Why is this Tag a Leftover?

With application season pretty much behind us, leftovers becoming available and hunting season just around the corner, most of us have our plans pretty well fleshed out. However, many of you may still be contemplating the leftover lists, looking for an opportunity to hunt.
I’ll mostly talk about the Wyoming and Colorado leftovers here, but the thought processes should apply elsewhere.
More often than not there’s a reason tags go unclaimed in the draw, and it’s not always because it’s a bad tag to have. But you need to do your research BEFORE you buy a tag. It all boils down to supply and demand, but we need to look into both variables to see why the tag has leftovers, and whether or not it’s worth having.
On the supply side, units with high game populations frequently issue a lot of tags. So just because the tags are available, it does not mean no one wants them. It’s just that there’s a tremendous number available. Here in Colorado, a unit with one of the highest deer densities and excellent trophy potential is available as leftovers most years. Areas with population problems often make it to leftovers. Colorado’s top elk density unit has tags available in leftovers for nearly every season. Areas that are just in a population maintenance mode, are rarely as good for a meat hunt as those whose populations are above objectives.
Sometimes there will be areas that traditionally to draw out, with a fairly steady number of applicants. But if the managing game department suddenly increases the tags, the public may not have been prepared and the unit will go undersubscribed. Check out the draw stats for both this year and last year. Was there an increase in the number of permits? That might indicate a growing population for you to take advantage of.
One of the big factors affecting demand would include public access. This is easy enough to figure out with a simple atlas or map showing public land ownership and the major county roads. The antelope tags I buy in Wyoming every year are always available as leftovers, but Wyoming Game and Fish discourages people from purchasing tags for that unit with their asterisk, meaning public access is poor. It may not be full of contiguous blocks of public land, but there’s enough, especially when you include Wyoming’s Walk In Access and Hunter Management Areas. And don’t overlook checkerboarded areas for deer and antelope hunting. My favorite parcel for antelope is just a single 640 acre (1 sq mile) section of BLM land. It always has a large herd of antelope on it after 10 am.
Wilderness and difficult terrain conspire to discourage many hunters. If you’ve purchased my full data sets, you’ll see that some of the best units are wilderness-heavy and/or incredibly steep, rugged country. In Wyoming, that’s a major issue for nonresidents, because you can’t hunt a designated wilderness without a guide, but it shouldn’t hold back a hardcore hunter in other states. Also, look closely to see what proportion of a unit is wilderness. Is there still enough country left to hunt outside of the wilderness area? Most hunters just don’t want to fool with backcountry camping. But if you’re willing to, you’ll open up tremendous possibilities for yourself. Road closures to popular areas also discourage some hunters who had traditionally hunted in a place they could drive to.
But, as often as not, a tag goes undersubscribed for good reason. Frequently the game numbers are way down, and even the locals are giving up on hunting the area. While most hunters don’t pour over the statistics, long term trends of poor success and infrequent game sightings go noticed eventually. Heavily pressured areas take a toll on those who are intolerant of “pumpkin patches”. Despite an areas popularity, few hunters dream about hunting elbow to elbow with other strangers. But tolerance to hunting pressure is relative. If you’re used to heavily hunted areas in your home state, what locals consider heavy pressure may not bother you at all.
Sometimes, it’s just the season that hunters don’t like. Here in Colorado, 2nd season deer tags and 4th season elk tags aren’t very popular; leaving some high quality tags available in places that you wouldn’t think would have leftovers. 3rd season is very popular for deer hunters, but low on most elk hunter’s priorities.
New hunts and new boundaries also create confusion or poor awareness amongst hunters. This year, with 3rd rifle season in Colorado being extended to a full nine days, you’d think more people would know about it. But many of the folks I’ve talked to had no idea. Also, keep your eye out for new late or early season opportunities that are outside of the traditional hunting seasons. Because game departments tweak their seasons and hunting opportunities each year, new hunts pop up without the knowledge of many long time hunters. In fact, I talked to an outfitter this year that had no idea that there was a new late elk season in his area. Many of those guys just don’t pay enough attention to the new regulations each year. Yes, they’ll know for next year, but having first crack at migratory herd in an area of heavy public land appeals to me, and there are leftovers of the tag I’m talking about.
Lastly, we usually have a few weeks between finding out what the leftover list looks like and the date the permits go on sale. So try to get a little scouting in if you can to verify that an area looks like it holds game and the public lands are accessible.
My point is that there are many factors that go into whether or not a permit is available as a leftover. Sometimes it’s a supply issue, other times it’s a demand issue. So make sure you do your due diligence when considering a leftover tag. Also, keep in mind that a limited permit isn’t always better than an unlimited one. But more often than not, we need to take advantage of leftover limited permits in order to maximize our hunting opportunities. They aren’t all marginal permits, some of them can be fairly desirable. Wyoming leftovers are on sale now, Colorado leftovers go on sale in person and over the phone August 10th. Good luck out there and do your homework.

Gear Talk, Part 1: Intro

Most hunters view their gear as more than just tools to use in the pursuit of game. Many of us find equipment selection an integral and enjoyable part of the hunt planning process. In some cases, less than ideal equipment can lead to minor frustrations, annoyances and limitations. In other cases it can ruin a hunt or put your life in danger. We all have budget, weight and space constraints to work within, so it helps to know what you can leave at home and where to spend any fun money you have available to upgrade equipment. Some of our equipment is useful for a variety of hunt types, but other gear is more specialized and poorly suited to some hunts. Matching your specialized gear to the game, terrain, season, or weather is an important and sometimes fun part of hunt planning. Under the broad category of gear includes weapons, ammo/projectiles, optics, clothing and footwear, tents and shelters, sleeping bags, packs, cutlery and navigation tools. But what do you take, and what do you leave at home? What do you need, and what can you make do without?
Some basic understanding of the game and terrain in your hunt area is necessary to make these decisions. I’m sure we know what game we are after, but the terrain that you will be hunting should guide even more of our decisions. If you’ve never laid eyes on the country you think you will be hunting, there are many ways to get both aerial and ground level views. First and foremost should be Google Earth. There is a layer called Panaramio that you should select if you want to see pictures of the major terrain features from hikers and photographers. Usually those pictures will be taken in areas of high visibility, so pay attention to what the surrounding country also looks like. If you can identify outfitters with a website who hunt the area you will be working, they likely have numerous photos of their hunters, as well as pack and fishing trips that will show you what kind of vegetation, steepness of mountains and visibility to expect.
If you can identify any major terrain features labeled in an atlas, run a search for photos of it. It might just be a famous, rock, peak or monument, but most photographers also include a little bit of the surrounding country in their photos. Habitats vary tremendously, even for antelope. Pronghorn antelope can live in shortgrass prairie where the gramma grasses are rarely more than 6 inches high, and shrubs are few and far between. In this country, you’ll expect even longer shots than in cold desert sagebrush country, or yucca and cholla flats where large shrubs or cacti and broken ground can hide your approach. In sandhills, mixed grass prairies, CRP or mountain foothills the grass may be too high for a 9inch bipod. Breaks or badlands country may make your approach easier, but the hiking involved may make you regret carrying a 12 pound rifle. Elk and deer country varies even more than antelope, so pay specific attention when examining photos of new country (or when scouting) to the visibility, availability of rests or difficulty of the topography.
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be going through what I consider ideal gear for different hunting situations. The next article will focus on guns and loads for elk, deer and antelope, and follow ups will include camping gear, clothing, footwear, and how to match those to your quarry and country. So, if you’re one who follows what I write, your homework assignment over the next week is to get familiar with the environment you will be hunting, so you can picture it when we go over the major variables, and how they may affect your gear selection.