I'll be looking for part 2!! I too hope to draw a Nebraska Elk tag someday too.... Can't imagine what an empty, just punched in the gut feeling that was to hear back from the outfitter that he was booked!
I had my egr blocked off, dpf removed and a single eco/tow tune (efi live) on my 08 regular cab 2500 Dmax, went from 18mpg highway driving to 18mpg.... didn't change a thing and wasn't cheap.... my whole reason for deleting was economy and well that didnt workout but it woke it up a lot
https://maps.outdoornebraska.gov/PublicAccessAtlas/
Have you looked here? There's a decent amount of opportunities, plenty of deer away from the river, the south east corner area has a good population of deer. A lot of crp and ofw, wma ground open.
The larger tracts of publicly accessable ground (private owned but enrolledin open fields and waters program) Close to the interstate out by Gothenburg and North Platte also get a lot of pressure,. I assume this is because of the loation being close to the interstate.... There public ground...
I always have the best luck on public ground the first week or two. Thats also because I am not good at hunting turkeys and they get pressured fairly hard in my neck of the "woods" so after the first few weeks of the season they become educated and my skill level makes them lol inside I do...
Im from Nebraska and would be interested in a trip or two out west. I can not send pm's yet... can you pm me or doesn't that work either till i hit the requirments