What's your "didn't draw" backup plan?

[spur60]

Curious to what those of you from other parts of the country do when you don't draw your plan A or plan B/C/D tags? Do you look for leftover tags or OTC tags and still travel? Do you fall back on resident tags in your own state? Chase birds or go fishing all fall instead?
For example, I applied for some harder to draw units here in SD; I thought I had enough points for both but didn't draw either of them. I don't apply for out of state tags (yet) and I don't archery hunt so if I want to shoot a deer it will either be a muzzleloader doe here in SD or non resident OTC buck tag in MN and hunt where I grew up. I'll maybe apply for leftover tags here during second draw, but with our 40% tag reductions across the state for rifle season I'm not getting my hopes up of a tag available for a county with decent public land or a county I have private land access. So instead of scouting trips in October and 2 weeks of deer hunting in November, I'll be fishing, and chasing ducks, pheasants, and snow geese.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

I always have a plan A/B/C/D/E. Don't draw anything special, plan A is dead. Plan B, C or D, hunt my place in MO or WI or OTC here in WA, can do multiple of these or all. Plan E, fish like a maniac and hit the late crab season if it opens. I always give myself a bunch of options.

 

[IAm_Not_Lost]

My backup plan is that I have 10 days off of work and I’m going to take the family and go do something fun! Probably a mixed hiking, camping, resort/spa time somewhere beautiful and interesting.

 

[Tilzbow]

I’ll help friends who did draw after unsuccessfully applying in five western states with 20-30 points and every available hunt I was eligible to apply for. This might be the first time in 40 years I won’t have a tag in my hands.

 

[cuerro viejo]

bears and aoudad are the easy button

 

[Gseith]

I prefer big game. But if I can’t hunt that, it’s onto waterfowl and small game.

 

[Customweld]

Hunt OTC tags. Instead of hunting a December elk tag, I'll chase coyotes, wolves and birds. That's the beauty of Idaho.

 

[MallardSX2]

Go to Illinois and shoot another buck with my bow.

 

[MuleyFever]

I have always been limited by vacation time so I have been lucky in that I have always had points to draw something but unlucky that its only 1 or 2 hunts a year. My wife has also drawn tags in years when I didnt. My last resort is anterless tags. So far, I havent had to go without a tag but its getting harder to draw in a lot of places.

 

[Macintosh]

Didnt draw the out of state tag I applied for. My plan A also included the tail end of fishing during september, OTC september goose season, followed by OTC archery deer, bird hunting, duck hunting, OTC muzzleloader plus a draw ML doe tag close to home, OTC rifle season here, OTC rifle season at the family hunting camp in a neighboring state, possibly a backpack rifle hunt near there, and then late season ducks and geese. That'll keep me entertained till mid january, anyway.

My plan B is whether I will take a september trip to that other state and do a backpacking/scouting/fishing trip in hopes of learning the area ahead of hopefully drawing that tag in a year or two.

 

[Maverick1]

Curious to what those of you from other parts of the country do when you don't draw your plan A or plan B/C/D tags? Do you look for leftover tags or OTC tags and still travel? Do you fall back on resident tags in your own state? Chase birds or go fishing all fall instead?
For example, I applied for some harder to draw units here in SD; I thought I had enough points for both but didn't draw either of them. I don't apply for out of state tags (yet) and I don't archery hunt so if I want to shoot a deer it will either be a muzzleloader doe here in SD or non resident OTC buck tag in MN and hunt where I grew up. I'll maybe apply for leftover tags here during second draw, but with our 40% tag reductions across the state for rifle season I'm not getting my hopes up of a tag available for a county with decent public land or a county I have private land access. So instead of scouting trips in October and 2 weeks of deer hunting in November, I'll be fishing, and chasing ducks, pheasants, and snow geese.

As the trend appears to be going away from OTC NR elk tags, this may be problematic in the future. Have not had to be concerned about it until recent years.

 

[KurtR]

Curious to what those of you from other parts of the country do when you don't draw your plan A or plan B/C/D tags? Do you look for leftover tags or OTC tags and still travel? Do you fall back on resident tags in your own state? Chase birds or go fishing all fall instead?
For example, I applied for some harder to draw units here in SD; I thought I had enough points for both but didn't draw either of them. I don't apply for out of state tags (yet) and I don't archery hunt so if I want to shoot a deer it will either be a muzzleloader doe here in SD or non resident OTC buck tag in MN and hunt where I grew up. I'll maybe apply for leftover tags here during second draw, but with our 40% tag reductions across the state for rifle season I'm not getting my hopes up of a tag available for a county with decent public land or a county I have private land access. So instead of scouting trips in October and 2 weeks of deer hunting in November, I'll be fishing, and chasing ducks, pheasants, and snow geese.

I didnt even apply this year just going to get points with how bad the population is. I had a really good any deer tag last year and ate it. So chase ducks and geese all fall and not have to worry about fitting in deer hunting. If it stays nice try and break the state record walleye. Pigs have been coming out of the river this year so far.

 

[spur60]

I didnt even apply this year just going to get points with how bad the population is. I had a really good any deer tag last year and ate it. So chase ducks and geese all fall and not have to worry about fitting in deer hunting. If it stays nice try and break the state record walleye. Pigs have been coming out of the river this year so far.

I can't believe how many guys I know, myself included that are going to make trips up there this fall to fish that bite.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Jack Daniels.

 

[KurtR]

I can't believe how many guys I know, myself included that are going to make trips up there this fall to fish that bite.

I know of 3 fish over 32" caught just this last weekend it is wild

 

[MarkOrtiz]

Nothing here in Nevada for me. My daughter drew a horns shorter than ears pronghorn tag though and my son really wants a CA black bear and those are OTC. Plus we just started bird hunting so it will be Sage Grouse, Chukar, and we just got a black lab for waterfowl hunting all winter.

 

[displacedtexan]

bears and aoudad are the easy button

This.

 

[displacedtexan]

I didnt even apply this year just going to get points with how bad the population is.

That's what we did.

Gonna deer hunt Texas and Oklahoma (the states we live in) and have 2 archery hunts for non deer species on public lands in undisclosed states with OTC tags, with plans for a possible third.

 

[go_deep]

I'm a Wyoming resident, plan A always works out.

 

[maxx075]

Lifetime hunting license in my birth state.