Ever regret the unit/tag you picked & drew?

[matechakeric]

did you ever get a tag you ended up disappointed in once boots hit the deck?

 

[WapitiBob]

never

 

[BuzzH]

Nope...some have turned out to not be what I was expecting though.

 

[ccc23454]

I drew a gila tag couple years ago. Wasnt regretful but walked away at end of hunt severly disapointed in the tag and didnt apply again for the zone. I think a lot of these sites and articles give us a image in our head of expectations and that gila tag was WAY overated.

 

[BlakeA]

Nope.

 

[EYJONAS!]

No but there has been instances come up on years friends and family members have drawn tags that no one could avoid. I.e. fires, early and late snow, drought, things of that nature that seem to have a great effect on one's perception of a unit or tag.

Gotta have fun and make the most of it because paperwork doesn't come around every year too.

 

[Mallardsx2]

I burned 3 points on a muzzleloader tag in the flattops when I was younger and regretted it. Looking back at it, I should have drawn into an archery unit with those three points. Actually, the smarter move might have been to have moved units half way through the hunt but we were so deeply rooted that we just rode it out. I came home empty handed because of that decision.

 

[Dinkshooter]

Yes. Colorado archery ram 2019. 26 days and no dice. Never even got a shot.

 

[BigHornRam]

No.

 

[Wildabeest]

I mistakenly put in for the wrong unit for my UT cow elk tag this year. The unit was adjacent to the one I usually hunt and had a very similar name that included the name of the canyon. Anyway, the unit I drew was 99% private, with just one small chunk about 500yds x 200yds. of public along the ridge line that separated the units. I hunted it... without success. Probably a good thing since there was a decent chance that anything I shot on the small section could end up dying on either the private or the other unit - each of which would have created different issues.

 

[Dougfirtree]

The closest I've come is the unit my son drew for elk in Wyoming, last year. Type 6 tag. Up until that point, I always felt like whatever unit you were in, there were some critters there and so it was up to you to find them. I actually believe that there were no cow elk in his unit, on accessible land. It was so open and we covered so much ground, I think we would have seen them. It's kind of a bummer when you realize something like that during a hunt. We still had fun and did see a few bulls.

 

[Jape]

No, but some hunts have not been what we hoped/expected. My buddy drew a Utah moose tag last year and we got one, but they weren't where we wanted to be (high recreation areas by ski resorts) and they are below objective so it became more of a grind than we wanted.

 

[matechakeric]

No, but some hunts have not been what we hoped/expected. My buddy drew a Utah moose tag last year and we got one, but they weren't where we wanted to be (high recreation areas by ski resorts) and they are below objective so it became more of a grind than we wanted.

that's by biggest thing I want to avoid in the field on a hunt is being in a highly recreated or hiked area. I don't want to become a spectacle for hikers or skiers to watch.

my father-in-law drew a Colorado ram tag a few years ago. Finally got a look at a legal ram and his partner pointed out a kid and his family at a rest area/scenic overlook watching his ram through one of those 'insert quarters binocular stands'. Would have traumatized the kid if he took the shot. luckily, he got a good ram a few days later

 

[rtraverdavis]

I’ve never regretted any tag I’ve had, but I have had mixed feelings—I don’t know if you could call them regrets—about the way I approached the hunt. That’s always function of time though. Like, if I only had a couple more days I could have figured things out a bit more and found the animal I was looking for.

 

[MTelkHuntress]

Disappointed but not quite regretful. Burned my points on my first bull permit couple years ago. Spent all my time from May (scouting) to end of rifle out there. Bulls never came off private but I learned an extremely valuable lesson, never feel trapped into hunting one unit. Seeing two giant bulls out whole on the private ranch on the last day did sting a little. I did get to see a lot of neat country though.

 

[matechakeric]

Disappointed but not quite regretful. Burned my points on my first bull permit couple years ago. Spent all my time from May (scouting) to end of rifle out there. Bulls never came off private but I learned an extremely valuable lesson, never feel trapped into hunting one unit. Seeing two giant bulls out whole on the private ranch on the last day did sting a little. I did get to see a lot of neat country though.

would you have tried to grab an OTC tag in a different unit in hindsight?

 

[mdhunter]

Not really.

 

[cking13]

I did last year until day 3

 

[Desk Pop]

This is a great discussion question. To date, I have not been disappointed. Sometimes the unit is different than I imagined even after Google Earth scouting with regards to terrain, game densities and so forth, but never disappointed.

 

[406dn]

Oh yeah,, Montana 313-whatever, the bull tag good for the last two weeks of the season.

I spent a good number of preference points on the unit in 2019. I had for years tried for the Elkhorns or the Breaks. Rationalizing that I would die with my points, I put in for 313. I hunted about half the days the tag was valid, both with my brother and solo. I put many miles on horseback, saw hundreds of cows and a small number of spikes. What I never saw was a mature bull.

Even when glassing into the park, the number of bulls was very disappointing. I think I crossed paths with maybe a third of the people who had the tag. My experience was very much the norm. I know of two bulls killed during the time period, neither a trophy by any stretch.

I greatly enjoyed the horseback potion of the hunt. Rode around in some great country. Saw one really nice mule deer buck,,I wouldn't mind seeing him again.