2025 Wyoming Elk Draw/Questions

Mojave

WKR
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
2,145
Here is my 5 Schillingi

1. If you want to hunt elk every year and you don't have the cash to swing for land owner validations or guided hunts in Canada you are going to have to draw tags. So you need to be in as many elk points programs and state applications as you can do. You are going to draw a general in Wyoming in a few years and then be done. So start looking at getting your programs going everywhere else.

2. This will require a 3-5-10-years and hopefully someday plan. Some years you might get a cow tag, some years you might get nothing. Apply in multiple states every year. Hunt bears, deer and turkey in the same units every year. Build knowledge. You can hunt cows in most states without losing your bull points.

3. You have a lot of years of gaining knowledge to figure this out. This isn't really a resource. As much as I don't like the actual products the paid for hunting intelligence game Go Hunt, Eastmans and others will give you quite a bit of knowledge. They won't give you everything, and they will outright lie to you about what their data means. Know it is a guess based on last years data. That is all it is.

4. What is important to you. That is the key. I used to chase dream tags, but after a few years of not hunting because I couldn't draw a tag, nowI just chase experiences. If you are looking to fill your instagram page with 400 inch bulls, and you don't have the funds to invest in ranch hunts in Utah and Arizona governors tags you probably will never be able to do that.

5. Remember the draws are super cyclic. What took 5 points last year, might take 7 or 8. It most likely won't take 4. But it might. The Wyoming premium draw might only be 3 or 4 points.

Is it worth it? Only you can answer that. I used to have different ideas on the value of hunting. Some hunting to me has a lot more value than tag soup, or not drawing a tag and not being able to hunt.

Your spouse might also have some kind of a voice in what you can manage to do every year.

I have decided that we can get divorced or I can go hunting. Those are the two options. I am currently still married. I have completed 2 of the 6 hunts I have booked for this year so far. So it's looking good.
 

KHNC

WKR
Joined
Jul 11, 2013
Messages
3,566
Location
NC
Get ready to high step over endless amounts of beetle kill deadfall if you plan to hunt wyoming. Good news is, I will never apply for a GEN tag again in Wyoming. It just isnt worth it. And thats coming from someone that me and my buddy both killed elk with archery last week DIY.
 

TheCoyote

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Feb 28, 2021
Messages
124
Get ready to high step over endless amounts of beetle kill deadfall if you plan to hunt wyoming. Good news is, I will never apply for a GEN tag again in Wyoming. It just isnt worth it. And thats coming from someone that me and my buddy both killed elk with archery last week DIY.
Bummer man. That is hard to hear. I have 6 points and was seriously considering burning them next year on the General tag. Wyoming is getting tricky... I can keep collecting points but Im not sure that they'll ever be enough to draw a big bull area.
 

Mojave

WKR
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
2,145
Bummer man. That is hard to hear. I have 6 points and was seriously considering burning them next year on the General tag. Wyoming is getting tricky... I can keep collecting points but Im not sure that they'll ever be enough to draw a big bull area.
It will not probably ever
 
Joined
Nov 27, 2013
Messages
1,925
Get ready to high step over endless amounts of beetle kill deadfall if you plan to hunt wyoming. Good news is, I will never apply for a GEN tag again in Wyoming. It just isnt worth it. And thats coming from someone that me and my buddy both killed elk with archery last week DIY.
Because of the deadfall? Or people? The last tag I had I saw one guy, and no deadfall.
 

go_deep

WKR
Joined
Jan 7, 2021
Messages
1,892
Hardly, guess I hunted an area without all the beetle kill. The forests were very much healthy unlike Southern WY where you deal with that stuff.

You'd need to enlighten me on which mountain range doesn't have any beetle kill? I work and travel through them all, and while I'll agree some are better than others, I don't think any mountain ranges are free of it.
 
Joined
Nov 27, 2013
Messages
1,925
You'd need to enlighten me on which mountain range doesn't have any beetle kill? I work and travel through them all, and while I'll agree some are better than others, I don't think any mountain ranges are free of it.
Grid coordinates ? Just saying I know what beetle kill is and how bad it can be.
 

KHNC

WKR
Joined
Jul 11, 2013
Messages
3,566
Location
NC
Because of the deadfall? Or people? The last tag I had I saw one guy, and no deadfall.
I wasn't hunting the same unicorn area you were in. Only place in WY without beetle kill deadfall is the plains on BLM or scrub oak country. Maybe above treeline too. At least areas that are huntable without having 10+ points for elk anyway.
 

KHNC

WKR
Joined
Jul 11, 2013
Messages
3,566
Location
NC
Bummer man. That is hard to hear. I have 6 points and was seriously considering burning them next year on the General tag. Wyoming is getting tricky... I can keep collecting points but Im not sure that they'll ever be enough to draw a big bull area.
Dont waste them on a GEN tag. Not unless you have access to some private land in a GEN area. I am telling you from experience, that tag is nothing like it was even as recently as 2018. On public.
 

saskhunter

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 24, 2020
Messages
122
How's the whole "Hunting 4 Jesus" thing going?

Serious question, did Jesus do his own draw applications?
 

Mojave

WKR
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
2,145
Where isn't elk hunting a gong show. It has no equal.
$25,000 private land ranch hunt.

A friend of mine is a doctor. He hunts at some big outfit in New Mexico one of the Ted Turner places and shoots a 350 -370 bull every year.

They feed him filet minion and lobster tails and wipe his ass.

He has a good time and has zero concept of elk hunting on public land in a general unit.

Not really envious, because he works like 70 hours a week.
 

Mojave

WKR
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
2,145
I wasn't hunting the same unicorn area you were in. Only place in WY without beetle kill deadfall is the plains on BLM or scrub oak country. Maybe above treeline too. At least areas that are huntable without having 10+ points for elk anyway.
Scrub oak? In Wyoming.

Have you ever been to Wyoming?
 
Joined
Nov 27, 2013
Messages
1,925
I mean is public land elk hunting really that fun? OTC sucks these days, I came to the realization I spend 10-15 days in the woods amongst idiots to kill a flipping raghorn and a cow. There is one species left I truly enjoy without all the drama. That is until its wrecked. I don't see the draw for anything "public land " these days. If I spent as much time looking for access on private as I did clilmbing hills and trying to avoid people, I bet you could find a place.
 

Mojave

WKR
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
2,145
You should do the Lincoln NF hunts for deer in New Mexico.

You and 500-800 of your best friends, all trying to shoot you int he back for a fork horned buck.
 
Top