’s why. Let’s say you’ve been wandering around hunting and don’t know where you are. You marked your truck on the GPS this morning, so you could get back by simply following a straight line, regardless of what it leads you through. Wouldn’t it be better to know exactly where you are and what you’ll be walking through or whether there is an easier way around to your vehicle? What if you wanted to investigate a terrain feature, whose coordinates you hadn’t previously entered into your GPS? How would you go about doing that?
The vast majority of maps these days have UTM grid coordinates marked on them. They are typically in 1000 meter grid squares or hash marks. For instance, on the National Geographic Trails Illustrated map I am looking at, the numbers on the top, called eastings begin with a superscript 3, followed by two normal sized numbers, on the side of the map, the superscript has two numbers all beginning with 43, followed by two normal sized numbers. So, let’s say our GPS says we are at 0302465E 4317521N. Where is that on the map? Remember these are 1000 meter grid squares. So on the top, the eastings, follow the superscript 3 until you hit 302. What about the rest of the numbers, the 465? That means you are 465 meters east of the 0302 gridline. Basically, within 35 meters of dead square in the middle between grid lines 0302 and 0303. Now, for the northings, 4317521. On the side of our map, we should see a grid line for 4317, then we continue 521 meters north of that line, which once again, puts almost in the middle between the lines for 4317 and 4318. Where those two lines intersect is your position. Understand?
Using that same system, you can also manually enter coordinates into your GPS to navigate your way to a terrain feature.
Many guys these days also don’t know how to properly use a good compass. A good compass has a rotating dial, not a simple north arrow.
Two quick and dirty uses for your compass: staying on a course, or determining a on bearing. How do you do that, and why, especially if you have a GPS?
Let’s say our GPS indicated which direction to head and it was through the timber to our meadow. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve always had difficulty maintaining satellite reception in heavy timber. Your GPS pointer will tell you which direction the waypoint is, but it might not have a good fix on your location, giving you inconsistent directions. So you stop, letting the satellites find you again and the GPS tells you the direction you need to head to find your meadow, but you know you’ll lose reception as soon as you move. Many GPSes will also give you the direction in degrees. 0 is north, 90 is east, 180 is south, 270 is west. Your direction dial says 45 degrees, northeast. How do you stay on that course? Whip out the ole compass, did you ever notice there is one white arrow, one red arrow? And a red outlined arrow on the dial opposite of the white arrow? We want to go 45 degrees, so rotate the dial to 45, or northeast. Then turn your body or compass so that the red arrow overlays the red outline, that is the rough direction you need to head.
Same idea if you are trying to figure out what direction you are heading. Keep facing that direction, with your compass out in front of you. Rotate the dial so that the red arrow and the red outline overlay each other, then read the indication.
GPS isn’t working? One other use for your compass is to take a bearing. We will not worry about declination, or how true north and magnetic north differ slightly. Want to triangulate your position on a mountaintop. Take a precise bearing of the prominent peaks listed on your map, then use the compass to help you draw a line back towards your potential position. Do the same thing with two or three other peaks to create an error polygon. You should be somewhere with that polygon. That is the basics of triangulation, and similar to how satellites calculate your position.
I hope this helps somewhat. And hopefully I didn’t leave out anything crucial.

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.