Hunting opportunities outside of September/October timeframe

[wildwilderness]

AZ deer in Dec (draw) Jan (otc with caps) or even better go to Sonora MX- Love bowhunting coues deer in Jan/Feb and mule deer if you can afford it. Of Course Desert Bighorn sheep is Dec-Mar but can't do that every year


Lots of Nov-Jan elk hunts, Rifle Cow permits are easy to get and can DIY public land pretty straightforward or pay a small trespass fee for many private land options.

Archery pronghorn opens mid August (15th) and is very doable sitting water holes.

California has Coastal zone Columbia Blacktails archery opening end of July-August

Alaska has many summer options for caribou, sitka blacktail, bears, sheep, moose etc. Though summer may not be the ideal time for some of those.

Bison on private ranches or Reservations can be hunted year round (very hard to draw a wild free range tag)

Mt. Lion is best in winter and many states/provinces to consider

 

[wildwilderness]

This is something I really want to do. I have been dreaming of hunting black bear for several years. I mostly hear about hunting them down in Arkansas though, or other places where people say if you aren't baiting them it's near impossible. Not sure if it's the same in California or not

Canada is absolutely the best value for black bears. A couple thousand dollars will 100% guarantee you a shot, bowhunting over bait Spring season is May/June and some places have a fall bait season starting in Aug as well.

 

[Kurts86]

Montana general deer goes until almost the end of November.

AZ General rifle elk is generally the last week of November and the first week of December.

Wyoming is pretty limited in November/December outside of some cow elk tags. Pronghorn becomes iffy on bucks from late October on as they drop their horns. November for Deer in Wyoming will be limited to high point limited entry migration hunts and Region A whitetail stuff. The bulk of Wyoming hunts are elk, deer and Pronghorn are mid September to Mid October on the bulk of tags. There are a few muzzleloader pronghorn hunts in August as well as some archery hunts.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Spring bear.

Cougar is open damn near year round.

If you’re not hunting cougars year round, you aren’t living.

 

[Greenbelt]

Mule deer in Ca in October/Sept

 

[OKHunter84]

Axis deer rut in late spring in Texas. I think the meat is right there with elk, some think it's better.

 

[AntelopeEater]

I just had a fantastic guided hunt in August in northern California, got a black bear, blacktail deer, and a wild pig, 3 nice animals in 4 days.

Through in California, paying for a guide is mainly to get access to large private lands that don't have the tremendous hunting pressure the public lands do.

A lot of archery and even rifle seasons for deer in California start in August.

 

[LCguy]

NM has deer and Javelina in January and has late November bull elk hunts

 

[Chris in TN]

Hi folks,

I'm from the midwest and work in agriculture harvesting corn and soybeans in the fall. The spring can also be a pretty busy time of year for me. I would love to get into western hunting, but I know that September/October timeframe can be hard to work around. Do you guys have any suggestions for seasons/animals I could look into that are outside of that timeframe? I love hunting with a bow, but rifle hunting has grown on me more and more as time goes on. Thank you for any help or advice you can offer me. I'm building up points for Antelope, Mule Deer, and Elk in Wyoming, and know early archery antelope is possible in August.

Something to consider - find a partner that would swap you a week of running a grain cart with you in the fall (with mornings or afternoons spent in a deer stand?) and then y'all go out west together. The only weakness there is that you probably know better than I do, you have to have your ducks in a row at home before you can sneak off for a week or more and focus on hunting and enjoying it without worrying about what's happening at home.

I grew up in farm country. I had access to a ton of private land with a lot of deer when I was a kid and we spent a lot of days, and hours, doing mundane farm labor all year round. Chopping ice in the winter so the cows could drink, pulling calves in spring, helping plant beans in summer, pulling sicklepod stalks out of the combine throat in the fall. We were close friends with the farmer and he always seemed happy to have a kid hop up in the combine with him and talk about the deer I'd seen while he was cutting corn after dark and help him with whatever went wrong in the process. And at one time I had literally thousands of acres to hunt coyotes and bobcats on, that had never heard another call. He was always happy to see dead coyotes.

I like western hunting. I'm looking forward to next month about as much as a teenaged boy would. But if my kids weren't involved, and I was offered a chance to go spend two weeks on a big farm working honest 40 hour weeks and hunting the fringe times, I'd take that instead. I miss that lifestyle a lot. I long for those days that started in a deer stand and ended in a combine, as much as some guys miss the mountains.

Find you a local guy like that and spend some time figuring out whether you can trust him, and then y'all partner up to make your western hunt happen.

 

[Donjuan]

Could also look into Coues deer hunting in the winter

 

[dallas.kc]

Something to consider - find a partner that would swap you a week of running a grain cart with you in the fall (with mornings or afternoons spent in a deer stand?) and then y'all go out west together. The only weakness there is that you probably know better than I do, you have to have your ducks in a row at home before you can sneak off for a week or more and focus on hunting and enjoying it without worrying about what's happening at home.

I grew up in farm country. I had access to a ton of private land with a lot of deer when I was a kid and we spent a lot of days, and hours, doing mundane farm labor all year round. Chopping ice in the winter so the cows could drink, pulling calves in spring, helping plant beans in summer, pulling sicklepod stalks out of the combine throat in the fall. We were close friends with the farmer and he always seemed happy to have a kid hop up in the combine with him and talk about the deer I'd seen while he was cutting corn after dark and help him with whatever went wrong in the process. And at one time I had literally thousands of acres to hunt coyotes and bobcats on, that had never heard another call. He was always happy to see dead coyotes.

I like western hunting. I'm looking forward to next month about as much as a teenaged boy would. But if my kids weren't involved, and I was offered a chance to go spend two weeks on a big farm working honest 40 hour weeks and hunting the fringe times, I'd take that instead. I miss that lifestyle a lot. I long for those days that started in a deer stand and ended in a combine, as much as some guys miss the mountains.

Find you a local guy like that and spend some time figuring out whether you can trust him, and then y'all partner up to make your western hunt happen.

I do love the lifestyle, it’s my stepdads farm I work for. It’s hard, honest work, and I deer hunt when I can. I love whitetail hunting, I’m definitely not one of those guys that poopoos on it with big aspirations of going out west. There’s so much to learn with deer in the Midwest if you want to chase big ones on public or private, and I have lots of goals with compound, recurve and self bows. But going on an adventure somewhere else is really appealing to me as well. I just love hunting so much


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