Best use of WY Points

[LWC55]

I have 6 elk points and my brother has 3. We would like to get into archery elk hunting. We are fairly green, but not completely. We have been on 3 western hunts - all rifle. First was a drop camp elk hunt in CO and we ended up with a cow. Second was OTC in southern CO and we got skunked. Third was a deer hunt this year in the Medicine Bow area of WY where we brought home 2 md bucks and 2 antelope does. We chose this area because we thought we might like to hunt elk in the general units of southern WY every few years. It was a deer hunt while somewhat scouting for elk.

I think we have a few scenarios and would like to get some opinions on what might be best.

#1 Burn all of our points and get 2 general tags for 2018
#2 Burn all of our points and get 2 tags in a 4.5 point unit for 2018
#3 Burn my brother's 3 points on a general tag and save my points for a 7 point unit in 2019

Any opinions or units that you would check out are welcome. Feel free to pm if you don't want to mention unit #s on a public forum. We are members of Gohunt and onX and have been researching possible units. But we are having trouble telling a lot of difference between the general units and the limited units in our point range.....looking at trophy quality, success, and % of public land.

Also would like to stay out of grizz country.

Thank you!

 

[WapitiBob]

you could burn his points on a gen license in 2018 then go back and burn yours on a party app for gen licenses for both of you in 2019.

 

[BlakeA]

If you consider yourself somewhat green to elk hunting yet want to go elk hunting each year going forward, I would do option 3. Only having one tag to focus on would not only increase your chance at success but would also make the hunt more enjoyable IMO. If you put in the time and work hard, you may find a solid area on the general tag that you can hunt every other year going forward as you keep learning it. Also, having another year of elk hunting under your belt will only help you on your tag in 2019 if you decide to cash in your 7 points on a solid hunt. Then in 2020 you can go back to the general tag and hopefully you have found a solid area from your previous years hunting there. It's hard enough to fill one tag let alone two if you do not have a lot of experience. Just my .02

 

[LWC55]

you could burn his points on a gen license in 2018 then go back and burn yours on a party app for gen licenses for both of you in 2019.

That is true and a definite possibility that I hadn't thought of. And we do plan to hunt WY general units every 2-3 yrs (as often as we can) once we burn these points. I guess I also don't want to "waste" my extra points that I've built upon a general unit if there are units out there (in my point range) that would provide a considerably higher quality hunt.

We are also gathering elk (2) and md (2) points in CO and Antelope(3) and md (0) in WY, and points for everything in AZ (1 or 2). We are wanting to bounce around and take one western hunt a year. While maximizing the quality of the hunt base on our # of points. Thinking of something like hunting elk 2 of every three years, md every three years or so, with maybe an antelope hunt mixed in every 5 years. We are in our 40's and want to do more elk hunting while we still can. Then hunt more deer and antelope as we can't get around as well.

 

[LWC55]

If you consider yourself somewhat green to elk hunting yet want to go elk hunting each year going forward, I would do option 3. Only having one tag to focus on would not only increase your chance at success but would also make the hunt more enjoyable IMO. If you put in the time and work hard, you may find a solid area on the general tag that you can hunt every other year going forward as you keep learning it. Also, having another year of elk hunting under your belt will only help you on your tag in 2019 if you decide to cash in your 7 points on a solid hunt. Then in 2020 you can go back to the general tag and hopefully you have found a solid area from your previous years hunting there. It's hard enough to fill one tag let alone two if you do not have a lot of experience. Just my .02

Thanks Blake. It does seem to make more sense to only get one elk tag between us. At least for the first couple of years while we are getting a better handle on elk hunting. We may both start getting tags as we get more experienced and gather more points that we need to burn. We aren't particularly looking at trophy units, so don't plan to build up a ton of points in any one state. I could see an advantage to getting two tags if the bull comes in to the caller and provides him a shot and not the "shooter".

 

[Elite7]

My wife and I have a similar strategy going as Blake mentioned. We only have enough time to make 1 trip a year for hunting. We are taking turns on who has a tag between multiple states. This allows us to be a little more picky on our areas. I will say that it is hard to not want a tag though when youre out there.

If you plan to always hunt a general tag I would do what was suggested by Bob. Sounds like the most reasonable plan and allows an extra trip to get more familiar with the general areas.

 

[wytex]

One of you might want to put in for a cow/calf tag and not use any points.

 

[LWC55]

One of you might want to put in for a cow/calf tag and not use any points.

We will definitely have to look into cow tags. I assume the cow tags are for a particular unit and not general tags like bulls? We don't particularly want to hunt cows only. But definitely wouldn't mind having a cow tag for the guy that doesn't get the bull tag that year.

 

[mixedbag]

Buy a cow tag in the unit your brother wants to hunt on his general tag.Or buy a cow tag in a unit you want to use your points on and scout your unit with a cow tag in your pocket.I would NOT use 6 pts on a general tag

 

[mixedbag]

Or,you enter special draw for a good unit and your brother joins you with a cow tag.If the unit pans out he can draw it 2 years later.
This would be my choice if it was me

 

[LWC55]

Not opposed to going in the special draw if the unit is good. Looks like that could bring into play 19,35,38,108,120.
Anybody have an opinion on any of those jumping out as being worth six points and a special tag?

 

[LWC55]

A little off topic, but it seems goHunt calls almost every unit at least Good for public access. I have found this to not necessarily be the case. It labels some of the zero point antelope areas Poor, but some of them are even called Good Access. This may be the case but it is not my understanding. I hunted a checker boarded unit with 53% public but very few parcels of public were accessible because of few roads touching the public. That is not Good Access in my book. Am I looking at this wrong, or does goHunt have another way to judge hunting units that I'm not seeing? I wish they would somehow rank the units 1 to 10 or something like that. Because Good does not always equal Good.

 

[greentimber]

you could burn his points on a gen license in 2018 then go back and burn yours on a party app for gen licenses for both of you in 2019.

This

 

[mixedbag]

Sounds like your and your brother need to talk.I think your crazy to go general with 6 pts.Sorry,talking out loud

 

[WapitiBob]

It gets both of them hunting the same year on the regular fee. He'll need to go special to draw up as a single with 6 and if he picks a unit like 19 or 38 without doing the homework he's gonna be real unhappy.

 

[LWC55]

Or,you enter special draw for a good unit and your brother joins you with a cow tag.If the unit pans out he can draw it 2 years later.
This would be my choice if it was me

The more I look at it, I'm leaning this way. We can deer hunt in between elk hunts in some of the general elk areas we want to hunt in the future, and continue to learn those. For after we have burned our initial elk points on hopefully a more quality unit.

 

[[email protected]]

I would go to 93 or 95 but only have a real chance going high dollar. I could help more with 95 for archery as I have hunted it many times.

 

[LWC55]

I would go to 93 or 95 but only have a real chance going high dollar. I could help more with 95 for archery as I have hunted it many times.

95 does look tempting. But I guess I'm a chicken when it comes to hunting in grizz country. We are still learning and feel like that is one more thing to deal with, that we don't really want to deal with. I know the chances of getting killed by a bear are pretty slim. But I'm a little heavier than my brother and afraid he would outrun me if it came to that lol. So that ups my odds to a point I'm not willing to risk. I feel a little stupid as I type this, knowing that this omits a decent part of the state that is pretty rich with game that I want to hunt. As soon as I think I should just learn to hunt in grizz country, I realize that even a bluff charge would likely have me soiling my britches and having a heart attack.

 

[Thomas11]

It gets both of them hunting the same year on the regular fee. He'll need to go special to draw up as a single with 6 and if he picks a unit like 19 or 38 without doing the homework he's gonna be real unhappy.

This is exactly my issue with WY as well. Lots of unknown or hard to find info when it comes down to private/public issues and where the elk may be and access within these units. No other state in my opinion is this hard to figure out. I consider myself better at the research side than prolly the hunting itself and WY has proven difficult for me to figure out! If u don’t mind grizz country than there’s plenty options but the central and eastern units are more difficult to dissect. I have 5 points and really have only a couple ideas and I’ve posted a couple threads to no avail

 

[ccc23454]

Him general this year in a unit u can draw a cow(tons of choices) next year you both get generals and Now know a couple of places to hunt and freezers are full.