There’s a lot of good advice in this thread. I’ll add my free advice, which is worth every penny you pay for it…
Adventure is what you make of it. There’s probably a place within an hour of you where you can go park your truck, hike a mile or two or ten, camp out, and hunt for a local species. Due to breaking my leg, I had to cancel my “local adventure hunt into the Virginia backcountry” this past year, but it’s rescheduled for this year.
What is better about killing an elk/moose than a deer? The bragging rights? The trophy on your wall? Not for me.
The extra meat? Even DIY, that’s pretty expensive meat for those of us who have to take time away from work, drive or fly halfway across the continent, pay for a tag, etc. Find someone with some deer damage permits and get the meat for practically nothing.
But, some might say, “Q, you should experience hunting out West!” Okay, I can get behind that, but I don’t have to chase expensive tags to do that. I had a perfectly wonderful upland bird hunt in Northern Montana last year. I enjoyed the spectacular landscape, caught up with a childhood friend, got to watch my friend’s dog work, missed a few birds, and didn’t have to pluck anything. It also might have been the most expensive hunt I’ve ever done, but if not, it was very close to it.
I have a rough plan to go back out West and try a DIY cow elk, wolf, and upland bird hunt this next fall. I’m sure that will be more challenging for me than going after a “trophy class bull elk” is for someone experienced. I also expect that it will be a more challenging and a more rewarding experience, for me, than paying for a guided hunt on private land would be.
With no shade of envy, jealousy, or sour grapes, I don’t admire the accomplishment of killing an animal on a guided hunt. At best, that’s a hiking and shooting accomplishment, not a hunting accomplishment, but often it’s not even that. I read these hunting stories where someone kills a trophy animal fifty yards from the camp or where the guide takes them to an area known to have trophy class animals (often scouted by trail cameras), spots the animal for them, and then all they have to do is control their nerves long enough to shoot well. I am not impressed by most of them. I am sure they had fun, but I got almost no joy out of the one guided hunt I did (apart from being with friends).
This past year, I was driving down the hill with my brother’s buck in the back of the truck, when the biggest deer I saw all season stepped over the top of a hill 200 yards away. I stopped the truck, opened the door, used the side mirror as a rest, dialed up, and killed him with one shot. I didn’t “hunt” for him. The shot was good and true, but not anything amazing. Not really a hunting or shooting accomplishment, but it’s a great memory and an experience I would not trade for any other hunting experience. I hunted “hard” for something like 29 days last year and had the most successful year I’ve had in a while, but the biggest deer I got came down to dumb luck. And I am still very happy with it! Don’t let someone steal the joy out of your local experience!
About the only time in my life when I feel God’s presence is when I am hunting. I love it. It’s a vital part of my identity. I refuse to let anyone else define it for me. And you shouldn’t either.
There’s a huge market designed to sell the “western hunting experience.” I will assume that you are a man and somehow manage to resist the ads for tampons. I am sure that with a bit of willpower and reflection, you can resist the sales pitch for this other thing you don’t need.
Of course, if you do “need” or “really, really want” to go hunting for elk or whatever, out West or wherever, then you will find a way to make it happen if you want it bad enough. Talk it over with your wife, make a realistic plan and budget, and then go do it.
If anything I wrote above sounds critical of anyone else in this thread or on this forum, I don’t intend it that way. This is my advice, based on my experience, and what is important to me.
