Caribou Gear

Critique my (rough) 5 year plan

You actually have 2 years to burn your preference points in MT. Case in point, I bought a pp fall 2017 and used that point spring 2019.

Just for my clarification, this means that we could buy a PP this year and use it in the 2021 draw? If so, would you recommend that we buy the PP this year?
 
To each his own...best of luck to you and your future elk hunts.
I get your frustration as I’m guessing you have had your eyes on those top-tier Colo units that seem to stay 2, 4 or 6 years ahead of you. That’s the way I’m feeling with UT right now. 😆
 
For Utah...you can apply for the LE hunts for $60-$70 a year if you plan right. Utah is hard for NR but the hunts can be great. I will only apply for CO cow hunts once I am done. Point creep has been horrible and not getting any better.

I apply for quality bull tags every year and supplement my elk hunting addiction with cheap and easy draw cow tags on off years.

Again, good luck in the draws and have fun.
 
Just for my clarification, this means that we could buy a PP this year and use it in the 2021 draw? If so, would you recommend that we buy the PP this year?
You should be able to, as long as they don't change anything. As far as whether you should, between your dad and you 2 points each will add $200 to the trip, I guess it depends if you want the draw to be a near lock or if your OK with gambling a bit.
 
You should be able to, as long as they don't change anything. As far as whether you should, between your dad and you 2 points each will add $200 to the trip, I guess it depends if you want the draw to be a near lock or if your OK with gambling a bit.

For $200 I think it's worth the near lock. Thank you for the clarification.
 
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For Utah...you can apply for the LE hunts for $60-$70 a year if you plan right. Utah is hard for NR but the hunts can be great. I will only apply for CO cow hunts once I am done. Point creep has been horrible and not getting any better.

I apply for quality bull tags every year and supplement my elk hunting addiction with cheap and easy draw cow tags on off years.

Again, good luck in the draws and have fun.

I'm trying to stay away from limited entry for the time being and focus on general tags or easy to draw limited entry (like some of the type 4 in Wyoming). Although I guess that's contradictory because that's what we're talking about for Colorado. Are there decent units to be hunted in Utah for 3 - 5 points?

Honestly I know next to nothing about about Utah.
 
A little update (and shameless bump for more opinions)

Based on the point structure and points required to draw the general tag in Montana, we are going to buy a point for Montana this year in July and try to pull the general elk/deer combo next year. We'll be going into it with 1 point so our odds should be pretty good. Additionally, since Wyoming changed their draw result date for non-residents I'm crossing my fingers that they'll change the application due date before next January. If they do, we should be able to apply in Wyoming if we don't draw Montana's general tag. So basically we're switching it up from hoping for Wyoming next year and Montana the following year to Montana next year and Wyoming the following year.

We'll still buy a point in Wyoming this year and next so we're going into the 2021 season with 2 points.
 
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I always feel like it takes me 3-4 years and more than a dozen hikes to really get to know an area. When you really know an area your success will go way up. First 1-2 hunts you are just paying your dues. So with a plan like this it will take 10+ years to really get to know a single area if you are jumping around each year.

You might much better off to choose one state and one region to focus on. Get cow, buck, doe, etc tags on years you don't draw your bull tag. Hunt the same area every year.

A really good option is to stagger applications in Montana so every year you have 1 application with one PP. That would likely put you hunting deer/elk every year along with flexibility of a general tag that is good for 3 months.
 
I always feel like it takes me 3-4 years and more than a dozen hikes to really get to know an area. When you really know an area your success will go way up. First 1-2 hunts you are just paying your dues. So with a plan like this it will take 10+ years to really get to know a single area if you are jumping around each year.

You might much better off to choose one state and one region to focus on. Get cow, buck, doe, etc tags on years you don't draw your bull tag. Hunt the same area every year.

A really good option is to stagger applications in Montana so every year you have 1 application with one PP. That would likely put you hunting deer/elk every year along with flexibility of a general tag that is good for 3 months.

Only downside of that is that MT just sells big game preference points.. You have to choose to apply for deer, elk, or both, and any preference points you have are used. You could probably take the same approach with their B tags though.
 
I always feel like it takes me 3-4 years and more than a dozen hikes to really get to know an area. When you really know an area your success will go way up. First 1-2 hunts you are just paying your dues. So with a plan like this it will take 10+ years to really get to know a single area if you are jumping around each year.

You might much better off to choose one state and one region to focus on. Get cow, buck, doe, etc tags on years you don't draw your bull tag. Hunt the same area every year.

A really good option is to stagger applications in Montana so every year you have 1 application with one PP. That would likely put you hunting deer/elk every year along with flexibility of a general tag that is good for 3 months.

I understand what you're saying. Part of the reason for planning it the way we are is to experience hunting in different areas and eventually narrow down where we'd like to hunt more. I figured the next five years will help us decide where we want to focus for the foreseeable future with the occasional trek somewhere else.

The tough thing about where we live is that we're likely only to make one trip out west each year, and for no more than 2 weeks (4-5 days of which will be spent driving). Either way we're going to have a hard time learning an area.
 
I always feel like it takes me 3-4 years and more than a dozen hikes to really get to know an area. When you really know an area your success will go way up. First 1-2 hunts you are just paying your dues. So with a plan like this it will take 10+ years to really get to know a single area if you are jumping around each year.

You might much better off to choose one state and one region to focus on. Get cow, buck, doe, etc tags on years you don't draw your bull tag. Hunt the same area every year.

A really good option is to stagger applications in Montana so every year you have 1 application with one PP. That would likely put you hunting deer/elk every year along with flexibility of a general tag that is good for 3 months.

That is excellent advice. Couldn't agree more.
 
I understand what you're saying. Part of the reason for planning it the way we are is to experience hunting in different areas and eventually narrow down where we'd like to hunt more. I figured the next five years will help us decide where we want to focus for the foreseeable future with the occasional trek somewhere else.

The tough thing about where we live is that we're likely only to make one trip out west each year, and for no more than 2 weeks (4-5 days of which will be spent driving). Either way we're going to have a hard time learning an area.
That's more hunting in Wyoming than I do as a resident but I do get to occasionally take a hike in the off season. I only have 2 places I am focusing on for deer and elk even though I could draw a different unit every year if I wanted to, many of the units that will take years of preference points to draw as a NR. I have one primary area where I have hunted quite a bit for overnight hunting and another that is closer to home for day hunts. Both are general units for deer/elk and antelope tags are easy to draw.

After nearly 10 years of hunting in Nebraska I only have one primary region where I hunt and another place I have been a handfull of times. I usually get to hunt one weekend in Nebraska.

There are certainly other ways to go about this but I think you will find that every day you hunt an area you increase the likelihood of success. Do that 20 times over a few years in one spot and you are going to have drastically different success rates than areas where you have only as few days of hunting experience. I didn't figure this out on my own, I simply watched older successful hunters who often have hunted the same places for decades. Hunt smarter, not harder, especially when time is limited.

I really only struggle to learn an area on the first year. It gets much better even on year 2 and 3.

I do the same thing when I head East for my wife to see her family. I have one spot in Kansas and another in Oklahoma. This will be year 2 for my spot in Oklahoma, I am making adjustments and will likely have a better hunt than last year where I was not an effective hunter. Just learning the lay of the land.
 
That's more hunting in Wyoming than I do as a resident but I do get to occasionally take a hike in the off season. I only have 2 places I am focusing on for deer and elk even though I could draw a different unit every year if I wanted to, many of the units that will take years of preference points to draw as a NR. I have one primary area where I have hunted quite a bit for overnight hunting and another that is closer to home for day hunts. Both are general units for deer/elk and antelope tags are easy to draw.

After nearly 10 years of hunting in Nebraska I only have one primary region where I hunt and another place I have been a handfull of times. I usually get to hunt one weekend in Nebraska.

There are certainly other ways to go about this but I think you will find that every day you hunt an area you increase the likelihood of success. Do that 20 times over a few years in one spot and you are going to have drastically different success rates than areas where you have only as few days of hunting experience. I didn't figure this out on my own, I simply watched older successful hunters who often have hunted the same places for decades. Hunt smarter, not harder, especially when time is limited.

I really only struggle to learn an area on the first year. It gets much better even on year 2 and 3.

I do the same thing when I head East for my wife to see her family. I have one spot in Kansas and another in Oklahoma. This will be year 2 for my spot in Oklahoma, I am making adjustments and will likely have a better hunt than last year where I was not an effective hunter. Just learning the lay of the land.

Again, I understand most of what you're saying. Are you saying that you only get boots on the ground <7 days per year in the area you do most of your elk hunting? And that those <7 days are spread out by +/- 1 year between visits? Please know that I know you are trying to be helpful and I totally understand that and appreciate it. Right now dad and have next to no information upon which to choose our 1 area to start learning. I figure that hunting different places over the next few years will give us more information upon which to base that decision compared to the metaphorical "throwing a dart at the wall" we would be doing now.

The closest area that I could reasonably expect to have some sort of elk tag every year is +/- 32 hours of drive time away, one way. Any trip out to scout, hunt, or learn the area is 4 days at minimum if I'm driving or the cost of flight, rental car, hotel, etc. at minimum. Even if I do the best research I can hope to do online, who's to say I'm not going to get there and realize it's not at all what we'd hoped/thought.

Please understand that I'm not trying to provide some sort of rebuttal. I agree with what you're saying and that is definitely the long term goal. The next five years are hopefully going to help narrow down that list to figure out the couple places we want to invest time learning, along with fulfilling a goal of hunting elk/deer in some specific states. Shoot, I may eventually decide I want to hunt New Mexico or Arizona just to have hunted New Mexico and Arizona, lol.
 
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