DIY Western Hunt

Dream Hunt

I found Outdoor Life magazine at my grandpa’s house when I was in grade school and begged my Mom and Dad for a subscription and they allowed it. I loved every issue and remember all of the great stories about dream hunts, hunting elk, moose, sheep, pronghorn, and goats. Mind you, all I knew were mule deer at the time, so almost everything seemed exotic and exciting to me. Dreaming of far-away hunts became a common theme in my life. Are you with me so far?

However you’ve come to it, I suspect that you too dream of hunting distant big game animals. I can remember getting literature from guide services and planning a budget for guided hunts. Now that I’m older (so much older), I no longer dream of guided expeditions. I thirst, hunger, damned near even lust for do-it-yourself hunts. I’m past wanting help. Perhaps there is no help for me, but at any rate, I’m consumed by doing it all on my own.

Once-In-A-Lifetime DIY Western Hunt

By now, if you’ve read any of my articles, you’ll have heard me refer to my wife’s desert bighorn sheep hunt of 2017. I was surfing my i-phone (might have been sitting on the commode but can neither confirm nor deny at this point) for Nevada tag results when I realized what she drew. What a shock and elation as I broke the news to her. It wasn’t very long before we started getting the guide brochures and a few phone calls. My wife was polite but declined their advances. We had already committed to hunting a new species in an area we’d never been, all by ourselves.

Honestly, this wasn’t even a tough decision. We’d “attended” a sheep hunt the previous year, so it wasn’t precisely our first rodeo; however, we knew this was as once-in-a-lifetime as any hunt could possibly be, so why did we elect to go it alone? First, the entire hunting unit was public land. Second, the unit was small and the success rates were extremely high. Finally, though, we trust our own abilities as hunters to learn the country, figure out the animals, figure out the other hunters, and execute the hunt. The results actually exceeded our expectations, with Tammy sneaking the biggest ram out of the area that year, after most hunters had settled and headed home.

Public Lands

Please understand that the first calculation I make in determining our DIY hunts is the availability of public lands. I’m pretty sure I’d be lost in Kentucky or South Carolina or wherever private land hunting is the rule. For me this means, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, and Montana primarily. You’ve gotta have room to roam and plenty of space in which to adjust your plans on the fly when things don’t go your way from the start.

Access is a critical factor. Too much access can be as much of a problem as too little access. Don’t expect that just because you hike 10 miles into a wilderness, your success is guaranteed. Many hunters have caught on to the “remote ploy” in this day and age. Be cognizant of the size of the animal you intend to take. Four hundred pounds of elk makes for a hard trek compared to 50 or 60 pounds of mule deer. Be realistic in assessing the access you will need to make your hunt. Google Earth, OnxMaps, and GoHunt are all great resources, but don’t let those pretty 3D pictures fool you. Google Earth makes Hell’s Canyon look like a pretty cool adventure when it is really a vertical nightmare. Allow for GoogleShrink as things will be a lot harder than they look online.

OTC vs. Limited Draw

There are still some over-the-counter (OTC) tag states out west. To my knowledge these include Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado, but I’m sure there are a few more. All states have limited draw options that theoretically improve your harvest success odds and the opportunity to harvest a trophy animal. While this is certainly usually the case, draw tags can take anywhere from one to 30 years to procure, depending on species, area, and state. On the flip side, OTC tags can be a bear to hunt as competition is usually fierce.

If you have the money and patience, I’d try a hybrid approach. First, subscribe to GoHunt and research states that way, and possibly subscribe to the two Eastman’s magazines. You can winnow down to a few states to consider that way. If you enter limited draw hunts with a backup plan for one or more OTC tags, you can develop a strong strategy for making sure to get that hunt each year. Beware that some states (Idaho for instance) don’t offer point accumulations for unsuccessful draws. You will need to do your homework.

Pro tip: Check out The Rich Outdoors podcast!!

One Strategy for DIY Hunts

The limited draw hunts will, on average, offer you the best hunt. In a state like Idaho, you just put in every year. In most other western states, you will accumulate points that give you increasingly better odds year after year. My advice is to select one or more hunts you are sure about and start putting in for them today. Whatever waiting period you end up facing, what can you do right now to improve your success on that hunt when you draw it? Beware point-creep as each successive year more people have more points so it gets a tiny bit tougher to draw each year.

You will eventually be hunting a new place, and possibly a new species. You do not want those wildcards staring you in the face when you finally draw your big hunt. So, the obvious solution is to find a way to both hunt the species and hopefully even hunt your desired unit…right now. This is where the OTC hunts start to earn their keep, along with female hunts or hunts for other species.

Example DIY Hunt

I’m going to give you an example for my home state of Nevada, a state notoriously difficult for nonresidents to draw, but also famous for the quality of its hunts. Let’s choose the glamour species, elk. You’ve done your research and you are pretty sure that a rifle hunt in a particular area is best for you. On your application, you are going to put down:

1. Your bull hunt for that unit and maybe one or two alternate units. Choose your weapon wisely.
2. A cow elk hunt for that same unit and maybe one or two nearby units that have cow hunts in similar habitat.
3. A mule deer hunt for that unit, possibly blanketing it with rifle, muzzle loader, and archery.
4. Don’t overlook a pronghorn or doe deer hunt for the same unit.

Pay attention to dates of seasons. Your first goal is to get the cow elk tag if possible in the area of your dream bull hunt. This will give you insights into both the area and species. Next best is to be deer hunting in that unit. In Nevada, even this strategy is likely to take you a number of years to draw your first anything, but that anything should come well before your bull tag. Also, you could plan an upland bird hunt or just a plain old camping/scouting trip during bull season.

Second Example

Let’s try an example for Idaho elk. Firstly, Idaho elk are pretty harried animals. The number of elk hunters in the field are legion in the OTC areas. The good news is you can grab an OTC hunt for over a dozen areas with mostly public lands. The bad news is so can everyone else. Still, places like Idaho and Montana offer hunters the ability to partake of an elk hunt right now…this year. So your Idaho strategy looks a bit like the Nevada strategy. Put in for your hoped-for bull tag. If you don’t draw it, you can buy an OTC tag for deer and sometimes cow elk in many of those areas.

You may have to put in for some other tags in Idaho, and there are areas where it is very difficult to get any tag at all. Southwest Idaho falls into this category, where the only OTC tag is a 2-point deer tag that gets a lot of pressure. However, pronghorn tags are relatively likely draws. One thing you need to know about these OTC draws is some of them can be genuinely good hunts for quality animals, for sure. The best thing about the OTC tags is you will be able to learn the country and how to hunt it. You will see the various species and get a better idea for what other hunters are doing. Most of all, get your ass out there and hunt. I’ve seen disaster after disaster when hunters finally draw their dream tag, but have neither scouted the area in previous years nor even hunted the species.

Now, Go Plan Your DIY Western Hunt!

The DIY approach will save you a lot of money. It will give you some of the biggest rewards in satisfaction. You will have to invest your time and sweat into it to get the most out of it. Tools like Gohunt and Eastman’s magazines will help you to winnow your choices down more quickly. Use them if you are unsure about the state you want to hunt. If you know the state you are angling toward, simply use the state game agency’s website and data to plan your hunt for free.

More than anything, you aren’t going to get this done by dreaming about it. You also aren’t going to be handed the tag of a lifetime and waltz out there and tip over a Booner big game animal without putting in a lot of sweat, time, and brainpower. The only possible DIY solution is to get your butt out there and start learning the ropes in preparation for your dream tag. Find a species hunt near to you with easy draw and reasonable success rates. Hunt in the area of your dream tag, or at least go visit it or hike it. DIY hunting is approachable, and the west is filled with public lands. Only you stand in the way of some of the greatest hunting memories you will ever have.