Nevada Archery 171-173

[connnorhea]

Hey y'all, I'm new to hunting and Nevada. I have learned a lot from scouring these forums I drew an archery tag for antlered deer, unit 171-173. Looking at being out there mid-August. Excited just to get out there and see the Toiyabe mountain range. Unfortunately work is preventing me from doing any scouting ahead of time. Which is a bummer. I plan on camping near my truck, with some over night camping if it seems necessary. I plan on using On X Hunt in my phone for my GPS/maps. I was hoping for any advice on the area, and if my head is in the right places for what I plan on bringing?

My pack list is:
Erblestock Team Elk M5 pack, 3100cu in
PSE Evoke 35
First Lite corrugate pants, jacket, and base layers
Rain poncho
Sawyer squeeze filter and two 1 liter pouches
3L water bladder
20 degree Kelty mummy bag
Klymit static v pad
Big Agnes blacktail 2 person tent
12 x 50 Vortex diamondback
Vortex high country tripod
Bushnell Nitro 1 mile range finder
Jet boil, 230g propane
Various mountain house meals
2 x knives
Kill bags
550 cord
Med kit, Motrin, chap stick
Trekking poles
Black diamond headlamp
75qt pelican cooler with frozen gallon water

Thanks in advance for any help

Sent from my SM-G892U using Tapatalk

 

[BrokenArrow]

So, I drew the same tag. I am gonna be straight up and tell you I most likely will be returning the tag. I have an archery pronghorn that takes priority over this one and can’t hunt both. One less guy you have to worry about over there.
My research has shown that the tag actually was not completely allocated during the initial draw and there were 8 leftover tags. Probably because of success ratios. They are not encouraging.
Resident: 13%
NR: 6%

All I have talked with about the unit said to backpack in above treeline and hunt from a base camp for a week or more. It’s big country and it will be hot. Takes a while to learn. Water will be your limiting factor.
If possible have a horsepacker get you in as far as you can. Average 8 miles from most trailheads. I would not truck camp.
Gear seems fine. A bigger 6000ci pack is my smallest backpacking size. Search other threads for ideas.
I would pack that cooler with as much frozen water as possible. Wrap it in a blanket and don’t touch it til you need too

 

[CArcher]

I also drew this tag this year. My buddies and I have hunted this zone the past couple years both archery and rifle . You can find some good bucks throughout the zone but getting above timberline is your best bet. It'll be tough if you don't have anytime to get in there and scout, terrain is big rough and steep in some areas , and water can be hard to find (although this year might be easier), but I wont tell you its impossible. If you're ready to do some serious hiking and glassing you should be able to turn up nice bucks. Gear wise id say everything looks pretty good might want to think about a back up water purification like aquamira or a similar product just in case the filter were to fail. I've had a steripen crap out on me miles in there and would have been in deep trouble had it not been for the aquamira tablets. Good luck.

 

[Brush Buster]

Nice profile pic dude

 

[Upcountry]

I'll chime in with my recent input, as I was out there scouting myself on Thursday and Friday of last week. I've hunted this unit three times during rifle seasons several years ago, as well as spent some time out there hiking, mountain biking and peak bagging. I'll start by saying that I love the Toiyabes! There are tons of trailheads to start from, so narrow that down by what you find that you like on Google Earth or OnX. As mentioned above, getting back in away from the main trailheads certainly helps, but I can't think of a place in this range that puts you 8 miles from any trailhead... It's simply not that big of an area. This is one of the great things about the range is how accessible it is. From dozens of points you can park, you can be up on the ridgeline above 10,000 feet in 2-3 hours of hiking. This little extra effort weeds out most people. Water is everywhere at this point. That can obviously change a little bit in the next month, as the huge snow drifts were melting quick, but the springs showed no signs of shrinking up anytime soon. So don't be discouraged about water. My one advice is to avoid the pull of the big beautiful Aspen groves. They're green and offer shade, water, and comfort, all of which are real tempting in Mid-August, but they're simply too thick to hunt.

 

[CamoPirate]

If I had the dough to pony up, I was going to put in for the unit you speak of.

Steep and brutal is how it should be...

 

[arwhntr]

I'm not sure if truck camping will be your best bet. I also drew this tag. Unfortunately, with travel I won't be able to get in until later in August but still planning on packing in above tree line and staying mobile while bouncing from vantage to vantage. I think your gear list looks fine. I would do some e-scouting, pick a trail head and go from there.