4 Points Enough?

[Gonewest]

I did a similar trip as to what you’re planning. Except we only averaged a 1/2 point. I coach football and had a very tight window to fit the hunt in. Sure it would have been great to spend more time out there but that wasn’t an option. We had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories.

My advice is don’t over think it. 4 points are plenty to have a good fun hunt. You’re going to find antelope on public land. Apply for buck tags because you’ll wish you had them. Also, put in for doe tags. You’ll wish you had them

 

[Davetats51]

I just graduated from college this year and was able to fit in some type of hunt every fall. You have a lot more freedom once you get away from those high school teachers. Usually left Tuesday night and was back Sunday night. not sure if your boys will be playing football in college but if not a lot of colleges offer a ”fall break” which is usually a few days off, so planning a hunt around something like that could get you around 5 days to hunt. If they know what schools they will be going to you can look up the days they will have off. Just some info if your considering waiting a few more years to burn points

 

[rjthehunter]

I'd say skip football, but that's just me, I took every opportunity to hunt instead of play sports. I quit one sport because it interfered too much with hunting. Just depends what they want though

 

[LWC55]

If are headed from TX then what about 4 landowner tags for pronghorn in NM? You have a lot of hoops to jump through to attempt a nice hunt in WY. May be a bit more relaxed to head to NM. Similar terrain in eastern NM as southern WY. Your all in costs to fly, drive, burn 15 years of points (those add up), get the WY tags then perhaps battle dozens of orange vests may not save that much over NM tags. Either approach is going to be $1000s, right? Heck, an aoudad hunt might not be that much more and could go when is not football season. Just some ideas outside the has to be WY in 2020 box.

I would be open to a NM landowner tag depending on the cost. But we will be doing a WY antelope hunt at some time. I did figure up the cost for WY and for two adult tags and two youth tags plus our preference points to date, we are looking at $1302 if we go this year. Any idea of what NM landowner tags run?

 

[LWC55]

I did a similar trip as to what you’re planning. Except we only averaged a 1/2 point. I coach football and had a very tight window to fit the hunt in. Sure it would have been great to spend more time out there but that wasn’t an option. We had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories.

My advice is don’t over think it. 4 points are plenty to have a good fun hunt. You’re going to find antelope on public land. Apply for buck tags because you’ll wish you had them. Also, put in for doe tags. You’ll wish you had them

Thanks for the encouragement. I checked out your thread from the trip and it looks like y'all had a great hunt!

 

[wytex]

NM tags will be expensive from what I've seen but they have some great bucks in eastern NM. I'm thinking your fellow hunters from Texas snap those up when they can.

 

[Bigjay73]

Below is an example of the gohunt write-up on one of the 3 point units from last year:

"Public land is limited, and much of the public land in this unit is landlocked by private land, making it inaccessible. There are a few Walk in Access and Hunter Management Areas that could provide additional access. Accessible lands can be overcrowded with hunters, especially during the first part of the season. Hunters that are willing to get away from roads may find areas with less pressured antelope and may have a better chance at a above-average buck. "

A little worried to burn 4 points on something that doesn't sound too great. There also aren't a lot of units that open up from going from 2 to 3 points or even 4 points. Lots of 1 to 2 point units and not many more for several more points. Feels a little like no mans land. Sort of like that 5-10 point range for CO elk. If we can have a good hunt, I don't really care if I burn an extra point or two. Just don't want to burn points and not have a decent antelope hunt. That would be disappointing...

Lol, do people have to pay for that info? Pretty generic

 

[Washington Hunter]

Lol, do people have to pay for that info? Pretty generic

It looks like the exact same information that you see on the WGFD Hunt Planner. (free)

 

[LWC55]

Lol, do people have to pay for that info? Pretty generic

Well to be truthful, there is a lot more info than that. That was just a snippet to show an example of the type of unit 4 points gets you these days. If you just hunt one state that you are familiar with, gohunt may not be for you. But it saves a lot of research time if you are looking at multiple species in multiple states.

 

[NoWiser]

You have 4 points. Use them and don't overthink it. I'd bet you could fill all your tags in under 3 hours if you want, and then fish the rest of the trip. Ignore GoHunt. Any 4 point unit will have more than enough public to have a good hunt.

 

[LopeHunter]

I would be open to a NM landowner tag depending on the cost. But we will be doing a WY antelope hunt at some time. I did figure up the cost for WY and for two adult tags and two youth tags plus our preference points to date, we are looking at $1302 if we go this year. Any idea of what NM landowner tags run?

My point, likely poorly communicated, was with the WY option you need a higher level of operational skills and the quality of the hunt and the level of relaxation may be less due to the further distance and the need to fly half the hunting party. Squeezing in a hunt is never as relaxing for me though have done it and have even resisted the "brown and its down" urge on a short hunt.

You will absolutely spend much more than $1300 going to WY. Or NM. Or getting a private tag in TX. Tags cost is often less than 1/3 of an out-of-state hunt if look at "all in" door to door expenses.

Even with the "all in" approach you will spend less by going to WY than if chase down 4 of the $2500 or higher NM landowner tags. When you look at "all in" though the bump to get to NM rather than WY is not as jarring as a % increase.

You have built WY points for years. Include that cost for each hunter as those points are now being "spent." Fuel costs/wear/tear for WY will be more from the extra distance and perhaps as drive between public ground if are trying to escape the other orange vests. Motel along the way? An extra day or two of food? The airline cost for the footballers? Worrying that flight is delayed or cancelled? Taxidermy? Meat processing? More ice for longer drive home?

 

[Coonhunter56]

I did a hunt this year. Averaged 4 points. It was both of our first experience hunting the west. Awesome hunt. Saw hundreds of antelope on public. Killed a couple of antelope. Learned a lot but there was definitely plenty land to hunt and Plenty antelope on it. No giants.

 

[efw]

I did a similar trip as to what you’re planning. Except we only averaged a 1/2 point. I coach football and had a very tight window to fit the hunt in. Sure it would have been great to spend more time out there but that wasn’t an option. We had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories.

My advice is don’t over think it. 4 points are plenty to have a good fun hunt. You’re going to find antelope on public land. Apply for buck tags because you’ll wish you had them. Also, put in for doe tags. You’ll wish you had them

Winner, winner.

The only wrong choice would be to not go.

 

[bgreen89]

I was personally pleasantly surprised at how much public land there was when we made our first trip to SE WY. Some people say it's not much and so do certain publications, but when you come from areas where there is very little public land it doesn't seem that bad. Just drive to and check every single little piece of public on your OnX chip and walk out a ways from the road to glass them all. It worked plenty well for us. Also going the 2nd or 3rd weekend of the season helps A LOT, I didn't want my kids to be involved in a sea of orange and rushed stalks and shots due to other hunters. We saw very few others when going later in the season.

What unit surprised you with the amount of public?

 

[Valley1320]

I would be open to a NM landowner tag depending on the cost. But we will be doing a WY antelope hunt at some time. I did figure up the cost for WY and for two adult tags and two youth tags plus our preference points to date, we are looking at $1302 if we go this year. Any idea of what NM landowner tags run?

In my area of NM alot of landowners are wanting about $2000 for antelope hunt and that would pry be a outfitted price. If you want more info and same numbers to call private msg me.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

What unit surprised you with the amount of public?

... all of them, if you're willing to walk

 

[treedagain]

I have 5 points. One of the kids has 4 and the other 3. We have a couple more 5's and 3's. Avg of 4. But I really want to do a hunt that is best for the kids. They are big into football and can't miss a lot of time in the fall. It doesn't leave much hunt time for them coming from TX. Then they will be in college soon and I haven't looked too hard into that. But I don't think they will have much time off in the fall. So my thinking was get an antelope hunt in while they are in high school to get them a taste of western hunting. Keep building points for them and go on a couple of nice deer and elk hunts when they get to a point in life where they can get away for longer in the fall.

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