Looking to take a trip out west with a teenager for a first out west hunt?

[hereinaz]

I like an adventure and live in the eastern states in the blue ridge mtns.

DIY is doable, but won’t get much specific advice directly here for your DIY. But, your question about guided will get more.

Pick the different species and you can find enough information in the Rokslide threads. I have done it for states and general locations. Then the calls to game and fish and biologists.

My sisters live in the TN mountains and it’s so cool there. I did a diy hunt there and had an adventure. Didn’t kill but learned a ton and I will go back to hunt again. They are recent transplants so I didn’t get any direct help from them. And, I found public land.

Soooooo much easier out west of course.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

I'll go against the grain and say don't do bear unless guided. There is a pretty steep learning curve with bears and there's just not as many on the landscape compared to other game animals. Pronghorn or deer are very doable DIY.

 

[BuckSmasher]

I’ve looked up some various trips and seem to find some age restrictions. New on this forum so I thought I’d throw it out there. Looking for an exciting and decent priced hunt to try and make it an enjoyable and memorable experience for my son.

I went on first elk hunt at 16, saw some elk but all cows. Drew late season cow tag as a 17 year old and shot a cow. Still my favorite hunting memory of all time is getting that cow out with my dad.

My recommendation would be cow elk hunt.

 

[Ridgetoptrail]

Pronghorn or coues deer would be two good ones. Pronghorn is basically constant sightings since they're active all day. Coues is a very active form of deer hunting in an awesome environment and is (so far at least) my favorite type of western hunting. You generally see a lot of deer too but the middle of the day is certainly tougher to spot them since they're not moving.

If you do guided for either of those you're normally looking between $2,750 - 3,000 per person. The caveat being they're definitely more long-range oriented species.

That seems to be a good option. When you say long range what are you implying? My son is 13 currently and just trying to figure out how far out to work on his shooting range. Thanks

 

[Meshnasty]

I don't know where you are hunting bears, but heading up into the mountains in search of bears is quite the enjoyable experience. Talk to the local biologist or look at success reports to find an area to focus your time. If you are comfortable in the mountains, then backpack in and it will increase your enjoyment and success.

I get what you're saying though, if I spent a week in NW Oregon looking for bears it wouldn't be that much fun in terms of hunting. However, if I backpacked into the mountains of Eastern Oregon or Idaho I would have an unforgettable experience and glass up bears daily.

I’ve hunted bears on both sides of OR, WA, ID, and WY but this isn’t about me or you hunting.

In general I can’t disagree with what your saying as I love spring bear hunting but the average guy coming out wanting to kill something with no bear experience won’t be as successful as someone with years of time looking for bears, especially in spring.

FWIW - The coast range is one of the few things I miss from when I had to live in OR for work.