What is your thoughts?

[MOhunter28]

Hey folks long time since I have posted last. I'll be honest hunting hasn't been much on my mind since my "disaster" hunt in Idaho in the high country. Not sure if my profile links to the post about it but its somewhere on here.

A buddy and I hunted unit 67 in Idaho in the high country for mule deer with our bows. Due to the events that happened there, (a bear visited our camp and water was near impossible to find) we never really "hunted". We did see 3 nice bucks but not a whole lot of deer in general. So, for this coming season, our questions is do we go somewhere else or do we learn from our experience and try again?

Pro and cons to going back to Idaho: PROS: we never saw any hunters, nice sized deer, OTC tag, we are now somewhat familiar with the ground, we would be more prepared for that area CONS: there's a shit ton of bears there, little water, few deer, 2 day drive just to get there, very very rough/dangerous hike in with a pack.

Our other option we thought of was going to Colorado and going into the high country in units 74 or 82. We do have 1 PP right now which should get us into those units. Both of those units have a popular early rifle so I tend to think that there are good deer numbers there.

If this was year 4 or whatever in our hunting, I wouldn't let the last trip hurt my judgement. Since it was our first high country experience, and want to become familiar with an area, we thought now would be a good time to "start over".

We are not 100% sure what to do, we just want to enjoy the experience of hunting in the high country and we want to see some deer numbers. A trophy buck would be a bonus but ultimately the trophy is shooting a deer in the high country with our bow. We also think that building the experience of stalking high country deer will prepare us for when we do want to pursue the trophy deer. So our question is are we thinking correctly at going to Colorado in units 82 or 74? Is there another place that has a target rich environment in the high country. Let me know or PM me what you think. Obviously, I can provide info on Idaho unit 67 deer and can give some info on eastern Wyoming deer and antelope and would be willing to swap info. Thanks!

 

[RoJo]

Sounds like an ID bear tag is in order.

 

[brn2hnt]

First thoughts:
Where are you coming from that is a two day drive to ID?
If CO is closer, and you said bow hunting, you need to hunt there every year before hunting ID, CO is the mule deer factory and has plenty of tags that can be drawn second choice for archery so you don't burn any points either

 

[Bar]

74 and 82 have pretty good odds for success in the early above timber tags.

74...9 bucks taken for 13 hunters.

82...6 bucks taken for 12 hunters.

 

[MOhunter28]

First thoughts:
Where are you coming from that is a two day drive to ID?
If CO is closer, and you said bow hunting, you need to hunt there every year before hunting ID, CO is the mule deer factory and has plenty of tags that can be drawn second choice for archery so you don't burn any points either

SW Missouri, it took us about 19 hours to get to Idaho last year. We tried to get all the way there driving straight through but it didn't happen. 82 in Colorado would only be like 12 or 13 hours

 

[MOhunter28]

74 and 82 have pretty good odds for success in the early above timber tags.

74...9 bucks taken for 13 hunters.

82...6 bucks taken for 12 hunters.

We saw that and liked those odds. Our goal is just to see a bunch of deer and have opportunity. Since we only had one short go at the high country we thought it would be best to hone our spotting/stalking skills in a target rich environment. I don't mean to seem over confident, but we are big whitetail hunters and have a lot of success every year, it seems as if mule deer are not as wary as whitetails but I would imagine a big buck is still just as wary as any other whitetail buck. My thoughts were if we are in a target rich environment (do not have to be monster deer) we should be able to fill a tag.

 

[Bar]

Mule deer aren't as spooky as whitetails, but their pretty smart in their own way. I always considered hunting for a mature buck muley harder than elk hunting.

 

[MakitaBoy]

Yeah I'd probly just go Colorado OTC save the PP for a better unit get in your practice on OTC tags. Muley's are very smart in their own way. As far as a hard hike and finding no water welcome to pack in hunts! It's always tough learning new country

 

[Nomad]

Colorado OTC for mule deer... does this unicorn exist?

 

[Frito]

Colorado OTC for mule deer... does this unicorn exist?

Not to my knowledge....which is somewhat limited to say the least. Sure would be nice though.

 

[Frito]

From what I can tell there are only certain OTC licenses for pronghorn and whitetail....and of course elk.

 

[Nomad]

10-4... I was pretty sure that was the case.

 

[Bar]

No OTC deer tags here, but there are leftover tags. You'd be shocked at the tags that show up on leftover tags. You don't need any points to get leftover tags, but i've seen tags as leftovers that took 4-5 points in the draw.

It's first come first served, so it takes some luck to get them.

 

[Nomad]

As an NR who is kinda late to the western backcountry hunting party relatively speaking, I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I need to just focus on a specific OTC (ELK) and low pp deer unit, and get to know it well... which is what I'm doing.

 

[huntstrong2850]

If you're looking for General deer and archery and high country you could look to Utah also. It is a draw tag but yet general and easy to draw in most units. Great deer, you'll have ppl around but you can get away from them. Or consider otc Arizona desert archery for mule deer.


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[Nomad]

Arizona might still happen this year... Probably next year for sure. I did draw a standard unit FAD archery tag for southern New Mexico, which turned out to be a pretty decent hunt, all things considered. I have 1 Mule Deer pp and should draw for Unit 77 Colorado this year.

 

[MOhunter28]

Seems like archery draw in Colorado is decent for high country units with the exception of a few. With 1 or 2 points it really opens up some options. That's where I'm on the fence do we do a hunt every other year in a 1 pp area and learn it well to be successful.

 

[kjack_74]

As an NR who is kinda late to the western backcountry hunting party relatively speaking, I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I need to just focus on a specific OTC (ELK) and low pp deer unit, and get to know it well... which is what I'm doing.

Don't give up hope man, I'm new to that world to (at least as a non-resident hunter). You just need a plan.

I set short,middle and long term goals, basically they are:

Short term - at least 2 hunts every year so this means OTC stuff in my home state and then going the NR route and for me that's Idaho (AZ late season may start rotating with ID though).

My medium goal is to get a chance at a good mature deer and most importantly it has to be something I can draw with 3-4 points again totally doable in several states.

Finally my longer term goal (and we could be talking 15 or 20 years) that I'm willing to do the time to get a chance at what I call a "Lifetime Buck" a toad that has spent his lifetime slipping through other guys fingers, getting educated by them and that I've spent a lifetime trying to learn every season about how to be the guy who's efforts finally pay off and out smarts him, research in the middle and long term goal are huge don't just follow the masses to "that one unit" that everyone wants or point creep will kill you.

The next step ... The "come to Jesus" step is seeing what you can actually budget for tags and applications each year and that will dictate where you can actually go hunt and on what time frame and maybe you will have to adjust what you call a "trophy" in your head but you can absolutely go and hunt backcountry big deer or elk every year even on a shoe string budget it's just gonna take work and research.

These may all sound like lofty goals and unattainable hunting dreams I know that's how I felt, my dad and I used to talk about it all the time we started putting money away for guided elk hunts because we thought that the only way to get one of these "dream hunts" was to fork over thousands of dollars on a guided hunt because you just couldn't draw one on our own ... We were wrong, and we never got to go.

Don't let something that seems difficult or impossible keep you from finding a way to live the way you want, you can hunt great bucks in Idaho, Montana, and Arizona every year.

Honestly unless you are in your mid 60s you've still got 20 seasons of hunting ahead of you so hunt every single one of them, you'll never regret it.



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[huntstrong2850]

Honestly unless you are in your mid 60s you've still got 20 seasons of hunting ahead of you so hunt every single one of them, you'll never regret it.



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I think many people lose focus of this fact today because of today's culture of I want it now and if I can't have it now it seems unattainable.

I'm only 33 and still new to all of this but I waited until I could afford it all as well. And for most non residents your 30's are honestly when you can start affording trips to go hunting. But we look at units like the Henry's or Kaibab and see the max point totals and think that's never gonna happen. Well with all the OTC opportunities and low point units as in Utah General deer, Wyoming deer, Idaho or New Mexico you could draw a lot in 20 years. Then you have LE points for that Henry's tag or Strip or Kaibab tag that you can then burn with confidence because you know how to hunt.

Too many let the points game get to them instead of finding ways to go hunt and all the while stacking points. Then come 50 years and hopefully still able and then you're drawing bada** tags in some awesome places. And those units/places by the time I'm 50 may no longer be the premier units. So you have points from years of saving them while still hunting and that new premier unit isn't out of reach for you. Hunt now and plan for the future at the same time.


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[Nomad]

Seems like archery draw in Colorado is decent for high country units with the exception of a few. With 1 or 2 points it really opens up some options. That's where I'm on the fence do we do a hunt every other year in a 1 pp area and learn it well to be successful.

This is exactly the philosophy I've adopted... and after reading Robby's book and confirming some of my personal observations, I don't see the need to be a slave to the point system. I want to hunt, not play the lottery. I've seen some good bucks in some of the low pp high country units I've elk hunted. In the early archery season they were in absolutely stupid hard to get to places, which makes me want to hunt them even more.