No issue with someone asking. They typically will get specific information that is worth every penny they paid for it.
I tell people that want to go hunt and not be shoulder to shoulder with people that they need to answer a question: Are you willing to make a 20 year commitment to hunting out West? If yes, I tell them to flip a coin and subscribe to Epic or Huntin' Fool as the overview of each state and the unit suggestions along with points needed, odds to draw and harvest stats are nice to see in one place and the arrival of the e-mag will remind you to get your application taken care of.
If the person says they just want a trip or two out west to get an elk or deer or pronghorn and see the vistas then I tell then the pronghorn can be done within a year with a drawn tag and can even get a party of 4 or 6 hunters draws so can be a family or buddies adventure which can be accomplished in under a week door to door from any state in the Lower 48. Deer and elk are more problematic. Success rates are lower and the options to get 4 or 6 tags without being headed for a hunt with orange hats on every ridge and an atv racing up and down trails 12 hours a day is a tough riddle to solve. You could buy landowner tags in NM for elk and have an okay bull elk hunt if includes access to private land with elk on it. You could get a 0 point or OTC bull elk tag and go with an outfitter which is not a bad idea if all you have is whitetail-rated gear and optics. A mule deer buck hunt in CO is an option with landowner tag with private land access or you could do the outfitter route.
I played basketball in school with a buddy that is still is in the Midwest and is now a doctor and he wanted a dream hunt out West. Relatively speaking, I am the expert when we get together at reunions there in the Midwest so I walked him through options for scratching out a check to buy a landowner tag or hiring an outfitter on a 0 point tag or OTC tag. Dialed him in on a bull elk rifle hunt, a buck mule deer hunt and a pronghorn hunt and he mulled the options then went with a guided pronghorn hunt on private land in WY on a tag he could realistically draw that next year. He drew and had a blast. Did not buy any gear for the hunt as could use his whitetail gear and rifle. Drove to the hunt, slept in a motel, took hot showers, ate hot food and had a fantastic adventure.
Many of us, if told we had one hunt left, would not pick a guided WY pronghorn hunt on private land. We have typically built up 100s of points for hunts and could draw one or two any year we wanted but are using point savers for now. We would probably want to go on our own and hunt public or hunt with one family member or friend. Camp at the trailhead or pack in a mile or so. Use our experience from several prior elk or deer or pronghorn hunts to put together a solid Day 1 and Day 2 plan. Maybe scout some before the season opens. But, that is not realistic for the hunter that for years has climbed up in a stand over a corn field after walking 100 yards from the barn where parked the truck. The resulting adventure would be a nice measure of character and stick-to-it-ness but most likely end without a harvest and a long drive back home with an empty cooler rattling around the truck bed.
The adventure out West has gotten costly so an annual trip driving 2 days from back East is not the option for most hunters anymore. Very few OTC tags with even a 20% harvest rate and figure unguided non-residents harvest at 50% or less of the resident rate due to spending fewer days in the unit and lack of scouting days and lack of prior experience and no postman telling them about the nice buck they saw crossing the road last week up by Big Creek.
Buck mule deer and bull elk hunting can be humbling for a whitetail hunter and the learning curve can be tough and the tags are more expensive than pronghorn.
So, I try to guide hunters venturing out West for the first time to take a hard look at WY pronghorn. Nothing resembling a pronghorn wanders around in the mountains of Kentucky or the soybean fields of Iowa. Tags for NR about as easy to get as any tag out West and a harvest rate that is often above 50% even on 0 point units. Years later, they can tell the grandkids about the time they headed way out West to hunt. Might even being able to point up at the horns above the fireplace as tell the story.
