Stocking up on points

[awildswanger]

Howdy all,

I'm pretty young, and I have yet to hunt out west, and I'm looking to get started sooner than later. I can currently only afford a hunt maybe every 3-5 years. In the in-between, I am planning on applying with the hope of drawing or at least getting a point. What are Species/States that the earlier you start, the better? I'm open to hunting any & everything.

If I had the resources, I would pick every one listed here.

If you were young, and had the years to build up the points, where would you apply?

Also, easily drawn hunts that aren't crazy expensive? WY Pronghorn?

 

[wapitibob]

I buy Wyoming antelope, deer, and elk for every family member.
I buy those plus elk in AZ and UT for myself. Understand your limited choices for AZ and UT because you’re behind and you’ll be fine.

 

[GunsAreFun]

I’m new to western hunting too so take this with a grain of salt, but if you’re also new to it, it’s going to be hard to become a very good hunter only going once every 3-5 years. You might be spending a bunch of money to accumulate points and even if you get drawn in a good unit, you might not have the knowledge to make it worthwhile unless you hire a guide.

Just something to think about. Don’t mean to be a Debbie downer.

 

[bowhuntrben]

I’d definitely do WY pronghorn.

Other than that, in your situation I’d probably pick Colorado and try to find a unit with lowish points needed to draw that you could hunt on your 3-5 year schedule.

For long-term points it depends on what your target species is, but it can get speedy even just buying points....

 

[zacattack]

Howdy all,

I'm pretty young, and I have yet to hunt out west, and I'm looking to get started sooner than later. I can currently only afford a hunt maybe every 3-5 years. In the in-between, I am planning on applying with the hope of drawing or at least getting a point. What are Species/States that the earlier you start, the better? I'm open to hunting any & everything.

If I had the resources, I would pick every one listed here.

If you were young, and had the years to build up the points, where would you apply?

Also, easily drawn hunts that aren't crazy expensive? WY Pronghorn?

You should try like a doe/fawn Wyoming pronghorn, it’s super cheap, it ain’t a trophy but you could do it every year until you have more money. As they say “you’ll run out of health before you run out of money” so get out there and hunt.

 

[awildswanger]

I’m new to western hunting too so take this with a grain of salt, but if you’re also new to it, it’s going to be hard to become a very good hunter only going once every 3-5 years. You might be spending a bunch of money to accumulate points and even if you get drawn in a good unit, you might not have the knowledge to make it worthwhile unless you hire a guide.

Just something to think about. Don’t mean to be a Debbie downer.

That's an excellent point! I'll still be hunting every year in Texas, just won't be hunting out west every year.

 

[GunsAreFun]

That's an excellent point! I'll still be hunting every year in Texas, just won't be hunting out west every year.

I should have worded it better. I didn’t mean to imply you’re not hunting elsewhere, but Midwest hunting skills and experiences are not the same. Sure, some things translate, but many will not I expect.

One way I look at it...aside from all the elevation and terrain differences...there are about 284,000 elk in Colorado. The largest herd in the country. In Missouri, hunters harvested 285,000 deer last year alone. Colorado is about 50% bigger than Missouri (though not all of it holds elk). Those numbers alone indicate to me that much of what we see in the Midwest woods won’t transfer.

 

[ndbuck09]

ya I'd say you really need to get out on some hunts in places you can get tags by quota or just buying over the counter to build your western hunting skills, otherwise, a 3-5 point draw in Wyoming really won't do you very good cause you'll just spend tons of time figuring out what works, and a lot of these hunts are still very difficult even in a limited draw unit.

 

[cnelk]

Plenty of opportunity to hunt the West every year. You may not be trophy hunting but hunting cow elk, doe pronghorn or even MD will get you some great experience

 

[weaver]

I only build points for tags I can realistically draw in 15-20 years. The money I save on long shot applications for moose,sheep,goat ect buys me another tag or three for elk or deer every year.
Nevada elk is probably the lowest odds draw I put in for but I've already drawn a deer tag there so it's been worth the license fees.
I'll probably skip Utah and Nevada in the future once I draw elk tags.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

 

[Rich M]

I’m new to western hunting too so take this with a grain of salt, but if you’re also new to it, it’s going to be hard to become a very good hunter only going once every 3-5 years. You might be spending a bunch of money to accumulate points and even if you get drawn in a good unit, you might not have the knowledge to make it worthwhile unless you hire a guide.

Just something to think about. Don’t mean to be a Debbie downer.

If a point is $50 and it takes 5 years to get a better unit with limited competition, that's $250 well spent IMO. The quota draws are there for a reason - to limit the hunters. The units that require more points are often better access and are easier to hunt than the often overcrowded OTC units. So, you don't have to outmaneuver other folks as much. I've done a couple 0 point hunts and got antelope and mule deer. It will work in a pinch but there is better out there.

It seems to come down to what the OP ultimately wants. Just to hunt or to hunt better areas.

My advice to OP is to get points and hunt those 5-6 year units, especially if you are gonna rotate animals and areas. Will be easy enough to get on a decent point rotation with diff species. Home, deer (1 pt), home, antelope (3 pt), home, elk (5 pt), home, deer (6 pts), home, antelope (6 pts), etc. Not a bad rotation, and a decent number of points. Just gotta figure out what he wants.

 

[tstowater]

I spent $155 on Utah application fees yesterday (9 different tags). AZ was $165 for the required license plus the application fees. If you are going to spend the $165 for the license in AZ, why not apply for all the species? It's only $15 each after the hunting license. Utah is $10 each after the hunting license. Wyoming bites. The sheep and moose are terribly expensive and by the time you add deer, elk and antelope, you have quite a bit of money tied up in point building. Determine if the point building is going to be worth the cost and what exactly you are wanting to hunt. Point creep will continue to be a problem and will likely get worse in a number of States.

 

[jray5740]

I have had internal debate with myself for years over which states to apply and not too. I currently do Colorado (Home State), Wyoming, Montana, and Nevada. Maybe the outline below will help someone on their decision quest! Haha

On my list to start this year was/is Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico.

Just to give everyone an idea of what this might cost in total, I will share what my research has found/what it has cost me to do applications. I also asked a question on another thread of how it wall works in some states which I can share some of that info too.

Im not going to do the Colorado Fees just because they are cheap for residents (me) and because honestly I dont feel like any non resident should choose Colorado to apply in/hunt in over other options for any species outside of Deer.....maybe.

States I usually Apply as Non-Res:

Montana $240 is what I usually end up spending because I dont draw and get the points for Elk, Deer, Sheep, Moose, and Goat. This dosent include the Bison application costs

Wyoming $473 for a doe pronghorn tag a year and points for Moose, Sheep, Deer, Elk, and Pronghorn. This dosent include the upfront cost of a goat application and the returned tag fee when not drawn.

Nevada $211 for points for Sheep, Elk, Deer, Pronghorn, and Sheep

Costs Im considering this year:

Oregon $212 for Elk, Pronghorn, and Deer points and random draw for Goat and Sheep
Washington $330 for Sheep, Moose, and Goat points
California $203 for Elk, Sheep, and Pronghorn points
Arizona $235 for Elk, Deer, Pronghorn, Sheep, and Bison Points
I missed Utah deadline this year but that cost is $135 for points for Elk, Deer, Pronghorn, Moose, Bison, Sheep, and Goat.

I want so badly to try New Mexico but with the pay tag fee to apply and wait for your money back game, I dont think its for me.

All of my point gathering in these states would cost me roughly $2050 a year. Like I said, internal debate with myself if I feel like its worth spending that money each year to draw tags far in the future.

 

[WCB]

my 2 cents is...Figure out what animals you would like to hunt. If it is just deer and antelope, great easy and you could easily do a combo hunt and kill multiple species in one trip. If it is Elk find a place you can hunt sooner that later. get points in places like WY and MT where it is inexpensive to get points and you could potentially hunt both states at the same time or at least on the same trip.

Try not to get too focused on units right now because 3-5 years things could change and will big time. There are a lot of units outwest that guys saved up tons of points to hunt that have gone to crap or just average and that is what there whole plan revolved around.

I would also try to make a couple hunts happen sooner than 3-5 years. reason being as fast as some of these regulations and quotes/tag structures are changing your 3-5 points may only equal a unit you could get hunt next year on 1 point.

I may have shot myself in the foot on the points game so take it what I say with a grain of salt. But I would rather hunt every year than bank points for the "future".

 

[Rich M]

The hunter numbers are climbing in every state out west. Every application period, the number of applications grows. This is where the point creep comes in - more guys, more guys, more guys. CO applications increased by 40,000 this year/2020 over last year/2019.

So, anyway - personal choice based on mindset and need. It really is a mentality thing - do you need to go every year? Hunting around home aint good enough? Or can you make fewer but hopefully better quality trips - more land access, less other hunters horning in on you, maybe more game?

A lot of guys choose to just hunt and put up with the crowds + limited access - claiming going is better than not going. That's fine until you want more out of life and similar to systematically investing for a better future, you save up points and have more land access for saving the points.

IF they go to 10% NR licenses, the dynamics will shift but at the end of the day, someone has to pay the bills and a NR license brings in quite a bit more than a R license. So the state has to contend with the budget end of things. Nice to say us vs them but the $ amount necessary is still the same - someone has to pay.

I shot myself in the foot by not collecting points. So instead of 1 and done, it is a couple of trips. I'll live but had a few other things I wanted to do instead.