How many animals do you hunt in a year?

[ssimo]

Hi guys, as you can understand from my bad english i am not american. I always read your threads and i really like your way of hunting, much more than the rigid dogmatic way of central europe. In my country, Italy, we are lucky. Hunting is strictly regulated but you still have some freedom of movement after you survive to all the damned burocracy. And we can hunt basically as many animals as we want in two specific periods of the year on public land.

So i am curious about how many animals you kill each year and of which species on public land. I speak of public land because i assume most private land hunt are a joke like here in Italy, where basically the owner points you the deer and almost squeeze the trigger for you

Edit: i like your hunting style so much (and without knowing it, i found out that is very similar to mine) that I will participate to a shoot to hunt class in the future if i manage to (trying to organize at the moment being on the other side of the planet!)

 

[grfox92]

Bull Elk
Cow Elk
Antelope
Mule Deer

All on public land. I dont kill each of these every year necessarily. But I hunt all these species every year. I could add white tailed deer and doe Antelope to the list, I just never have.

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[MuleyFever]

As many as I can get a tag for.

 

[ssimo]

Bull Elk
Cow Elk
Antelope
Mule Deer

All on public land. I dont kill each of these every year necessarily. But I hunt all these species every year. I could add white tailed deer and doe Antelope to the list, I just never have.

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This is so fascinating, north American big games are so exotic to me. Killing an elk would be amazing, it’s basically a bigger version of our red deer (which also when is in the reticle looks majestic).
That said, the roe deer is my favourite prey, there are so many of them and they are very interesting to hunt. Being very small, solo hunts are really doable.
Unfortunately there are so many Wolves lately and we are in competition with them.. they are a protected species, despite being all over the place and starting to kill anything that breaths.

What do you mean when you say you hunt them every year but not kill them any year? Is the “success rate” lower because of a lower density of animals or are they particularly difficult to hunt?

I Guess we are lucky here on this. Success rate is very high, depending on hunting skills of course. I am around getting an animal home 90-95% of the outings if I hunt from dawn to the sunset

This year i went home empty handed twice in a row for the first time. Freaking wolves, i literally saw them twice on my last hunt. They are not even afraid of humans anymore because if someone shoots them he goes to jail.. they started eating domestic dogs alive recently

Another thing: so you move around the US depending on where you got a tag? That must be amazing. How much does the average bull elk weight? The logistic to take it home if you kill it in the middle of nowhere must be crazy!

 

[ssimo]

As many as I can get a tag for.

Sounds reasonable XD
So how many tags can you get each year roughly?

 

[grfox92]

What do you mean when you say you hunt them every year but not kill them any year? Is the “success rate” lower because of a lower density of animals or are they particularly difficult to hunt?

Bull Elk- With a General or "Over the counter" tag it can be very difficult to find a bull on public land.
Cow elk- with few exceptions this is a tag I fill every year pretty easily.
Antelope- This is a tag that I fill every year.
Mule Deer- this is a tag I will not fill every year only because I might not find the class of deer I am looking for.

 

[ssimo]

Bull Elk- With a General or "Over the counter" tag it can be very difficult to find a bull on public land.
Cow elk- with few exceptions this is a tag I fill every year pretty easily.
Antelope- This is a tag that I fill every year.
Mule Deer- this is a tag I will not fill every year only because I might not find the class of deer I am looking for.

Interesting.. so the bull elk is more difficult to find because you hunt it in a different season or why?

And as far as mule deer you can find yourself not shooting with one in the reticle?

I never cared about the quality of the throphy. If I have a tag for a male and i find a male, nice or ugly, he will end up in the fridge

 

[grfox92]

Interesting.. so the bull elk is more difficult to find because you hunt it in a different season or why?

And as far as mule deer you can find yourself not shooting with one in the reticle?

I never cared about the quality of the throphy. If I have a tag for a male and i find a male, nice or ugly, he will end up in the fridge

There are limited entry or draw tags that are a lottery for a particular area. Those tags are hard to draw. Those tags you have a good chance of killing a bull.

A general or over the counter tag is not ideal, most of the elk are on private land that you can not hunt and hunting pressure makes the elk very difficult to find on public land.

I wont shoot small mule deer by choice. I rather not kill a buck than kill a small one. I do not enjoy eating mule deer all that much.

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[MuleyFever]

Sounds reasonable XD
So how many tags can you get each year roughly?

I guess if you were really lucky and had the points you could get more tags than you could possibly use. Usually I only have 2 or 3 a year due to conflicting seasons or time off from work. Last year I killed caribou, pronghorn and elk.

 

[ssimo]

There are limited entry or draw tags that are a lottery for a particular area. Those tags are hard to draw. Those tags you have a good chance of killing a bull.

A general or over the counter tag is not ideal, most of the elk are on private land that you can not hunt and hunting pressure makes the elk very difficult to find on public land.

I wont shoot small mule deer by choice. I rather not kill a buck than kill a small one. I do not enjoy eating mule deer all that much.

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So it’s the pressure from hunting, interesting. I imagine that the more you push yourself into the wilderness the less you have this issue Right?

Like here, many “hunters” shoot from the good of the car or at least try to, they are mostly old men. I walk a lot and there are so many animals just out of reach

 

[ssimo]

I guess if you were really lucky and had the points you could get more tags than you could possibly use. Usually I only have 2 or 3 a year due to conflicting seasons or time off from work. Last year I killed caribou, pronghorn and elk.

Very nice, your three animals togheter are way bigger than all the ones i tool combined in a year

 

[Jake Larsen]

Black Bear
Mule Deer
Bull Elk
Cow Elk
Pronghorn (most years)
Mountain Lion
Wolf

Don’t kill all these every year, but put time in on them every year, with the exception of pronghorn. I can get a tag most years for them, but not every year.


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[ssimo]

Black Bear
Mule Deer
Bull Elk
Cow Elk
Pronghorn (most years)
Mountain Lion
Wolf

Don’t kill all these every year, but put time in on them every year, with the exception of pronghorn. I can get a tag most years for them, but not every year.


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So you have some specific places you can hunt them specifically or once you get a tag for public land for a soecific animal in a state you can hunt that animal in that state everywhere?

 

[Jake Larsen]

So you have some specific places you can hunt them specifically or once you get a tag for public land for a soecific animal in a state you can hunt that animal in that state everywhere?

Somewhat different for each animal.

In my State, I can set a General OTC tag for the Elk, Mule Deer, and Bear, which covers a good portion of the public land, except special draw areas. The Bear tag runs on a region specific quota system. The Lion tag is OTC but region specific. The Pronghorn and Cow Elk are unit specific draw tags, but very easy to get. They all but give you 20 wolf tags, which is more than anyone can reasonably kill.


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[ssimo]

Somewhat different for each animal.

In my State, I can set a General OTC tag for the Elk, Mule Deer, and Bear, which covers a good portion of the public land, except special draw areas. The Bear tag runs on a region specific quota system. The Lion tag is OTC but region specific. The Pronghorn and Cow Elk are unit specific draw tags, but very easy to get. They all but give you 20 wolf tags, which is more than anyone can reasonably kill.


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Giving so many Wolves tag sounds reasonable.. basically you can shoot them on sight. Did you never think to hunt Wolves specifically?

 

[Jake Larsen]

Giving so many Wolves tag sounds reasonable.. basically you can shoot them on sight. Did you never think to hunt Wolves specifically?

I’ve hunted them specifically a lot. They’re extremely difficult to kill by traditional methods. There’s a reason our predecessors used poison to get rid of them originally. Almost no one consistently kills wolves recreationally.

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[BFR]

Generally speaking;
Mule deer
Whitetail deer
Blacktail deer
Bull and cow Elk
Wild pigs
Antelope

Haven’t drawn a Moose but if I decide to make the trek to Canada or Alaska it’ll be for Moose, Caribou and Brown or Grizzly bear.

Since I’m in the “old” man category I usually keep it pretty close to camp or the vehicle. Mostly my hunting is with my grandkids now and I let them do the work part.

 

[The_Jim]

i assume most private land hunt are a joke like here in Italy, where basically the owner points you the deer and almost squeeze the trigger for you

That’s not necessarily the case private land. Lots of great fair chase hunts on private land.

Between big game, small game (waterfowl, upland birds, etc), and spring turkey, just in my home state I could hunt September through May.

 

[justinspicher]

Elk, mule deer, black bears, mountain lions, grouse, turkey, marmots, prairie dogs, coyotes. This is generally every year.

Every couple of years its moose, Dall sheep and caribou.

When I get a tag I’ll add antelope.